Birthday no.1 of baby no.2

Ready to party

He turned one.Our little blob who still doesnt look like any of us.... (people say he now looks like his dad his brother my nanaji and his daadi) but i cant yet see any resemblance.....We reached that big milestone. Baby turning 1.... No more how many months old? now all i have to say is he is one. As amazing as it sounds its also very nerve wrecking. It was a birthday where nothing went as planned (when does it ever) and yet it was perfect in every way.


I dont believe in a big birthday bash kind of thing. In fact the first birthday party that Arav got was when he was 3 and in love with everything construction related. So we had a nice construction theme party where i went absolutely nuts. Anyway the best way to celebrate first birthday in my opinion is to go away on a trip to a nice relaxing place outdoors. Which is what we had planned but for variety of reasons the plan went bust. 2 days before the birthday. Now i was looking at the prospect of not celebrating Nivaan's first birthday in any way and it was making me gloomy. So after two nights of sitting with Google baba i zeroed down on few things. It was difficult as the list things i wanted to do was way longer than things i could do considering the time constraint. Picking the theme was easy. There always has to be a theme it just makes things more fun i believe.

T-shirt tales

A week before his birthday after making umpteen rounds of the local mall i realised im not going to find that perfect cute thing that i want him to wear on the day he turns one. So i turned to etsy devi and got my head full of cute diy tshirt. Challenge was how to pull this off as i have two left hands when it comes to craft or painting or even cutting a straight line using scissors. But once you are bitten by the diy keeda its hard to let go.

1. The t-shirt that started it all : My phone was full of diy images i saw online. I found myself a white plain tshirt. I knew i will applique number 1 and paint his name. but the major hitch was finding cute fabric to applique from. I had no time to explore stores. so i raided my closet but found nothing. Suddenly i saw a cute "first cinco de mayo tshirt " online and had my own light bulb moment. i had the perfect fabric. So from the back of my dusty cupboard i found the set of dining table mats given to me when i was getting married 8 years ago.I felt a twinge of guilt putting scissors through the perfect mat but it was soon overcome by the excitement of how perfect it looked. I also got myself few paints crayola fabric markers and gel tubes from hobby ideas. And while the little one napped I used my limited art skills to make the tshirt look festive. The effect was amazing i had in my hands a very cute mexican themed tshirt.

2. The inivitation that sealed the deal : I didnt have enough time to make the invitation (i would have loved to do that) So i just sent a text message to the total of four moms that i had planned to invite . It went " Senor Nivaan is turning one so listen up everyone. Come and say hello to our very own burrito" This i thought was very clever because when Niv was a baby swaddled after bath he actually looked like a burrito. In fact for his first halloween i wanted to dress him like a burrito till i remembered i live in New Bombay not New York and we dont celebrate Halloween. Anyway i was just happy to use the burrito reference here. Also this made picking the food menu for party really easy for me.

the high chair kit

a very cute idea

My attempt to copy

3. Decor that should have been : Tissue pom poms. Oh my god the more i read about them the more i was sure i was going to pull it off.....beautiful colorful tissue pom poms with a lovely birthday banner it was very clear in my head. except i couldnt find colorful tissue papers. So pom poms were replaced by bows (little lame) and banner didnt quite come out the way i wanted. Also i ended up buying a high chair kit which is the cutest thing ever.


4. The four letter word : CAKE. Yes i was going to bake. Even though my attempt at icing have always resulted in disaster i still was very much convinced that i will serve nothing but my own creation. So with lot of trepidation i began baking. the spong part was easy. i baked two and let them cool. the challenge came while i was trying to whip the cream. I was doing it with my hands and 20 minutes into the act i was losing all hope and getting a nice cramp in my arms. it was 2 hours before the party and i dreaded that i would only have to serve sponge cake. Add to it Nivaan refused to nap and i was on the verge of tears. Then i had a light bulb moment again. I stuck my hand blender in the cream and prayed that i dont turn it into butter. it whipped beautifully. But in my excitement to ice the cake fast i tore the top sponge. Anyways i kept icing it and prayed that it will stay intact. Which it did. it wasnt very neat or fancy but i was mighty pleased.

my inspiration for the cake banner

the cake that stood up for itself

5. The cake banner because pinterest can make you do crazy things : Seriously. I mean its such a non important thing. But oh my god look how cute. So i had to. And of course i couldnt just write it . So i printed and stuck and bought the long skewers and took a whole hour to do this. At this point i started to realise if im really losing the plot here.

Senor Nivaan

6. Props : the cute moustache that couldnt find its way to the t-shirt got turned into photo props....really easy if you can use scissors. Which i cant so it took me good 30 mintues to get 3 moustache cut out of black card paper . *face palm*

7. Food : This was probably the easiest bit as mexican food makes for good party starters, But of course it wasnt as easy as i thought. the avocado i bought refused to ripen. So there was no guacomole. The neighbouring fine food store which promised me mini taco shells said " sorry madam taco to nathi che, pan tame hai canapies try karo. same-ach che." Same -ach nathi pan i did try canapies and they were not half bad. SO we had nachos with salsa . canapies and mini quesedillas. No guacomole no sour cream. But i dont think anyone complained.

When the party started all of what should have been was forgotten in an instant. Nivaan was in a really happy mood. Other kids were having fun with some blocks and dart games. and the joy on Nivaans face when he smashed the cake all that was pure bliss. It made the two insane nights totally worth it. For next two days he jumped whenever we bought the cake out ready to devour it and thats the biggest compliment.

the king of my world

The downside is Aravs birthday is not too far and riding high on the success of this party im afraid im going to be losing it again very soon.

Hey it atleast gives me stuff to write about so no complaints :)

A lip smacking finish