Isaac turns one

Can it really be that a whole year has passed since the birth of this little person? He is a wonder, to be sure. My grandmother infamously stated, in company of all six of her daughters, that her girls just got smarter and prettier the more she had. We all took that to mean that the sixth daughter was the smartest and the prettiest. This didn't do much for the self image of her eldest daughters and I was always sort of astounded that she could have said such a thing. I completely understand her now. She wasn't talking about the girls, she was talking about herself and her own appreciation of their beauty and intelligence. She was referring to a process that I can only understand because I am in the middle of it. The more children I have, the more awesome the whole thing seems. Isaac melts my heart in ways that the other boys didn't. I think it must have something to do with the fact that I understand that most irritating things are just a phase to be endured and the good stuff is what lasts. I worry less and enjoy more with him.

We celebrated his first birthday in Illinois with the Fredins. Looking through my pictures I can see that I did a pretty poor job at taking pictures. I neglected to get pictures of all the extended family, of the incredible spread that Barb put together and didn't document how cute the kids looked individually in their alphabet shirts.

Here is what I managed to document:

Luke made place cards for all of the kids. He and his beloved uncle Dave painstakingly found and placed all the letter stickers in their places and then debated about where all the kids would like to sit.




The boys helped me make letter cookies for all of the kids. They loved rolling them out, finding the letters and then watching them bake. Each of the kids got to frost their name in cookies.

The adults ate "I" cookies because it was Isaac's birthday, after all.

I made each one of the kids a red shirt with their first initial painted on in white-- everyone looks good in red, right? I sewed very simple drawstring bags for goody bags. They were filled with four colors of homemade playdough, alphabet stickers, a little notebook I made for each of them, and a pack of smarties (I know I am forgetting something that was in there).

playing with their dough and letter cookie cutters

The cake was a new technique for me. I have never used fondant but wanted the option of a perfectly smooth finish so that it would really look like a letter block. I was pleased with the way it looked. Taste was another matter. Fondant really doesn't taste good, which I knew going into it. It doesn't taste bad either. It just doesn't really taste. So I made a carrot cake. I love carrot cake.



Thanks to Doug and Barb for hosting, providing the food and all your work. It was a wonderful way to celebrate a year of this little person.
Happy First Isaac!