Life has been a complete whirl-wind since I graduated at the end of May, so you can imagine how unbelievably excited I was to make a trip out to San Francisco to drink delicious wine (post coming, stay tuned) and celebrate my adorable little niece’s first birthday.  I would get so annoyed when I was little at how often grown-ups talked about how fast time moved (because what did that even mean anyways??) but y’all time is just flying by.  I feel like papaya was just being born, and now here she is walking around with little teeth in her little mouth.

My sister, a party planner extraordinaire, decided to capitalize on the proximity of the Fourth of July to her daughter’s birthday and combine them into one super event, which I have deemed The Fourth of July Themed First  Birthday Extravaganza.  She enlisted the help of CrateAffair, a design company that asks for the theme and occasion of your event and provides you with a complete set of (adorable) decorations.

My sister served the classic BBQ food (hot dogs, fruit, chips, various salads, wings, etc.) that you can pick up at your local grocery store.  My sister had my mom make a special smash cake for Maya that contained healthy ingredients like bananas and greek yogurt that would be safe for her to smash (hence the name) and mush on her face, but also tasted pretty delicious!  The cake that all the adults ate was from a local Bay Area Bakery called Love at First Bite and was supplemented with mini bundts from everyone’s favorite Nothing Bundt Cakes.  Everything was super delicious and we somehow ended up with just about the right amount of food which is always nice!

Of course, in classic one year old style, Papaya cried the entire time people sang “Happy Birthday” to her and refused to eat (or smash!) any cake whatsoever.  BUT.  Overall, the party was a huge success and everyone had a really good time.

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