Ramona Jean's First Birthday

Last Saturday, on her birthday, we celebrated our Ramona Jean's first year in the little apartment that we call home. Just like the day that she was born, friends and family came to shower her with love and gifts. And just like the day that she was born, we were overwhelmed - delirious really - with happiness.

I have a confession to make: I hate hosting parties. In fact, any excuse I've had in the past to get out of hosting anything, I've jumped, leapt, skydived at the opportunity to pass it on to someone else. But your baby only turns one once, and even though she won't remember a single minute of it, it's got to be a swanky affair, right? (Or, who knows, maybe my domestic side has finally kicked in after all these years.) So for weeks I planned and stressed and scoured every corner of Pinterest for ideas that even a event-planning/craft-challenged individual like me could whip up - I could hardly focus on anything else. And with the aid of an amazing husband who stayed up until 3:00am baking cake layers, a mother who drove me to run last minute errands, and a sister-in-law who helped with all those final details (icing tiny cupcakes, and assembling cakes as the guests were all arriving), we pulled it off, and I survived. And hey, who knows, I miiiight even do it again next year.



The talented Michelle of Norr Studio (who we also had a family lifestyle session with not long ago) came to take photos for a few hours, because I knew that I wouldn't have the presence of mind amid all the festivities to document Ramona's special day (best decision ever). Unfortunately Ramona decided to save her big party trick (standing up and really walking for the first time - the ultimate first birthday party trick) until after she had left (of course).
















The cakes (the small one for Ramona, the big one for everyone else) were both from a vegan vanilla birthday cake recipe that we found here. We planned to make them taller, but stopped at three layers for each. The frosting was a vegan buttercream frosting from The Joy of Vegan Baking cookbook - it might be my new favourite.


As you can see, our "theme" was woodland + waffle bar + open-faced sandwiches... + chalk? I bought those adorable birch print straws from Green Munch, a website that sells reusable/recyclable supplies (for "sustainable entertaining" as they put it).



She ate so many blueberries that day (her favourite) we kept joking that she was likely to turn into one (or that she already had in her sweet blue-grey little romper from our friends at Bebe Organic).













This photograph sums up her feelings about wearing the floral crown I hastily put together an hour before the party. Ha. I think the longest it stayed on was 30 seconds, and that's being generous. I expected it, but I still tried.



This Fact+Fiction wooden camera that we bought from Bud and Thistle wasn't as interesting as the wrapping on the actual day, but has since become a favourite (it's her good luck charm for walking - she likes to put on all by herself and walk around).





That sweet little bathing suit was another present we bought for Ramona from a local shop Rufus & Murdog.





Grinning ear to ear while we all sang "Happy Birthday" to her. She was miiiighty pleased with herself.





At first she wasn't sure what to do with the cake, and then when she finally realized she could take the blueberries off the top, everyone started to clap. Which led to her clapping for herself when she ate another blueberry. Which lead to more clapping from everyone. Which led to... well, you get the picture.

P.S. She only tried one bite of the cake and spit it out immediately. Ha! But everyone else loved it, I swear. Girl just loves her blueberries.



This food-sharing thing is a relatively new thing she's been doing. And it is pretty stinking adorable.




This series of photos made me laugh out loud when I first saw them. She kept feeding Patricio, and shoving her whole fist in his mouth.

Bye-bye flower crown! (The cats ate it two days later, so at least someone enjoyed it.)



An outfit change after her first outfit was covered in blueberry juice.

Another new thing she does - opening her mouth wide open when she is excited to see someone. Also stinking adorable.



Happy birthday to our sweet little Ramona Jean. That first year flew by, and goodness knows, the next one will as well.