Luke's Birthday!

My oh my has this year flown by! It's so hard to believe that this sweet baby boy was born a year ago! It went by way too fast. Yesterday, Luke had such a fun day. We celebrated his birthday down at the neighborhood marina with Mimi and Papa and our close friends. We had beautiful weather, grilled some hot dogs, ate some yummy food, and the kids had a blast playing in the water. My photographer friend Michelle took some one year photos of Luke (before he got so dirty) and also captured the party. I can't wait to see how they turn out! In the meantime, here are a few pictures we got of Luke on his special day:

Before eating the cake:

Diving in! He absolutely loved this cake and did not disappoint us with the show he put on eating it. I made a 2 layer cake so he could have his own smash cake. It was carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. It was covered in fondant, but the funny part was that he flipped it over as soon as we gave it to him and ate it from the bottom!

Goodies. I wanted to keep it a "candy free" party. The kids were able to have cake, cookies, and jello-- why would they need candy too?!?! The little boxes had a special red, white, and blue trail mix with goldfish (that were red, white and blue!), yogurt covered raisins, pretzels, chex mix, peanuts, banana chips, dried cranberries and blueberries. Bubble wands were the party favors.

Family portrait. He sat in that chair for over 30 minutes just eating cake.

So dirty!!

Enjoying some sun!

Beach Playdate

We enjoyed the warm weather this weekend at the neighborhood beach. We invited Addy's little friends Graydon and Zachary to join us. The kids had a great time playing in the sand, swimming in the water, and collecting shells. Even sweet Luke had a fun time playing!

On the picnic blanket with daddy, the ducks snatched his food from his hand!

Zachary and Addy

Addy's Tree

Addy and Daddy picked out a tree this past weekend to plant in the yard. It's called a Dancing Peacock tree. It's Addy's special tree and a great way to measure her growth and the tree over the years! We wanted to plant it before we moved so she can have a "before" shot!

Luke's Dedication

We had a very nice and low key Mother's Day. Our highlight was getting Luke dedicated at church-- great Mother's Day treat! We had to hold him on stage for a good 10 minutes, and although he cooperated pretty well, he was sure squirmy and anxious to get moving somewhere.

Here we are with Pastor Steve after service.

During the dedication, must have been in the beginning :)

Luke received a sweet baby's bible as a gift with his name and birthdate. Addy wanted to join us on stage. She started off sitting in the front row making faces at Luke that he surely enjoyed!

Kentucky Derby

Jeff and I went to a really fun party in the afternoon to watch the Kentucky Derby. Our friends are actually from Kentucky, so we had some authentic derby fare with mint juleps and even participated in a little betting on horses. We actually had 6 different horses (out of 18) and none were actually the winner!! It was still a good time and a nice change to go out and have a kiddo free afternoon. Gentlemen were to wear Searsucker suits, bow ties, and saddle shoes and women wore sundresses and big hats. This big hat actually drove me nuts! It kept getting in my face and I couldn't really have conversations with friends without constantly playing with it.

With our friends Steve and Kelly. As you can see, Steve didn't get the memo on the dress code :)