1st birthday

I cannot believe my sweet little guy is one already. I remember walking in to school the week after he was born with him tucked up in a ball against my shoulder, like a baby possum, held with one hand. He was so so tiny and its pretty amusing that now people stop and ask me how old he is only to exclaim "but he's huge". All I can say is his brothers must have been absolute tankers because this boy is not even 10 kilos yet.

I still suffer that surge of wanting to eat him up when he grins at me but we never really grow out of that do we? He has realised he can chase me around slug style when he wants something and grabs hold of my foot or leg until I pick him up. He has also worked out that he is just as capable as us at blowing raspberries on tummies and he collapses in fits of giggles when he manages a huge farty sound on somebodies belly. Hysterical. Really. 

He throws his ball and slugs around after it then throws it again. This game goes on and on and he loves it when Oliver gets down on the floor and plays this game with him. Climbing up against things is offering a whole new world of possibilites but sometimes he forgets to line his feet up properly first so it can be a challenge. Sometimes though, he does it perfectly and finds he can reach into the centre of the coffee table. I learnt this today when he sent Ashleighs Canon hurling to the ground. Hmm.

We play growling games. Yes we really do. In fact its how he and I get about in the car mostly. He growls. I repeat it. He growls a different tune. I repeat it. This can go on forever. Probably a bad habit to get in to but I can't tell you how FUNNY this kid is.

On Sunday he woke before midday from his nap. He then flatly refused to go back to sleep yet sailed through his birthday in the park with his party hat on and a cuddle and grin for everyone. 

The park? I have never ran a party outside the home before and I wont be again. Even though it was a small gathering by party standards, being unable to set up until the day and actually set up a good hour before your guests arrive because you need to get the right spot ( in our case the right tree) put crazy pressure on to get things finished ahead of time. We then took a car load up as well as walking the pram loaded up with supplies and me carrying the cake on its pedestal up to the park. The cake weighs as much as Charlie I'm sure. My arms were down to my ankles by the time we got up there! It became such a rush that I didnt get a wide shot of the tree with the garlands up and the table set underneath which is such a shame because it looked SO PRETTY. Honestly I would have got married under that tree.

I knew when we decided to have the party in the park I needed a tree for decorating and there is only one 'good' tree in our park, and I wantd Charlie to be sitting for cake and photos.

On ebay I bought a white Ikea Antilop highchair for $8. A quick scrub and it was ready to go.

I bought tissue paper and cardstock and make tassels and sewed randomly cut shapes onto thread. 

A sheet of Heather Bailey felt in white became a party hat after it was brushed with fabric stiffener on the inside overnight. I put a second coat on for good measure. He kept it on the entire party! I was amazed. The pompom was made using some leftover orange cascade 220 and glued on top. The trim was bought in New York at Purl Soho because I loved the colour so it was nice to use it on something special. If you need a cone template for making party hats there is one here.

I had wanted to make a 'happy birthday' banner but ran out of time so cut out scallops and painted letters on then then taped them to the highchair.

The spotty cake idea was from here and the stripes are all over Pinterest. I used a silicone pop cake mold and they did over cook a little on their bottoms so had to be trimmed. Also next time I will make more spots because there were a lot of blank spaces when slicing the cake despite having 6-7 balls in each cake. I didn't use packet mix despite making a huge amount of cake and using a million eggs. I thought about it but I decided I didnt want to eat packet, I'm sure the other adults didnt want to eat packet and most importantly I didnt want Charlies first birthday cake indulgence to be anything other than home made. The spotty cake was sandwiched with buttercream then covered in rolled fondant. The stripes cake was covered in buttercream because I didnt think the kids would all want to eat fondant.

The pinata was great although I filled it with far too many sweets. And they wouldnt share -little monkeys.

Getting us all dressed nicely for a famiy photo completely slipped my mind when I was racing around like a crazy person cutting the crusts off finger sandwiches and dipping marshmallows in chocolate and sprinkle. A little bit of renactment coming up for us I think.

It was lovely! I am so pleased it was a gorgeous afternoon and so pleased it is over. Its time to jump on the christmas crazy train isnt it!!

 

 

 

Comments

[Jess]

I love your decorations, the hat, the bunting, they all look so pretty! Clever you making that cake! I didn't even know it was possible to make shapes inside of cakes until I saw it on The great bake Off programme on TV. I feel a bit left behind with it all! Happy birthday to your little one, the first year is the longest, then they get shorter each time. :)
Jess x

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[jo]

wow what a handsome chap. Your decrations look beautiful and quite inspiring, a lot of ideas look like they would take ages but yours look very do-able!