Anonymous wrote:How exactly is a smash cake disgusting? Do you have OCD? It's one damn day.

First, it's a waste of food. Second, people encourage their 1 year old to make a huge mess and then a few months later are back complaining their toddler throws food and it's a bitch to clean a high chair. You can't have it both ways. Third, I don't believe in encouraging my children to eat junk food before they'll know what it is. Fourth, I don't think messy = cute.

The kiddo ended up having 3 because distant family wanted to participate. We had a sweet, small family celebration with just the three of us before getting on the road to visit family. I made a teddy bear shaped cake which she gobbled up and smashed. Our relatives had a winter princess themed party at a frozen yogurt place in our hometown for her. And when we got back to DC we had her playdate pals over for a "Happy Feet" themed party. The cupcakes were homemade and decorated by the babies and parents to look like snowballs and everyone made sock puppets as an activity.
Loved that she was surrounded by people who love her.

Anonymous wrote:We were traveling at the time. I hate seeing pics of messy kids and think the idea of a "smash cake" is disgusting, so we didn't do that.

Sooooo... what is your suggestion for the OP? To travel and then not do something you find disgusting?

OP, we didn't do a smash cake either. We gave our DD a piece of her cake and she picked at it for a little bit, but she wasn't into a full-fledged smashing. The one thing I am so happy I did for her party was to take a million pictures. We had a lot of family come, and I pretty much missed the party because I was plastered behind the camera the entire time. But we got so many great pictures that we love looking at, three years later. Your small celebration sounds lovely (though I would let him get a bite of cake, at least!) but I highly recommend taking tons of pictures.