Oh, Birthday Tree, Oh, Birthday Tree

Thanks to Tom (who shares Roscoe's birthday) and Traci (who shared her tricks with us) and Frances (whose birthday is right after Christmas), we have (hopefully) enough arsenal to make Roscoe's birthday special and separate from Christmas.  No travelling on his birthday.  No "combined" gifts.  No Christmas wrapping paper on birthday gifts.  Check, check and check.  Even though he is only 1 and will not likely remember this birthday celebration, we are setting the standard now.  Last year Traci sent us a photo of Tom's "birthday tree" all decked out with presents underneath.  Roscoe's baby birthday tree may be small, but it is full of love and good intentions.

We celebrated early with his West Coast entourage at Goat Hill Pizza, which is filled with family memories.  Here is the invitation:

Roscoe first year has brought... a 3am arrival on Christmas Eve (8 days late) after a month of "false" labor, melt-your-heart gummy smiles, The Colic, up-the-back diaper explosions, endless sleepless nights, spit up perfectly aimed for Daddy's mouth, belly laughs, a scary fall from his swing, a home renovation and move, 6 teeth, a few hairs, countless bruises, 2 nannies driven out of the country, a trip to Colorado, 1 call to poison control, the right elbow/left toe speed crawl, tipsy attempts at walking, sharing food with the dogs, sharing dog bed with the dogs, daily attempts to escape through the doggy door, camping trips, Tahoe trips and a break-down or two on all sides.  Let's celebrate Roscoe's first blissfully chaotic first year!  

And did we ever celebrate!  We thought maybe a dozen people would come.  MAX.  Yeah...so Roscoe's 35 closest friends ended up taking over Goat Hill and showing him (and us) how much he is loved.  Ray got him a balloon (huge hit - who knew how many hours of fun he could squeeze out of that thing?) and party hats and kazoo things.  Oh, and there were only 4 kids including Roscoe, so this wasn't for them...

My little Mister:

Both of my Misters:

Roscoe at the head of one of our tables:

Eating his birthday Veggie Muffin (Aunt Karen's recipe) with banana-applesauce glaze:

I had another one of those moments where I realize this Mom thing is still uncharted territory.  It never even crossed my mind that people would bring gifts.  I've only been to adult parties for, like, 20 years so I am rusty on the kid party stuff.  Check out his birthday booty:

His favorite toy - the Wheely Bug we got him (I wish you could hear the chucklin'):

Still pushing around that balloon (attached to the dog food container...):