Reuben’s first birthday party was a hastily-organised do held at a local park. We were very blessed to have plenty of friends and family come to celebrate our beautiful boy’s first year of life. It was a fairly casual affair with a playground and duck-pond to entertain the kids, and plenty of time for catching up and chatting for the grown-ups. Okay so maybe some of the grown-ups made use of the playground too.
The guest of honour spent most of his time enjoying cuddles from favourite people and showing off his newest party trick: walking!
He also shared a clandestine cup of grapes under the table with his betrothed friend, Grace.
I decorated simply, but meaningfully too, with a string of photos and string of handmade bunting.
You remember those weekly photo collages I’ve shared on the blog of Reuben’s life? I had each one printed (all 52 weeks of his life) and laminated, then strung them together. On the back I wrote some highlights of each week. It was like a timeline of Reuben so far. Everyone enjoyed looking at our gorgeous baby’s photos and reading his little stories, and they were a great talking point. I’m really glad I took the time to put it together!
In planning Reuben’s party I made the decision to cater completely sugar-free. I knew I would have to a be a little creative to achieve this for a kid’s party, but (with the exception of one treat of fairy bread) I’m proud to say that I succeeded!
We had ham sandwhiches, nuts, crackers, vegetables and homemade dips, little cups of grapes (in cupcake papers – this was a great idea, very novel for the kids and a good little amount of grapes), almond & coconut fish cakes (fish by shape only, not flavour!), potato chips and fairy bread.
The cake was a sugar-free carrot cake, and there was not a crumb left of it!
Reuben was thoroughly spoilt with loving and gifts and we all felt completely blessed to have the presence of so many people who love him (and us!).
Thanks to everyone who came, we hope you had as much fun as we did!
Looks like a great party!! We did Lior's birthday sugar free also (except the icing on the cake - the actual cake was sugar free though), and I felt really at peace that I wasn't filling all these kids up with sugar and sending them home to their parents!!
ReplyDeleteThe patty pans with grapes are a great idea! I imagine they'd work with all sorts of cut up fruit as well!
I made the icing sugar with cream cheese, lemon and dextrose! It was delicious! I've been reading a lot about dextrose and it seems it does work as a good substitute for icing sugar too... worth experimenting with huh?
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