He's An Animal!

The fact that Ayden's birthday is right around the corner is on my mind all the time. For sentimental reasons like, "My baby is not such a baby anymore" and "Wow, we have been through so much this past year..." and also for reasons like, "We have a party to plan! Invitations, awesomeness on a budget, a theme that suites him, etc."

Here are the plans we have so far:

Theme: Wild Animals (particularly lions)
Cake - Hopefully this one:

Paleo Chocolate Birthday Cake
recipe

Arranged like this:

(with non-paleo cupcakes surrounding for guests)
source

When?: January 26th, the Sunday after his birthday. Probably around 1:30 or so.

We plan to send out e-vites because they are the most inexpensive and earth-friendly option.

I have a more detail ideas pinned on my "Ayden's 1st Birthday" board on Pinterest. Feel free to check it out.

We chose this theme because Ayden loves ALL animals but the lion was the first he made a sound for and the animal he looks for in all of his books. He loved the zoo and roared at the lion when he saw it. It is also a common theme so ideas are pretty abundant. I like being crafty but don't have the time or energy to be super original with how busy Ayden is these days.

We have about a month and a half to work out all the details. I think we are looking forward to finding the perfect cake most of all. Since it will be a Paleo cake, I want to make sure it's good so I'll make practice cakes until we find a good one and, of course, we shall eat them all! :)

Here are some clips of Ayden from today including a couple of animal sounds. To date, he will imitate lion, fish, snake (even better than he does in this video), cat, dog, pig and elephant. When he's in the mood he'll do them all on command. Our best luck has been during diaper changes since it is the game we use to distract him from how much he thinks he hates them. When he's not in the mood he does not perform. I'll share them as I can catch them!:

~Sarah