On March 8th, 2017, baby Madison turned 1 year old! She is my cousin’s daughter but we’re all a tight-knit family so I think of Madison (Maddie) as my niece. For this momentous occasion,  we had a wonderful party at my grandma’s apartment. I documented the entire day, from picking up the cake to blowing out the candles. Without further ado, here are snaps from the big day.

It’s family tradition for us to pick up a Valencia cake for birthdays on the Spanish side of our family. No one else has ever heard of Valencia that I know personally, but if you look up their reviews online, you’ll see that for many families the tradition of buying Valencia cake goes back generations! The one we go to (shown above) is located on 159 103rd St in Harlem.

Valencia cakes are plain butter cream on the outside and delicious yellow cake on the inside.

Within the cake, you have your option of what filling you’d like to be inside.

We secured the box and carefully drove to the Lower East Side with it!

There’s something so great about visiting Harlem and seeing the Latin heritage on full display within the street art.

Once we arrived, the apartment was fully decked out in a Minnie Mouse Theme! My cousin had stopped by the night before to set up. I’ll let you take in the pictures without a lot of commentary.

My sister and I gave Madison this adorable card found at a steal at Marshall’s in Flushing.

My cousin bought Minnie Mouse candles for the cake!

She also took care of the food, stocking up on lots of tasty spanish staples from a local restaurant. My favorite was the pernil.

Here’s baby Maddie dressed up in her birthday outfit! I wanted to take pictures right away because I knew the longer she was at the apartment the more likely that her hair, ribbons, etc. would come undone. Lighting’s not ideal but she was feeling a bit  fussy so it was best to leave her with her dad on the comfy couch.

How cute is the color coordinated tutu my cousin made?

Cake time! My cousin brought out this amazing chalkboard that she wrote little facts about Madison on. It came with a removable template for guidance.

Dad lighting the candles!

Madison was all ready to cut the cake and blow out the candles with Mom and Dad.

 

Why is that look on my face?! I would be the one to ruin a picture.

My cousin asked that we all fill out these worksheets that she would give Maddie once it was her 18th birthday. It asks questions like, “I met you for the first time at,” “And I thought…,” “What I love most about you at age one is…” “If I could choose one thing for you to remember about your first birthday, it would be,” etc. So thoughtful.

Out to the hall we went for final pictures! My camera was literally trying to ruin the day. Flash wouldn’t turn on and when it did it made everyone look unnatural. Still, these pictures came out cute anyway.

Tiny little munchkin! I swear to you, her father got clearer pics on his smartphone then I did on my camera.

Final photo of the princess herself, batting the enormous gold 1 balloon in her Minnie Mouse ears which she promptly tore off her head (and mine, and my sister’s).

Happy Birthday baby Madison! We love you.