Have legs, will climb.

No matter what's in his way, Owen will climb it. Perhaps you're laying on the floor resting after a hard day's work? Owen will climb over you. Stairs? Yep. Up and down.
Below are pics from Owen ascending the plush climbing thing at daycare, the playground at the mall and last but not least a beanbag toss game. Look out Mount Kilamanjaro!

Supercastlebreak.

Owen got a lot of awesome gifts for his b-day and one of said awesome gifts was a jumbo cardboard block set. Check out the mother of all castlebreaks...

The Party: part 3.

Here's the part of the program you all came to see...the cake-eating contest.

The Party: part 2.

The Party: part 1.

A lot goes into a kid's b-day party: the food, the drinks, the favors, the activities. So our first time around, we tried to be as chill as possible. We got party trays from the company store (aka: SuperTarget) and Katie found some sweet lunchboxes online for the kiddo guests. Some letters from the $1 section at Target added some personalization. And the only baking Katie did was Owen's "block cake." If you've seen the castlebreak video, you know this is something he's into. Oh, and we got a second cake for Owen to shove his cute little face into (more on that later).

Pre-party at Owen's house.

This week's theme at Heyrobertsons is definitely: Owen turns 1! Although his official b-day was July 28th, we're celebrating all this week (because, well, we're tardy bloggers). These shots were taken about an hour before guests started arriving to Owen's first party at our place. The kid was certainly amped, as you can see.

Flower child.

Here's Owen boy mackin' on all the older ladies at the flower market. Lil' pimp. You'll notice the derby hat stays on him now that we've bought him the other bucket hat. Go figure.

Precisely yes.

Probably the cutest thing Owen Maxwell is doing these days is nodding "yes" and shaking his head "no." He's just so darn precise with his movements when nodding yes. You have to see this...

Mini Golf.

One thing to know about us Robertsons is: we sure do love a good game of miniature golf, err putt putt golf. So when my parents visited us for Owen's b-day party weekend, we had to trek over to the artfully-designed Big Stone course. Although my Dad wore his pro-style Kangol golf hat, his cap wasn't making him any luckier that day. Once again, I retained the Robertson "King of Swing" Golf Crown, beating him by a few strokes. And pocketed a crisp, clean 5-spot in the process. Trash talk aside, it was a beautiful day. And if you haven't been out there, you should make a trip to Big Stone in Minnetrista. They even have roosters and billy goats. Seriously, go there now. Stop surfing the world wide web. Fresh air awaits. And billy goats, too.

Cartin' around.

As an early b-day gift, T's parents and sis got Owen a shopping cart. Boy with shopping cart? Sure, why not. He love, love, LOVES the thing. Whenever he gets cranky we just roll the thing in front of him and he giggles and pushes it from one room to another. As a bonus, he's recently started throwing the little plastic fruits and veggies that came with the cart down our stairs for Daddy to pick up. Nice.

4th of July revisited.

I know, I know. We've been flaky about blogging lately, but Summers (especially MN ones) fly by faster than you can say "Fourth o' July." (Nice segue, eh.) Every year, we don't feel like our Summer is complete without a trip to K's uncle's cabin. The family is top notch, the scenery is beautiful, the naps are long, and the sound of crickets is music to our ears.
This was O's first time ever swimming in a lake, so that was fun to see. He wasn't so sure about the water rising up to his shoulders, but he warmed up to the idea of the whole lake thing.
And although the night of Fourth of July sounded like WWII mortar fire outside his window, Owen slept the whole night through without a peep.

Smillie night.

A little while ago we had the pleasure of hanging with Team Smillie at their house. And as luck would have it, there's a park across the street with "the mother of all playgrounds." Indeed.

Water parkin' it.

Some of you may know that Katie has this bizarro fear of water parks. Something about the pool being "full of kid-pee" and the walking areas being covered with "other people's dead foot-skin everywhere." Can I personally explain these comments? Nope. Do I love my wife's quirkiness? Yep.
So we met up with our friends the Stahls at the "Saint Louis Park Rec Center" which I thought was great b/c, by name, is not an official "Water Park." Sneaky, indeed. Katie took the bait and still insists she never went to a water park that day, but rather a community pool.
We had a lovely time burning our pale honkey skin in the sun. And I didn't even notice that much kid-pee or foot-skin.

Tausha and kids visit slideshow.

Check out all the pics from when my sister and family visited. They borrowed Owen for the day and took him to the mall (where his Auntie indulged him with his first ice cream), we went to Shady Oak Beach and just hung out at the house. For you slideshow-lovin' types.

Happy B-Day Owen!

12 months ago, Mr. Owen entered the world. Oh, how he's grown. And we're so thankful to wake up to his beaming personality every morning. We love you, buddy.

Travis & Kate + 5.

A couple weeks ago, my sister and the family came to stay with us on the spur of the moment. It would be Tausha, Rick, Jordan, Braden and Rick's daughter Tori. So we dragged out the blow up mattresses and put them in the living room to set up our own "shantytown" for the kiddos. It worked perfectly and I think they had a blast. I know we did.
One day, Braden and I (and Katie too) decided to get creative and make a little stop-motion film together. He named it "Moon Mystery & The Martian." Check it out...

Castlebreak.

Owen loves for us to create castles for him out of blocks. But more than that, Owen really loves to break the castles that we make for him. Over and over again. Here was one of his more creative demolitions...

Favorite new picture.

You know how it feels when you look at a photo of your kid (or even looking back at yourself as a kid) and realize that a picture is going to be your favorite? Instant classic, at first glance. That's how K and I felt the second we saw these photos she took of Owen at the indoor playground at Ridgedale. Taken on a camera phone no less. The light was perfect that day, and O's blue eyes were radiant. Gorgeous little fella. Here you go...

What do you think of the fishies?

The MN Zoo.

A few weekends ago we took Owen to the MN Zoo. Back when he was a few months young, we took the little guy to the Como Zoo. So it was fun to see O at a different zoo, and now that he's almost a year old. He saw ostriches, giraffes, bears, fishies and monkeys, oh my. It was especially fun to see Owen and Katie get swarmed by the hungry goats in the petting zoo. One goat nibbled on his hand and another on his foot. He took it like a champ though. Here's the slideshow...