Last month, my little baby girl turned One. I can’t believe how incredibly fast it’s gone, but at the same time, it seems like she’s been with us forever. Bizarre. She’s WAY ahead in her speech development (but won’t walk), and her first and favourite word is and remains ‘cat’. Cat toys, cat books, cat pictures, she just can’t get enough. Only a few days after first saying the word, she yelled ‘CAT’ at a pigeon in the Tesco parking lot. She’s obsessed. So, to honour her love of felines, we organised a cat-themed first birthday party with my family.
It was a lovely, low-key day, which me spent playing, going to soft play and eating cake and sushi. The cat cake is a simple chocolate sponge, which I decorated with sugarpaste using various images as a template. I have a whole pinterest board dedicated to the topic, so click the link in the sidebar and take a look!
For the bunting, I bought a plain base and used a Hobbycraft cat stamp to decorate it before my mum-in-law glued on the pink card letters. The pink cat decoration is made from a really simple base covered in pink tissue paper using the maché technique – it’s so easy, you mostly glue pieces of tissue to your base. Even I can do it and make it look more or less presentable.
I know that people often say that first birthday parties are a waste of time and money because the babies don’t know what’s happening, but, even though we didn’t have a ‘real’ party, I’m so glad that we chose to make a special event out of her first birthday. It’s a wonderful memory to have and we had a truly lovely day. Isla most definitely enjoyed herself and, even if she didn’t quite know what to make of it, certainly understood that this was a special day for her. Her reaction to the candle, the cake and her birthday song made that very clear, and her clapping along at the end was the cutest thing ever! So, if you’re unsure about whether to have a celebration or not, my advice is this: If you can’t be bothered or don’t really want to have a party, that’s cool. Your child won’t miss it. But, if you feel like you might want to, absolutely go for it! No matter the scale, it will be perfect, and these opportunities only ever present themselves once in your child’s lifetime. Also, you’ll have the chance to see your child stick their entire hand into the birthday cake you so lovingly decorated the evening before. No greater parenting moment than that 😉
What do you think of first birthday parties? Not to be missed or way over the top?
