This past weekend we went on a family outing to the fields next to the Pennington Biomedical Research Center to watch the big balloons and add to the hot air of the annual ballooning championship.

We didn’t stay for very long given that our 13.5 month old goes to bed typically at 8pm, but we all enjoyed being outside, listening to the Benjy Davis Project, and watching the balloon glow.

Here are some pictures for you to enjoy!

So I somehow managed to kill my photos page.

Regardless of how I’m messing up my web site, you can still view pics of our recent 1st-birthday fun times by going to my flickr page:
Grace’s 1st Birthday (slideshow)

Today is my first daughter’s first birthday! I was so excited, I almost pulled her out of bed this morning as soon as I heard her stir, much to her Mom’s chagrin, since I would then leave for work and tired Mommy would be left with a baby who, otherwise, would have likely kept on sleeping. I exercised a bit of self-restraint, though, and all was well.

We are not actually planning to celebrate today, since we have the party scheduled for this weekend (if you’ve received an invite and haven’t RSVP’d yet, then shame on you!). My beautiful baby girl - whom we missed greatly over my wife and I’s five-day vacation, sans baby - has no idea that today marks the first-year anniversary of her showing up in our lives. Yet it’s tough for my beautiful wife and I to not want to celebrate our daughter today.

Assuredly this will come up again this weekend when we do actually give her a birthday bash, since she likely won’t understand why she’ll be the center of attention at the party (not that she’s not normally the center of attention). This all leads to the basic fact that we are celebrating less for her, and more for us. Her beautiful Mommy and I will get to celebrate, along with family and friends, our first child’s first birthday, and all of our family and friends’ involvement in her life (or at least as many people as we can fit in our little house).

We will have a cake for little Grace to attack, smash, and generally put all over herself, with a little bit in her mouth. We’ll watch her tear at wrapping paper and gift bags of presents that she won’t be able to appreciate right then, given her age. And we’ll all sing her happy birthday while she likely tries to squirm out of either her chair or her parent’s arms. I’m sure we’ll enjoy it all quite a lot too

Apparently my first birthday was a bit of a non-event, as was pretty sick (and contagious), and only one friend showed up. Not that I can remember. Anybody else care to share their experiences with their kids’ first birthday?

There’s cutting costs and then there is cutting costs. When the baby gets a hold of the toilet paper, pulls it all out onto the floor - and probably some of it through her mouth - am I so cheap as to reuse it?
Maybe not…though possibly desperate…