Will's First Birthday!

OK, I will admit is was a bit lame, but as I headed out for nationals, I send the following email to our friends:

Please join us.....As we celebrate William's first birthday!

When: Tuesday, June 28, 2005 5:30 PM to dark
Where: Riverview Park Loveland, Ohio (directions below)

We will provide the meat (hotdogs and hamburgers) , cake.ice and all paper products! Please bring a sidedish/snack/dessert to share and a 2 liter of softdrink/juice/etc. Per park policy, no alcohol is permitted in the park(OK teens, this message was for your parents not you!). We will serve dinner at 6:30 PM and have cake at 7:30 PM. Gifts optional, the gathering is a celebration of Will's first year and we think the best way to celebrate is surrounded by friends! Will's first year was quite a roller coaster ride, we are all just AMAZED we have made it to his first birthday!

There is playground equipment, large fields for playing (and if there are no games, also 2 baseball fields so I am sure someone will figure out how to get a wiffle ball game going), we will have cornhole and plenty of room for just hanging out with friends. You never know, we may even come up with a party game or two to play!

Please RSVP by email to theriesenbergs@cinci.rr.com or by calling us at 831-3165 and leaving a message so we can know if you will be attending or not. This will help with planning for food and cake!

Directions: Take I-275 to exit #52 (Loveland-Indian Hill). At the bottom of the exit ramp turn LEFT onto Loveland-Maderia Rd. At the first light that you can turn RIGHT at, TURN RIGHT...you are now on Branch Hill Loveland Rd. Go 1/2 mile and you will see a small brown sign on the right hand side of the road that reads Miami Riverview Park and points LEFT....TURN LEFT (you are still on Branch-Hill Loveland Rd). Go 1 mile to the park entrance on the RIGHT hand side. The shelter is behind the playground.

We were THRILLED to have 45 people at the cookout to celebrate our little man's first birthday! The weather looked threatening in the afternoon (I even sent out the emergency "RAIN OR SHINE" email and had the kids straighten up the house just in case we had to relocate here)but turned into a WONDERFUL evening. There were ballgames on the baseball fields, but it didn't even seem like there was anyone there!

The kids had a BLAST and Will seemed to like the attention. He feel asleep before dinner, but woke up (with the help of his brother) in time for cake! Everyone brought food to share and it was great....of course I just LOVE brats on the grill!

It was so wonderful to see our friends and to just spend an evening enjoying each others company! We found out that our friend Melodie is having a BABY GIRL (her hubby wanted a boy, but we are THRILLED to find out that she is carrying a healthy baby girl!).

Jay arranged games for the kids to play...corn hole tournament, waterballoon toss and a baseball hitting contest. Jay was in his element surrounds by kids!