A Birthday and a Bike Race

We had Ben's first birthday party yesterday. It was great. J.R's whole family came up and my mom and Ron came down. We also had some of our closest friends there as well. We really had a good time. Ben didn't make too much of a mess with his cake. He did take the frosting and squish it between his fingers though. He received some great gifts too...some cool toys like drums and a popper, great books and a ton of clothes. He really made out well. I made a scrapbook of his first year. I think it came out pretty good, although I don't think its entirely representative of his first year. I'll keep working on it. Everyone at the party really enjoyed it though.

Everyone was impressed with his new walking skills...boy is he getting good! The last few days he's spent more time on his feet than on his knees. If he's walking and falls, he gets right back up and walks again. He crawled for a bit today, then realized he'd rather walk, so he got up and walked! So cute.


Today was the Philadelphia Pro Cycling Tour Race. We live so close to the race route, that we braved the 92 degree temperature and hung out for a while. To keep with the "year ago today" thing, we never made it to the race last year. Instead I spent the day on the couch having contractions, tired of them being so far apart, and wondering when I could go to the hospital. As I sat on the couch, I could hear the helicopters over head (They follow the bikers. One films it for live TV.) Today, we watched the bikers climb the 17 degree hill, saw them come around a bend, and even saw a small crash. It was really fun to shout and cheer on the racers. Such a cool thing to be apart of. The streets around here are crazy...lots of people out, lots of people drinking. The three of us just wondered for about 1 1/2 hours, then Ben decided he wanted to nap, so he fell asleep right in his stroller. We spent the rest of the day in the air conditioned house.