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At the time of this posting, there are only a few hours left until Aidan is one full year old (366 days this time due to that pesky day at the end of February). At the time of this posting, there have been only a few hours since his first birthday party ended. Anyone else confused here?

We celebrated by converting our house into a barn, letting in a bunch of animals, and generally horsing around. I think it was my first time to be on the organizing side of a child's birthday party. We had good fun, good food, and lots and lots of trash. Several of Aidan's friends came over and brought their parents and siblings. Add in some of Mommy and Daddy's friends and a handful of grandparents and this barn house was full!

We served a meal of homemade hamburgers (thanks Grandpa!), chips, dips, cake, and ice cream. Marissa made a from-scratch three-layer white cake with butter cream icing, decorated with some of Aidan's favorite barnyard animal toys. We decked the house with all sorts of colorful balloons, streamers, stuffed animals, and rearranged furniture. It was quite a festive atmosphere!

One problem we encountered was estimating the amount of food to be consumed by such a large crowd. We overshot on the burgers and cake by roughly 100% so Marissa and I are going on a special diet for the next few days: The Burger and Cake Plan (in bookstores soon). I'm pretty sure our refrigerator will be the only thing losing weight around here but it's got to go. It hasn't had much exercise lately.

Aidan is a very blessed little boy. He got so many cool toys and cute outfits that Marissa and I are bumping up plans to either purchase a bigger home or have another yard sale to make space for his new stuff. I'll let you know which one happens.

Something I did but forgot to mention to the party goers was create a way for people to write messages to Aidan that he can read when he's older. If you're interested, let me know and I'll tell you how it works.

All in all, we've had an eventful day. A two-hour birthday party is not a two-hour event for those throwing it. So with that in mind, I better end my little break here and get back to work. Thank you to everyone who came and helped us celebrate Aidan's first 21 months. God bless you!