Parrrrrrty's heeyah

 

I've been sitting on the computer this evening, editing pictures from yesterday, and I can not believe our son just turned one.
 

I am ONE.

We had a couple other birthday celebrants join us for a small lunchtime party on Saturday. NZ had a birthday last Wednesday, our friend Pere had a birthday on Thursday, and Anna shares Sal's January 13th birthdate, so we had them over to join us for spaghetti arribata, sushi, cookies and cake in celebration of all their years of life.

Cookies from sweet creations by Stephanie

 

Sal & Neil (newest baby on the block)

            
            Sal ate cake, opened gifts and played with his new toys before a nice long nap.



yes,  that's most definitely a boog hanging from the nose.
(He's had a cold all week and finally gifted it to me today)

Dad had to help with the blowing out of the candle.
Sal was obviously mesmerized by the mamarazi.

 

As the day turned to night, we met up with more friends from our apartment complex to light off fireworks to celebrate Sal turning ONE!
  

This one's for you, kid.

Smash it, baby!

So, I gave in..

Our kid got to smash a cake on his first birthday.

Anyone who follows me on Pinterest could have probably guessed that, since I have been pinning photo op ideas for the sweet moment when my baby attacks his cake and gets his first taste of sugar. And makes a mess. Which I have to clean up. (Explain to me why this is such a good idea, again? Oh yes--the pictures.) 

Baking cakes used to be one of my favorite things to do-you know, when I had an oven and all.

Nowadays, notsomuch.

In fact, I have more baking failures in our little countertop toaster oven than I have successes. Can we say charred edges and runny batter banana breads?

Add to that the difficulty of finding good cake mix (yes, I'm a from-the-box kinda girl) without spending over $7 USD , and you've got incentive to make your cake a success on the first go round. Otherwise, cake baking will put you in the poor house.

Thankfully, one of my former gymnastics teammates (we're talking 20 years) contacted me recently and asked if I lived near Suzhou. I was super excited that she was heading out to a city just one hour from here, and couldn't wait to reconnect with her. I requested she bring a of of. Funfetti cakemix from the US. Nothing else. Just funfetti.

We love funfetti.

She and I never connected due to visa issues, but one day, a box arrived via China Post.

Inside, not one, but TWO boxes of funfetti.

(Thank you Rosie!)

So, this whole cake making thing has now turned into an International effort. She's not the only one who sent me items necessary for a successful smash cake....My sister (surprise surprise), sent me nonpareils and a "1" candle to make Sal's first birthday cake a memorable one look good in pictures.

So, without much further explanation....

Here it is...


Sal's first cake experience.