Jack's 1st Birthday Party

Where to begin. Well, as a lover of all things sweet, I suppose I must begin with the cake. Isn't it gorgeous? Well, actually, I should probably start a little earlier.

As Jack's first birthday approached I knew I didn't want to do a big blowout with matching everything and a bouncy castle and a kids band and pony rides and all that. Sure, sounds ridiculous but here in LA, it certainly happens. I heard one friend tell of a birthday party with a live band, bartender, caterer, and a petting zoo. Anyways, low key was our style. And in our budget. Especially when Jack had no idea what was going on. I decided I wanted to have it at a park because the little guy does so much better outside. SO much better. His love of the outdoors is ridiculous. So we chose a cute little park with toddler size play equipment and invited our family and friends with little ones.

We just did some sandwiches and salads for all the guests as well as some healthy munchies for the kids.

There were hats and bubbles and a book all about Jack. What an attention hog.

Jack is enthralled by balloons so we got him a bunch.

His friend Lilly was equally pleased.

Now moving on to the cake. My sister-in-law Kelly is a master at cakes so she volunteered to make one for Jack's big day. I had no idea how complex and amazing it would be. Here she is putting the finishing touches on it.

And here's the final masterpiece.

What a hit! And Jack was impressed that it had all of his favorite animals on it. And that the little palm trees were made with wafer cookies. Yippee! Better yet? It was delicious! We got to choose between a chocolate cake with a peanut butter layer or a yellow cake with a raspberry whipped cream layer. Jack's still not doing peanuts so he dove into the yellow cake.

The ecstasy you see on his face is his first big bite of sugar. Man, why had I been keeping that stuff from him? What a mean mommy. Because it was GREAT. After that, there was no stopping him. He ate and ate and ate and ATE.

Daddy had to pull him away because I was worried he was going to get sick. He wasn't very happy about it.

To distract him, we moved on to presents. He got a lot of awesome gifts from some very generous friends.

All in all, it was so much more successful than I imagined. Mainly because I imagined him whining and crying and needing a nap mid-party. But he timed his energy surge perfectly and the weather was beautiful. Thank you to everyone who could make it!

And now, a few more pics from the big day.

Our attempt at a family photo

The cake was a big distraction though

Playing soccer with his friend Violet

The boys with Grandpa and cousin Johnny

Telling Leigh an amazing story about her keys

Jack's little friend Ethan exploring the dirt

The glee of reaching the top of the play set

Jack's youngest friend Harry

Cousin Christy with the birthday boy

Stacey and Violet stare down the cake

Aunt Kelly and cousin Hank

Aunt Leslie and Jackie

Graciously giving Leigh all the pebbles he found

Uncle Johnny and cousin Hank fooling around

Stacey showing off her new mom acrobatics

Yay for the slide!

Jack and Violet eyeing each other up

Trying to make our 1 year old laugh

My cute little boy