I still can't believe it! What an incredible year it's been?!

He's 1 year and 2 weeks now, but we haven't stopped celebrating…first birthdays are a big deal right?!?!I'm delighted to be teaming up with my lovely friend Dawn for this post, owner of one of my very favourite online kids stores Mee Mee London. Dawn gifted Ollie with the most gorgeous ride on car for his first birthday (plenty of pictures below), and she's offering you the chance to WINany ride on from her website at the bottom of this post!!

EAK!!

Wishing you all the best of luck!! :-)

Ollie’s First Birthday 

I’ve been emailing Ollie since I was pregnant.
Such a gorgeous idea given to me by my sweet friend Chris.
I send him videos, photographs and big, long, gushing emails.
I like to imagine that one day, when he’s old enough, I’ll give him the password to his account and he can read and watch his whole life through our doting eyes. Even if he’s not all that interested, y’know boys, I know how much Colin and I will love reading them when he’s all grown up. So precious!

On the eve of his first birthday, while everyone else slept soundly, I sat awake in the beautiful Welsh House and wrote him a letter, well, an email.
First Birthdays are such an enormous milestone. Almost every mother I know has found them so difficult and emotional. I sat typing, tears rolling down my face, my poor mama heart breaking.

…”My baby boy is One Year Old, and it has been the best year of my life.
The first time I saw you, I knew, you had my whole heart, more than I knew I could give. The first time I held you in my arms, those awkward first days of nursing, your tiny hand holding my finger tight, every moment with you, just so precious. The first time you smiled at me, it was the best day of my life, but then game a laugh and then a hug and then a kiss. Oliver you are so much more than we could’ve wished for. Thank you for choosing me to be your Mama”…

To celebrate our baby boy turning one, we invited our closest friends and family to our home for a big party in the garden. We had such an amazing time at his Welcome to the World Party a year ago, we wanted to do something similar for his birthday too. I think we’d learned a lot from the last party, so tried to keep everything really simple this year. Paper plates and cutlery so no washing up, simple BBQ food and salads we could make in advance and not so much desert, last year we were eating strawberry trifle for days!

We covered the garden in Festoon lights ((HERE) and dressed four picnic benches with jars of fresh flowers and blue gold and while balloons from North Star Balloons all tied with string.

The gazebo was dressed with white cotton bunting and the prettiest little honeycomb paper balls from Party Kitsch .

I found so many lovely party things on The Jelly Rabbit‘s website. Wooden knives and forks dipped in gold, blue and white cheque paper plates, cups and napkins.

Party Kitsch has the coolest party things, including gold glitter disposable cutlery, shiny gold stripe plates and loads more!!

Oliver’s cake was made by lovely Laura at our local Airy Fairy Cake Company. Laura makes the most delicious cakes and delivers all over Cheshire and Manchester. Ours was a tall ivory butter cream, which I decorated with fresh Hydrangea and Baby’s Breath. Aside from the taste, which was devine, the inside of the cake was a beautiful blue ombre. Really beautiful when we cut into it to share amongst the guests.

The cake topper was from my fave girl and ultimate super mum Sophie Victoria Joy. I’ll treasure it forever.

Finally, gorgeous personalised biscuits from Lady Bakewell Park that made a lovely addition to the table and went down a treat with the kids!

We kept the food simple, BBQ’d chicken, burgers and hot dogs as well as loads of salads that everyone could help themselves to.

We hired glasses (for free) from Waitrose and filled buckets and wheelbarrows with beer, wine and plenty of ice!

I have to say a big thank you to our wonderful friend Al, who captured so many beautiful memories with his amazing photography skills. So many of these pictures were taken by him, including this group shot that we’ll cherish always.

We spent the whole day chatting, eating, drinking and having wonderful time with the people we love most. Ollie skipped both naps that day, as hard as I tried I just couldn’t get him to fall asleep. I think he had a perfect day too!

As the sun set, we played garden games like boules and skittles, the boys even had a sack race with these beauties from Paper Cotton

It really was such a lovely day for our little man. A huge thank you to all of our special people who helped make it such a wonderful occasion. We love you to the moon and back and are so so grateful for all of you! Happy First Birthday Sweet little Ollie!! xxxx

GIVEAWAY!!!

Want to treat your little man or lady to a ride on like Ollie’s (or any one from Mee Mee London’s extensive range)?

All you need to do is join their mailing list by clicking HERE and filling in your details.

For an extra chance to enter simply comment below. Competition closes on Saturday 20th August.

The winner will be announced on here and contacted via email (so keep checking your inbox!)

Oh and while you’re browsing the website, remember you can get 10% off anything except playhouses with code: HUNTERSANDHEELS

Wishing you all the very best of luck!

Lauren and Mee Mee London xox

CONGRATULATIONS INGA KEYES!! YOU’RE OUR WINNER!! 🙂