cole's party!

way back when we thought we were going to be in arizona for awhile yet, we planned cole's (late) first birthday party. so, after the plans were made and the invitations mailed (way back in july), we found out we'd all be back in time to celebrate together! so- this weekend was cole's party. i must say, he did really well. of course, he's still too little to get what birthday parties are all about or what he should do to all those interesting and colorful packages, but he had a lot of fun playing with his little second cousins and his new toys. many thanks to everyone who made an effort to join us (mom, dad, sarah and ted, mary and dale, grandpa and grandma pheifer, sandy and shawna, janine and jennifer and sarah, stephen, kristian and erin) and thanks (from cole, of course) for the neat gifts! i wish i could post all the pictures we took, but a) there's a TON of them and b) this 'fast' internet connection isn't all that speedy, so it takes forever and a day to get 4 teeny photos loaded. nice. don't you love it when your expectations are met with disappointing results? anyway, that's beside the point... even with the rain and damp weather, i think that cole's very first birthday party was a success. he had fun, we had fun... it was great for him to get better acquainted with his little second cousins, and nice for us to be back with family again.

cole's cake- chocolate, of course. i debated doing the rainbow chip flavor instead, but then i thought that it might not "go well" with the brown frosting... i did a blue and brown theme to match his invitations, since he's too little for a character theme yet.

this was cole, trying to figure out why everyone was looking at him and singing. at least he didn't cry- i was a little nervous that he'd get scared and start bawling, but he just sat there and observed with that little scowl of his...

STILL not sure why all eyes were on him... i could almost read his mind: "uh, mom? what's going on...?"

but, he loved the frosting! he just kept sucking on his fingers while my mom cut the cake. amazingly, it only took one wipe and a quick trip to the sink (so we could rinse off his hands) to get the mess cleaned up. he did, however, have quite a few cake crumbs mashed into his socks. it boggles my mind, how babies can get food in the weirdest places... and i thought it was crazy when we had to get whole peas out of his diaper (they never made it into his mouth).

i'm not sure who's helping who here, but uncle ted and cole are both concentrating pretty hard on getting that toy out of the box!

the kids! jennifer, cole and erin... not sure where kristian was, but he WAS in attendance.

be prepared, anyone who celebrates a birthday on windy hill road- you WILL be wearing the birthday hat! so far, it's been on kristian, erin, ted, sarah and now cole... if i missed anyone, i'm sorry. in our defense, we've been a bit out of the loop lately!

second cousins kristian and cole- recapping photos on sarah's camera. i think cole was just as interested in kristian as he was with the camera... what a curious little boy!

thanks again to everyone who came to celebrate with us... and a special thanks to mom and dad for letting us use their house and yard. and thanks to levi and kayla as well- we are SO glad you guys stopped by! now it feels like cole is officially one... not that it makes much of a difference to him at this age, but first birthdays are a pretty big milestone, so to finally be able to celebrate with family and a few close friends makes it seem more real. or something like that... so, our little boy is really one year old and has survived his first birthday party. whew!