On Saturday we celebrated Michael’s first birthday! As usual we went totally overboard in planning this party!
During the past 16 years, Christo and I have planned 37 birthday parties! Some themes are such a hit that we love to repeat them every now and then. With Michael’s party we did it again! It actually started with CJ.
His 6th birthday was a Pirate party.
Those days grandma still made the birthday cakes and she did an excellent job.
We also made little treasure boxes for every friend and they had to dress up like pirates and princesses.
My Dad was absolutely fond of his first and at that stage, only grandson. He was running the tuck shop at the school where they were hostel parents.
So grandpa sponsored all the sweets in the treasure boxes!
It must have been a very memorable party for CJ, as he suggested we repeat the theme of Pirates for Michael’s first birthday!
CJ designed the invitations.
We added little sachets of chocolate coins to accompany the invitations.
We made little treasure boxes too.
CJ designed it a little smaller than 10 years ago. I only had to duplicate the template, cut and glued it al together. We sprayed different kinds of noodles with gold spay paint to decorate the boxes.
On Thursday we baked two rectangular cakes and Thursday evening, Christo and CJ designed the pirate boat!
After many measurements and cuts, the two of them were satisfied with their creation and the rest of us, very impressed with the pirate boat! Now it was over to me for the decoration on Friday!
Friday didn’t turn out as I planned, with a lot of unexpected interruptions and a little morning sickness (must have been stress!). In the afternoon was horse riding and ballet extra-murals and we only started by 17h00 decorating the cake. Then the pasta maker broke, we had to wait for Christo to repair it (thank you Lord for a handy man for a husband!) and we could only eat by 19h30 - a little out of routine for the Lues children, resulting in grumpy little ones! By 21h00 all the little ones was in bed and we could focus on finishing the cake. But 30 minutes later, Michael started crying and I could hear by the sound of his cry, he wasn’t well. My little Michael was seldom sick in his first year unless he cut a tooth! It turned out he had a blocked noise and had a slight fever. It must be teething again, he had not cut a tooth in months!
After trying to make him asleep for another 30 minute I put him in the ergo on my back.
In the meantime, Christo, CJ and Heidi-Mari took over decorating the cake.
Josua and Danika was filling the treasure boxes.
By 24h00 the cake was finished. I was exhausted, Michael was crying on and off and I wasn’t coping well.
During the night Michael was restless and still had a slight fever and a blocked nose. By 05h30 I decided to rather pick him up. With him sleeping in my arms, I had a quiet time with the Lord and read my encouraging mothering blogs, for which I haven’t had time the past few days. And was I blessed! Large Family Mother had a posting that could just as well have been written for me. It encouraged me so much and after repenting for a few bad attitudes the previous day, I was ready for a very special day with my precious family!
Michael enjoyed opening his birthday presents with his siblings.
But though he was making his exciting sounds and played along, his eyes wasn’t as bright and awake as usual and he still had the slight fever. We gave him Christo’s teething powder and a Viburcol suppository to control the fever.
The morning was a blessing!
We invited two large families and all the children had friends to play with.
The parents enjoyed the party just as much!
Michael is still fighting the fever and is not the busy baby boy we are used to, but I do think he enjoyed his first birthday!
There are many beautiful pictures taken by CJ and a video taken by daddy!
I want to thank my beautiful family for all their creativity, support and helping hands, when mine hold little Micheal. Without you Michael’s party wouldn’t have been!
With love
Linnie
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