The Birthday Party

Yes, yes, it was two weeks ago now, but I got here eventually. Pebble’s birthday party was a lovely afternoon tea with family and friends. I kept the guest list as small as I could, and still it seemed that it was a tight squeeze at times. As planned, I did a duck theme, which as a lot of fun. There was a number 1 shaped cake with blue icing, topped with rubber ducks. I can hear those experience parents groaning from here already – yes kids + brightly coloured icing = MESS. Luckily just mess on their clothes, ha ha, sucks to be you and your laundry!  I also made cupcakes with duckie cup cake toppers, one of which Pebble was offered for the first time ever, but she promptly turned it down. She doesn't know what she’s missing!

I’m so proud of myself for making the cakes from scratch! I am certainly no baker, and no cake decorator either, but it was important to me to make the cake myself. I think they didn’t turn out half bad :)

I dressed Pebble in a cute little rainbow dress that she got for Christmas, and she wore it for about…. 11 minutes. We had the paddling pool set up and she was leaning in, splash, splash, splash, and the next thing I knew she was nudie rudie in the pool. I pretty much didn’t see my own child for half for party, her lovely nanas, grandads, grandmas and aunties all kept watch while I ran around doing party things.

Apart from the birthday cake and (four batches of) cupcakes the only other cooking I did was …… heat up some oven quiches and pastries! I was meant to make fairy bread, but my sister and her friend did a brilliant job of taking on that duty at the last minute. Other than that my family and friends pitched in a brought a plate of their favourite afternoon tea goodies (thank you!!!). We had homemade sausage rolls, brownies, caramel slice, profiteroles, sandwiches, fruit… and lots more. The table was groaning with food but the hungry hoards made quick work of it.

Meanwhile, Paul got the bubble machine cranking, and the kids ran around chasing bubbles, which was very cute. Family and friends were greeted to a sea of blue streamers on the ceiling and yellow balloons dotted around the room. I had made a banner and month by month photo display, with little ducks on each, and the table was adorned with a very classy blue plastic table cloth and rubber duckies scattered on top.

      

The present opening was a chaotic flurry of wrapping paper as Pebble ran around the room with her new favourite thing – a new puzzle. Once she opened that she had eyes for nothing else, so there I sat on the dining room floor, opening presents on my own and holding them up one by one, trying to appeal to the kid. Nope, she was gone. I hope her guests understood that the attention span of a one year old is quite limited – and please know that she has enjoyed each and everyone of her gifts since that day. In fact, it’s like a birthday every day we’ve had so many new toys and books to play with!

The littlies helped themselves to yellow lolly boxes with rubber ducks on the front, filled with a couple of lollies each, individual bubbles and a balloon. I tried not to give out too many lollies, I didn’t want to be responsible for the sugar crashing later that night!

All in all it was a fun afternoon. Pebble enjoyed playing with her family and friends, splashing in the pool, chasing bubbles and basically didn’t want to sleep at all that afternoon. It was a late night for us all that night, but worth it.