ezekiel turns one!

The Stats:
our boy is 20lbs 4oz and 29 inches tall.
he can stand and squat. derek saw him take one step the other day, but he does the stretch and transfer mostly. he can throw a ball with precision (ie. basketball into hoop).
he has said quite a few words and is working on ones like "ball" "catch" "cat". he says "duka duka duka" alot when he's playing. its very cute!
he has 6 teeth, two arriving last week.

we had our baby boy's first birthday party on his actual birthday. i invited lots of people and i think close to 30 people came (kids included) and about 10 to 15 cancelled the day of. derek and i worked like crazy getting everything cleaned, renovated, and ready to go! it was a fun day and great party.

i know this is going to be alot of pictures...but see explanation at the end ;P

ready for ezekiel's FIRST birthday

he loves his new band set

diedre loved the guitar, she was very possessive of it

opening gifts with grammy and grandpa salmon online

unwrapping

cool basketball net

first taste of peanut butter

playing nicely together

the party spread: ball/circle theme. i chose round crackers, olives, pickles, round sandwiches, devilled eggs, sausage/cheese slices, chips, meatballs, and...

soccer ball cake. i also made a soccer game (on the left) that has two nets, one smaller ball, and two pairs of shorts (players). and you can see the round sandwiches in this picture.

the big cake. it was really fun to make!

the beverage station

blowing out the candles

his own little soccer ball cake



thatta boy!





i think the sugar was sinking in...

flossing?

the play area

we took diedre's bed out and put away most of the toys, leaving out enough for the party. there was a ball tent, basketball, cars, bowling and ring toss.

everybody ready for a turn

diedre drew this picture the same day that she did his card. she drew daddy, mommy and the sun (i drew the lame airplane).

diedre placed the "happy" and i did the rest. she stuck all the stickers and did the drawing.

here's the middle of the card. all the wavy lines are "abcd's" as diedre calls them and dots like what daddy does for her (he helps her draw triangles and other shapes while he's making work calls).

here are some more party pictures for those who are interested.
ezekiel's one photo album

i posted quite a few pics here because i did not find the quality of the facebook gallery to be as good and the grandparents need to see good pics!

xo
amanda