I seriously considered not doing an “official” cake smash for Gerrit’s first birthday, because he got plenty messy during his birthday party. But in the end, I was convinced that I would get better photos with a cake smash session. Plus I figured Gerrit would enjoy destroying another cake!
My cake decorating skills fell through, so I just went with blue tinted frosting and sprinkles for the smash cake. It’s the same recipe as the cake for his party, so since it was semi-healthy, we did the cake smash at breakfast time. Hey, you only turn one once, right??
Someone is excited for that cake! You can see him eyeing it up off-camera, haha!
Haha! The cake had been in the fridge, so I think the coldness surprised him.
Hmm, this blue stuff is kind of tasty!
The aftermath. ^ He didn’t get quite as into it as I was hoping, but he still had a good time smashing another cake. And I enjoyed more cute photos of my birthday boy!
We had a busy weekend planned the weekend before Gerrit turned one. His birthday party was on Saturday, and we planned to get some professional photos done the next day. One thing I needed to do was finish this:
I wanted to get this sign done for his party, but it just didn’t happen. But I definitely wanted it done for his photos, since I had put a fair amount of time and energy into it! It’s not perfect (ahem…spacing between ‘plum’ and ‘meat’ for one haha), but I’m generally happy with how it came together. I hadn’t hand-lettered anything since the white boards from when I was pregnant. And those boards could be erased and re-done as many times as I needed. This was permanent!
So after Gerrit woke up from his afternoon nap, we got him changed and hurried out the door to a local park for photos before the sun set!
I love the family photos that my sister captured for us:
We also got some photos of Gerrit with Andrew’s parents, and one of the 5 of us too:
Then it was back to pictures of the birthday boy!
This wooden horse was built by my grandpa, and Gerrit loves pushing it around his room. He’s not quite big enough to ride it yet, but we thought it would make such a cute prop for his first birthday photos.
I love this next photo of the three of us… it turned out so cute!
I also really wanted a few Mommy-and-me photos:
Just for fun… a photo from Gerrit’s newborn photos and one from this photo shoot:
My sister did such a great job capturing some beautiful family photos as well as some adorable shots that show off Gerrit’s personality. It’s amazing how much our little guy has grown and changed in the last year, and I know I will treasure these photos forever.
I started mentally preparing for Gerrit’s first birthday party when he was about 6 months old. I think I was just so thrilled that we had survived the first half of his first year that I figured the second half of the year would be a breeze. Or something like that, haha. One of the first books that Gerrit showed interest in was Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
Loving “Brown Bear” a little before he turned 3 months old
It continued to be a favorite as he approached his first birthday, so it was an easy choice for a birthday party theme. Thank goodness for Pinterest! I found a lot of cute ideas on there to use. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to use them all, because 1) I got sick just a few days before the party, and 2) I’m a procrastinator who couldn’t pull it all together because of the stupid cold bug that I caught. I’m not bitter about it at all. 😛
I’m so glad that my sister Becki was able to come to take photos of the weekend’s events. She’s done beautiful photos of my other nephews and niece, but we hadn’t been able to take advantage of her talents since Gerrit had been born. I was excited to put her to work!
I loved how the backdrop for Gerrit’s cake smash came together! I had seen the idea on Pinterest using 3 cheap plastic tablecloths, but I figured it would be even better with 6 of them. My mom and Andrew’s mom put it all together, and I couldn’t have been happier with the result. It’s so bright, colorful, and festive! My Cricut made the banner come together quickly to go above Gerrit’s high chair.
The “My First Year” mantel was one of my favorite decorations for the party. I collected various 5×7 photo frames, painted them to go with the colors in the book, and got prints of Gerrit’s monthly photos. I also scoured Amazon for animals in the appropriate colors (blue horse was a tough one…). My sister found a few other animals that she sent to me so I had extras to add to the snack table:
My mother-in-law did such a nice job arranging all the fruits and veggies in a rainbow for the snack table! There were strawberries, raspberries, and red pepper strips (red bird), mandarin oranges (gold fish), pineapple slices and yellow pepper strips (yellow duck), green grapes (green frog), blueberries (blue horse), purple grapes (purple cat), and blackberries (black sheep). We also had mozzarella cheese (for white dog), Teddy Grahams (for brown bear, of course), and Goldfish crackers (for gold fish). All kid-friendly foods that I hoped would be just as yummy for the adults.
Photo by Vander Warf Photography
We also had a “healthy” birthday cake for Gerrit which made enough batter for a half dozen cupcakes for the kids at the party. I think everyone enjoyed the cake, and I was happy that Gerrit wasn’t getting loaded up on butter and sugar.
I originally looked into some activities for 1-year-olds to do at the party, but in the end I just pulled out some of Gerrit’s favorite books and toys and put them on the shelves of the gift table. I’m so glad I decided to do that: so much less for me to do, and all the kids (from 6 months to 6 years) enjoyed the toys and books. I was pleasantly surprised!
Gerrit would have been happy with one gift, haha! He was a little annoyed with me making him put down each new toy to open a new one. Luckily, the older kids were happy to help him unwrap his presents.
Photo by Vander Warf Photography
Gerrit loved all the kids, and he’s at the age where he really doesn’t care if anyone opens his gifts for him, so I was happy to let the other kids help him out. Plus it made the process go a little faster. One-year-olds do not have a long attention span! And then we got to move on to the cake smash:
Surprisingly, Gerrit did not get upset when everyone sang “Happy Birthday” to him! He was a little uncertain about it, but he didn’t start crying (yay!). I had been singing the song to him for a few weeks beforehand, hoping it would prep him a little. I have no idea if it worked or not, but I’m glad there were no tears.
I think Gerrit had a great time at his first birthday party! He enjoyed munching on different snacks (we found out he really likes Goldfish crackers), he loved watching and playing around the other kids, and I’m pretty sure the cake made him pretty happy!
A huge thank you to my sister for the beautiful photos — you rock! I’m also so thankful to our parents for helping us prepare and pull it all together when Andrew & I were feeling so under the weather. And we really appreciate the friends who came out and spoiled our little boy with fun presents (and presence!). It was such a fun afternoon, and we had a very happy little boy!
On An Even Kiel 