Mathilde's First Birthday Party

Can you believe it? My little baby is not a baby anymore.

On Friday Mathilde turned one year old. Overnight she seems so much more grown up already, but I'm sure that's all in my head! I'll have her twelve month update coming soon but for now I wanted to share her birthday party with you.

On Saturday we celebrated Mathilde's birthday with a circus themed party with friends up on our roof deck. I had been a little worried that we'd have to move the party into our apartment as the forecast was showing rain for Saturday, but luckily it all came Friday night and was gone by morning. It was still a little cool up on the roof but the sun was shining and the kids had a ball.

I organised all sorts of circus themed fun for the kids. There was a circus tent, sideshow games, a balance beam for acrobatics, juggling balls, a diablo, and a plate balancing trick. Oh, and bubbles. Lots of bubbles. Of course, despite all of this fun stuff, the first thing the kids did was make a fort out of the chairs on the roof! 

As usual, we played a game of Pass the Parcel. I made sure to hide small packets of gummies throughout the parcel so that all of the kids got a prize rather than just the kid who was lucky enough to unwrap the last layer. Amazingly, Mathilde sat still in her spot for the entire game. She doesn't usually stay still for long but I guess being surrounded by lots of other happy kids made her content to stay. Plus she was eating an Anzac biscuit. That's probably the real reason she didn't get up and walk away!   

The food had a circus theme too. We had stripey cupcakes with little flags displayed on a big top stand, the table was decorated with the circus animals that featured on Mathilde's invites (which I'll be sharing soon), and the cake featured a circus bear and cheery bunting.

  

The birthday cake was a big hit with all of the kids. As usual we couldn't get the candle to stay lit due to the wind so Mathilde just had to pretend to blow it out. She has been practicing blowing over the past few weeks but when it came to the big moment she seemed a little confused about what she was supposed to be doing!

Mathilde enjoyed eating her cake although she was a little freaked out by all of the frosting on her hands. She's not so much a fan of messy eating. She attempted to eat with a spoon but she hasn't quite got the hang of it yet.

Someone who isn't scared of getting her hands messy when she eats is Lola. I caught her stealing the frosting from the left over cake. In fact, after the party she stole all of the frosting from the left over cupcakes too. I put a container of cupcakes in the fridge and discovered about an hour later that, despite them all being nicely decorated when they went into the fridge, not one of them had any frosting left!

At the end of the party I tried to get a photo of the kids together. Anyone who's ever tried to get a group photo of kids at a party will know that this is an almost impossible feat - especially after all the kids have filled up on sugar! Mathilde was far too interested in eating her cake to look at the camera and the other kids were more interested in being silly. I guess this makes for more fun photos than if they were all just looking at the camera saying cheese.

After the party finished and Mathilde had napped it was time to open her presents. Ava and Lola were keen to help, which was great as Mathilde doesn't know how to unwrap presents yet. She was spoiled with lots of lovely gifts from friends and family: books, puzzles, blocks, clothes, bath toys...

Big thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate Mathilde's special day. She may not have known what was going on, but Mathilde had fun playing with her friends and she loved being the center of attention.

Lots more birthday posts to come so stay tuned!