Catalina Turns One! – A Cake Smash Gone Hilariously Wrong

Catalina and her parents, Ben and Karen, are back for her first birthday pictures! They came down on a rainy Colorado afternoon (we could certainly use more of those right now!) and we only had about 45 minutes to shoot before the rain really started. Catalina was a trooper- she did really great even though we were rushing (or maybe because we were rushing- babies like novelty, and a quick session might keep them better entertained!). She’s so quiet and curious, and I love how she expresses so much of her personality in her quirky little facial expressions.

Everything was going great, until we hit the cake smash part of the 1st Birthday pictures…

Now, like many parents, my friend Karen had done a lot of work to plan for this shoot, especially the cake smash portion of it. She’d pinned ideas.  She’d carefully considered props, outfits and color schemes- though no one could’ve planned that those lilacs would be blooming so perfectly that day! Thank you Colorado! And just like babies often do, Catalina could’ve cared less what her mother had planned. She did not want anything to do with that cake…


I think you can hear Catalina saying, “Get it off, get it off, get it off!”

… So, Ben and Karen came in and rescued Catalina from the big, horrible, scary cake, and this is where Catalina exacted her revenge. She took one frosting laden hand and smeared it aaaaaaallll over her mother. All in her hair, all over her face and chin and clothing. And then she gave us this huge grin of triumph. Yeah. Kids. (Click on the photo to see it bigger)

But this is why I love Karen. As much as she’s a type-A super planner who could’ve been upset that she’d just been smeared with frosting by an ungrateful child- this was her first reaction. She just laughed. And that’s great.

After we’d gotten everyone cleaned up, we got a couple shots with Catalina and her shrinking teddy bear. This was at her newborn session…

…and today!

Love you guys! -Amanda