Birthday Party

In honor of Ryan's first birthday a few weeks ago, we had a small get together over the weekend.

A lot of pictures were taken, unfortunately I didn't upload them in the right order, so below you'll see a mish-mash of photos.





We have 3 ways of 4 generations in our family. Gramma Pat wasn't feeling well (get well soon!) so we couldn't take 2 of the generation pictures, but here is the one we could. Ryan with me, Meema, and Grandma Katie.



Dean and Grandma Katie reading to cousin Ava and Ryan.



Ryan and Meepa - don't know why it's blurry.

Ryan with cousins Adam and Ava playing with a new toy!

Ryan and Daddy wearing the outfit Dean got him for his birthday.

Ryan and his pumpkin birthday cake. If you look closely you'll see that they have the same teeth!

Our friend and neighbor, Erin. She's a little Steelers fan.

Although they look alike, they aren't brothers, rather cousins - Ryan and Nathan. They, too, kind of have the same teeth!

Ryan and Nathan playing peek-a-boo. I guess they also have the same pants!

Attempting to eat a piece of cake. All in all not too bad, though I think more ended up on the floor than in his mouth.

Cousin Adam coming in to clean up the pieces.

Taking a ride in his new wagon!

Whoops, guess I posted this one twice.It was a great party and fun day altogether. By the end of it all, even Gizmo was pooped. Thanks to friends and family for coming and all the wonderful gifts!

Pumpkins and Sesame Street Clothes

I've always been somewhat of a creative person, however I'm not at all artistic. So this year I was determined to have carved pumpkins (since I was a little pre-occupied last year at this time). I consulted my bible "Family Fun Magazine" for some cute, easy ideas.


I call this guy, the first trick-or-treater of 2009. I've had this stand for a few years, but this is only the second time I've used it, first in this house.

Both these guys came from this October's magazine. Dean thinks the one below looks Asian. He was supposed to have small white gourds inserted to represent big pupils. But I didn't use a large enough pumpkin to be able to do that.

And for the second part of the title - Sesame Street Clothes. This Elmo outift was a hand-me-over from Aunt Sherry. It's sized 6-9 months. But only lately has it been cold enough to put on Ryan. Unfortunately the legs are short, so he probably won't get a chance to wear it again. It was quite the site though, he was standing on one side of the kitchen table, and Dean and I on the other. All we could see of him were the Elmo eyes at the top of the sweatshirt.

This outfit came from our friends, the Kirk Family. They know how much Dean, I mean Ryan :) likes the Sesame Street character pop-up toy we have - especially Cookie Monster (C is for Cookie that's good enough for me, yum-yum-yum-yum-yum)

Ryan's First Birthday

Where oh where did 365 days go? Ryan celebrated his first birthday on Sunday, October 11. What a difference a year makes. In that time so much has changed. Our little Sweet Pea is now a 22 pound, walking, babbling ball of trouble. Just kidding, ball of energy is more like it. More video-taping was done on this special day then pictures, so here are just a few of what we got.


Ryan in his booster seat, with his birthday balloon tied to it, awaiting his birthday cupcake. I was anticipating a big mess.

And here is the after picture, not much made it into his mouth. 99% of the frosting you see on his face, I put there. Poor boy was extremely tired at this point in the day and wasn't into his cupcake at all. Lucky Dean and I were there to clean up the crumbs. Lovin' Oven does delicious cupcakes!

Here Ryan is playing on one of his birthday gifts. We bought the foam floor mats to put down in the basement's bar so Ryan would have a place to play this winter. Some of his toys are down there too, but he was excited to just crawl on the mat. It felt different than crawling on the laminate or even carpet. It was funny, he'd get to the edge, then stop, turn around, and crawl a different direction on the mat.

All and all a nice first birthday. Later this month will be the party, stay tuned for pictures from that!

First Open Play Class

Guess who? It's me, Ryan Kennedy Stoeber updating you again on the family blog. I'm sure by now you've all seen me walking on the blog video so that has earned me the chance to report again. Today mom and I went to the Round Lake Area Park District's Sportscenter for my first open play class. It's held on the indoor soccer field. At first I wasn't crazy about the astroturf-type ground, but I got used to it. In fact I took twenty steps, I paused after about 7 and again after 14, but still 20 steps and I'm not even 1 yet!


Here I am attempting to scale the inclined mat.


I know what you're thinking, I just said I could walk, but here I am crawling up the incline. Sheesh people, give me a break! I'm just learning how to walk on flat land, hills are still some time away!


I really enjoyed this little slide. Mom says we have a similar one at home that she's going to put in basement this winter.

There were a few different tunnels to play in, some made of nylon, one of mesh, and this plasticy one. This was a far as I ventured into any of them. Maybe by the end of the session I'll crawl completely through.

I've never been around this many balls at once! I found out mom and I have something in common - we both like to dribble. She needs a ball to do it with her hands or her feet (it makes me laugh to see her do this), but all I need to dribble is a little spit.

Here's mom and me. She was holding me while I sat and bounced on a handled red ball. If I had longer legs and better balance I'd do it myself 'cause I really liked this toy.

That's all to report for now. Stay tuned for a further report on my birthday, the big 0-1!