One is such a small number but such a significant one at times. Good when you are talking about how many teeth to extract, bad when you are talking about how much money you have left : ) Another good one, was my son’s first birthday which was celebrated on the weekend.
We prepared for weeks (actually it was months but I don’t want to sound like a weirdo...or a birthday-zilla; the new bridezillas of the world, to quote a friend)...the invites, the food planning, the cake (including a practice cake which looked like the evil twin of the supposedly cute penguin theme we had chosen) etc. And unless you were there, the etc won’t mean anything. Details darling, details...
It was a lot of people to have at a first birthday (as pointed out by one of my other friends), but it wasn’t really a party for him. Yes it was in honour of him, but more a party for us, as parents to have survived yet another ‘first year’ with a new baby. Just. This one being the highest maintenance with food allergies & eczema making for a more unsettled baby and definitely a more unsettling year, yawn...is it bed time yet? Oh sorry.
Some were family, some were great new friends we’d met through the year (no, not you Mahta), and others friends from a time when we were childless (holidays, sleeping, eating when you wanted to, not having to cut someone else’s food into tiny pieces before eating yours cold, decisions made at the last minute... oh how I do miss those days). So who to leave out? I have a tradition with my babies that they have a baby shower within the fortnight that they are born, a naming day at around the six month mark, and then a first birthday. Three parties in their first year. Followed by grandparents only at the next few (that’s how long it takes me to recover from post-birthday-stress-disorder).
Maybe a dumb idea but most people seemed to like the novelty of hunting for their name. I didn’t do it for anything but the sheer number of cups left around, with no one knowing whose is which. It was funny seeing everyone walking around, guarding and holding onto their cups, precious cups.
Thankfully the weather was great, sun out, no wind or rain so being a Melbourne family we were very lucky to score this in the middle of winter. We had our cafe blinds down & a gas heater just in case...
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| Woofy enjoying the sun & the overhead heater |
Most children played on the playground that hubby built for our kids, but then when he went amiss for a while, we found out there had been a minor engineering issue with the bridge he made and he was doing some critical repairs ... with his road crew being a road crew, arms folded & on hips (sorry Dad, I know your days in a crew were different).
And of course there was food that was a little more grown up (although all the fairy bread did disappear suspiciously)
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| Pointing out the baby penguins my older daughter made out of fondant |
The flying fox was popular with the kids...
Everyone rolled up their sleeves & helped...
I made a penguin mobile for the kids table area decoration but after a while he was missing an eye.. and then I found the culprit after seeing this photo : )
In keeping with the theme, the kids had a take-home penguin craft kit to make their own penguin like the one hanging out on our window & on our mobile. We have asked guests to take a photo of themselves with their completed penguin so we can add it to my baby's 1st birthday album. 
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| Mr Penguin |
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| DIY Penguin kits |
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| Grown-ups favour boxes (with a chocolate cupcake) |
After all of the planning, the cooking, the cleaning & celebrating, we are glad that it's over but more glad that we had such a good day, and hopefully our guests too.
One is not a lonely number after all. It's a great one : )
One is not a lonely number after all. It's a great one : )
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| Special bib from our friend Anna |
