Ashagre's First-Ever Boor-day Party

Ashagre's first ever birthday, or boor-day as he calls it, party was a great success.  Ashagre had a fantastic day and was all smiles all day long.  He definitely understood it was his special day and wore it like a rock star.  Our bashful boy held his head high and showed his beautiful smile to all that wished him a happy birthday - coming out of his shell more in a matter of ten hours than he has since he joined our family in February.  As the day was finally winding down and he was playing with some of his new toys in the living room he asked me if I liked his birthday party.  I told him that I liked seeing him so happy and excited all day to which he replied, "me too, my liked it, really liked it."

We started out the day with a yummy egg scramble made by daddy.  Ashagre could hardly sit through the meal because he had already been told that he could open some of his presents after breakfast.  Once we all had our fill of eggs we moseyed out to the back deck for a little family celebration.  Ashagre opened all of his presents sent to him by his doting relatives.  The kid made a haul in the toy department and was genuinely excited about every single one of his gifts.

Home-made card from Elsa.

She picked out her present to Ashagre all on her own.  The trip to the toy
store was completely overwhelming to her, but she found the perfect
gift in the end - the first thing she considered ended up being the best.

Super excited about his new clothes.

Elsa got a gorgeous blue dress.

And an adorable hat.

When it was all over, his impressive pile of loot
spurred a spontaneous happy dance.

After the family gift opening Mommy and Daddy rushed around like crazy to get ready for the rest of his birthday party while the kids played with some of the new toys. Preparations were pretty frantic, but seemed to pay off.  We arrived at the beach park on time and we even eventually got a picnic table and a grill.  The ladybug cake I envisioned pretty much came together as planned, complete with my mom's yummy, not too sweet, frosting.  One of the kids' Ethiopian friends showed up and they had a good time playing on the park playground.  Daddy grilled up some tasty burgers and hot dogs and every enjoyed the gorgeous albeit windy day.  And of course, the kids got more presents.