Party Baby!

Since I had mutual tonight, we celebrated Alex's birthday with his two sets of grandparents a day early. And boy did we party!!
We had dinner together. Three words -- MarketStreet Clam Chowder. Yum-mo!! I love that recipe! It's a family favorite. At least Mark and I could live off of it.
Next we let him "open" his presents. I was a little confused at this whole part. Usually this kid goes crazy over paper. He wants it all the time, but not this time. He wasn't having much to do with the whole idea of seeing what was behind that paper. Luckily he had two big brothers that took care of him. Before I knew it, Ethan and Aaron were tearing into the box wanting to put his new walker/bike together.

How many men does it take to put together a baby walker? One daddy, two grandpas and two big brothers.
They finished the toy and Alex was in business.

Here's Alex checking out the goods.

By then I knew this kid needed to have his cake and eat it too. I'll go ahead and say it, I was rather proud of my cake effort.

My cake decorating class is actually coming in handy. We of course sang "Happy Birthday" and then slide the cake close to see what he would do with the whole candle thing. He was the normal one-year-old and stared at it for a minute before trying to grab at the flame. We laughed and then before I knew it, he had grabbed at the the cake and swiped a handful of icing off the edge. He gave those fingers a lick and then wanted to go at it with both hands. I wasn't sure what was more funny, watching Alex eat the cake and ice cream we gave him or listening to Ethan and Aaron laugh at how messy their little brother was. 

But that's not the end of the cake story....there's more.

Friday, is my dad's birthday. So we cut grandpa a piece of cake and put the candle in it and surprised him when we starting singing to him. Once the cake was placed in front of him, he dipped his fingers in the icing and smeared some on both cheeks. Looking just like Alex. What a guy!! Love you, Dad!!