It has been an exciting week of birthday celebrations for my tiniest human Olly. My second born, my blonde babe. He is still so little, but holds his own and for what he lacks in size, he makes up for in ferocity. When number two comes along, as a parent I’m not sure if you know what to expect. Well this guy exceeded all my expectations and then some. He is as cute as button and so determined it sometimes frightens me.
For Luke’s first birthday I had all sort of elaborate parties and activities planned. I then got pregnant on Olly, and in a haze of hyperemesis, was barely able to toss a few Malteasers at a cake and stay upright long enough to sing Happy Birthday. Riddled with Mom guilt, and determined to keep Olly’s second child syndrome at bay for as long as possible, I was adamant to make his first birthday one to remember (because he will of course definitely remember it). Still reeling from the fact that Olly is now a whole year old, I thought I would share some of the fun and madness we got up to in order to mark the occasion.
The Cake Smash
Before you ask, yes, yes I did make my poor one year old sit outside on the grass on an October morning whilst wearing nothing but a long sleeved vest. But sure didn’t I make him a cake rainbow cream covered cake to take the edge off? One shitty parenting decision is cancelled out by an outstanding parenting moment. That’s how it works! The question is, did he love it? Well for the first 5-10 minutes he was a bit confused as to what he was meant to be doing, to be honest he just kind of sat there gazing at us with a bewildered look on his face. We had to hold Luke back like a Rottweiler who was anxious to tear the cake apart.
In the end we opted to let the toddler get stuck in, you know to let the little guy figure it out. Let’s just say the results were spectacularly disastrous and hilarious in equal measure. In the end we had to toss the cake under the hedge out in the garden, which is so scandalously wasteful, but in my defence, Luke really went to town on it, and even the dog turned her nose up at it when he was finished working his magic.
The Birthday Party
A Halloween themed party was a given. I decked the halls with webs and spiders. Dress up was of course mandatory. Olly was our baby giraffe and Luke our heroic fireman. Pumpkins out and lit, with a spooky theme throughout the house. The birthday boy wasn’t a bit phased by it all and crawled around until his knees nearly gave out.
I opted for simple sandwiches and nice sausages for the kids, along with homemade loaded pizzas for the adults. Spooky cupcakes and a Halloween themed birthday cake which was of course black and orange checker board inside. I modelled the cake toppers out of fondant icing, and iced the cake in a chocolate buttercream frosting. Candles were blown, Happy Birthday was sang. All in all it was a roaring success.
What a wonderful weekend 💖💕