Happy Birthday to Ethan!

Happy 1st birthday to Ethan! This is difficult for us to believe - our baby has turned 1! And the poor guy turned one in an airplane somewhere between Chicago and Florida. He has had a free for all of gift opening lately - some before we left for vacation, a party while on vacation, and another party coming up this weekend with Grammy. First things first...

One present from Grandma and Grandpa before his birthday. This one, plus the basketball hoop from them, were just a bit too big to take to Ethan's beach birthday party. Olivia and Ethan love playing on this together. Ethan can hardly wait to be able to get on and off by himself. But right now he mainly uses it as a push/walker toy.


This was Ethan's present from Joe and I. A large playhouse/ladder/slide/tunnel playset. We plan to put it outside at the new house. Ethan can crawl up the slide by himself, but he is not too steady on the ladder yet. It has since been turned into a pirate fort by Olivia.

Ethan loving his new toy.

More playing together. Olivia is having a bit of a difficult time watching Ethan receive presents and not her. Sibling rivalry was bound to begin at some point! Soon it will be her turn for a birthday...

On to Florida. Here are Ethan, Olivia, Joe, and Uncle Thomas before the cake. Even though we were on the beach, silly hats, noisemakers, and birthday plates were still required! His birthday theme was beach and ocean animals.

Ethan started slowly on the cake. He had had cake before, but this was his first taste of chocolate. Aunt Rachel had to help him get started on eating the cake.

After that first bite from Aunt Rachel, no more help was needed. Ethan made a huge mess of himself, as we had hoped. The chocolate was a huge success!

Cake + ice cream + sand = MESS!

We brought some small presents to the beach for him to open. It would not have been a party without something! He received great presents from everyone, and Olivia was more than willing to help him open them.

The aftermath of the party.

When we returned from Florida, Olivia gave Ethan a present that she picked out entirely on her own - a little walker with popping balls, a classic toy. Hopefully it will inspire him to take a step on his own! He is still holding out on us.