First birthday celebration

We had a very nice celebration for Jonas' first year. It was somewhat low-key, but spread out over multiple days, which made it seem grander. A few months ago, I had illusions of putting together a good-sized party, mostly with our friends and family. I know Jonas wouldn't know what was going on, but actually as far as I was concerned, that party was just as much to celebrate our survival as parents in the first year--I guess we passed the test--as it was him reaching the myriad milestone of the first year. The thing is, I just got so busy, I didn't have time to plan a grand fete. It all worked out in the end. One of Jonas' grandmother's came to visit us for the weekend and we had a lovely time. We ate lots of cake, or some of us did. Jonas opened many beautiful and thoughtful gifts. It was surely a weekend we'll never forget.

Here are a few photos.

I was going to just get a few cupcakes, but then I reconsidered (a momentary lapse of judgment) and bought a quarter sheet cake! Oops.

At first, Jonas wasn't sure what to do with it. It took a little encouragement, but he finally sunk all five fingers into the cake.

Mmmm. Yummm.
And now we have a new cake "convert".

I ended up opening most of Jonas' gifts. He was really fascinated by the curly ribbon that adorned all of Mima's presents, but wasn't terribly interested in removing the paper.

One of Jonas' new toys: a wagon with multi-colored blocks.

I felt this was my "big moment" as a present-giving parent. I found this little farmer/animal set at a little toy store and I fell in love with it the moment that I heard the tractor engine fire up. Having grown up around tractors, I have to say the sound is pretty accurate.

Jonas loves to set the tractor in motion by pushing the smoke stack. However, once it gets going, he then tries to immobilize it, while watching the wheels turn and lifting it ever so slightly off the ground. I'm proud to say that my selection was a big hit.