Baseball First Birthday, but a memory.

Wesley's first birthday has come and gone.  And all I have left to show for it is this sad little instagram picture...

Wesley's 1st Birthday Cake

I made the tragic mistake of clearing my memory card without triple checking to make sure I had successfully imported all of the photos from my camera.  These photos were well over the 300 mark, including everyday silly pictures of my three little ones, Wesley's first haircut, his monumental first birthday, and our annual trip to the Riverbank Zoo.  I was devastated to say the least.  Thankfully I have a picture crazed family who, I am certain, has enough pictures just of Wesley face first in his cake to fill an album. Album, ha, remember those? [Al-bum noun: A blank book for the insertion of photographs, stamps, or pictures.]

I love making special cakes for my kids birthdays.  My mom always did it for us when we were little: choo choo trains, cabbage patch kids.  That is, until we were older and realized that substance-trumps-appearance and began requesting her chocolate chip cookie ice cream cake!  The instagram picture above shows my horrible icing skills, but it was fun!  The bases were made of little graham crackers I coated in white chocolate.  And the billboard was a regular sized graham cracker coated in white chocolate.  I carefully stuck toothpicks into the side of the "billboard" to hold it on the cake.  The baseball didn't stay on the cake so well.  It began to slide off a little and was melty and skewed by the time we made it to the ball field pavilion where we had the party.  The little figure was an afterthought of my husbands, it is actually a little collectors figure of Phil Niekro, who I had the privilege of meeting once upon a time.  Thankfully, despite its appearance, it still tasted really good!

Wesley's First Birthday Keepsake Baseball

I had lots of pictures of this little memento we made at his party (which are long gone), so I snagged this pic out of his room for you to see.   Since I had his handprint on a baseball in the hospital when he was born (see here), I thought a ball with signatures of all of the guests at his first birthday would be a fun idea.  I should have used a better pen for the signatures, because some didn't show up as well as others.  But it is till something special that can stay in his collection for years to come.  

Pictures remind us of the moments we don't want to forget.  Aside from the big milestones, there are moments like these everyday. When my baby boy runs to say 'bii bii' to daddy on his way out the door, or when all the kids shriek with excitement when he is home.  When the kids race through the house chasing each other giggling with joy.  Or when our girls make us sweet notes that say 'I Love You' for no reason at all.  It's moments like these that get me through the whiny, fussy moments that can seem like an eternity at times.  As for the pictures that I deleted into oblivion, I will have to cherish those memories in my heart and be thankful I had those times and that there will be many more to come.