Happy first birthday, Heron!!

I'm so glad that Mom & Dad were able to be here for Heron's first birthday! We had a great time!

I sewed up a special birthday crown for him (like I did for Rhino, but I'll be redoing Rhino's for future birthdays.) [Idea from Amanda Soule's book, The Creative Family.] I also sewed up a birthday banner for his party on Monday (idea from the same book.)

He received some wonderful gifts! He was given some cute outfits from Great-Granddaddy and GG and Pop. Matt's parents got him some adorable clothes too, as well as a Punch and Drop and some stacking wooden rings. I finally got to give him the knitted rainbow snake that I finished a while ago! Matt and Rhino and I also gave him a Walk N Roll for when he starts walking (soon!)

And, of course, there was cake!! I baked him his own little chocolate cake with my yummy chocolate frosting. Lucky boy! We tried to hold off on giving him any sugar until his first birthday, like we did for Rhino, but it hasn't really worked out. Rhino likes to share his treats! So this is the second time Heron's had chocolate cake.

He did pick the whole thing up and try to eat it like a cupcake! When it first came out, he didn't want to try the cake, actually. I took a finger full of frosting and chased his mouth around for a while until I could finally sneak it in. Then he knew what to do!  I cringe a little at this baby-chocolate-cake tradition because it's just so much sugar and we try to limit sweets. It is just too adorable though (I love this messy, chocolate baby!) and it is a one-time thing. It won't be every birthday that he gets to dive into his own cake!

The mess was so worth it. He had a blast! And cleanup was pretty easy. Once I got him in the bath, crumbs fell off him and he turned the water brown. At one time, a small piece of cake floated by him and he grabbed it and attempted to have seconds! Such a pig!