Happy Birthday Sweet Zion

While others were waiting to see if a small, furry, hole dweller would see his shadow and predict the weather, we were celebrating our last first birthday. It's bittersweet, really, to think of my baby turning one and knowing that this is the last time we will pull out the "1" birthday crown. This will be our last anxiously awaited first steps and first words and I am clinging to them tightly. I know that we can not (and really, do not want to) handle more than four children, but there is nothing in the world sweeter than the tiny, chubby hands, feet and cheeks of your baby. The thought of those hands and feet getting bigger and more adept is little sad. BUT, bittersweet as it may be, today was a celebration. A celebration of the sweetest, quirkiest, most perfect Zion to ever walk the earth.

I've decided that we will only do big parties for fourth through tenth birthdays, so today was just for family. The big girls decorated and cut out the letters for "Happy Birthday Zion" and taped them to the mantel.

We blew up red and white balloons a tossed them all over the house. I made banana buckwheat pancakes and homemade strawberry syrup for breakfast. Last time I made them, Zion devoured them like she hadn't eaten in DAYS. Today, I couldn't get her to even try them. So for her birthday breakfast she ate dry Honey Bunches of Oats (just the flakes).
Jena, Ashni and Bijou made vegan gingerbread cookies from scratch all by themselves. They cut out little gingerbread men, hearts and butterflies.


I made lemon shortbread cookies mainly because after the bigger girls finished their gingerbread cookies, I realized that if more then three of us wanted to actually eat cookies, I was going to need to make some more. The girls cookies turned out great (pictures warm ginger snaps in fun shapes), but my lovely little quirky baby (who not a fan of sugar in the slightest) opted to drink two sippy cups of water for her birthday treat. She did lick the cookie several times before she threw it on the floor.



Right now she is sleeping, blissfully unaware of the passing of her big day and I am holding on to the image of my sweet, sweet baby. I am anxiously awaiting the big girl (and ultimately, the woman) that she will eventually become, but savoring every moment of the sweet baby that she is. Happy Birthday, my sweet girl, I love more than you'll ever know.