A Wintery 1st Birthday

My adorable nephew Corey just celebrated his 1st birthday. While we weren’t able to be in Canada and celebrate with them, his mom Deanna sent along some photos. I knew I had to share them with you so you could see a 1st birthday through the eyes of a  new mommy. Enjoy!

This past December we celebrated our son’s first birthday! I was pretty darn excited to plan for this event; I think I started designing the invitations in October!

corey invite Seeing that our Champ wasn’t really into anything in particular, I had thought a winter themed party would be appropriate and fun. We had decided to only invite family members to keep it somewhat intimate and hopefully not too overwhelming for Corey.

The planning went pretty well. We had established the menu and cake in advance so no need to stress, right? Wrong! Stress is a funny little beast. Having never really decorated a cake before I would highly recommend not piping a cake the day of the party!! Lesson learned for next year.

cake and surrounding objectsThe finished product! This occasion was my first attempt at making a cake and ‘piping’ a cake…how hard could it be, really? Ace of Cakes makes it look easy….yah, well I’m no Duff Goldman and my first cake looked a bit rookie..practice makes perfect I guess. I made a banana cake in the shape of the #1 with cream cheese icing. It was pretty delicious actually ( I’m hoping the taste made up for the presentation).

birthday vinylWe were debating on putting up a ‘Happy Birthday’ sign and decided that this one would be perfect. Everyone would see it and it would be subtle at the same time.

buffet of foodThe Smörgåsbord. Seeing as we had decided on a winter themed party, we thought it would be fitting if we served up food that somewhat complimented our theme. Candies, chocolates and finger foods were high on our menu list.

crackers and dipI’d have to say the most fun (and maybe the most delicious) treat on our table was the pine-cone-shaped-roasted-almond-cream-cheese-bacon-dill-pickle dip. You may think that food combination is a bit crazy, but all I’d say to that is don’t knock it until you try it. I think this presentation made up for the cake.

rice krispie treat snowflakesA fun spin put on your run of the mill regular rice krispie square. The only downfall would be the base product is not like cookie dough so you can’t re-use the treat base once you’ve cut your shape out. I tried and the rice krispie pieces cracked and crumbled.

hot cocoa barOur winter themed party sported a hot chocolate and apple cider bar. I had read about this idea on a website and thought it was a fantastic one. I mean who doesn’t like chocolate and when you can add marshmallows, whipped cream and more chocolate to it, it’s like heaven in a mug!

corey looking at cakeUltimate cake test. After singing Happy Birthday, we divvied up the cake and gave Corey his first piece ever! He studied it for about 2 seconds and then devoured it … with both hands! He didn’t stop plowing the cake into his mouth until he was finished.

eating cake

One hand would not suffice.

corey stuffing face with cake

He likes it, he really likes it!

opening presentsPresent time. Corey really wasn’t into opening gifts this year so I did the honors.

party gangThe party gang!

Doug and CoreyI’m pooped Dad! Playing with presents and eating cake is tiring.

Thanks for sharing Deanna! Can’t wait to see what you have planned for Corey’s 2nd birthday!


8 thoughts on “A Wintery 1st Birthday

  1. Great job, Deanna! The cake looks super, and sounds DELICIOUS. Put cream cheese frosting on anything, and I’m there. And that pine-cone dip looks awesome – I’m going to have to try that.
    Sam, my now 6(!)-year-old, was sitting here looking at the pictures with me. He was very concerned about the “clip-on” tie on Corey. ;o) That’s all he’s ever worn, and assumed the baby must be very uncomfortable.
    I think I see some Andrew in a couple of those pictures.

  2. Deanna the party was wonderful…all your hard work didn’t go unnoticed;o) The pine-cone-shaped-roasted-almond-cream-cheese-bacon-dill-pickle dip is definitely a must have at any party. You’re being to hard on yourself about the cake…we all would have eaten it like Corey but somehow it wouldn’t have been as cute;o) We look forward to Corey’s 2nd birthday party….there is definitely Andrew in him, I see it too!

  3. Hey Jess. My friend is a photographer and she took Corey’s picture…naked but sporting a tie. It did fit around his neck and probably was uncomfortable, but hopefully not as uncomfortable as a clip on tie. Your sons concerns were well noted.
    And yes, I too see a bit of Andrew in Corey…no Mom or Dad yet…funny how that happens hey?

  4. Looks like you guys had a lot of fun wish we could have been there.

    And I had to laugh out loud about the clip on tie Jess. I had this mental image of trying to put it on and the surprised look followed by tears after snapping it in place.

  5. He is such a cutie – loved the invitations, the theme, and all the goodies! And the cake is something much much better than I could ever do! Congrats on a great 1st bday party for your little man!

  6. What a perfect way to celebrate your handsome little man’s first birthday Deanna. He is pretty lucky to have such loving parents. And I too can vouch for the banana cake, it was all kinds of delicious!!! Mmm, banana cake.

  7. I think you should share you pine cone recipe – I love the cocoa bar- I want to do this just for fun on the weekend -I could have eaten the whole plate of rice krispies – those cake pictures are perfect – I’m pretty sure he’ll be gobbling up food just like that when he’s a teenager – thank you for sharing Deanna!

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