The last two weeks have been very busy with the 4th of July and Tucker's 1st birthday pool party. I have lots of pictures, so I will keep the writing short and allow the pictures to speak for themselves.
I worked the night of July 4th as well as the night before, but we were still able to spend the afternoon together as a family. We took a walk around Blackhawk Lake, which is the lake where Jeremy and I took our wedding pictures. We played on the jungle gym and grilled out. It was a short celebration, but we had a lot of fun.
We spent the 5th at my parents' camper, and Tucker got to go swimming in the lake with Grandpa. He also ate watermelon for the first time and couldn't get enough!
The 6th was filled with more family time. We met up with Jeremy's Aunt and Uncle, Bob and Pat, for lunch. They were passing through town from North Dakota, and this was the first time that Tucker has met them. It took him a little while to warm up to them, but he was passing out high fives by the end of lunch. It was great to catch up, and I'm so glad that Tucker finally got to meet his Great Uncle and Great Aunt!
For Supper, Jeremy's Aunt Karen came over with Grandma. Karen was visiting from Rhode Island, and she hadn't seen Tucker since he was about 3 weeks old. We had fun playing and catching up until bedtime. We can't wait for Karen's next visit and hope she'll bring the rest of her family the next time she comes to Minnesota!
This week, Tucker tried kiwi for the first time. He loved it, and when we were finished eating, we gave him the peel to explore. He squeezed it, pet it, and giggled. He must have thought that it was so strange for a food to have fur on it!
The main event this week was his birthday party. He has always been a water baby, so Jeremy and I decided that we would get him a pool for his birthday. This gave me the theme idea for his party: a pool party!
My Grandma was here on Friday, and we took Tucker to the grocery store to pick up the food for the party. This weekend also happened to be Pan-o-Prog Days (our town's festival), so we stopped at the Bazaar for lunch. Tucker loved the sloppy Joe's and root beer floats, and the old people loved him! He always seems to make friends with elderly people!
During Tucker's nap, I baked his cake, made the frosting, a pasta salad, and a berry salad. My parents came up, and we all headed to "Family Fun Fest" which was also part of Pan-o-Prog days. We ate supper, and then we headed home so Tucker could go to bed and I could decorate his cake. I made a large beach ball cake and an identical, smaller beach ball cake for Tucker as well as a dozen cupcakes.
The day of the big party came, and it was worth all of the work! Tucker had so much fun with every part of the day. We kept the party small, so that he wouldn't be too overwhelmed. Jeremy and I invited only grandparents and great-grandmas, so there were just 6 adults and Tucker. We started the day after his first nap by opening his first gift. He got a Cozy Coupe car from my parents, and he loved playing with it for almost an hour before lunch. He had all of his favorite foods: berries, watermelon, cucumbers, peppers, guacamole, chicken, cheese, and tomatoes.
Tucker took his usual second nap while the adults cleaned up and chatted. When he woke up, we opened more gifts. He loved his new stuffed animal puppy from Grandma Wilson and immediately gave it kisses. He also got a new wiggly sprinkler, and a baseball bat and balls from Great Grandma that I'm sure he will be a pro at by next summer!
After playing with his new toys for a bit, we had snack time. On birthday party day, after snack was, of course, birthday cake!! We stripped him down to his diaper and laid down a plastic table cloth to catch spills, but he politely picked at his cake. He carefully picked each star that I had so carefully piped onto his cake. Eventually, he took a couple of large handfuls and his cute little face was covered in red, yellow, and blue frosting. He seemed to like the chocolate cake, but he really loved the frosting!
He opened his next gift from his high chair, still covered in frosting. Jeremy and I gave him a big box filled with a book, basketball, soccer ball, football, swim diapers, and a beach ball. We stripped him down naked to get his swim diaper on, but he saw the beach ball and escaped before we could get it on. He chased down the beach ball, tackled it, fell off, giggled, and then chased it down again. He repeated this over and over while we all watched and laughed. It was so funny to see this naked little baby covered in frosting bouncing around on a sugar high!
We finally got the swim diaper on and took him outside for the highlight of the day. Jeremy had gotten the pool blown up and filled in the morning, so it was all ready to go. It has two round pools connected by a small slide. He loved it! He was crawling all over both sides of the pool, up the slide, and down the slide. The weather was raining/drizzling that afternoon, so we had to cut the fun a little shorter than he would have liked because he was getting too cold. We did get to use the pool the next day with some friends, and Tucker had a great time again.
We finished the party day at the Pan-o-Prog parade with Grandma. We only stayed for a little while because Tucker was so tired, but he really liked the fire trucks and marching bands.
Today was Tucker's last day at daycare before his birthday, so they gave him a birthday balloon. He loved batting it around, and he giggled when we bounced it off our heads.
Well, I lied about keeping this short, but I'll share the pictures anyway. I can't believe this is the end of Week 52. Tucker will be 1 on Thursday, and we will be entering a new year with new milestones and challenges. Everyone says that kids grow up so fast, but this year seems to have gone by in record speed. Enjoy Tucker's last pictures as a baby!
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| Looking at the lake with Mommy makes me want to go swimming! |
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| Sand feels funny on your knees! |
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| Splashing with Grandpa |
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| Practicing my crab walk in the sand |
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| Wading into the lake with Grandpa |
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| Taking a dip! |
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| Lakes are just as much fun as pools to swim in! |
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| High fives with Uncle Bob! |
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| I must get my confused look from that side of the family! |
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| I had a lot of fun at lunch with Bob and Pat! |
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| Yay! Aunt Karen came to visit! |
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| Grandma came over for supper, too! We had so much fun playing! |
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| I'm a little shark and I'm ready for my pool party! |
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| I knew something special was happening when I saw all of the decorations after my morning nap. Mommy even let me tear them down at the end of the day!! |
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| I'm excited to see what will happen at the party! |
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| Grandma and Grandpa got me my first car! I can beep the horn and steer, but mostly, I just love to cruise!! |
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| Grandpa showed me how to honk the horn. |
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| Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa! |
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| I even got a special birthday boy high chair. |
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| Mom decorated a beach ball cake. |
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| They served all of my favorite foods! |
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| I felt so special! |
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| Grandma got me a puppy! |
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| I love giving it kisses. Thank you, Grandma! |
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| Opening my gifts from Great Grandma |
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| Looking at my new baseballs |
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| I kept saying "ball" and the adults got so excited for some reason! |
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| What is all the excitement for? Can we just have snack time now? |
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| Mom made me my very own birthday cake! |
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| Are we going to sing at the table every meal? |
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| Hmm...maybe I'll try some more frosting. |
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| I tried to be polite, but I couldn't resist. I needed a big handful of cake! |
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| Water break! |
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| Another present? If you insist! |
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| Hey, I think they forgot to wipe my face! Shhh...don't tell them! |
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| I loved my new balls. |
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| Hey Dad, go long! |
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| Chasing the beach ball was so much fun! |
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| Look at how fast I'm moving! |
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| Mommy couldn't even get a clear shot! |
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| This is my new pool! It was sprinkling outside, so I'll pose for more pool pictures later this summer. See you when I'm 1! |
