The First Birthday Cake

In exactly one week, EH is going to be 13 months old, so I figured I better get around to posting his 12 month birthday pictures before it's too far past to even be relevant any more!

This post is going to be all about cake.  Because honestly, giving a one year old a cake to smash and smear all over themselves is what first birthday parties are all about, right?

Actually, our original plan was to not give EH a birthday cake.  We've kept him away from sweets for this long, we figured, why ruin that now?  We lined up my mom to make him zucchini bread - since zucchini is one of his favorite foods anyway - with a little frosting to make it exciting, and we figured it would still be a blast for him to smash away at something.

I'm sure it would have been.  And I'm sure that EH would have been perfectly happy to eat nothing but zucchini bread at his birthday party.  But a few days before his party when DH called Giant Eagle to order the "adult" cakes (an almond torte and a 1/4 sheet cake that said "Happy 1st Birthday, EH!") the bakery person let him know that they give families a free smash cake for first birthday's when you order a regular cake through them, so DH said OK.

So that afternoon, EH's birthday cake table looked like this:

(Thanks to my mom for taking this picture - I was too busy to take any pictures!)

We put a candle in his little cake (which you'll notice was actually quite enormous for one little one-year old) and we sang "Happy Birthday."

He was quite intrigued when we put it down in front of him. (And thanks to my older sister who took all of the rest of these pictures with my camera.)

His thoughts, "Well ok then, I guess I'm allowed to have this!"

He was so intrigued.

Then his uncle S showed him how to really smash a cake.  (The good news? Uncle S's little girl turns one next July, so we'll have plenty of time to plan our payback!)

After that, it was all over.  The cake, that is.

 "Yay! This is awesome!"

Starting to get a little full. 

 "Yaaay.... umm... ok, I think I'm done here, people."

"Dada, do you want some?"

"I guess there's always room for a little more." (Spoken like a true Hartman boy.)

"Time for a nap."

So, even though we thought we were going to be the people who bucked the trend of the smash cake, we gave in, and it was ok.  He enjoyed it, the guests enjoyed it, and we got some really good pictures out of it.  Plus, he got to enjoy the zucchini bread for the rest of the week! (Or, at least, for two days, until his daddy discovered and devoured it.) 

You only turn one once, right?  Live it up!