Cade's first birthday

"We did it, we did it, oh yeah yeah yeah!!!" Yes, that is a song from Finding Nemo. I won't talk about how many times we've watched this over the last few weeks but this post is not about how much my boys (yes, both of them) are really into this movie! But rather about our little boy turning one! And yes, we did it! We made it, we survived the first year of Cade's life as well as well as the first year of parenting two rambunctious boys!

We couldn't decide what we wanted to do for Cade's first birthday celebration. As usual the guest list just got bigger and bigger the more we thought about it. We looked at venue options and doing something similar to what we had for Darian but in the end we decided that it would be better if we just had a few close friends at home. It turned out to be a great day and our little boy was celebrated in true style. 

Adam entertaining the kids

A house full of babies

Our birthday boy

Cutting the cake

A full house indeed

Celebrating with our nearest & dearest

A full house

He likes to drum

Joash, Lee, Lenny & Premika

Kajal, Luka & Liley

Luka, Liley & Lily

Madison & Darian

Mason & Cade

Getting ready for cake

Wanted to walk down the stairs so mum had to help

Our little boy is 1

The cake

Thea & Sean

On his actual birthday, he celebrated at daycare with his friends. Unfortunately the day care rules have changed somewhat since Darian turned one so I was unable to bake a cake for my little boy, like I did his brother. But the teachers were very obliging and baked a cake for him so he could celebrate with his friends. Of course there was no way I couldn't be there when Happy Birthday was sung to him for the first time, so I took time off work to be there to witness it. And of course Darian joined in and ate as much chocolate cake as he could muster.

Mum I'm watching tv

Ok, one smile then go away

If I can act like I'm looking at you while I look at the tv, ok

now you're in the way mum

celebrations at daycare

Cake... mmmmm

mouth stuffed with cake

big brother had to get in on the cake action

Cake for everyone

My boys

Little Evelyn and Cade - litle siblings of Elise & Darian who sat next to each other at Darian's first birthday celebrations

We are so grateful for our little boy. He is such a joy, always smiling, always laughing and always loving on his brother and looking for mama and dada. I am blessed beyond measure and when I see all the friends we have that take us as family, that came to celebrate with us, each person that took the time out to wish our boy or to make his day special, I realised just how much God has blessed us.

Thank you to everyone who made celebrating his day so special.

Darian's Third Birthday Celebrations

This week we celebrated my baby boy's 3rd birthday! And what a week of celebrations it was.

The day before his birthday I took a half day so I could bake some birthday cake and make some toffee apples for the kids at daycare. I was only meant to bake one cake but Cameron wanted a cake for home too so that we could sing at home and have him blow out the candles. So I ended up baking 2 cakes, one which was egg & nut free for school and a yummy chocolate cake for home. I wanted to do something special for the kids at daycare, most of the mothers have made little party packs for the kids to take home but I wanted to be different, so I made toffee apples for each of the kids to take home. The parents were impressed and the kids were really intrigued by these things they'd never had before.

After baking up a storm we realised we still needed to put his birthday present together. So about 9:30pm the night before his birthday we got his drum set together so he could wake up to a birthday surprise.

The birthday present

The morning of his birthday he woke up to his surprise! He was totally happy with it! Good choice mum & dad.

I took some time off work just to get to daycare while they had afternoon tea and sang Happy Birthday for Darian.

The goodies baked for our boy's big day

The kiddies at daycare enjoying some cake. 

All Darian ate was the icing while everyone else enjoyed the cake.

The kids singing happy birthday to Darian

When we got home, after bath and dinner we had another round of happy birthday and blowing of candles for our now 3 year old.

Cake at home 

On the Friday before his party, I had to take Darian for his haircut. I was a bit worried that he wouldn't sit still but surprise surprise, he was uber excited to get onto the seat and sit by himself and get his hair cut and sat for a full 50 minutes, quietly and patiently (well he got to watch Disney Jr, the barbers were happy to change the channel from MTV to Disney). And once they found out it was his birthday they gave him his haircut for free. Of course Daddy had to come and suss the situation out on his way home from work, which I have to admit was a good thing cos I had no idea how they should cut it. So once Cameron arrived he gave them a full explanation of how it should be cut and full directions on how he wanted it to look. The end result wasn't too bad. My boy looks like such a big boy.

For a while we couldn't really decide what we wanted to do for his birthday. After the last 2 birthdays we just wanted something a bit more low key but still something that would celebrate our boy's last birthday as an only child. We eventually agreed to have something small at Chipmunks Henderson that would allow us not only time to relax as we wouldn't have to do a thing but also, give Darian time to just play and have fun.

We invited a few friends with their kids and were happy to have all the kids just run around and have some fun.

My big boy on his way to his Party on Saturday afternoon

Such a cutie

Mum & Dad on the way to the party

making silly faces in the car

being silly with mummy in the car

Kiddies at the party

Kids enjoying some eats after playing for a few hours in the play area.

A few of the kiddies having something to eat

Enjoying some eats with the his friends

Little Bethany enjoying some yummy food

Luka and Owen arrived with their mum Deanne, their dad wan't able to make it but Deanne brought along her friend Natasha, seen here holding Owen, who is on holiday in NZ from SA.

Charlie Chipmunk arrived with a gift for the Birthday boy. Luka (in the background) was clearly not happy with this strange creature who arrived.

 Getting his gift certificate and gift from Charlie

Giving Charlie a cuddle

Blowing out his candles (again)

A group picture with the kids who weren't afraid of Charlie. 7 out of 12, not too bad!

Cutting the birthday cake

I'd left the camera with Cameron but unfortunately he didn't take any pics of the kids playing in the playcentre but nonetheless they all had a blast and every single one stayed til closing. All in all it was a successful day and I'm so blessed by all the love our boy received on his special day. Thank you to everyone who came along to celebrate with us.

After the party we headed home where a few people did come round to have dinner with us. The kids played and the parents enjoyed each other's company. It was a lovely evening.

After a week of celebrations and cake and candle blowing, this mummy with a growing belly is completely and utterly exhausted.

I just pray my baby boy had a great week's worth of celebrating his birthday. This is the last one he will have as an only child but I'm glad we got to celebrate each and every birthday he has had so far in a special way.