Beck's First Birthday

Before the Fourth, we celebrated Beck's first. I had plans, you guys. There were gonna be balloons, a cute cake for Beck to smash and cupcakes for the rest of us, an adorable, blog-worthy surfer motif. Gummy sharks were involved. It was gonna be great!
But...well...it didn't quite work out the way I had planned. Cuz does it ever?

t-shirt | shorts

We had family in town, who had blessedly offered to watch the kids so the Hubs and I could scoot off for lunch, something we NEVER do. Never. In fact, I think the last child-free meal we had in Virginia Beach went down a few days before Beck was born. A year ago. I made the cake and cupcakes before we left, with the plan to make the frosting that night. Damon and I had an amazing lunch with a gorgeous view. I may have even had an adult beverage with my meal. It was perfect. On the way home, we stopped by the party store and picked up the balloons. We felt so relaxed and productive, so relaxed that I completely flaked on the frosting. Oops! I'd get it done first thing in the morning.

The morning of the celebration, the balloons were on the floor (Damon raced across town to get replacements-at no charge), the frosting wouldn't set enough to pipe it on the cupcakes, let alone frost a cake (humidity?), I dropped and broke a chunk off the cake plate (third sign of birthday apocalypse?), and I spent so much time monkeying around with the frosting that I never got a chance to set up and finish decorating before Damon had to start grilling the Hawaiian burgers for lunch. (They were sooo good, btw.) I held it together for a long time, but finally let the frustration tears flow when it was time to frost the smash cake (the frosting had been chilling in the fridge for hours hoping it would set). I figured the cupcakes didn't matter that much, we could dip them in the frosting if it came down to it, but the smash cake is all about the pictures. And the frosting was basically oozing off of it.

It was a disaster, for sure, but when it came down to it, it all tasted great, and Beck had a ball tearing that oozy cake apart!

When our company left later in the afternoon, I was straightening up the kitchen and noticed...I never even put out the gummy sharks! Doh!

With everything going on, we didn't even get a great family pic. This is as good as it gets. Haha!

But my favorite part of the first birthday...seeing how much Little Man has grown!

Happy birthday, Beck!

Z's First Birthday Celebration

For Z's first birthday celebration, we decided to keep it simple (read: cheap) and invited just family. But since the Hubs' sister and my brother both live out of state, Baby Tuna got to party down with her grandparents for the day.

I, of course had been cruising Pinterest since before Z was even born looking for ideas. But simple was the name of the game, and the focus was on great food (the Hubs made delicious fish tacos) and the most important birthday element: cake!

I love cake. Love it. And I love to bake it, especially for birthdays. I made two cakes, one for Z as her smash cake, and one for the rest of us to enjoy. In true form since having Z a year ago, I half-assed the cakes. I usually bake cakes from scratch, but this time, I doctored up white cake box mix and made scratch buttercream frosting, but only because I already had the ingredients, it's pretty easy, and Publix buttercream ain't free. Plus, as good as Publix buttercream is (y'all know I love it!), mine is actually better. Just sayin'. I also had fun creating the yellow ombre look, and I think it turned out pretty great. 

Z loves balloons, so naturally I had envisioned tons of yellow and aqua balloons. But since I drive a VW Rabbit with a carseat taking up half the backseat, I knew there was a limit to my balloon dreams. Z and I hauled our cookies down to the party store where the girl filled our balloons (including a super awesome giant mylar "1" balloon), I somehow got them into my car on the windiest day of the year while holding a squirmy one-year-old, and wouldn't ya know, more than half of them were deflated 24 hours later. Boo. 

But someone didn't seem to mind. (She's still playing with the balloons a week and a half later!) I ended up tying them to the chandelier, which looked pretty cute. Win! 

The last part of the decor (and my favorite part) was Z's tutu. I found a super easy tutorial and was able to create cuteness during an episode of Teen Mom 2 (oh, you know you watch it, too!). With a t-shirt and leggings we already had and a coupon for Joann for the tulle, her birthday outfit cost less than $20! Not bad, if I do say so myself. I had been eyeing some adorable birthday outfits on Etsy for triple that. 

white tee | white leggings | zany zoo activity center

Cake time!! We weren't quite sure how Z would react to her very first cake. Would she face plant, would she make a huge mess, or would the cake scare the shit out of her, sending her into tears? I knew that no matter which scenario went down, it would make for great pics! 

I just wasn't expecting her to be so...confused.

Even after a little taste...

the Hubs had to help her out. I don't know if I thought it would be instinct (I mean, isn't a great love of cake written on the DNA?), or what, but I just wasn't expecting her to be so mellow about the whole thing. 

Once she got going, she had a ball, and even enjoyed a few fistfuls of deliciousness.

It wasn't the epic mess we had expected, but she had so much fun pulverizing her cake. 

After a quick bath, it was time for presents. Since Christmas wasn't that long ago, we asked the grandparents to please give Baby Tuna books instead of toys. Maybe it's the teacher in me, but you can never have too many books. Z loves loves loves her books and "reads" and chews them constantly, and now she has so many new ones to enjoy.

Although there were a few things that didn't quite materialize, the day was absolutely perfect. I'm still shocked that a whole year has gone by, and i'm already looking for ideas for birthday number two! 

And thank you to all of you for the sweet birthday wishes for Zoey!

**Please do not pin any photos of Zoey. Thank you!**

Happy First Birthday!!

One year ago today, very early in the morning, a little ball of smiles and silliness came into our lives. 

We still can't believe she's ours. 

This morning, the Hubs had to head to work early, but I wanted to celebrate Zoey's day (and see how she would react to candles and a crazy person singing Happy Birthday before the real celebration this weekend). So I threw a candle in her usual waffle and sang my heart out. She was a little confused at first, and of course tried to reach for the flame, but once I started singing, she was all smiles. Maybe the beginning of a birthday waffle tradition?

I cannot wait for her first birthday cake experience! Will she love it or will it be a train wreck? Either way, it should make for some great pictures and a big ol' mess!