EMET'S BIRTHDAY WEEK - 1 YEAR
Calvin and I have had a tradition of celebrating "Birthday Weeks" in our home. As our birthdays approach, we pick when the week begins and when it will end. Each day holds its own unique part of the week-long festivities. But one thing is for sure, there will be lots and lots of cake! Calvin and I have been doing this as long as I can remember and we were both excited to begin sharing this tradition with Emet.
On Emet's actual birthday we set him up in his highchair and introduced him to his very first experience with sweets - a Birthday Cupcake. We were surprised that he kept relatively clean. 😂 Needless to say, he loved every last bit of the cake and even gave himself a round of applause at the end. 👏🏼
And of course, when it comes to food, Monica is always here to help with any and all cleanup.
After his cake, we continued his birthday celebration at the zoo. He loves looking at all of the animals, but this time he was especially enamored with the birds and even tried his best to mimic their sounds. That kid. ☺️
I love carrying him around. His sweet little hand on my shoulder gets me every time. I want to soak all of these moments in as much as possible.
We planned a party for the weekend and spent some of the day before finalizing decorating and meal preparations.
We made two cakes this year; one of them was a basic boxed Funfetti cake, the other an Effortless White Cake made from scratch. As you can tell, we went with an orange theme for his party. Emet has a crazy love for everything orange: oranges, orange toys, orange shirts, orange food - everything orange. I thought this would be a fun way to theme the decorations and some of the food. I even selected Trader Joe's Sparkling French Berry Lemonade and Italian Grapefruit Soda to compliment the color scheme - also, they're really tasty!
Since we were having family over for Emet's birthday, I wanted to provide food that was light, yet filling enough for lunch. I made two of my go to dishes: The Perfect Egg Salad Sandwich
and The Fancy Cucumber, Ham, and Dill Wrap. These are great party dishes and super easy to put together if you are needing to cook the day of an event.
We went back and forth over whether or not to have a big party for Emet's first birthday. We decided on having a small and intimate family party. It was a sweet time together and I look forward to looking through the pictures with him one day.
Do you have any fun traditions? I'd love to hear some of your favorites in the comments below.
| Credits: Author - Jacintha Payne; Photography - Calvin and Jacintha Payne |