Oskar’s First Birthday Party and Zach’s Piano Recital

Rose made some incredible pirate ship cakes. They had full sails, little pirates, and even cannons firing out the sides!

Shortly after people started arriving, the birthday boy awoke and I managed to grab a photo of how happy he looked as he waited to be let out of his crib.

Urn and Kat arrived in piratical fashion, fully decked out in pirate gear (this was not their first pirate party), and were even kind enough to bring hats and knives for everyone else.

Oskar was sitting in my lap playing with a knife, and we tried to pose for a photo, but Oskar kept smiling at me instead of the camera.

After several attempts, we finally got a good photo of Oskar and his knife, but of course Noah and I look like dopes.

Oskar was having a fine time a little later, though, opening all of his presents (with a little help from his dad).

But when Dave was going too slow for him, Oskar was quick to ditch his old man and strike out in search of more presents.

By the end of the opening session, Oskar was barely visible under the pile of wrapping paper.

After Zach finished his recital, I managed to grab this nice photo of him during his encore, when he played a really nice piece he wrote himself.

Not one to hoard the glory, however, Zach agreed to a duet with a quick learner.

After the recital was over, I was lucky enough to get to help Oskar work on his walking. He was really excited, and would turn around from the chair and walk several step before hurling himself towards me. It’s hard to say who was having a better time or laughing harder. Warning! This links to a large video file, not a photo. The video is 22.6 Megabytes and will take forever to download if you don’t have broadband - but it’s definitely worth it if you do!