Picking up from Part I and Part II of Mirei’s birthday party posts, the smash cake was the finale of her first birthday celebration! Mirei got a whole cake all to herself, to smash and lick to her heart’s content! The smash cake has become a common first birthday tradition where the child is encouraged to attack the cake with her fingers, fists, or face — no utensils required! It typically makes a huge mess but it’s very entertaining, as it was when we made one for Mio on her first birthday. I usually expect the birthday baby to have a similar method to Mio, where they just go at the cake full force, but I’ve seen other cases where the child only takes a little lick here and there, or just doesn’t want to touch the frosting at all because they don’t want to get their hands dirty! It’s always very interesting to see the differences in personalities and approaches to the smash cake, and we were really curious to see how Mirei would react to her own smash cake!
At first, she took a moment to look around and take in her audience.
You can watch Mirei with her smash cake in the following two videos:
“This is a good size cake they gave me.”
“Let’s have a lick-sy…”
Mirei’s first taste of cake!
Instead of smashing the cake, Mirei poked it several times (as you can observe from the holes on the side of the cake).
“Back off, sister… I’m still working on it!”
Mirei savoring the smashcake
Digging into the top!
We were surprised to find that Mirei’s approach to the smash cake was much more tame than Mio’s, and that she did a lot less damage! (In fact, it was so intact that we were able to reuse the cake for her first birthday photos we posted earlier!) So interesting how siblings can be so different, even though they share the same DNA!
Dan and I with our birthday girl… with a photobomb from Uncle Ted.
A heartfelt thank you to all of our guests who braved the wintry weather to to celebrate Mirei’s first birthday with us! It is a sweet memory that we will keep with us for years to come, and Mirei is so lucky to have so many people that love her so much. Our first year as parents of two has been challenging at times, but we really can’t imagine a life without our sweet Mirei now, and we look forward to making many more wonderful memories as a family!
The day before Mirei’s actual birthday, we threw a small, intimate birthday party to celebrate the milestone of her turning one! We were admittedly feeling a little overwhelmed (and a little lazy) about doing a big celebration, but we kept the guest list short and decided we’d just do what we could and that helped ease the pressure and stress on us parents. 😉 My brother Ted and his wife Elisa were gracious enough to reserve the party room at their condo for the celebration. Unfortunately, it snowed the morning of the party and some of our guests couldn’t make it because of the weather, but we still had fun with those who were able to make it, and we stayed warm and cozy as the flurries swirled outside!
First year poster for Mirei
Birthday cake for Mirei… intended to be smashed later in the party.
A tower of birthday cupcakes
Dan and I made these cake toppers — both the “one” atop the cupcakes and the one with her name on the smashcake.
hydrangea cupcakes
The items for erabitori
Cookies to be taken home as party favors.
lollipop party favors
First birthday sugar cookies
Don’t look too closely… it was my first time using gold dusting powder on sugar cookies!
Special thanks to Miwa, Hyo, and Elisa who all helped with getting the party decorations up!
Everyone crowding around the birthday girl!
The adorable kids arriving
The aunties
Cutiepies Mirei and Cara
So glad Nancy and her girls could make it! Welcome back to the States!
The birthday girl walking around
Pat and I with our baby girls. Thanks so much for coming! ♥
Mio with her aunties, posing for our makeshift photobooth.
We had set up our own little “photobooth” with an iPad app, and the kids had so much fun with it! It was really fun to see the collection of pictures at the end of the party:
We felt so blessed to be able to celebrate Mirei’s first birthday with such loving family and friends, and are so thankful that she is such a happy and healthy one year old! More posts to follow with the first birthday activities from the party — stay tuned!
Continuing from Part I and Part II of Mio’s birthday party posts, here’s the finale portion of Mio’s first birthday celebration — the smash cake! While we had made plenty of cupcakes to go around for our guests (in lieu of a birthday cake), we had a dedicated birthday cake all for Mio to enjoy! For those who are not familiar with a smash cake, it’s a common first birthday tradition where the child is encouraged to attack the cake with her fingers, fists, or face — no utensils required! It typically makes a huge mess on both the baby and the surrounding area, but it’s a whole lot of fun for the grown-ups to watch and get a good laugh out of it. And I’m sure most children don’t mind digging into a sweet dessert without restraint, so it’s a win-win for all!
Dan with Mio's smash cake
Because we haven’t really exposed Mio to anything with sugar in her diet yet, and would like to avoid giving her sweets for as long as we can manage, I did some research before making her smash cake, to see if there were any wholesome cake recipes that didn’t contain sugar and artificial sweeteners. Thankfully, it seems that there are many other mothers out there who feel the same, and I was able to find some helpful resources and recipes! After going through various recipes, I decided on making a carrot cake that used applesauce and apple juice concentrate as sweeteners in place of sugar, and that used whole wheat flour instead of enriched white flour. (I took a taste of it when it came out of the oven, and it actually still tasted pretty sweet, thanks to the natural sweetness of the apples and carrots!) The frosting was the toughest part, as most frosting depends on sugar to achieve its thickness and ability to crust, and many of the sugar-free recipes I found on the web used artificial sweeteners and sugar substitutes like Equal and Splenda, which I think are just as bad (if not worse) for a baby to ingest. I ended up using a stabilized whipped cream recipe, which used gelatin to help it hold its shape, and added some meringue powder as well to help with stiffening the frosting. I then added icing colors to achieve the hues I wanted as I frosted roses onto the carrot cake. Even stabilized, the whipped cream was melting down the sides of the cake (see picture) while I was frosting it, and I had to keep it in the freezer until right before the party began to make sure it held its shape. I guess something’s gotta give when you are working with limited ingredients! I am just happy that I was able to make a cake that was pretty healthy and wholesome and still enjoyable to eat.
Mio went to town with the cake and really worked the crowd (she’s quite the entertainer!), but you can see for yourself here in the video, or scroll further down to see the cake demolition step by step!
Mio staring at everyone while we sang "Happy Birthday" to her.
My little birthday girl!
Reaching her hands in...
Scooping up the frosting...
Fistfuls of frosting!
Bringing it to her mouth!
"Go Mio! Go Mio!"
Surrounded by paparazzi!
Going for more...
An impressive cake beard.
She just keeps going...
The cake didn't stand a chance.
Breaking into the cake
A sheepish smile.
"Banzai! I am victorious against the cake!"
Me surveying the damage.
Mio trying to hand me a handful of frosting. "Here, have some!" No thanks, Mio...
The demolished cake.
Afterwards, Mio changed out of her caked dress and we gathered around to open presents.
Thank you Sarah for the adorable lamb hat!
Mio with her lovely new ruffle shoes!
Because Mio had been up from 6:45 am, and didn’t take her morning nap due to all the excitement, she was noticeably cranky and tired by the 3 o’clock hour when we were opening presents. I can’t believe she was able to stay up that long!
Starting to whine.
Getting more and more cranky.
We tried to carry on opening presents, despite all her protests.
Mio ended up curling up in Daddy's lap, crying with her eyes closed.
Can't... stay... awake.
And within a minute, she passed out. Poor Mio was exhausted.
It was so noisy, but she didn't even stir. Even rolling a toy on her doesn't wake her up. She was out cold.
So we just continued opening presents on her behalf, in peace.
Thank you everyone for all the generous and thoughtful gifts!
In all my busy-ness running around during the party, I lamely didn’t take many pictures with our guests! I have what little photos I have with them from pulling them off of friends’ Facebook and phone uploads. Thank you to everyone who shared their photos with me, and if you have any more photos from the party, please feel free to send them on over! 🙂
Adorable Megumi and Sam with their mason jar mugs.
With lovely Sam!
With beautiful Megumi, who has spoiled Mio so much, from even before she was born!
With Jason! Thanks for coming from all the way across the bridge!
Hyang Sun was 8 months pregnant at the party and was still a month away from her due date, but she ended up having her baby girl a month early, the day after Mio's birthday party! Congratulations!
Special thanks to Wynn, Megumi, and Sam who came an hour before the party started to help with last-minute preparations and set-up! We couldn't have pulled it off without their help.
I didn't get to take a photo of the favor box until after all the favors were gone, but we gave away our homemade cookies in little packages for our guests to take home with them.
See below for a slideshow of all the photos taken at the party! (We couldn’t post all of them on the blog without crashing your browser.)
Thank you so much to everyone who came out to Mio’s birthday party to celebrate with us! It was definitely memorable and we will treasure these precious memories for years and decades to come. Our first year as parents was definitely a challenge and had its fair share of ups and downs, but it is thanks to the love and support of our family and friends that we’ve been able to come this far. We look forward to many more great memories together with you! 😀
On Saturday, we threw Mio a birthday party to celebrate her turning one year old. We held it at Dan’s parents’ house because our own place is too small to accommodate all the guests, but it still got packed with almost forty loving friends and family, and we are so thankful to everyone who made it out to celebrate with us, despite the torrential rain earlier that morning. I had started planning this party about a month ago, and the past couple weeks had been all about preparations for it, and despite some stress and a couple anxiety attacks, I’m happy to say that it turned out to be a wonderful party, and even better than I expected! Thank you to our friends who helped with the cooking and grilling during the party, as well as those who swooped in to help with last-minute preparations. We couldn’t have had such a memorable, enjoyable party without you all! 🙂
Because we have over 300 photos to sort through and video footage that still needs to get uploaded, I’m going to split this up into a few blog posts, or else it will take me forever to get them up. (Additionally, I feel no shame in milking the party for as many blog posts as I can get out of it, because I-worked-hard-godammit! :P)Â So this first post will highlight the party decor, food, favors, etc., while subsequent posts will focus on the birthday activities. Enjoy!
Invitation for Mio's First Birthday Party
Mio's smash cake that I baked and decorated for her.
I made the cake topper with the bunting and lettering, too!
Custom mason jar mugs that doubled as party favors.
We created a stencil and frosted 48 of these mason jars so that each guest could take one home!
It took Dan and I almost a week to frost the mason jars, but people loved them!
Cupcakes with cherry blossom fondant
It was my first time making fondant, but it was fun!
Homemade macarons... (not the best batch ever, unfortunately.) The pink ones had matcha flavored filling!
Cherry blossom brownie bites
Fruit skewers. Special thanks to Sam, Wynn, and Megumi for cutting and assembling them last minute!
There was no shortage of desserts!
Sugar cookies I baked for Mio's birthday. I had a whole bunch more that I packed in 50 little bags as party favors, too!
Futomaki and California rolls
More California rolls! Thank you Grandma and Kimiko-san for making them!
Hummus and pita bread platter
The birthday girl! She was so excited that she skipped her morning nap.
Let the party begin!
Hanging crinkle fans and pom poms
Mio with one of her favorite aunties, Tarrin!
Happy birthday to our sweet daughter!
…and this doesn’t even include the hamburgers and spare ribs that were cooking on the patio. Special thanks to John and Brent for grilling them! 🙂
Three month old Izumi-chan joined us for the party.
So adorable! Hard to remember when Mio was this little, even though it was less than a year ago!
There were plenty of babies to be passed around.
…and a couple older kids for the babies to look up to, too.
Friends spilling out onto the patio to eat.
Mio with Uncle Ted
Lovely sisters Wynn and Sam!
We were reminded of how truly lucky we are to have such wonderful people in our lives, seeing the outpouring of love at Mio’s birthday party. Stay tuned for more posts in the coming days on the fun activities we had prepared for Mio!
