christenBphotography blog

Our son Sam turned ONE in November. Since his party was sandwiched between Thanksgiving and Christmas, this blog post was seriously delayed.If you know me, you know that I LOVE themes where others may find it ‘cheesy’ or over the top. When I thought about the celebration of his first year of life, I started thinking about the things Sam truly loves. He LOVES dogs…. He adores his Little People’s Barn and animals and he loves music. As much as a vintage circus theme or superhero party would have been a bit more fun for ME personally, I knew that if I was going to make this party about him – I’d have to focus on his love of barnyard animals.

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If you have seen my cake attempts, you’d know that they are a bit weak… So I decided that I wanted to have professionals take care of decorating a cake for Sam’s birthday. Second Floor Bakery is hands down my FAVORITE BAKERY in the Holland/Zeeland area. Without wanting to restrict their creativity at all, I simply told them that I wanted a cake that was a ‘barnyard animal’ theme with a few cute animals on it.

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Can you imagine my excitement when I stopped by to pick it up at Second Floor Bakery and saw this adorable two-tiered barnyard cake?!?! 

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I had 5×5 prints made from my favorite printing company to hang up pictures from Samuel’s 1st year of life… many that you see here were taken by the fabulous Shannon Leith and the one on the far right was taken by Christy.

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Check out this ADORABLE SMASH CAKE made by Second Floor Bakery!  Sam started saying “Dog, dog!” when he saw it.

It took him a while to figure out he was supposed to eat it – but once he hit the chocolate cake underneath the delicious icing, he moved quite quickly.

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Sam was trying to figure out what all the commotion was about.

He was ecstatic to have all of his grandparents around!

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I looked up vintage milk glass jars online and they were SOOOO expensive and there was no way I could justify putting that kind of money into my son’s birthday party. So, I splurged on some Starbucks Frappucino’s, enjoyed drinking them and sharing them with friends, pealed and scraped the labels off, washed them and VOILA…. “Vintage glass milk jars” for a lot less and they looked adorable with the red-striped paper straws I found at Meijer. I found the plates and napkins, small bales of hay, and various wooden animals at Hobby Lobby. And I bought just a little bit of burlap and checkered fabric at Hobby Lobby as well.

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Like I said, I LOVE themes… so when I saw Pinterest give me the idea to make “cow pies” out of no-bake cookies and oreos being called ‘tractor wheels,’ I couldn’t resist adding these to the theme.

I already had a few vintage crates – so the yellow one worked perfectly to hold the glass milk jars.

Thank you to my friend Lisa at My Little Buffalo Designs for capturing a few candid shots while we enjoyed watching him eating his cake and be present with him during the rest of the festivities.

Sam LOVES books.

We suggested that if people wanted to bring a gift, they could bring a used book… it was really neat to receive some family favorites that have been in the family or simply loved by the family for years. 

Sam, we are so honored to be your parents. You bring the joy, the dance moves, and so many sweet hugs and kisses to our lives.

Love, Mama and Baba