While we were on holiday Jimmy Buster Bumblebee turned one year old! We woke up and had a few presents (Florence had a couple too of course) and then we spent the day at Drusilla’s Zoo which was fab! After that we went to Pizza Express in Eastbourne as it was on the way back to our holiday camp and we had yummy pizza, pasta and of course some chocolate cake! Jimmy had his first candle to blow out and he loved it! It was a very special first birthday…

Coming home from our holiday and it was time to put into action the many, many plans and ideas I have had for Jimmy’s first birthday party! I had decided to hold a mad hatter’s tea party with mis-matched tea cups and saucers, beautiful teas, lots of cake and some fine finger sandwiches! I have lots of grand plans but they never come to fruition without lots of help and for the party I had my Mum, my Mother-in-law and a whole gaggle of friends and other family members doing various jobs! The result was exactly as I planned and we all loved every minute! It looked beautiful, was a little bit quirky and different and most importantly the children had loads of fun!

The look…

My Mum and I have been collecting pretty bone china cups and saucers from charity shops. We had about 35 and only spent about £15. I borrowed tea pots, pots and decorated the tables with flowers!

I used Kilner like jars from Ikea to hold tea bags and labeled the five different varieties on wooden spoons using a led piping pen. We also drank sparkling elderflower in the champagne flutes left over from my wedding and everything was tagged with luggage labels to say ‘drink me’!

The loose tea I used was from Silver Lantern which I wrote about the other day. I had various tea pots and infusers and everyone really enjoyed making their tea! It looked so beautiful and really complimented the party! My best friend loved it so much that I let her take what was left over home with her which was quite a lot considering there were around 40 people drinking tea!

We ate finger sandwiches which I made in the morning. There was smoked salmon and cream cheese, egg mayonnaise or cucumber to choose from. The many, many delicious cakes were made by my various friends and family members who were roped into help and because I didn’t make them I can say how yummy they all were!

I borrowed a few items too, like the cake stands and the most gorgeous cups I’ve ever seen! Everyone was fighting over who was going to drink out of the black floral ones…

The children had a slightly brighter look and their table was decorated with plastic coloured wine glasses, which I picked up in 99p land, filled with orange squash and topped with a cocktail umbrella, lots of party poppers and triangle sandwiches and cup cakes on doilies and cake stands!

My Mum made Jimmy his enormous bumblebee cake and wonderful mini bumblebee cupcakes and my friend’s Dad, who runs a printing business, made some banners for me. He also did some with ladybirds on for Florence’s first birthday which is why I really wanted something similar for Jimmy too!

The fun…

We had paper hats that we folded from news paper for the children to decorate, pass the parcel, fun in the garden, my Father-in-law and Sister-in-law played the guitar and sang songs while we danced under a borrowed parachute and my good friend Carly did the face painting!

My friend made all the biscuits to go in these lovely paper bags I found on ebay for £1.50! I have lovely friends… And then all that was left was the cards…

We bought Jimmy the 3D bumblebee card! I spied it in a shop next to where we had Florence’s birthday party in January and have been keeping it ever since.

It was such a lovely day! Thank you to all my friends and family for helping, coming and generally just being wonderful!xxxx