Zoe's First Birthday Party

My sweet Zoe turned one year old on Saturday and we threw a family party for her!  She has been the light of our lives since her arrival just one year ago...I can't believe how fast that year has come and gone!  We decided to do a "Wild about 1" theme.  Of course, there were a MILLION decoration options for the princess theme but I figured that we'd have PLENTY of those parties in the future, if she's anything like I was when I was little.  I made the flag banner for her and we pretty much just bought a few balloons and some streamers and called it a day for decorations.  I found very quickly how crazy you can get with the decorations but we weren't really budgeting for hundreds of dollars.  After all, it's not like she's going to remember most of it anyway.

My sister has been begging me to make Zoe a tutu so I decided to make her a birthday tutu with the theme colors.  I must admit, she looked darn cute in it although the poor thing couldn't really crawl around much in it so we put it on for pictures and then let her free.  We'll use it for professional pictures once she is walking anyway.  They are pretty easy to make it turns out!

Here it is.....the completed cake!  All in it's fondant glory:-)  My sister in law, Erin, is AMAZING and has taught herself how to put these puppies together.  She helped me with the decorating of the cake.  We almost had a disaster on our hands when we were trying to get the Zebra stripes to stick onto the white part.  It was making the fondant weaker and kept tearing apart every time we attempted to pick it up.  Erin managed to save it however and I think it turned out great, all things considered.  I think that next year, I'd like to learn how to use icing tips and decorate that way.  Fondant is a bit tricky.  It looks amazing but it doesn't taste all that great.  It was a fun experiment though and I enjoyed trying something new.

 

Here is Miss Zoe trying her cake out.  It's the first time she's had chocolate and I think she likes it.  After all, she's my daughter:-)  Steve grilled super YUMMY kebabs and we kind of had a Middle Eastern themed lunch with yellow rice, lamb, beef, chicken, and veggie kebabs and homemade Persian flat bread.

Zoe got way spoiled with presents this year.  Of course, her favorite things were tearing the wrapping paper and playing with the bows.  All in all, I think she had fun!  I know the adults certainly did:-)

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY TO OUR SWEET ZOE!

It's been a joy having her in our lives and we love her SO much!