Christopher's 1st Birthday!

Well this is laaaaate! (3 weeks or so late!) But firstly I want to thank everyone who commented on my previous post, it means SO much that each of you took the time to respond, here or elsewhere, and made me feel a little more normal, a little less horrid-mum-ish, and for helping me think of solutions and ways to control my temper. Since the last post I have been much more restrained!!

Anyway! Christopher's 1st birthday party. We decided to have a party at Jonathan's parents house again like we did for Robert's 1st birthday (aren't they great?!! They cleaned and everything!!) And this time set out a buffet requiring much less preparation. No sandwiches, or cocktail stick foods, more DIY stuff like plates of ham, plates of cheese, bowl of salad, platter of bread, etc.

I digress! We got up early (as is the norm in this household!), and after the birthday boy and his brother had some milk (Can't believe I've been tandem feeding for over ONE YEAR now!!), we went downstairs, and got Christopher's presents out! The presents from us were a modest amount, Robert chose a happy days (I think that's what it's called??!) school toy to give Christopher, and we got him a walk-along lion clacker toy, a wooden clown ring stacker (a firm favourite already!!!) and a lovely little soft doll which has since been called Lewis.



The birthday boy enjoyed opening them, although he got a lot of help from his big brother and did surprisingly seem keener on the toys than the paper - I was expecting him to be focused on the paper!!

















Robert was very keen to help open the presents, and also to help play with them! We did have to impose a rule that Christopher got to play with a toy first and then Robert could play with them afterwards. I did feel quite bad for him as the day wore on!

I had made Christopher's cake the day before. Unfortunately, the travel over and the many MANY times I had to roll out the icing before it would stop sticking to the work surface, or looking too white from the excess icing sugar, helped make a long crack in the icing, and the icing did seem to settle somewhat, and pool down by the bottom of the cake by the time it was ready to serve!





But I was impressed for my first attempt at a shaped birthday cake!! And it was delicious - I made a special effort to find a vegan cake recipe for family members, and having had it, it is now my FAVOURITE sponge recipe!! I've made it several times since, and it is especially delicious made into cupcakes with buttercream frosting on. Yum! The cake went down very well with the family and friends who made it over :)





Christopher got such a lot of presents, he was a very lucky boy! And Robert has enjoyed playing with them too, although now they are getting a bit bored with them, so might have to put the majority of them away and swap them out for some of Robert's cars again haha!

He got a peg puzzle, clothes, art things (which Robert has used, Christopher hasn't yet.. I'm not brave enough!!), a ride on toy, a wooden noah's ark (another favourite!!), books, a few nice chunky car/truck toys, a dog puppet, and other bits and pieces, as well as what we got him.







By the end of the day, we were exhausted! Then we had to help tidy up the house, pack up the leftover food (we ate leftover party food for about 3 days afterwards!!!), get the kids bathed and dressed for bed, and then leave as it was already past the boys' bedtime! He had such a good day though, with plenty of kids to play with, and plenty of adults too! But at the same time, it's made me realise why we didn't do a 2nd birthday party for Robert, and why he won't be getting an official 3rd birthday party as well! Sooo stressful but it was lovely to see everyone!