The First Birthday Party!

What a fantastic day!  Tabitha's first birthday party (held at my parents' house) was loads of fun - she had an absolute ball, playing with her little friends and happily being cuddled and carried around by lots of her 'big friends'.  She even managed to keep her dress and white tights clean, and her little pearl bracelet avoided breakage.  I was terribly proud of her!  Here she is playing with one of her current favourite toys - a Cozy Coupe car on loan from the Toy Library:

Tabby wore white woolen tights, little white patent leather shoes (with bows), a pale pink knit dress, with pleated skirt and a bow at the waist, and a little pink and taupe fluffy tulle hair clip, all from Seed.  She also wore a little pearl bracelet, a gift for her from The Daddy and I.

In the days leading up, I kept saying, "You are having a balloon party!".  "These are plates for your balloon party!"...  "You will have such fun at your balloon party!"  So I thought I ought to produce a decent number of balloons.  We got 300 - it is a surprisingly modest number in an average living room.  The balloons were a great hit with the babies - when held in someone's arms, a baby can easily pluck balloons down from the ceiling and cling to them.  Most of the babies took some balloons home.

After a hectic few days preparing, baking, cleaning and picking things up (glassware, loan toys, helium etc), once the party started, I enjoyed forgetting it all and enjoying some Champagne, catching up with friends, and showing off my beautiful baby.

The food went well - most got eaten, though we had enough leftovers to enjoy spending the evening picking at bagels and cake, with half a dozen of our friends who stuck around until Tabby's bedtime.

Some baby cupcakes - I like a pale green icing with coloured flowers, a little like grass or leaves:

We had egg sandwiches, and also chicken and chive sandwiches.  Rye bread, just for a change:

Mini bagels (from Aviv, natch) with smoked salmon, cream cheese and chives:

Chocolate crackles with little pink dragees - carrying on the dot theme from the wrappers:

Honey joys, which are always a favourite:

Little cupcake toppers which matched the invitations - we dipped the buttercream frosting in some shredded white coconut.  This is an easy 'cheat' if you'd rather not bother with piping neat buttercream swirls.

Fairy bread - because, apparently, one cannot have a first birthday party without it:

The birthday cake was a bit of a wild card - I'd vaguely planned on doing a three-layered chocolate cake with pale pink boiled fluffy frosting, however when I made the frosting (less than an hour before the guests arrived!), I discovered that the quantity I needed would not fit in the Kitchenaid (I discovered this by splattering bits of egg white and boiling sugar syrup all over the place).  Thankfully, I'd set aside the ingredients to make a delicious rich chocolate frosting, just in case, so I managed to pull that together within 30 minutes, including frosting the cake!  I decided to use all FOUR cake layers, which I had baked the day prior, resulting in quite a tall, glossy, chocolate-tastic tower of cake.  I sort of tossed little handfuls of ivory and pink dragees at the frosted cake, and hoped for the best.   I think it looked okay!

Actually, I will certainly be doing this cake again, next time I need a birthday cake for a crowd.  Because the cake holds together well, and is layered, it really easily cuts into at least 48 or more neat, triangular slices - you simply slice 12 (or even 16 would be fine) tall regular slices, then divide each slice into its four layers - each little triangle then has some frosting on the outside, some on the top or bottom (from the layers) and the top pieces have lots of frosting!

Tabitha stared at her candle most intently, but did not, of course, understand that she was expected to blow it out:

So I did it for her, and everyone clapped - including the guest of honour.  She certainly knew that something exciting was happening, as she squealed and grinned and clapped and kicked her legs about:

I had feared that Tabby might be overwhelmed by all the guests at her party, and spend the afternoon clinging, koala-style, to The Daddy or myself.  However we were pleasantly surprised - she happily flitted from person to person, lavishing all of the guests with Tabby Love.  I did, of course, still manage to sneak in plenty of Mum-Mum cuddles:

Having snuggles with Godmother Sophie:

And Godfather Noah:

With 'Auntie' Amy, my best friend:

A few of her favourite things:

Pointing at things she likes or wants...

Playing with phones - and talking into them 'YAYAYAYAYAYA!!!'...

Showing off her pretty pearl bracelet, a gift from myself and The Daddy...

Cuddles with her grandfather, a.k.a. 'Gra' (my father).  He is the only person, apart from The Daddy and myself, who she reaches for when she is feeling clingy:

If you click on this photo, you will see the most hilarious face.  She is telling her friend Millie a story, and is obviously right in the middle of the important part:

Tabitha has had quite a fancy for her little friend Joseph since they were wee babies - she used to hold his hand every time she had the chance.  Yesterday, she spent quite a bit of time pushing him around the living room in the little car.  He seemed happy enough!

More 'pointing'.  She kept pointing at a balloon she wanted, across the room, and we had to work out which exact balloon she was pointing at, out of a couple of hundred!

At the end of the party, she spent some time playing in the little plastic garden, eating a sausage roll.  This qualifies as an Excellent Time in baby land!

 

Her Godfather, Noah, played 'peekaboo' through the little letterbox in the plastic garden - Tabitha was absolutely delighted with this game:

After a while, the cheeky little girl reached through the letter box and grabbed his face!

Having some cuddles with my little sister, her Aunt Q.  Look at them, both with little flower clips:

After most of the guests had left, half a dozen or so of us stood around eating cake and sausage rolls and washing dishes - my gorgeous friends even helped with the vacuuming, putting away platters etc!  Of course, they were sent home with plenty of honey joys for their kindness...  

We also sat and let Tabitha open all of her beautiful gifts - she had a wonderful time, and reacted with joy and excitement to each new present.  I think that, by this point in the day (6:30pm) she was so completely wired, that she was about to boil over with excitement!

After the house was clean, the dishes were done and order was restored, we then gave her some dinner, and took her home to bed.  She was fast asleep in bed by 7:30pm, and I had time to sit in bed with some tea, writing thank you notes.  It was a tiring day, but a wonderful one!