Wild Boys & Girls / The Birthdays
Today's is a two-birds-one-stone kind of post, the main purpose of which to send up my amazing friend Annie Kruse, mum of two bonkers boys and designer of new kid's company Wild Boys & Girls. The second is to cleanse myself of the craziness of the past fortnight. Stay with me.I face the onslaught of September with an equal dose of excitement and sheer terror. It's the birthday month in our house. Of our five years worth of parenting thus far, we've spent the last two celebrating the kids' birthdays exactly one week apart. Mine in the middle. And that means two lots of everything-cakes included. Please don't ask me what we were thinking-we weren't.Although we can get away with quiet celebrations with Tabby for a few years yet, there was no escape with Reuben who had eight friends over to the house for a party on his 5th. I decorated our living space simply with paper decorations in black and white (naturally) and we organised a few games and simple snacks to keep everyone entertained. There were tears (apparently nearly fivers don't do competitive games) but the sun was out and we managed to defuse the chaos with fresh air in the garden.
I managed to get in some shots of the two of them in their Wild Boys & Girls 'T's about thirty minutes before the guests arrived - I think you can get a sense of the excitement! When Annie told me she was launching a monochrome kid's collection (she also has a range of posters and cushions) I knew she'd pull something seriously cool out of the bag. The collection has Native American, tribal motifs throughout with an urban, minimal edge and the t-shirts are super soft. I trust Annie's style implicitly and the quality is brilliant - she's put so much heart into this project over the past few months and I know it'll do so well. We are well and truly won over by this tribe!
The recipe for Reuben's cake came from Sweetapolita, who came up with this ingeniously moreish Double Chocolate Party Cake.
The paper garlands were a couple of evenings work, inspired by these from my recent visit at Room To Dream in Munich.
Tabby's cat cake was a combination of vanilla and raspberry sponge with the cutest little cat design I'd found on Pinterest via Coco Cake Land. She's a real cat girl.
And so that's me, hanging up my party planning hat for another year. You might want to check out my Little Parties Pinterest board if you're on the look out for ideas with a similar style. No gimmicks. No Disney. Promise.