A Sweet Shop First Birthday Party

You know how I recently mentioned that I have given up sugar? Well this was the catalyst. This confectionary bacchanalian binge. 

 Although Vivi's actual birthday isn't for a few more days, we recently celebrated it with a big, calorific sugar orgy. I really wasn't going for a theme, per se. Just a party with sweet stuff and pretty pastels. But I suppose that, in retrospect, the theme may as well have been "let's introduce the generation of tomorrow to diabetes." 

I enjoy cooking regular food as much as the next guy, but my passion lies in crafting sweets. We decided to hold the party at 3 in the afternoon for a couple of reasons--1) it's after naps, and 2) it's a good time of day to just nibble instead of eating a full meal. I haven't gotten to do anything fun with pastels since our wedding, so Vivi's first birthday was a perfect time to bring out some of the ol' Steel Magnolias decor and put my baking cap on. 

We had rice crispies, coconut dipped marshmallows, meringue cookies, doughnuts, petit fors, macaroons, cotton candy cones, chocolate covered pretzels, almond cookies, and white chocolate dipped oreos. It was enough to make a girl go wild.

We had two cakes--a smash cake for Vivi and a regular people cake for the regular people. Both were a cherry chunk cake, filled with sour cherry preserves, and frosted with cherry almond buttercream. You know I'd rather walk on my lips than to toot my own horn, but it was pretty damn delicious :)

 I got a bunch of flowers from the grocery stores around here and embarked on my first venture in flower arranging. I am not one with a green thumb; I typically look at flowers, and they die. So I was a little nervous. But it turns out that when you are working with pretty pink roses, tulips, and peonies, they kind of arrange themselves.

We also had a cheese platter, proscuitto sticks, cream cheese cucumbers, and crudites with hummus, but where's the fun in that? So it's not pictured. 

  We enjoyed beverages including pink lemonade, cream soda, peach fizzies, and beer.

  Vivi pregamed for the event.

 And then she went to town on her smash cake.

Bless her heart. She did a really good job with it. And despite how eagerly she ate it--and I mean she ATE it--it really wasn't that much of a mess.

 Bobby, never one to be left out, also got his quota of sugar for the year. I'm pretty sure he ate three doughnuts in one sitting. By himself. I wasn't even mad; I was impressed.

After the cake smash, we joined all of our guests out back at the pool for an afternoon swim. And then we sent all the kids home on a sugar high, hee hee.  It was really a wonderful afternoon to celebrate our favorite girl, and I hope she enjoyed every minute of it!

And then just like that, I was over sweets.