Birthday Bliss

We had a very exciting Columbus Day Weekend here at the Stoeber house. On Sunday, we had a birthday party for Ryan and we continued to celebrate on Monday - his actual birthday. You would think that I could remember to ask any one of the number of people at our house Sunday to take a family picture of us, but no. So instead we did it the old fashioned way. Funny thing is we didn't purposely get Gizmo in the picture. We didn't even know she was on the couch behind us. Thankfully we did though!

Ryan is still in love with trash cans. Our neighborhood has trash pick-up on Monday mornings and he is in absolute heaven pointing each one out when we take our morning walk. So we decided to make him a trash can cake. Using a board constructed with help from our neighbor, John, we stuck an angel food cake in one dowel rod and a pound cake in the other. Waste Management is our garbage company, that explains the WM you see on the back of the trash barrel cake on the right. The yellow lid can cake on the left is for recycling. In-between you'll see cupcakes (as well as tissue tied) white trash bags. While they were no where near as authentic as what the Ace of Cakes or Cake Boss could do, Ryan did say "tash" (translation - trash) when he saw the cake. That alone made the effort worth it.

It was a good thing we had Ryan's party on Sunday, because Saturday was a rough day. He went to bed early and was told to sleep late because there'd be no napping on party day. Did he understand any of this, probably not. This is a picture of Ryan about 45 minutes into his party. As much as he loves Meepa, he's not quick to cuddle him. He was tired.

Not long thereafter, Ryan was found curling up on Cousin Nathan. Poor Nate, Ryan probably weighed a ton! It was cute to see, yet Ryan didn't fall asleep. He got a second wind (maybe the cake had something to do with that) and was a party animal!

Ryan reads the card as I open his Little People, their airplane, and pajamas from Uncle Doug and Aunt Ju-Ju. Grandma Katie looks on.

Getting the Birthday Song sung to him. It didn't scare him, but it's obvious he wasn't quite content with all these people looking at him and saying his name.

Gramma Pat to the rescue! We were so busy serving the other guests that we didn't even give Ryan any cake or ice cream. Thankfully Gramma Pat stepped in to sugar-hype the birthday boy.

Aunt Marcia and Cousin Ava got Ryan some slippers! We needed these as some mornings the floor is cold to walk on.

Thanks again everyone for sharing Ryan's special day with us. We have a video that shows him saying a few of his words. Unfortunately the website wasn't allowing me to upload it. I'll try again soon!