Palmer Turned One! (a while ago)

Well hello, dear readers! I'm sure all four of you have been dying for me to tell you about the haps these days. You're probably thinking, "Remember how you wrote three posts in a row at the end of last summer and then completely stopped?" Yeah, I remember. That's what I do!

So I thought I should finally post about Palmer's birthday, since it was over half a year ago. We were at the end of a long (and unsuccessful) summer of sales and Palmer's birthday was just three days before we moved back to Utah. Money was short, time was short, and my creativity was sorely lacking. I figured I'd go all out for my baby's first birthday, but when it got down to it, living in California meant there was no one around to celebrate with! I was a little bummed, but when it turned out that my sister would be visiting I found my inspiration! As a theme I chose...San Francisco!

Gifts for a one-year-old are easy. In fact...all we gave him was this little walker/scooter. Obviously he was thrilled :)

As per our theme I planned a party at Golden Gate Park. We ended up doing the cake smash at Crissy Field though, because that view--incomparable. I made Palmer a chocolate banana cake with whipped cream frosting and a candy Golden Gate Bridge. For the rest of us there were cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, sprinkles, and candy trolly toppers :) I'll pretend like it was no big deal now...but I'm dang proud of those cake toppers. Aren't I creative??

 (The blue at the bottom of the cake is supposed to be the ocean. Go with it.)

 Palmer was SO excited...

And, a picture of me, because this is after all, my masterpiece. The cake and the kid :)

Ok, so in reality, Palmer had absolutely no idea what to do with the cake sitting in front of him. Now, dried spaghetti on the floor, bugs, lint, all these things he eagerly shoves into his little mouth. But my cake...he was clearly dubious about. The bridge caught his attention and we got him to take a few bites, but he really hated the feeling of frosting on his fingers :)

And obviously, the cake plate was far more interesting than the cake itself.

I don't have photographical evidence of the rest of the evening because both our phones died and we had no charger, but we had so much fun! We went to Golden Gate Park and played at the playground for a few hours while we waited for our pizza to be delivered (aside: the pizza came way late, was the wrong kind, and was cold! Poor Tana and Jaron were so bummed because they'd heard raves about this place...but hey, Palmer still liked it! ;). Palmer and Desmond took turns pushing his new scooter around until dark, and then we all headed back to the hotel for the night.

And that was it! The day passed so quickly. But it was a perfect way to say farewell to our city by the bay and to capture what that summer meant to us. I love that we'll always have these memories that so epitomized that time in our lives! Yay for Palmer and yay for San Francisco :)