happy 1st birthday bonny lass!

we have a ONE YEAR OLD!!! how did this happen?

 

"why are you all staring at me? what did you put in this cake?"  

we celebrated this momentous occasion on one of my favorite days of the year: st. paddy's day! somehow, this brought out the deeply hidden martha stewart inspired side of me that i didn't even know existed. for one: i made AJ's cake. from. scratch. oh yeah, i bought all the ingredients and mixed em together and, well baked them. that's about it. but the most exciting part (for me) is that the cake had no processed sugar, oil, or dairy. AND it tasted delicious! there is a secret ingredient. i got the recipe from this blog and i would highly recommend it!

AJ's vegan chocolate cake 

as i was finishing up the icing, i said to the hubs, "i think i'm going to try and write her name on it with green icing". hubs response: "i love your sense of optimism and bravery." based on his tone, you would have thought i had said "i think i'm going to negotiate peace in the middle east today." no faith. i'm so glad i proved him wrong! her name is totally legible and kind of cute, in my opinion!  (disclaimer: the icing is store bought from whole foods and has sugar and butter and all the stuff i avoided in my cake. whatevs.)

here is the rest of the spread:

cupcakes, green veggie tray, rainbow fruit kabobs, PB & J shamrockwiches, and green apple italian soda.

 mark's parents were key in helping get all those fruits on the spears, and mark's dad even made the PB & J 'shamrockwiches' for me. (the whole cake and cupcakes thing took a lot longer than i thought it would...)

i even made goody bags for all the kids. they had bubbles and crayons and these shamrock rubber duckys in them. i also wrote their names on them.

 when guests arrived, they filled out their name tag with their leprechaun name and we all got a good chuckle. especially if you first name ends in e... haha. what's up warty!

AJ's friends got into it... check out Rosemary rockin' her green tu-tu. and rainbow tights. i really like this holiday.

 can i just tell you how much i am loving this age already. AJ, you are becoming your own little person... with opinions ("i want to hold the blue pen and climb the stairs 20 times with it") and humor ("i laugh at my elephant toy every time!") and that feisty streak we saw from day 1 ("you try to take my pen away and i will throw a tantrum"). you love green beans more than anyone i've ever met. in fact, i think you like green beans more than cake! you get really excited when we put you on the couch or our bed and you hop around like it's the most incredible thing you've ever experienced. please never lose that. actually, it might be weird in 20 years if you're still hopping around on the couch in awe. but never lose that sense of wonder. i believe lee ann womack said it best.

birthday girl on her birthday ride! thanks grandma & grandpa smiley!

"my first taste of sugar...nom nom nom. still like green beans better though."

all in all it was a great party. we saw some friends, family and AJ rocked it. and i made a freaking vegan chocolate cake from scratch. and it tasted great. (sorry but i'm not sorry about how proud i am of my cake.) happy birthday Peanut! you're one heck of a one year old...so much fun. we love you.