Birthdays X2

I told you to look forward to another Tristan birthday posting! We had Tristan's birthday in Kentucky, but because we had to celebrate such a long time before his birthday, I wanted to have some sort of party for him down here in Georgia as well. We planned on having a potluck at our house and let people know when they got there that we were also celebrating Tristan's birthday. It got a lot more complicated when one of our friends planned a surprise party for our friend Dawn on the same day. Since we'd be inviting the same people, we decided to combine our parties. Malissa said she would host the party at her home, so it became officially the easiest birthday party I've ever done! AND I didn't even have to clean my house! Happy birthday big one year old!!
The birthday boy had, of course, no idea what was going on. He didn't know, nor did he really care that we were celebrating him! We were also celebrating Dawn. The kids were SO excited and when she got to the door, they were all gathered there saying, "She's here! She's here!" just as if the Queen had arrived!
The birthday girl blowing out the candles on her cheesecake. Now, that's my kind of birthday cake! We all enjoyed being in on the surprise.
Me with my other friend named Dawn. They both live in our neighborhood, so it gets a bit confusing at times. Maria, Angie, Tammi and Dawn. These girls are some precious ladies who I'm really going to miss when we leave. I enjoyed the day so much, but it was bittersweet for me because I knew that it was probably the last time we'd all be together.
The Allen family loves celebrating birthdays! Tristan is timid when it comes to digging into the cake.
Maura helped him along initially. But he got the hang of it quickly!!! I found chocolate icing in his ear yesterday!
"Yum, Mommy! I ate almost all my cake! Want a bite?" His curls were out of control that day. The weather was hot and humid and his hair turned in to a frizz ball. Never content to allow a party to go by without playing games of some sort, I organized a "bear hunt" with Easter eggs for the kids. Afterwards, I gave out squirt guns and water balloons. The kids had a blast! Here is Will and Ben enjoying the fracas.

Kyle and Ethan got in on the action. We had to enforce a "no squirting while on the patio" rule. Will and Angie. Angie is the most athletic friend I've ever had. She teaches Body Sculpt twice a week and she does endurance races with her husband on the weekends for fun. NOT my idea of a good time!
The kids had it made with a bucket of water and some squirt guns. I couldn't believe how occupied it kept them. This was one WET little chickadee!

Maria and Caroline. She had a birthday just one day before Tristan's. Actually, her brother has a birthday one day before Maura's in the same year too. Weird, huh! Tristan got some love from Lindsay too. He's a popular little dude, what can I say? We truly loved celebrating Dawn and Tristan's birthdays together. It has been such a blessing to us to have these wonderful people as part of our lives for the past eleven months. We're going to miss them so much when we leave Georgia! The party was a smashing success, but one thing made it even better for us. Tristan took his very first steps while at the party. One of the guys was holding him and letting him pet the dog, and he just took off after the dog. I was floored! This is a baby who wasn't even crawling well a month and a half ago. We had him try it again for the camera, and here were the results. (Don't mind the little flash in the middle, please!)

I will have to admit that it made me a bit misty eyed. I'm not in a hurry for my sweet son to grow up and he's just doing it so quickly. I know he'll be walking before I know it and running soon after. I'm just going to treasure these last few non-walking days while I still can.