Blake is now one! I can't believe he's already a year, but he'll still be my baby for a few more years! Here's a couple pictures of him on the morning of his birthday (June 20).
And since Blake's birthday is also the first day of summer I figured what better way to celebrate than to have a backyard pool party with a few friends! I only had 4 friends/10 kids come over, but it was a lot of fun! And the weather was warm but not extremely hot so it was a great day for us all to be outside.
I had three kiddie pools set out with tons of water toys that kept the kids entertained pretty much the entire time. I missed getting a picture when they had about 5 of them in the big pool, but they all loved playing in the water. After awhile they also ran through the sprinkler too.
Blake slept through the first half of his party since he really needed to nap, but that actually worked out good for me since he was a little clingy during the party. We had lots of yummy snacks for everyone too.
Then to go along with the little pool theme, I had all the kids go fishing for their goodie bags, which all the kids seemed to get pretty excited about.
Here's Jacob getting his goodie bag. Poor kid saw me getting all the toys and candy beforehand and he had to be so patient to wait until the party to be able to get his treats and play with all the toys, and he did great! He was so excited for this party and he had such a fun time.
Then came time for cupcakes. Jacob and Blake both eyed it while we sang to Blake and then he dug right in and ate the entire thing!
Our friends also brought Blake some great gifts! He has already loved playing with all his new toys, so thank you again to those friends!
Then the kids had to swim one more time! By the end, Jacob and his best bud Levi were having pool wars and splashing water back and forth, haha. Blake finally got in the pool at the end too.
We had such a fun party! I was glad everything went well and that we all had a good time! After we spent an hour or so cleaning up and just having leftovers for dinner, we had the family party. We only had a couple presents since he really has all that he needs, and let's face it, he won't know the difference! But we did get him a couple new shirts, some puzzles, sunglasses and Jacob picked out a cute little Elmo piano from a yardsale that he was very excited to give to Blake! And Blake loves it!
And we spoiled him by letting him eat a second cupcake before bed. You could tell he had a lot of sugar because he was really hyper that night!
And like most nights, before they go to bed, these boys love to play together in Jacob's room. Too cute.
It was a really fun birthday and though he'll never remember it I still think it was a fun way to celebrate the day! If you missed my previous post below- check out the slideshow I made of Blake's first year and a little more about what he's doing now. Happy birthday Blake!
Here were the boys the Sunday before wearing their red whites and blues to church. On the 4th we went to our ward picnic for lunch where they had a good spread of food outside, although Jacob kept sneaking into the kitchen and stole more pieces of watermelon than I could count! It took me awhile to realize where he was getting them and everytime he reappeared with a new slice, haha he loooves watermelon!
Everyone got a chance to socialize and it got hard to tell the kids apart since everyone seemed to be wearing flag shirts!
They also had games for the kids and a water balloon fight. Luke got in on all the action too!
We all had a good time at the picnic. After the kids had naps we planned to go to the pools like last year since they're free that day, but we were a little short on time and figured it's actually more relaxing for us to just dump the kids in the backyard pool. Which the boys always love and Luke and I got to rest for a bit. And doesn't Jacob look so cute in those sunglasses?
After having hamburgers for dinner, the Loughe's invited us over for some of their barbeque and we got in on a fun game of dominoes- or mexican train? Whatever it's called, it was fun to relax for a bit and their girls took our kids to the park for hours.
We finally walked over to the park at the school and had a good view of the fireworks from there. Jacob was really excited to see the fireworks and Blake smiled at the first few but was really too tired to care for long, so Luke rocked him to sleep through the rest. 
It was a pretty good show, and luckily the fireworks weren't loud since we were a mile or two away, and we could walk home in 5 minutes once they were over. I love that we don't have to drive home in traffic!
After a day of fun, the next morning we woke up to no power. After hearing about how my parents in Maryland went without power for over 2 days this past weekend I was preparing for the worst- but luckily it only lasted an hour, whew! But poor Blake woke up to a body full of mosquitoe bites! A blurry picture of his face here, but you can tell how horrible it looks!
Thanks to this, Luke is now swearing off the 4th of July and saying "the juice isn't worth the squeeze" but I'm still willing to give the 4th another chance next year!
