Brooke had a great first birthday.  She started it off with all her friends at stroller strides.  She enjoyed chatting and playing with them as she always does every morning and then she shared homemade cupcakes with the class.  Everyone sang her happy birthday and she was very happy and danced in her stroller.

Then after a long nap, we all went to the beach.  Brooke was born after her mom and dad had a day at the beach with a lot of walking so it seemed fitting for Brooke to spend her birthday there.  She played with her friend Mattie who joined us.  Brooke walked to the water several times and loved playing in the waves.  She kept wanting to go deeper and deeper into the waves that eventually her shorts got wet.  She cannot wait until the water gets warmer to go for a swim!  Also she sampled the sand at 17th street to see if it tasted the same as the 1st street sand she had in March.  She said she noted a slight hint of bamboo reeds in this one and less horseshoe crab flavor.

Once we returned home she opened her birthday gifts from family.  Thank you for all her amazing gifts, she will enjoy them all. Finally, she got a story from mom and dad, The Three Little Javalinas, and passed out from her busy day!

[youtube=http://youtu.be/V-vgveiRmlA&w=638&h=385]

[youtube=http://youtu.be/1bC2NHrnGBw&w=638&h=385]

Today was Brooke’s first birthday party.  Her birthday is Tuesday but we had some of her friends over to celebrate her birthday with all of us.  We had a house full of babies, most of which were Brooke’s age — one younger, one older.  Laura did an amazing job prepping all week and setting up for the party as I was lucky to get off work in time for the party to start.  Brooke played with her friends, and with many more baby hands our living room quickly converted to a busy toy laden playground.  Then Brooke opened presents and everyone was surprised how she understood how to get her cards out of the envelopes and how well she pulled the wrapping paper off.  She received a lot of wonderful things from her friends and still has all of her family gifts to open on Tuesday.  We tried to have her wear her cute birthday hat (thanks Allison) but unfortunately she didn’t want to keep it on for long.  Better luck with her birthday photos on Tuesday.  Afterwards, she had her first taste of cake which Laura made and decorated for her.  She was sort of puzzled at the consistency and overall stickiness of the icing, and didn’t get to much of the cake, but she did a good job sliding the cake over and ‘smashing’ it.  It was a very successful first birthday party.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/fbadb94JN7o&w=638&h=385]

[youtube=http://youtu.be/x8d2_RWllV8&w=638&h=385]