Skip to main content

Henry's First Birthday

Henry is one year old - WOW! It has been an exciting year watching him grow and explore the world. 
Henry surveys his first birthday party.
A one year birthday deserves a celebration! We spent a fun, whirlwind afternoon with family and friends at the MetroParks STAR Center. 
Henry and his grandparents.
Henry with his aunts, uncles and cousins.


Henry and friends.

But this is a food blog, so let's talk about the food! Since the party was after lunch, I kept the menu simple with just a few snack items. There was a fresh fruit tray with apple, pineapple, strawberries and blueberries accompanied by vanilla Greek yogurt. I also made hummus to go with the fresh vegetable tray that included cucumber, carrot, bell pepper and broccoli.
Fresh fruits and veggies are colorful party fare.
 We had a flavored water bar inspired by Life on the Mom List.
Guests added fresh oranges, lemons, limes and mint to their drinks.
And of course, there was cake! Henry's Aunt Melody made tasty no sugar carrot cupcakes. The orange frosting on Henry's cupcake was sweetened with maple syrup (from Cynthia Lair's cookbook "Feeding the Whole Family"). The white cupcakes had a traditional cream cheese frosting.
Carrot cupcakes with two kinds of frosting.
In keeping with the nautical theme, Henry's Grandma made a special sailboat bib and his Nana made a highchair banner of nautical flags that spelled out his name.
Singing Happy Birthday.
Henry was very excited to get the cupcake. Once it was in front of him though he wasn't too sure about the sticky frosting. The cake won him over but after a few tastes, a large portion rolled down his lap and onto the floor. He finished up the remainder and then was ready to play.
Henry enjoys his cupcake.
Henry also passed his 12 month check-up at the pediatrician with flying colors. Here are the official stats: 
  • weight - 21 pounds 12 ounces 
  • height - 28 3/4 inches
Labels:

Comments

  1. joannaJanuary 30, 2013 at 4:07 AM

    Great party. We have party in mart and also inspiration will be sea.
    Happy b Henry

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. UnknownJanuary 31, 2013 at 10:07 AM

      Thanks. It was really fun to plan his birthday. Good luck with your upcoming party.

      Delete
  2. JoyFebruary 8, 2013 at 12:44 PM

    I love that you had such a unique and fun birthday theme

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. UnknownFebruary 10, 2013 at 9:36 AM

      Thanks Joy. The nautical theme just fit our family, since we all love being on the water. We are avid canoeists, but we'd really like to learn how to sail too.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Baby-Led Weaning Cookbook

UPDATE (10/2/12): Unfortunately, I did not hear back from our original winner. Congratulations to our alternate winner for "The Baby-Led Weaning Cookbook" -- Robin Pfefer. UPDATE (9/29/12): I am happy to announce that Kashia Clopper is the winner of "The Baby-Led Weaning Cookbook". When I was first thinking about using the Baby-Led Weaning (BLW) model for Henry, I was unsure about whether it would really work. I was excited about BLW’s claims of less stressful meals that the whole family could share together. Plus, I was all for encouraging Henry to gain new skills by learning about the shapes, textures, colors, smells and flavors of food. This sounded ideal in theory, but would it work in practice? After some fun but ineffective attempts at letting Henry feed himself, I went in search of resources to learn more about BLW. I needed to learn how to prepare meals for our family in which Henry could participate. That’s when I found “ The Baby-Led
16 comments
Read more

Do Your Kids Eat Everything?

UPDATE (3/15/2013): Congratulations to Kia as the random drawing winner in this giveaway! Thank you to all those who entered this contest.  Before we began our food adventure with Henry, Daddy and I had many conversations about how to encourage Henry to become “a good eater.” After watching other parents constantly struggle with their toddlers, we wanted to know if there was anything we could do from the start to prevent picky eating. That’s when we read “ French Kids Eat Everything ” by Karen Le Billon . The book is an easy and enjoyable read about the year that Karen’s family spent in France and how it changed the way her family eats. The heart of the book explores the 10 French Food Rules for raising happy, healthy eaters. “French Kids Eat Everything” sparked numerous discussions at our dinner table about how our family eats. We have become more conscious of our assumptions about food and how that will influence Henry’s understanding of mealtimes. In addition, the
17 comments
Read more

Please Don't Feed My Toddler Cheetos

Our family has started a new chapter -- last week I rejoined the paid workforce! I am very excited about my new part-time job at a local history museum, coordinating field trips and special events. As part of this transition, Henry is now going to daycare three days per week.  Henry meets new friends and plays with new toys on his first day at daycare. Searching for quality childcare was a somewhat stressful experience. We visited 8 childcare facilities who had immediate space available for Henry to begin part-time care. I wanted to be confident that Henry would be cared for by experienced, nurturing staff in an environment that would challenge him to learn new skills and form friendships with other children. Of course, the added cost of childcare also had to fit within our family budget. While interviewing daycares, one aspect that I cared about was food. All eight of the facilities participate in the USDA food program , receiving reimbursement at a set rate for the meals they
5 comments
Read more