Koen's First Birthday Parties

Okey dokey, this post is just about his first birthday parties. Yes, not party, partIES. Two in one day! I will do a separate one for what his first year of life has meant to us. So, here we go...two parties in one day!

Party #1 was with family and some of our good friends from work (and Lynette!).

Koen with gramma

Koen with his buddy Caden. When I say `buddy', I mean they will be buddies whether they like it or not:)

Kai loved helping Koen with his gifts. Koen liked the tissue paper. Ani cleaned up.

Do you think he's pretty pumped or what?

Made a train cake for his birthday. A train cake is harder than I thought so I just used the Thomas train we had already for the engine. Oh well, it tasted good! Kai liked his big brother role of blowing out the candles.

We just gave him a mini cupcake (or two) as it was past nap time and he was getting a little fussy.

He loved the icing and then squeezed the rest between his hands.

Because the first party was in the morning, we just had some sandwiches out and some other things....

I'm glad Koen loves his little fire truck. I think Caden likes it too!

Koen with `auntie' Lynette. He really does love her, it was just nap time!

Caden loving the firetruck.

Ani

Izzy

If you make cake pops, it's hard to find something to hold them so...I used Mega Blocks! Perfect solution.

I found that the mini cupcakes were a good idea (12 minutes in a mini muffin pan). You don't eat as much, even though it feels like you are. Good for the little guys too.

Then, in the evening, we had all our nerd friends over for dinner and another party! If you don't know, the nerd friends are a group of friends that Gary has had since university. Six guys, their wives, and a multitude of kids that keep on coming. Four families got together over the holidays for a mini nerdfest, a couple of times. It was a wonderful chaos as the 10 kids ran around...basement to upstairs, back down to the basement, over and over and over again. It was a wonderful evening and when everyone left, there was a smile on my face. Here's little Josh, the youngest of the mini nerds...

And the group of us. We look better when we are not trying to look good:)

The kids....

Matthew

Dinnertime

Gary thought we were smiling into the video camera he was holding:) Happy birthday Koen!

Dana, Melissa and Josh (who had just rolled over!)

Koen and Josh will also be buddies one day:)

I do have a video of the chaos, it was pretty awesome. Very few tears though, mostly lots of laughter and fun.

Cute little Addi

I got everyone to sign the mat of the photo and have put the picture frame up in Koen's room.

Thank you to all of those that were able to celebrate with us. We are truly blessed to have such wonderful family and friends!