This is the last you will hear of Vinay’s 1st birthday.  Promise (I hope it’s a promise I can keep)!  I just wanted to share who/what/where and quite a lot of some photos.  

The party was last Saturday (10th September) and at our home.  I had the invitations printed in April when I was in London – so I had to choose the date, time and place then and there!

I had 38 children on my list – but many had still not come back from summer holidays or were away for other reasons…  So, there were 25 children that came.  And most of their mums.  And nannies.  Some mums with more than one child brought two nannies!  And, some dads came too.  I also invited some of the aunts I grew up with and some friends who don’t have children.  

I was very nervous – this was the first time (obviously, since it was a first birthday) that I was hosting a children’s party.  A lot of the children were between 2 and 6 years old, so they (and their mums) had been to a lot of birthday parties already and I felt a bit under pressure to make sure that everything was perfect!

So, the day before the party, we moved all the furniture out of the living room and started blowing up balloons.  My sister and I also started putting together the Little Tikes Crazy Coupe.  Silly idea.  (See previous post).  I set up the table – with table cover, sorted out the plates and cups, etc.

The next morning I was up earlier than usual – I just couldn’t sleep because of how stressed out I was!  I wanted to start decorating with the balloons – but knew it was too early and that they would all pop in the heat.  So I waited.  I sorted out the play area for the babies instead.  The bouncy castle arrived, and the little tents were set up in the garden and I finally got to sort out the balloons!

The children loved the bouncy castle.  Some of them had their faces painted and got to do some art and craft as well.

I was very worried that V would become a bit overwhelmed with all the activity going on around him – but he was brilliant.  There were no tears – but he was a little ‘serious’ all day.  He barely cracked a smile!  Until, that is, Hub took him down the slide!

He loved the cake and was quite happy to eat as much of it as he was allowed (which wasn’t much).

Once the children started leaving, it was time to give them their return gifts.  Everyone got a little animal back-pack and what they got with it depended on how old they were (see pictures below).  Wrapping them all was a pain in the backside, and my gift-wrapping skills are atrocious!

AND – the ‘done’ thing over here (or so I’ve seen at the last 4 parties we’ve been to) is to have a ‘nanny bag’ as well.  This is a gift bag for any nannies that come.  The bag consists of chocolates and sweets.  We made up 36 of these.

I was *so* relieved when everyone had left.  I opened all of the presents (without Vinay.  Bad?), wrote down who gave what and drank champagne.  A lot of it!

All I said, all week, was that I’m never going to do this again.  And I’m not.  Not until my boy is old enough to choose if he wants to have a big party.  Or even if he wants to have it at home (please God, no)!