On Z’s birthday we were blessed to be invited to the Hands on Children’s Museum in Olympia. If you remember we went with our MOPs group in February. For more see Zachary: 9 months  During lunch in the café the kids sang happy birthday to Z. He seemed confused that everyone knew the song except him, but he enjoyed it.

Z loved : throwing balls and carrying stuffed animals around.

He saw the bigger kids climb the tree jungle gym and decided to do the same. Now, we don’t have stairs at our house, but that didn’t seem to matter.

Z crawled up the landings and pulled himself to standing to look out the top. Then without hesitation he walked right over to the slide and sat down. Fortunately I was at the top of the gym. So down the slide he went, for the first time by himself.

At the bottom he was grinning widely, very pleased with himself. My friend asked if he wanted to do it again. Immediately he stood up, reach for her hand, and with her help walked back over to the landing to do it all over again. It was a good day.

On Saturday we celebrated Z’s first birthday with a Very Hungry Caterpillar front yard Picnic. It was beautiful, sunny, and we were excited for friends and family to eat, play and have fun!

Zach had also just been given a water/sand table. I filled it with plastic caterpillars and butterflies hidden among plastic Easter grass. The kids used plastic cups and bowls to hunt for the bugs. It was quite the hit.

After some outdoor fun it was time for cake.  Z’s smash cake was so cute with a big hungry caterpillar colorful candy dots and of course a candle with the number 1. To go with, everyone else enjoyed matching cupcakes featuring dot sprinkles and white chocolate green leaves with a hole through them, just like in the book.

Z was hesitant but with encouragement from mom and dad he soon dug in. Not long after his highchair, body, and the balloons tied to the back of his highchair, were covered in cake.

Z was definitely more interested in tissue paper then his presents. But  he enjoyed balloons most of all.

For weeks after his birthday he played with the mylar balloons -I’d say favorite toy of the month.

Thank you everyone for a great first birthday and party. Z had a great day full of fun, family, and friends.