big monkey birthday bash

our little monkey turned one! to celebrate we had a monkey party with all gerrit's friends complete with monkey mask invitations, monkey cakes, monkey cupcakes, pipe cleaner monkeys, and a monkey pinata. and in true johnston fashion (including our wedding and gerrit's baptism) the day turned out to be hot. so with a few phone calls we turned the party into a pool party with a couple pools and a slip 'n slide.

the kids had fun in the water, playing in gerrit's new sandbox, breaking the pinata, and feeding the geese. and gerrit had a great time watching them all! you can find a slide show of some of the party highlights below or check out rest of the photos at our website.

gerrit's birthday present

hugh has been working hard on gerrit's big birthday present for a couple weeks, but had the new sandbox ready for all the kids to enjoy for gerrit's first birthday party. the sandbox is complete with a storable lid, benches, and a toy box. we thought it might be too big until there about 15 kids in there comfortably play at once during the birthday party. watch the sandbox's progression below.

the monkey is walking

wait a second! have we told you gerrit is walking? its true! it has probably been almost three weeks now since the crawl was left in the dust. i am not sure how it all clicked, but it is definitely now the preferred means of transportation for the monkey and getting better everyday.

gerrit's bag of tricks

life with gerrit is getting funner every day. he seems to be at the perfect age...he thrives on hearing cheers of "good boy," so we are using that to our advantage and teaching him some new "tricks"...sooo big, he signs please and thank you, dances when he hears music, and he even immitates us whenever we sneeze. here is a video of a few of his tricks.