Party Celebrations

Again I embarked on 1st birthday preparations. Again I put in the same amount of analytical attention. But this time I outsourced the cake to a very competent cake maker, I also outsourced the watermelon hedgehog and the sandwiches. This definately reduced my performance anxiety by at least 50%! The theme was butterflies. The search for the right balloons, the right plates, the right colour bunting and the right selection of eats for a variety of guests was nothing short of mentally draining. Doha is significantly limited in variety and availablity so we had to be creative with what we had. I ended up making the bunting which involved going to the Souq to find the ribbon, going to the stationery shop across town to find the cardboard, borrowing Owens future schools cutter and then putting it all together 4 times. After 4 grocery shop visits I found the dip! Thank goodness I started weeks in advance. We hired the clubhouse and decorated it. Our ususal social circle and their children were invited and so were our neighbours who sit for us on the odd occassion. Brendon coordinated pin the tail on the donkey and Jo did face painting. All the children (except Erin) had a dip in the pool. Erin got a lot of lovely gifts - a singing bear, FP telephone, FP xylephone, floor puzzles and clothes. Happy little people left with party bags in hand filled with stickers, biscuits, tattoo pens, chocolates, pencils etc. to remember their day. We had lots of food left over and enjoyed not having to cook the rest of the day. It was a great day for a special little girl.

Erin is 1 today!

I cannot believe that my baby has turned into a toddler. I put her to bed last night with a great big cuddle and lots of kisses. I still remember the day she decided to enter the world like it was yesterday. We opened presents in the morning before Brendon went to work. Owen loved her presents and thought that it was only right that he played with them first. She got a Winnie-the-Pooh activity table, talking VTech Mirror and a laughing doll. She was very pleased with her gifts. Later in the afternoon we tracked down the Granny on skype to join in the festivities. Erin was given the Dutch traditional cream cake (I substituted it with a cheese cake) and was let loose. She was very proper about the whole event and put her finger into the cake and licked it. I gave her a spoon to help her but there was no real interest in her making a mess. Owen was so impatient he even tried to feed her the cake hoping he would get some when she had had enough. It was a super day with the little munchkin.