Festive babies celebrate their 1st Thanksgiving with turkey-smash photo shoots
They feasted on pumpkin pie, turkey, stuffing, gravy and cranberry sauce.
— -- These festive babies are celebrating their first birthdays with Thanksgiving-themed turkey-smash photo shoots, diving fingers first into their gobble-licious fall feasts.
In traditional cake-smash photo shoot-style, cakes were still included, but these tiny pilgrims and Native Americans also honored their holiday-week birthdays by embracing pumpkin pie, baked turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and, of course, cranberry sauce.
Take a look at these birthday babies dressed up in their best Turkey Day duds.
Eleanor Tallman of Lees Summit, Missouri, celebrates her first birthday on Thanksgiving Day.
Baby Eleanor was born Nov. 23, 2016, the day before Thanksgiving last year, so her family “wanted to do a unique photo shoot” to celebrate their tiny turkey.
“My mother actually baked the turkey and brought it over for me. We did the photo shoot in my kitchen and it worked out great!” Eleanor’s mom, Nina Tallman, wrote to ABC News in an email. “My mom baked the turkey because I thawed mine and realized it was only a turkey breast and it didn’t have legs. Luckily my mom was making one for her party the next day so she cooked it and brought it over just in time!”
The Tallman family even got Eleanor a turkey-shaped cake for her birthday party, too, which they held Saturday.
Aryana Donahue of Lunenburg, Massachusetts, celebrates her first birthday Nov. 27.
She absolutely loved her cranberry sauce, apple sauce and stuffing.
“We had all the fixings. We did a little rotisserie chicken,” photographer Jennifer Mosher told ABC News. “She loved the pumpkin pie; she really delved into that. This child went to town.”
Aryana’s mom, Krysta Donahue, said the normal cake-smash photo shoots are “really cute but kind of overdone,” so she wanted to up the ante for her daughter’s festive photos.
“She is a wild child. She is something special,” Krysta Donahue told ABC News. “She’s not a typical 1-year-old by any means so I wanted to do something not very typical.”
Krysta Donahue said her daughter was “a little unsure at first” of smashing into the food because they “don’t really let her play with her food,” but once they gave her the go-ahead, there was no turning back.
“She’s a carb lover just like her mom,” she said with a laugh.
Luca DiMartino of Long Island, New York, turns 1 Thanksgiving Day this year.
“He was in the hospital for Thanksgiving last year. He was born the day before Thanksgiving,” his mom, Dana DiMartino told ABC News.
Little Luca had a fall-themed cake smash to celebrate his birthday, adorned in an autumn-colored bow tie with pumpkins and hay bales in the background.
“He hasn’t really tried turkey yet so there will be some of that, but I’m sure he’ll like the mashed potatoes,” DiMartino said. “And maybe some Brussels sprouts. He has quite the pallet.”
She said her son was “a little timid in the beginning,” but after they broke open the cake for him, “he dove right in.”
Vaughn Lachambre of Alberta, Canada, was born Nov. 15, 2016.
Vaughn’s mom, Crystal Lachambre, said their family celebrates Thanksgiving with their U.S. friends despite living in Canada.
“Yes, we celebrate Thanksgiving!” she wrote to ABC News in an email. “We usually do a big celebration for Canadian Thanksgiving and then a smaller one with some of our American friends for American Thanksgiving.”
Crystal Lachambre said the inspiration for her son’s photo shoot “originally came from ‘Where the Wild Things Are,’” but then “evolved into an outdoorsy Thanksgiving theme.”
Vaughn’s cake looked like he had just chopped it down in the forest for some fresh firewood for his cozy fire next to him.
“Vaughn loved the cake, although he was a bit hesitant at first which we weren’t expecting,” his mom wrote. “He normally goes crazy over any food, although the cake looked so realistic, perhaps he was a bit unsure!”
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