party on, coco

we celebrated coco's second birthday in the park with family and friends this past sunday. it was the perfect day for a park party - springtimey and sunny and warmish. being vancouverites, accustomed to planning for rain, we rented a picnic shelter, just to be sure we'd have someplace to cower in case the weather was uncooperative. cole and the kids had a blast running around, enjoying the playgrounds and park and all the grownups chasing them. mostly they all ran in separate directions - oh, these two year olds. loose in a park they're like a bunch of magnets repelling each other!

as is usually the case, i didn't get photos of everyone and i wish i had. but then again, i go back and forth about putting photos of other folks and their kids on the good old interwebs, so i've saved what photos i do have of everyone for facebook... i really wanted to round up all the munchkins for a group photo, but i figured it would likely be as successful as trying to corral wild monkeys! nobody was crying or injured so it seemed best to leave them all be. ;-)

when asked what he wanted for his birthday, cole was emphatic. cake. just cake. chocolate cake. where is the cake? is cake now? etcetera... so we got him a chocolate cake and he was very happy.

we are so thankful to all the friends and family who came to help us cheer cole into his second year. thank you trevor for capturing the cake moments! thank you all for the lovely presents for coco - such thoughtful gifts and you really shouldn't have. he's thrilled to realize that his exciting new toys followed him home! :-)

and tomorrow, for his actual birthday, we're just planning to hang out during the day as usual and hopefully do "something fun" and have "something yummy" for dinner. and possibly some more cake, because really, cake is pretty awesome.

happy birthday to the happiest little dude

cole is one! that is a strange thing to think, i'm realizing - that he's growing up is, of course, undeniable but somehow to be one full year old is such a different thought.

can you believe the difference one year makes?

we celebrated on sunday in stanley park, at ceperley playground at second beach. i hadn't ever really been to that park (other than biking past it) and it was a terrific place. lots to do, lots to see - very vancouvery too. we had our immediate local family, good friends, balloons and cupcakes, running and playing and only a few raindrops. grandma bonnie helped cole take his first solo slide (very exciting!) and cole tried to eat his very first clam on the beach (denied!).

he seemed a little concerned about the flaming candle - maybe because we play a lot of 'fire chief' here at home with his red fireman's hat? he much prefered eating the cupcake...

thank you so much to all who came to celebrate with us - which was no small feat considering it was all the way downtown, we moved parks at the last minute, and the sun run made traffic & transit generally confounding.

yesterday was his actual birthday. we went to the aquarium and had a grand time, running everywhere. i'm amazed that in the course of a few weeks he's gone from gripping the couch to venturing out on his own to running away in public places. :-) he squealed and ran and chortled from one thing to another. made friends with everyone, loved the otters, thoroughly enjoyed playing up to his elbows in the tidal pool and got his first touch of a sea cucumber (me too!). we played on the grass in the park too, and he chased birds and found sticks and tried to eat pinecones...

after supper we went to the park across the street to release his balloons. i know that's not a really great thing to do, what with the birds and all, but i couldn't bear to let them become all sad and deflated in the house, or to go and pop them myself... somehow seeing them float up and away as cole and jamie let go of them really seemed right. the first year is under our belts, all of us. we've leared so much, come so far and are ready to see what's next.

happy birthday little guy. we love you!