happy birthday to ME!!

to celebrate my birthday (and because it's just awesome), me, my mom, caleb, and my two sistas went to IKEA!

i got a couple of things for caleb's room, which i'll post the completed items in another post. after IKEA, we ate lunch at the corner bakery -- DELISH.

here's what i had:

and we all shared this:

of course i had a little photo shoot with caleb, and he had his first taste of pickle!

for the past few years, the whole family has gone out to celebrate both ed and my birthdays. this year we went to giovanni's in shafter.

here's ed with his cheesecake:

and me and my cannollis (it was the first time i'd ever had them -- they were good!):

blowing out the candle:

one side of the table:

the other side of the table:

father and son:

 

it was great celebrating my birthday with my family! i love them!

bbq with the braun family

uncle arlo and aunt jette were in california, visiting their grandson baer (and their son and daughter-in-law too, of course) and going to see the biggest loser finale (so jealous!). they wanted to plan a get together for the braun family so we had a mexican food bbq at our house. it was a great time of hanging out and being with out of town family. here are just a few random snapshots from the afternoon.

claire being a great big sissy and cousin:

ed talking to the women: 

katie's gonna hate me. she's making the rice: 

farmy blowing bubbles: 

ed getting ready to bbq the carne asada and pollo asada: 

archie playin' with a stick: 

part of our dinner: 

the older brothers: 

the younger brothers: 

caleb loves his cousin! 

today:

and in 1972!

caleb's first birthday party!

we celebrated caleb's first birthday on may 2. we were joined by lots of family and friends.

caleb getting ready for his party. i had fun with his hair, but tamed it down for the party.

appetizers and drinks.

the birthday boy and his daddy.

most of the kids who partied with us.

caleb was dedicated to the Lord at his party. pastor joey and grandpa roger tag-teamed the event. it was very special and primo and i look forward to teaching and raising caleb in the Lord.

caleb's first pinata experience!

all that was left of mickey after 12 kids attacked him.

cousin aaron and mickey.

we had another pinata that the older kids got to attack -- spiderman!

all that was left of spiderman (claire got to finish him off):

oh...there were a couple other body parts left too....

next up: cake! it took caleb a little while to realize what he needed to do with the cake. eventually he got the idea and ate away. my mom made cupcakes and my sister annie decorated them! they looked like they came from a bakery, they did such a good job. i put the animal picks in them. :) we had rosie's make the farm cake and they gave us a free cake just for caleb!

(mickey was making the rounds, making sure he visited everybody)

caleb's cousins enjoyed the cupcakes!

caleb and his great grandparents - grandpa roger and graner!

the ocampo family.

driving the tractor.

caleb loved the balloons!

caleb with his aunt annie.

caleb with grandpa barry.

it was a super fun party, but i know that only first birthdays will get this much attention!

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY, MY SWEET BABY!!