A VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR FIRST BIRTHDAY

Last weekend we all headed to Brisbane to celebrate Willow's first birthday.
We were fortunate enough to have her home here for her actual birthday, but her friends, and the rest of the family missed it, so Sarah organised a Very Hungry Caterpillar first birthday party for her...
She went to a lot of trouble to organise her party, with it to be held at the park down the road...
That would have been fine if the weather was great, but it wasn't....
We woke up Saturday morning with it teaming with rain...
Crazy crazy rain...
And she still had to finish this..

Cake decorating

What on earth do you do when you have 40 odd folk coming for a birthday party..
The park was not an option.... way too wet...
Their place was not a real option either, as their place is not that big...
Their beautiful friend Ness came to the rescue when she organised a venue for them and then rang them...
What a beautiful woman, who is so in tune with the needs of others....
The venue was perfect....
Huge Photo share of her first birthday party......

The weather was quite cool after the rain, and being summer, we did not pack any coats or cardigans in our luggage...
The guys had got a little damp coming in from the car and were quite cold, so Colin decked them out in some of his coats....
Classic Look.... almost look like gangsters...

Willow's Poppies....

Sarah had bought a really lovely little tulle skirt to wear on her birthday and a lovely little shirt with wings... She has emerged as our gorgeous little butterfly.

Willow all dressed for her party....

Whilst at home here, Sarah had made all little antenna headbands for the children to wear rather than party hats...  Willow wore hers for quite a while and then discovered that they were good to munch on....

Wearing her antenna headband....

Since this was a one year olds birthday party, and she has been very careful not to give Willow any artificial sugar in her first year of life, she thought that planning the party around the story of the very Hungry Caterpillar would allow her to serve lots of fresh fruit at her party....
She made little signs from the book to go on all the food...

Party Food

My niece's little girls were terribly excited when they saw all the food labels, because it was just like the book. 

Caterpillar Food

 Sarah made a gorgeous Very Hungry Caterpillar Cake for Willow... Some awesome apple cupcakes, and cake pops, as well as some healthy sandwiches to go with all the fruit...

Birthday Cake, cupcakes, and cake pops.....

Sarah had grand plans for decorating at the park down the road, but because of the weather, we weren't able to do that, and so therefore we had to change the set up of our decoration because our new venue was so different to the park...It still all looked awesome....  We made a caterpillar of balloons to hang above the treats table...

Party bags and decorations...

Willow had such a ball...
She mingled with all her guests...
Loved the balloons, and had no idea that all the people here were here for her birthday...
She was totally oblivious to the fact that she was the guest of honor....

Willow enjoying herself...

Playing with her good friend Grace

 The littlies loved the balloons...

Everyone enjoying themselves...

 Balloons were a big hit with the littlies with them chasing them all around the room....

These girls loved playing with the balloons. 

Balloon Fun

 There were as many big people at the party as there were little kids.  For us we were able to catch up with our nieces, and some of our children's friends whom we have known most of their lives....

Family and Close friends...

Chloe with her cousins

These guys are all special in Willow's life...

Playgroup mummies and church friends...

 Time to cut the birthday cake....
Willow had no idea what she was supposed to do, so her Mummy helped her out...

Ready to blow out her candles....

 Today would be the first day that Willow will have tried and eaten cake....
Sarah wanted to wait until Colin arrived back from the UK so that he could be there to experience this first, since had had missed so many of them whilst he was away...

Blowing out the candles and cutting the cake...

Her first taste of Cake.... she loved it and had it everywhere....

 Family catching up...

Even big kids love playing with balloons....

 You can see what a mean.... this big kid was having a ball getting all the littlies to chase his balloon

Big Uncle Pete keeping the littlies amused....

 I didn't manage to get too many photos of Steve and I with Willow at her party, so I got Steve to take a few when we got home...

Willow with her Moppy

Willow having fun with her Poppy...

Photos with her Moppy and Poppy

 We bought Willow this little stroller for her birthday.  It was supposed to go with her new dolly, but the dolly is too big... it did come with a dolly though and she is happy to push her around...

Talking her dolly for a walk.

 Photos of my gorgeous family and Sarah with her beautiful sister-in-law Brenda.

 Willow loves this little couch that Chloe bought her for her birthday...
When she first got it she would not share it with anyone..
Tonight she shared it with me for a little while before deciding that it was time to get rid of me...
This is her couch....

Enjoying Moppy time on her couch..

Love this little princess.

 It had been a big day and Willow missed her afternoon sleep, so we decided to put her to bed early.  She loves her night routine and you are guaranteed of cuddles if you are the one feeding her, her last feed at night. 

Bed time routine

 Colin had to leave the party and head straight to work, so all of Willow's birthday presents ended up at work with him on Saturday night, so Sunday became present opening time...

Checking out all her gifts...

Mmmmmm what's in this packet...

 Still loves the balloons and was happy to chase it around all morning....

playing with her balloon.

 She is so darn cute.... when she left us two weeks ago, she was still crawling more than walking,  in the short time since they have been home,  Willow is now walking everywhere.  She is just gorgeous to watch...
The weekend was great,  so good to be down there to celebrate this milestone with them all.
Good to catch up with all our kids....
Feeling very blessed indeed....