Saturday the 13th of May 2017 was Darcie’s first birthday party. Even as I write this a few days later I still can’t get my head around the fact that my baby girl has turned one and had her first birthday party. It was a really lovely afternoon, we had our close family and friends round to our house and had lots of food and entertainment from the guest of honour herself. All of the excitement of her birthday the day before and of the party preparations had meant that her naps were all out of their normal routine but she was still in such a sweet mood and was happy to see everyone who had come. A few weeks ago a big group of people like that would have been really intimidating to her so I was really thrilled with how well she coped with all the attention. Coped is the wrong word, she loved the attention!
We went with an Elmo theme for the party as she adores watching Elmo on the TV and, like most babies, she loves bright colours so I let go of any dreams of a pretty pink party and went full steam ahead with the colourful theme. We hung about 30 meters of bright bunting around the house and we had happy birthday banners and helium balloons. I also made a ‘Darcie Street’ sign instead of ‘Sesame Street’ which I had seen on Pinterest and was amused by the fact that that is her actual name! I love a project and a bit of DIY so I went ahead and made tissue paper pom poms, a birthday Chalkboard and got together some of our favourite photos for a 12 month timeline of her first year. We also had a slideshow of pictures playing on the TV which was really nice to create as it gave me the perfect excuse to go through all of out photos, I narrowed down my favourites to around 1000!
Darcie received so many lovely gifts and we all enjoyed lots of food but the nicest thing of all was to have our family together to celebrate our baby girl. I’ve put together some of my favourite photos from the day so I can look back at them on here in years to come.
“Darcie Street”
12 Months of Darcie
Elmo cake which took much longer than expected but was so worth it to see her face!
Laughing with Auntie Becky at the Quack Quack
We’re Going On A Bear Hunt – A great gift from Auntie Becky. Darcie just went ahead and started opening her presents without any prompting from us, her unwrapping has improved greatly since Christmas!
Unwrapping her tunnel from Auntie Steph and Uncle James. She loves this tunnel and had a lot of fun turning the wrapping paper into confetti.
The most adorable pink raincoat from Auntie Josie. Of course in typical headstrong baby style Darcie just wanted to take it off, but I love it so much I think she’ll be wearing it even on days when it’s not raining.
Trying out her tunnel for the first of many times. The tunnel has holes going along it that are really fun to peek through or to post toys through.
I just love this picture of my little adventurer. We tried to get her to go through a tunnel a few months ago and she wasn’t at all interested, I’m glad she’s changed her mind now!
I love this picture. Darcie is having a great time but look at Dan’s face! If this doesn’t sum up parenthood then I don’t know what does!
Practising her walking with Great Nan, I don’t think it will be long before she’s doing this herself.
“Yay a new handbag to steal!! Now to work out if I can walk off with it!”
Flying with Auntie Becky, she was laughing so much each time she flew towards me. I love moments like this when she laughs so much!
She had a great time knocking down Auntie Steph’s construction and then eating the blocks. Next step is learning to build her own towers!
“Why is Daddy stuck in my tunnel?!” Of course Dan couldn’t resist a go in the tunnel so Darcie got to look at him through the little hole and we all laughed as she proceeded to attack her captive Daddy!
A bit more walking. That face says it all.
Helium balloons are fun, especially when they have Elmo on them!
Daddy brings in the birthday cake. She was mesmerised by the candles and all the bright colours, she was quite tired by this point but she tried a tiny piece and definitely enjoyed it.
I love my little family!
“I’m sure Mummy wouldn’t have put all these colourful things around the house unless they are for me to play with, right?”
Having a little chat with Auntie Josie before everyone arrived. She’s probably trying to come up with a good excuse as to why she stole Auntie Josie’s phone and think of a reason as to why she isn’t planning on giving it back. My little thief!
These are photos that I will treasure for a long time and one day will show Darcie so she can say things like “what am I wearing Mum?” and “You clearly had too much time on your hands”!
Happy Birthday Darcie May!