Ryder's First Birthday

Friday, May 20th was Ryder's first birthday!  It is so crazy to me that it has already been a year.  Yet, in other ways, it feels like he's been around forever.  It was so fun to be parents celebrating your child's birthday.  When we got up on Friday, we took Ryder out to the hallway to see the birthday banner I made.  He loved it!  He was jabbering away and trying to grab it.  Then, we went to see his presents.  He crawled right over to them, but wasn't interesting in opening them, even when we showed him how to rip the paper.  So I "helped" him a little.  One of the presents he got is a little car that makes noise and actually moves when you shake it.  Ryder LOVES that car.  The whole morning he was just zooming all over with it.  It was so cute. 

The banner

Opening presents

Playing with his new car

For breakfast we had pancakes, which Ryder really loved also.  We were going to go over to Wheeler Farm that afternoon to see the animals, but it was raining, so we decided to go to the aquarium instead.  If you go to the aquarium twice, you have already paid for a year pass, so we just bought the passes.  The aquarium was really cool!  We had never been, and it was a lot nicer than I expected. Ryder loved looking at the fish and would follow them along the tank with his finger.  They have a sting ray pool where you can pet the rays.  Ryder couldn't reach but he loved to splash in the water.  That night he opened a present from Grandma and Grandpa Briggs.  It's a little musical push walker that is supposed to help him learn to walk.  He was having so much fun with it!

Sitting on a frog at the aquarium

Watching the fish

Following the fish with his finger

Petting the sting ray

Just chillin in a canoe at the aquarium

The sign at the front of our neighborhood.  They did a terrible job, but our message was "Ryder is One"

Ryder's new walker toy

Ryder with G and G Briggs

On Saturday, we had his birthday party.  It was cowboy themed.  I made him a little cowboy vest and bandana bib. The party was great.  We had bbq pulled pork, baked beans, rolls with cinnamon butter, salad, chips, and lemonade.  Then, Ryder opened his gifts with some more help from me.  He loved everything he got and would start to get mad when I took one toy away so we could open the next one.  Kevin and I, and my parents, went in on a super nice tricycle for him.  It has a bunch of things you can take off to adapt it for when they get older.  It starts off with him just sitting in the seat riding with the parent pushing and steering.  When he gets older, it will be just a regular tricycle that he can pedal and steer.  He LOVED it.  Kevin took him around the yard and he had so much fun.  We are definitely going to put it to good use going on walks this summer!  After opening gifts, we had cupcakes.  I made a larger cupcake for Ryder to eat.  He actually didn't really get that dirty while eating the cupcake.  He sure loved it though!  It was a lot of fun to watch him get to dig in to something he's never had before.  I got the frosting recipe from my Aunt Kim, and everybody raved about it.  It was so delicious!  It tastes like you are eating really nice vanilla bean ice cream, but in frosting form.  It is definitely my new favorite. Thanks for the recipe Kim!  Tonight we had a yummy Sunday birthday dinner for Ryder.  Jeannine made homemade lasagna and it was delicious.  He got a couple more gifts from Kevin's grandparents and Aunt Carol and Uncle Bruce.  He sure is getting spoiled :)  It's been a great birthday weekend. 

 The cousins in their awesome outfits!

 Opening presents

 Ryder's new tricycle

 G and G Nelson

 Ryder's cake

 cupcakes

 Digging in!

 Messy fingers

 He loved it!

All smiles :)

I love my little boy more than I could ever express!  I made a slideshow of pictures from his first year, and pretty much every time I worked on it I started bawling because I can't believe he's growing up so fast and has changed so much in one year!  It's exciting and terrifying all at the same time.  He's the boy who made me a mom, and I am eternally thankful that I am the one who got to have him :)