Monday, July 21, 2008

The Big Oh-One

Lacey turned one last Thursday, and of course as tradition dictates, I threw her a kickin' first birthday party. We invited the family over last night for dinner and some cake and ice cream complete with typical birthday festivities. So without further ado, here are the highlights...



The Birthday girl.

I will start with my favorite part. The traditional first birthday cake. This is the same cake pan that my mom used for my first birthday, and the same one I used for Lilia for her first birthday. Call it a family tradition. Mom made this same cake for all of us kids on our birthday, so when I got pregnant with Lil I got online and found the cake pan so I could continue the tradition. It takes me about 1 hour to cook it, 2 hours for it to cool, then about 4 hours to decorate it. All so we can cut it up and eat it in less than 30 minutes.

The cake:



We started the party out with dinner. Nothing special. Just spaghetti, fruit salad, breadsticks, and homemade rootbeer. After everyone ate dinner and the kids spent a decent amount of time playing at the park across the street, we gathered to watch Lacey open gifts. A few pics of her and I opening her gifts:





After presents, we sang to the birthday girl. She LOVED being the center of attention! Just check out that smile:


Then we gave her free reign on her cake. Unlike her sister, who refused to touch her cake, Lacey dug right in!


The damage to to cake. We let her play for a minute then took it away to start the carving of the cake...


We then gave Lacey a cupcake decorated for her by her big sister, and she proceeded to get that cake EVERYWHERE. It was GREAT! And of course a few pictures of the mess she made...







After a while we put a scoop of ice cream down on her tray. Before we could get her a spoon she decided her hands did the trick.


OH! Brain Freeze!


A picture of the happy, and well fed birthday girl:


And here we are, on our way to the tub:


After tub time she got to try out her new Ridin' Fun Car (Grandma and Grandpa W. bought it for her)


She seems to think that THIS is the proper way to ride it...


It was great to get the family together. We have a LOT of family. Including all the step siblings on Joes side, Lil and Lace have 32 aunts and uncle and somewhere around 26 cousins. We had most of them over last night as well as my cousin Ju, and a few neighbors. Lots of fun!

Now for something fun! Here is a picture of me and Lilia at 1 year with our cakes...

Lilia:


and me:

11 comments:

Morgan said...

What a cute tradition! I love that cake! I might have to look for that cake pan myself!

Pam, your hair is getting so long and it looks so pretty! You look great!

heidijogoody said...

That cake is the most adorable cake ever and I give it to you for taking all that time to make it just to carry on that fun tradition. I can't believe she is already 1 it seems like just a short time ago she was born.

mom2natnkatncj said...

Happy Birthday to the birthday girl! What a cute cake and tradition. My first daughter also was not a dive right into the cake, but boy was my second one ;). I knew she would be too so I had her stripped down to her diaper for her cake ;).

Unknown said...

I loved your post! That cake is so adorable and sweet. She looks so happy.
And homemade rootbeer?! Yum!

Carol said...

That cake is simply amazing and she just looks so happy. Well done you!

Simply Shannon said...

That cake is so cute! Still not as cute as your daughters though. They are gorgeous!
Happy Birthday to Lacey..and Happy POW to you!

Laural Out Loud said...

What a wonderful tradition! It looks like you had a really good time. I'm fixated on the HOMEMADE ROOTBEER!

Heather said...

Sounds like Lacey had a fun birthday!! That cake is AWESOME!

Scrappy Girl said...

Love that you have the tradition of the bear cake. I noticed a jumperoo in the pics...let me just say that we LOVED the jumperoo. I don't know how we could have lived without it. LOL! Wild Child could make the walls rattle.

~AnnaMarie~ said...

I love the tradition! The cake is so cute! And so is the birthday girl. And you look great too! your hair is getting really long. I like it!

McMommy said...

I am in AWE of that cake!!! Is it hard to make? Decorate?? How do you get it to stand up like that?

I love the pics of each of you with your cake...I am a great lover of family traditions!!!