A Second Birthday Party

Eva is two! Blimey, that flew past. We celebrated by installing one of these in the back garden:

...and inviting a whole bunch of children, toddlers, babies and associated parents over to go to town on it. Did you know you can hire a bouncy castle for a mere £50? I may hire one every weekend going forward at that rate.

We provided birthday brunch (toddler parties take place at ten in the morning)...

Toddler Pimms...

And put all the drinks in the (baby) bath, as is the done thing at any self-respecting shindig.

I made a cake. This time last year, I spent hours trying to make one of those fancy pink ombre affairs for Eva's first birthday cake - I experimented with every natural food colouring known to man - pink! red! homemade blackcurrant juice! raspberry juice! cooked beetroot! Don't even bother, people - I must have made ten cakes (seriously, how on earth did I have the time?!) and after taking yet another cake out of the oven that had entered a glorious pink, and re-emerged a rubbish orangey colour, I eventually arrived at the conclusion that unless you use the Wilton gels (which two years ago came with big warnings that they weren't suitable for childrens' food due to the scary e-numbers they contain, although according to google they now seem to be freely available here in the UK), ombre cakes are but a tantalising blog-land fantasy.

Chocolate cake, on the other hand? Gooey, fudgey, rich, delectable, extraordinarily delicious chocolate cake? With smarties on top? Oh yes. That I can do. The toddlers were queuing up for second helpings.

And yes, that's a smartie missing. Someone *cough Eva cough* was too impatient to wait while her cake was being ceremonially cut.

Happy second birthday, baby girl. We think you're totally awesome.