The first birthday of Willow took up the whole week, or so it felt like. After her birthday day itself, I gave her a little cake to eat when we had some time to ourselves the next day, hoping to get some fun pictures of a birthday cake grab. However, what I failed to anticipate was how dainty she would be! (Where does she get that from?). She picked at the chocolate swirls from the top at the cake, then quite delicately plunged some fingers in to get at the cake, decided she didn’t like the cake part, but picked at the pieces she dropped on to her tummy, and then having sampled just a tiny bit of cake, pushed the plate away with her feet!

And the next day she had a birthday party with her little friends and a few special grown ups. Felix and I baked the cake the day before and I quickly assembled it before the guests arrived. Thank goodness for edible flowers; I am used to assembling train cakes for boy’s first birthdays, so I found a pink theme hard for inspiration!

So here she is a full year old: standing wherever she can find support and looking SO much like her big brother Barnaby did at that age.

We then had a really busy weekend, with daddy taking the two eldest boys to beaver camp, and Granny and Grandpa taking the two little ones to their house, leaving me to wax the floors, attend a wedding reception and participate in a 100k bike ride in 30 degree heat! My friend and I had a great ride and we were very chuffed. And then, of course, the weekend ended perfectly by Andy Murray winning the men’s Wimbledon tennis finals.

When the boys came home they were full of their fire making skills and had a special tool for this purpose. So the next day, they made the fire and I cooked for them.

All that eating helped Willow with her balancing on all fours, ready for standing.