A Year Of Chloe

How quickly has this year has passed? I found it hard to think of a way to sum it up, so I wrote a Chloe poem. As you do.

My sunshine and showers girl

My determined girl

My loud girl

My give patty bum hugs girl

My animal loving girl

My Tom admiring girl

My heart on her sleeve girl 

My cheeky girl

My smiles girl

My laughs with her whole heart girl 

My inquisitive girl

My smarty pants girl 

My won’t take no for an answer girl

My beautiful girl

My bow clad girl 

My blue eyed beauty girl

Daddy’s girl

Mummy’s girl

My moon and my stars girl 

The last year with Chloe has been an absolute whirlwind but she makes my heart happy every single day, even when I’ve not slept and she is hitting me in the face with a remote. I can’t wait to watch her grow and become more herself. She completes us. 

Tom's First Birthday Party

Tom's first birthday party was on Sunday and we had a Cowboys and Indians theme. Initially we didn't have great weather (read : rain, thanks Britain) but it soon brightened up and turned into a great day for a BBQ!

I'd been working on making decorations for a bit over a month, I wanted a home made feel which lent itself well to the Cowboys and Indians natural look. I reused a lot of the Approved Food boxes I had collected, as well as lots of their foods, it was basically an Approved Food party!

I will start with the cake (you know, the important bit!). I had the cake made in the shape of a cowboy hat with an Indian headdress underneath. The hat was chocolate flavour and the headdress was a vanilla sponge. It was epic! It was really heavy but tasted great. This was the most expensive part of the party but also got the most attention, so I figure it was worth it. I am really pleased with the cake and for a first birthday I guess you can go a bit OTT! 

Next up, party bags! I bought a load of plain brown paper bags on eBay and wrote each child's name in a rope style, I then stuck on a little teepee (do I have too luck time in my hands?). Inside I put some lollies (Approved Food!), a pack of bubbles (4/£1 : Poundland), a ty plushy toy or Star Wars Angry bird plushy (Poundworld), some of the older children also had a activity packs, and of course everyone was given cake! I was really pleased how these turned out, they looked great and I made a conscious effort not to fill them with tooty crap (which I think I achieved!)

For decorations I made some big cardboard cut outs and put them around my garden, these included a cactus, totum pole, teepee and saloon doors for my front door. The impact was good although I think it always could be better! But more than anything I was happy that the rain didn't ruin them!

I also added some tissue paper Pom Poms, marble balloons (Poundland), Indian arrow bunting (homemade), and a few other touches.

The thing I am most pleased with is a cut out wanted poster! It was great seeing everyone take their photo inside it and the pictures will be a lovely momento from the party!

Lastly, as you may have seen on my Instagram, I made a birthday sign like the chalkboard style but a bit more highledy piggledy. I just wanted a momento of Tom at this point in time and it made a good centre piece. It also served as a shout out to all the people in Tom's life, which was nice as they as at the party. 

  

I did make the gold number 1, and it took about half an hour before my mother in law spotted that it was back to front! At least someone noticed! 

The party was a massive success, my house was heaving but everyone seemed to have a good time! I don't think I will be holding another big party next year but never say never! Better get stashing those boxes!

20 Birthday Questions : 1st Birthday

I found this on Pinterest (where else!) and thought it might be a nice tradition! 

1. Favourite breakfast : Porridge 

2. Favourite lunch : Nutella sandwich 

3. Favourite dinner : Beans on toast

4. Favourite fruit : Banana

5. Favourite vegetable : Sweet potato

6. Favourite treat : Vegan rice crispy cake (as discovered yesterday in leau of birthday cake : dam egg allergy)

7. Favourite drink : Milk

8. Favourite activity : Playing with cars

9. Favourite colour : Tom hasn't stated a preference, obvs, but his room is blue ?

10. Favourite toy : Thomas shape sorter, not to sort shapes but to push along the hall!

11. Favourite animal : Our cat, Hillary 

12. Favourite book : The smartest giant in town

13. Favourite song : Ok, this might be weird but in the car Tom loves Taylor Swift and gets really fussy if Mr B try's to listen to LBC (as do I, it's crap)

14. Favourite season : Um, bit hard to gauge, Tom is liking playing in the garden so I will say summer!

15. Favourite thing to do with Mama : Reading

16. Favourite thing to do with Dada : Bathtime

17. Favourite thing to do as a family : Play time before bed

18. Favourite thing to do at home : Run my cars up and down the hall

19. Who is your best friend? Problably Elfie and Khali, as they are friends I became close to as we had children around the same time and have spend lots of play days together over this year 

20. What do you want to do when you are an adult? Being as he is getting closer to it every day, I would hazard a guess that he wants to walk! 

I will do a bigger post on Tom's party and maybe on the presents he has received  but for now, I want to spend his birthday with Tom and I'm sure his nap is going to end soon! 

Have a nice day y'all!

It's nearly time...

To paaarrrtay! 

I am so excited it's ridiculous. We are having a cowboy and Indian themed birthday BBQ, with around 10 other children coming, plus parents, family and friends! It's going to be a bit crazy! I will be sure to take lots of photos and/or vlog about the decs etc but I will be putting my phone down for the party as I want to really be in the moment! Plus with all the guests and a toddler on the go, I don't think I'm going to have much free time!

What I really wanted to say on this post is, oh my freekin gosh! It's been (nearly) a year?! Me and Mr b keep saying 'this time last year we...'

1. Ordered Pizza Hut, which I ended up eating the leftovers in between contractions the next day!

2. Had watched all of 24 in massive binges, hence Tom's middle name being Jack

3. Had eaten more pineapple and spicey food then I ever thought I could in an (unsuccessful) bid to bring on labour 

4. Made a second home sitting on the bouncy ball willing on labour 

5. ... Had no idea what was really to come, how awful my labour was going to be followed by how fantastic life as a parent is!

See y'all tomorrow, get your party hats and cowboy boots on!