a beautiful birthday party

On Saturday February 11th

we had a big party to celebrate our beautiful boy turning one.

And I have to say,

it was awesome.

We had a lovely time

and feel thoroughly blessed to have so many wonderful people around us

supporting us as we bring up our son.

I obviously started thinking about the party some time ago

when I wrote my first 'inspired' post all about wanting to throw a rainbow themed party.

Well I did it.

There was rainbow bunting, rainbow balloons and rainbow cake a plenty.

It was a great theme

and I'm glad I chose it.

We decided to book a hall for the party,

because we simply don't have enough room at home.

I'm really glad we did

because we had lots of space to invite all our special people.

Plus we didn't have a trashed house afterwards.

My mum, my brother and I went down to the venue early

to set everything up.

We strung up bunting (including the 'happy birthday bunting' I made)

and put balloons on all the picture frames.

 

When the birthday boy arrived

he was a bit confused to see all his toys set up in a strange place.

But he had a ball flying up and down the hall with his walkers

while we finished setting up and waited for his guests to arrive.

His 'I am 1' t-shirt is from Next

and was a present from Nanny and Pops.

It was the perfect party outfit.

In proper party style,

he ate all kinds of different foods.

We ordered sandwich platters from Sainsbury's

which I'm really glad about.

We'd have never managed to make the number and variety of sandwiches that we got

for the money that we paid.

And they also did us two finger food platters;

one of veggies and houmous dips

and another with fresh fruits.

These were a big hit with the babies.

The little guy also had a few pieces of Nanny's rice krispie crunch.

This is a birthday party staple in our family,

and I was strangely proud that he enjoyed it so much.

The 'Happy Birthday Bunting' was much admired

and I'm really glad I went to the extra effort of making it.

Lots of the children at the party

enjoyed looking up at it.

And it was also a useful 'net' for an impromptu game of balloon volleyball.

I bought a large-ish square canvas

and mixed up a load of paints in rainbow colours

and asked all the party guests to leave a finger print and their name.

By the end of the party the canvas was practically full

and it looks fab.

Plus I think it's a really nice record of all his special people

and will look great on his bedroom wall.

After quite a bit of stress during the making process

the rainbow cake was a huge success.

Our little birthday boy absolutely loved having everybody sing to him,

so much so that we did it twice.

And the cake looked and tasted gorgeous.

Everybody seemed to think I was some sort of culinary wiz

for making such a complicated cake.

In reality the recipe couldn't be easier,

its just the assembly that is a bit fiddly.

But completely worth the effort.

Because you don't get to eat something that colourful every day.

I'm not quite sure how he kept going,

but some how the birthday boy stayed awake and happy for the whole thing.

Having had only a short nap in the morning I thought he may start getting grumpy.

But he was at the venue by 12.30pm,

the party started at 1pm 

and I don't think we left until 5pm

but he was still going strong.

I think being the centre of attention helped.

And the fact he had so many friends to play with.

It was a great day

and I'm so glad that we went to the extra trouble

of throwing him a proper bash.

After all,

you're only one once.

And it was a great celebration for the whole family,

especially the hubby and I.

We did it!

We managed a whole year as parents,

we have a lovely boy who makes us proud everyday,

and a great big party was a great icing on the cake.