Zach's first birthday

Zach turned one today. I went to Ellinwood for his first birthday party this past weekend and stuck around to see him on his actual birthday, too. His party was huge! He had a big stack of presents, three birthday cakes and so many people were there to be a part of his birthday that it was unbelievable. His ice cream cake featured Lightning McQueen from the movie "Cars" and he had a special chocolate cake that he got to dig into with both hands. He really had fun making a mess of himself and the cake. First he sat with his mom:

And then his dad (my brother Mark) sat down with him for another round before he got a quick bath and then opened his presents. As you can see, Mark had cake and frosting all over him, too.

Before the festivities really got underway, Caden and Zach said "hi" to each other when Katie was holding them both. After the hamburgers, hot dogs and brats were cooked and consumed, it was standing room only when Zach dug into his cake and then opened his presents. Partly because of the rain falling outside we were crammed into the house pretty tightly, but it was so much fun to see him enjoying his party that it was worth it.

After Caden ate his dinner, he got a little drunk on the Bud Light. Luckily he wasn't driving home and stumbled out of there before 8:30 so he could go home and get to bed.

Here's Zach playing with the dump truck I picked out for him. As you can see, he had lots of help from some of his cousins and friends who were at the party. They helped him open his presents because there was so much going on that he got distracted several times before everything was unwrapped. One of his favorite presents was a toy four-wheeler he got from his aunt Leslie and her family. By the time almost everyone left, he was practicing his trick riding moves by holding onto the handlebars and standing on the seat. He finally gave up about 9:30 (almost two hours past his regular bedtime) and went to sleep. He's been trying to catch up ever since with long naps both yesterday and today. Poor little thing was just exhausted.

Mark's older son, Tyler (who's almost 19) stepped away from his "study time" on a Saturday night at Fort Hays State University to come to Zach's birthday party. I'll leave you with a picture of Mark and his two boys.