Party Planning |

As Baby Boys first birthday approaches (arrrgh… How? How?), the party planning pressure is ramping up. I think this is actually going to be the theme for most of December, to be honest.

I have most of it worked out in my head.

Party number one is for 25ish, mostly finger foods, mostly kids that look crazed even as they step through my front door, piñata probably bad idea.

Party number two, for 40ish, is mostly adults, there’ll be a mix of “proper meal” and finger foods, adults that love dancing, house is not that big, I’m having visions of house getting destroyed.

I should get a crack on buying things and you’d think the above would be causing sleepless nights. I have, however, become obsessed with one thing. The cake.

I need two birthday cakes. They must be “good!”. I am not the greatest baker of big cakes. In fact, I’ve never done it, never iced one, never attempted shapes out of marzipan. Nothing. The whole idea fills me with dread and I have been thinking about it all day, every day. I have trawled through the Internet looking for inspiration on how to make a ~~bloody~~ Iggle Piggle cake and swung from the idea of making it myself, to buying a cake topper, to getting it made at a bakers / novelty cake maker. In my head I have become convinced the cake is the “anchor” of the party so It. Must. Be. Good.

My husband has been “helpfully” sending me pictures of the worst Iggle Piggle cakes he can find. He is not helping.

Then, yesterday, after visiting 5 bakers and having lost the will to live, I popped into a bakers in Bolton with a friend who wanted to check out wedding cakes. As I stepped in through the door my eyes immediately snapped onto a lump of blue. I peered over the rim of the box to find (cue melodic cries of “Hallelujah!”) a very good Iggle Piggle cake. He was sat in a boat with gentle waves around the boat. He wasn’t a perfect replica of Iggle Piggle but he was the best I’d seen. I wanted to grab the box and run out of the shop.

Instead, I exclaimed, “I want that one!”. I rang the OH immediately and screamed my joy down the phone. He mostly replied with questions of “are you ok??”.

SO… The cloud of death-by-baking-birthday-cake lifted as I skipped out of the shop having placed an order for an Iggle Piggle cake for one party, and a Mickey Mouse cake for the other.

So the most important thing is now sorted. Now, for the food.

As Baby Boy is fast approaching 11 months I really should planning for his first Birthday. Which means I really need to get a crack on and start thinking about what kind of party baby might like.

I actually need to plan for two quite big things. One for my family and one for the hubby’s family. As both families don’t get on (loooong story. Maybe I will blog about it one day!) I need to have two “proper” parties. Which means two proper birthday cakes, candles, Happy Birthday singing, party hats… The lot! There is a part of me that knows I will be ultra stressed and running around like a mad mother of one, juggling all the guests (42 at party number 1 and 20 at party number 2) and trying to make sure there is enough food to go around.

From attending some recent family dinner parties I fully expect the following:

There will be that one family that simply can’t turn up at a reasonable time. Even if I lie and tell them a fake time.

There will be the two people that don’t like each other and will spend their entire time muttering under their breath and watching the other with the scowl of an eagle eyed hawk.

Similarly, there will be the two much younger cousins that can’t stand each other and will whine “Muuuuum!” for a while before, inevitably, one of them will go one step too far and it will end in tears.

There will be at least one poor cousin that gets regularly lectured through the course of the day about “isn’t it time you settled down with someone nice / got married / had children”. Said cousin will spend remainder of time grumbling about interfering aunts and that you can’t buy husbands in the shops!

There will be at least one stressed husband (mine) that goes around trying to keep his gadgets / speakers / playstation from being knocked over / touched / destroyed. This will usually end by him collapsing in a heap at the end of the day proclaiming it has been a really stressful day. Complete with wide eyes and a shake of his head for emphasis.

There will be at least one uncle that will dance the evening away. He will be applauded for his effort and, frankly, very cool-for-uncle dance moves!

There will be at least one couple that genuinely don’t want to be there and will act visibly uncomfortable / stare at their iPhone all day and try to make a swift exit as soon as the cake is cut.

There will be at least one bubbly birthday baby that will love all the attention and hopefully smack his fist into the cake with utter excitement (it’s ok, we have two!) and enjoy scoffing it.

There will be at least one birthday boy’s mummy that will plead with people not to feed the baby too much cake as he’ll only be bouncing off the walls in he evening. No-one will listen.

There will be at least two utterly shattered parents at the end of the day that will more than likely sod the cleaning and crawl into bed at the end of a very long day. They’ll probably giggle about all of the above and admit it was a good day.

There will at least one set of parents (probably the same one as above) that vows never to do it again and that maybe next time it’ll be a nice idea to go abroad.

Let the party planning commence!