Henry's first trip to the Zoo!

Today was so much fun. And I'm pretty sure Henry had fun too, although it's kind of hard to tell when you take a 15-month old to the zoo since he can't really say "hey this is SO fun!" But I'm guessing all of his pointing, laughing, and "what's that?" meant he loved it too.  It was a beautiful day (let's ignore the insane wind and focus on the sun!) and we met a handful of my friends and their kiddos for the afternoon. Our group spent a few hours walking around, playing, and snacking. We'd never been to the Phoenix Zoo and after going I think we will probably get an annual pass next fall. There weren't too many animals out today, but we did meet a huge rainbow-bummed baboon and some silly monkeys. We also saw tigers, giraffes, and an elephant, and pet some goats in the petting zoo. All in all, tons of fun. Here are some photos from our day:

Henry's 1st birthday party

Ahh, what a wonderful and positively special day! Today we celebrated our sweet Henry's birthday, and it was pretty amazing to look around the room and see so many of our most favorite people, all there for Henry. It still blows me away to feel the love on days like today, and I can't thank our friends and family enough for being such beautiful parts of our life, especially Henry's. He's a lucky, lucky boy.

I had a ton of fun creating and crafting every little detail and even making Henry's bowtie. I actually made Hank a matching one too, but he wasn't into it! ha. Being that the party was at two o'clock, I decided to do more of an appetizer/light lunch spread, so I made caprese bites (cherry tomatoes, fresh basil and buffalo mozzarella drizzled with balsamic vinegar), vegan pasta salad, artichoke and spinach dip, hummus and pitas, and lots of veggies. For dessert I ordered six dozen cupcakes from a local bakery and a much larger-than-expected smash cake for Henry. The cupcakes were seriously GREAT. I tried a little of each kind, and my favorite was probably the red velvet. We also had some other flavors- chocolate sea salt caramel, carrot cake, birthday cake surprise (kind of like a fancy funfetti), and lemon supreme. Yum.

One of my favorite parts of the party was sharing a video I made of the past year. There weren't many dry eyes in the room, and it was really neat to be able to commemorate this past year in such a special way. I'll be sharing that movie here on his actual birthday (on Tuesday), so check back in a few days if you'd like to see it too! Another touch I loved was the "12 months of Henry" photos I strung on green and white baker's twine above the food area. It was neat to see them all lined up, and our guests really enjoyed it too.

Overall the party was beyond successful. Henry was in great spirits the entire time, there was enough food and drink to go around, and the "thank you" bags of cookies I made for guests to take as they left were all snatched up. All in all, it was the best day and the most wonderful way to celebrate our sweet birthday boy. 













































silhouette originally created by Mando at Immaculate Tattoo (same silhouette that is on my arm). Made into a digital file and altered by the talented Lindsay Goldner.