One Year, Survival and a Village

As Nicholas’ first year rolled around on 20th March, the Love 5 spent the day at the beach in Torquay, Victoria, splashing in the water and building sandcastles, followed by celebratory ice-cream. I think it was that day Nicholas officially decided to become a surfie when he grows up, as he just loved being in the water (despite it being far too cold for this mumma!). It was a perfect, low-key way to celebrate our Littlest Love – our little family, just hanging out together and doing the things we love.

Given our Melbourne holiday was followed shortly by Easter, our official celebrations for Nicholas’ first birthday were a few weeks after his actual birthday. It was a casual Saturday afternoon gathering in a local park, filled with family and friends, balloons, kids and cake and, whilst not exactly sunny, I think with only a couple of light showers, we can say we managed to avoid the ‘Love-party-rain-curse’ for a change! It’s unlikely that our parties will ever appear as inspiration on Pinterest (I honestly wrote my first list the night before the event, but somehow it all came together) but, in my eyes at least, it was a beautiful afternoon. On a whim, we made a last minute decision to hire a face-painter and it was evident from all the beautifully painted faces and the fact that she hardly had a second to breathe between clients, that she was a hit. While my baby boy was a little overwhelmed by all the festivities and was happiest in Mum’s arms, I hardly saw my two big boys and, at the end of the party, Charlie asked if we could ‘all come back tomorrow’ 😉

As I mentioned to those who gathered with us, the party wasn’t just about celebrating this gorgeous boy who came into our family one year ago (although that in itself is a pretty good reason to celebrate), it was also about Ben and I high-fiving each other on surviving our first year of having three children in tow. But, mainly, it was about saying thank you to the village who helps us raise our children. We feel extremely blessed by the presence of these three beautiful, healthy boys in our lives, but we are also very thankful to be surrounded by family and friends who love our boys almost us much as we do. Their genuine love is always so evident in our lives.

I will allow some photographs of the special day to tell the rest of the story.