We decided to just do a family do for Louis’ birthday party. We had toyed with the idea of hiring somewhere, as between us we do overflow in our house when everyone is over but we just wanted it to be quite small and intimate. We know we’ve got plenty of time for soft play and bouncy castles, so maybe next year when he maybe able to ask me. Ha ha!

So first things first was the cake. Why is it that we put this pressure on ourselves to make the very first birthday cake! I can honestly say I am useless at baking. I can cook a good roast and I cook most nights from scratch but baking I honestly just can’t get the hang of. So I went onto Pinterest and searched for easy birthday cakes for boys. This amazing construction idea came up. I thought how can this be so hard. Anyway after baking about 10 cakes instead of 2 (as they kept going flat) I had what I can only describe as a big fat poo!! See pic below!

But a few of these later……….

Ta Da!! I managed to create this in just under 10 mins!!! I was actually quite proud of myself and have a feeling this may feature highly in a few birthdays to come and it actually tasted alright too!

Will cooked the actual food which was slow roast shoulder of pork. A great Jamie Oliver dish which he started roasting the night before. It was honestly to die for and such good value, in fact we are still eating it now there was so much left over.

As you know from this Project 52 I have loads of pics so I popped them together in a frame to show how much he’d changed over the last year. I only started this project at 6 months which I am slightly annoyed about, but I remember thinking at the time that it’s better late than never at all.

He absolute loved his little Tikes lawnmower that his Auntie Jess, Tom and Arnie got him. I can see this is going to be loads of use over the summer, whilst Daddy mows the lawn.

We had a quick toast to Louis and Will made such a gorgeous speech. I was actually speechless as he said some lovely things about me that I was totally not expecting.

“Who me…. I haven’t eaten cake!!” I basically let him eat as much as he wanted! I was never going to say ‘no’ on his birthday. This is Arnie destroying the cake after. The beauty of a construction cake!!

This is Great Grandma Jo Jo. She is 90 this Christmas can you believe it!! We had such an awesome time with everyone around and thanks so much to all those that came down that dreaded M6. Can’t wait to celebrate Ava’s 6th birthday in a couple of weeks.

This was quite a milestone above. He can actually put the rings on himself now. I literally just showed him and he was ‘right mum give them here and off he went’. 

Both myself and Will were absolutely pooped by the end of the day and all there was to do was put the log burner on and chill. We do not let Louis anywhere near this and to be honest is only normally on when Louis is in bed but we do have a great big guard to go over it but even then I’m paranoid. Louis then took himself to bed. He was also quite pooped himself and slept like a dream. I hope you enjoyed me sharing his birthday party with you.

Happy 1st Birthday Louis. You are our absolute World. Thanks for making our life so amazing.

This is Week 26 Part 2!!! Part 1 is all about his 1st shoes.

Lots of love

Lisa xx

All photographs taken by Little Beanies Photography.

I am a photographer and founder of Little Beanies Photography specialising in bumps, babies and families. Little Beanies Photography is a fun, natural, relaxed experience using only natural light to capture the real moments in life.

I would love it if you had a look at my work here and if you would like any further information please contact here

Blog post inspired by The 52 Project & Hello Baby Blog

Please see Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, Week 8, Week 9, Week 10, Week 11, Week 12, Week 13,  Week 14, Week 15 & Week 16, Week 17, Week 18, week19, Week 20, Week 21, Week 22, Week 23, Week 24, Week 25 if you missed them.