Happy Birthday little AJ!

Yesterday we had a birthday!  Little AJ turned one!  He's such a good natured cutie and so much has happened to us over the past year that it seems like he has been a part of our family for much longer than just a year.

But indeed, a year ago little AJ looked like this and could hardly keep his sweet blue eyes open.

I tend to go a little crazy on the birthday cakes.  For me it's not so much cake decorating as a 3-D colage in sugar. :)

And because I know you are curious...

1. Base, a flat chocolate cake with green frosting

2. Toadstools, white cake & frosted stems, Red Velvet cake domes - unfrosted, white fondat spots.  Tops & stems held in place with a bamboo skewer.

3. Caterpillar, doughnut holes frosted blue, red Skittles for feet.

4. Small toadstools, big strawberries skewered onto marshmellows.

5.Grass, edible Easter basket grass I found at Target.

6. Caterpillar's head, Skittle eyes, mircowave one orange Starburst for 10 seconds and mold into antenna.

We always let the baby explore their own cake (in this case he got his own toadstool, minus the bamboo skewer of course) and make whatever kind of mess they like.  This is usually the first time they are allowed to eat sugar so it's pretty fun to watch.

didn't like the frosting glommed on his fingers...

sugar shock starting to set in.

I also like to make a stuffed animal for them for their first birthdays.  Little AJ does a really cute growl when shown a picture of a lion, so I made him a lion.

M pointed out that lions do not have stripes and that I'd actually made a liger...but that would be unspeakably nerdy, so lion he is.  I've been wanting to make one of these or these and so I used the same technique only using squares on the main & tail and got it out of my system! whew!

So far he has kept his sparkly blue eyes and this brown-eyed momma couldn't love him more for it.