Enzo's First Birthday Extravaganza!!

Well, I ended up making a big to-do out of his first birthday!  I had the time off and I felt the need for celebration and acknowledgement for keeping him alive for one year.  The first year passed simultaneously slowly and quickly.  I'm actually not in too much shock over him not being a baby anymore because he still looks like a baby to me - still has minimal hair and a super round head.  When I look at his newborn photos his face is the same as it is now.  See?

Same old stink face when trying to get a good picture!

Anyway, on to the celebration pictures!  The Friday before his birthday we did his professional photo shoot which turned out excellent!  More on that in another post.  Next, the Saturday before his birthday we did the big birthday party with lots of friends plus two family members, Tracy and Nolan.  Even though 9 people cancelled and I started to panic a little that morning, we had a whole house full of people, mostly small male children!  Enzo was fascinated with all their running around business and there were minimal meltdowns out of any of the kids.  Esme was the the only girl out of about 8 kids.  She held her own just fine!

First some food!

There was carrot-walnut-ginger-pineapple cake with coconut whip cream frosting and unpictured banana cupcakes with a chocolate marble.  Yummmm!

Cheese plate including chocolate cheddar(!), goat cheese with hot pepper jelly, a pesto torta and plain Jack for the kids.

Crudities with vegan ranch, sweet potato cashew dip and hummus.  Also pictured in the back a sesame noodle salad.  We also made hot out of the oven mushroom pinwheels and veggie pigs in a blanket.  Everthing was devoured!  

Enzo LOVING all the attention while being sung his first Happy Birthday!

Birthday boy and dad montage:

 The next two pictures represent the chaos of the day.  I remember a lot of kids everywhere all the time, Turnip in the middle and lots and lots of wrapping paper.

And Enzo getting a breather for a minute.  

Despite being exhausted from the party, we went on a long hike the next day and Enzo was so cute playing around in the woods.  He really loves his outside time.

 On his actual birthday, we started the day out right!  Eating pancakes in our pajamas!

The rest of his birthday day was pretty low key after such a long weekend.  We ate up the rest of his birthday cake and opened a few more birthday presents that were coming in from the mail that day.

Whew!  I've been meaning to get this out for a while!  It was kind of an overwhelming experience and next year it will be a little simpler.  But hey, you only have your first birthday once!!