The birthday

So on Friday we celebrated Theo's first birthday. When we woke up I made a special breakfast of blueberry pancakes (as blueberries are Theo's favourites, and pancakes are a birthday tradition). We opened the cards and presents we had already received. It was really fun to see him looking at all the cards and flipping through the books. We then had a little play before we had to get ready to go out.

We met Oma (Rob's mum) for lunch. We went to a sweet little Italian place which we pretty much had to ourselves, Theo did really well, eating lots and not making too much noise! He had a little birthday treat of amazing blackcurrant sorbet. We then had to do some last minute shopping for party supplies, including a giant helium filled balloon which we had to carry down the street!

After this we took a last minute trip to visit my mum in Malvern. My Mum has been quite sick recently, and had to go to hospital, meaning she couldn't come down as planned for Theo's birthday. So it was really great just to be able to last minute pop in the car and go and see her. I think seeing Theo on his birthday really cheered her up, and I'm so glad we made it. We ended up staying the night back at her house as it got really late, and we had an over-tired grumpy baby on our hands and I couldn't face the drive, meaning we had a bit of a rush the next day, but was all worth it.

...

Saturday was party day, which meant lots to make, prepare and bake! When we arrived home we ran around putting up decorations, blowing up balloons, tidying and baking lemon and poppy seed cupcakes (my favourite!). My very good friend Tilly arrived to visit and help out and we put her to work babysitting and sandwich making! It was such a relief to have an extra pair of hands, I don't think we would have made it otherwise! But finally it all came together. I tried to get Theo to nap before the party, but he must have sensed something exciting was going on as he would not go to sleep! So we gave up trying and I frantically got showered and changed just as people started to arrive.

After everyone had arrived, it got pretty manic and busy, lots of babies crawling/walking/playing everywhere! We ate some food, blew some bubbles, opened presents and did the Birthday cake (made by Oma)

It went pretty fast, but was pretty tiring too! We had a really good party though, and think Theo thoroughly enjoyed having all his friends in one place and lots of new amazing toys to play with! It was so nice to see most of my friends I have made in Bristol all in one place, as I know them all from different places! I'm so grateful for people coming along and of course all the wonderful presents Theo received! I hope everyone enjoyed the party as much as we did...but boy children's parties are exhausting!

We're going on a little respite after our hectic couple of days, down to Devon to visit Rob's grandparents. Which should be a lovely and very welcome break, and a good way to spend Robs last week off before he starts work.

Goodnight (from one very tired mama!)