The Fosters celebrates 100 episodes with emotions and cake

Fans of The Fosters have had plenty of reasons to celebrate for five seasons, but now, there’s cake. The cast and crew gathered Thursday to celebrate filming the 100th episode of Freeform’s groundbreaking series that regularly tackles some of the most pressing social issues of our time through the eyes of a warm, loving, and ever-expanding family.

The entire Adams-Foster clan gathered with executive producers, network executives, and a group of foster children from the community to cut into a massive cake adorned with three short words that sum up the entirety of the series: “Love is love.” And most of them were brought to tears at some point during the event, as evidenced by Cierra Ramirez’s Instagram Story.

“The Fosters is more than just a show,” Karey Burke, executive vice president of programming and development at Freeform, said during a speech at the cake-cutting. “It’s a vehicle for change and our courageous writers and showrunners continue to fight for equality and justice through their fearless storytelling.”

“It’s hard to believe it’s been five years and 100 episodes,” executive producers Peter Paige and Bradley Bredeweg said in a note to EW. “Feels like just last week we were scouting locations for a little pilot that nobody thought was sell-able, much less that it would run this long. What a privilege to be able to tell these stories, on this family, with this truly brilliant cast and crew. We’re as lucky as you can be.”

“I’m very excited,” E.P. Joanna Johnson told EW of the 100th episode, which she wrote and directed, last month.

See a few more messages from the cast and crew below:

The Fosters returns Jan. 9 at 8 p.m. on Freeform; for scoop on the premiere, click here. The 100th episode will air in early 2018.