F is for Family

Happy Friday, everyone! Nick's term finishes today and although there's plenty of research and writing to do during the 'vacation', he'll have no tutoring for six weeks - hooray!

Advent is a time of looking forward but also a time of looking back over the year that's just gone. In our family, it's been both happy and sad. We said goodbye to my Nan. My other Nan suffered through eight rounds of chemotherapy, which was horrible, but is now doing really well, which is great. Our little Sophie has brought us such joy and happiness. 

Sophie in January

Sophie in December

She's changed so much this year!

Family is such a wonderful thing. People to share life with. People who support you in tough times. 

Today, I'm really thankful for my family.

Bunting and buttercream - Sophie's second 1st birthday party

Hi everyone!

We had a lovely family gathering at the weekend for Sophie's second 1st birthday party. The birthday girl was very happy and good the whole time, though I think she was a little overwhelmed by all the attention. She certainly slept well that night!

Having two birthday parties was a necessity for us, as our home is not large enough for a lot of people, and I didn't want to miss out on celebrating with the friends that Sophie and I have made this year. The first birthday party involved babies crawling everywhere; the second was a bit more sophisticated! We had afternoon tea with champagne. The room was decorated with bunting and there was a lot of buttercream!

Sophie's first birthday afternoon tea party
Finger sandwiches
Birthday cake
Rose macarons
Scones, clotted cream and jam
Chocolate cupcakes
Fruit and crisps

The birthday cake was an iced lemon madeira sponge, and in keeping with the bunting theme I decorated with little sugar flags, and some simple sugar flowers. I made the cake in advance and froze it, iced it two days before and decorated it the evening before. It worked well! I was really pleased with how the cake turned out.

My macarons were flavoured with rose water and rose extract. I had to add way more than the recipe asked for to get the floral flavour. I'm still practising my macaron technique. I saw some on the Great British Bake Off the day after and felt how inferior mine were! They tasted good though.

I didn't take many photos at the party because I was busy encouraging everyone to eat (the British can be so reticent about going up to a buffet, even when they're hungry!) and enjoying the champagne. And admiring my little girl. She's grown up so fast.

Congratulations Sophie on turning one. Thank you for all that you are. We love you and we are so proud and thankful to be your parents.

Sophie's first 1st birthday party

This week, my baby girl turned one! How did the year go so quickly? I feel as if I blinked and missed it. It's been a truly wonderful year. We're so thankful for our sweet darling Sophie.

We celebrated on her birthday with a little tea, cake and Pimms' party with some of her baby friends and their mums and dads. It was chaotic! So many little people crawling around on our living room floor with toys everywhere! So much fun!

I made vanilla cupcakes in advance, froze them and then defrosted the day before and iced them with vanilla buttercream and pink sprinkles. The other party food was a simple all-in-one chocolate sponge cake with buttercream filling, baby snacks, fruit, and limoncello macarons, also prepared in advance and stored in the freezer. I'm still practising my macaron technique! And for drinks we had iced tea, fruit juice, and Pimms' with lemonade. I was happy I had done so much in advance, thanks to my lovely husband who looked after Sophie while I baked!

Here are some snaps from the day.

Happy birthday Sophie!

Proud mummy...

...and papa!

Pink!

Buttercream everywhere! Cupcakes, chocolate sponge
and macarons

Baby line-up

Enjoying the packaging more than the present

Oh my!
(NB. It's actually cream cheese on her face, though her papa
did let her eat a cupcake while I wasn't looking!)

Sophie's new blog

Sophie has a blog!

sophieannlouise.blogspot.co.uk

April already

Where did March go?

We've done lots of fun things recently. We took Sophie on her first holiday, to the Lake District.

Sophie has also been having a little bit of food. Lots of mess has ensued!

We had a visit from Nana, Grandad and Aunty Rachel. I made my usual Easter nests, and some simnel muffins, fruity and delicious and much less rich than traditional simnel cake. It doubled as a birthday tea party for Dad / Grandad!

Sophie's getting bigger, stronger, and more fun by the day. Here's a recent photo. I couldn't do a blog post and not include one!

Recently

Sophie's first lunch with mummy and papa in M&S Cafe

Learning to lift my head

This year's Christmas cakes

And our Christmas Day desserts

A hand-knitted present for baby James

Our Christmas reindeer!

Introducing Sophie

It's been a while since my last post. Things took an unexpected turn and we have been somewhat busy since then. Our little girl Sophie was born at 12.06 on Tuesday 4 September, six weeks and two days early, weighing 3lb 14oz at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. She arrived in a hurry, came out screaming, stayed in hospital for ten days, and has been bringing joy and night wakings to us ever since! We have been overjoyed to see her grow and progress. She's more or less doubled in size since she was born, and she gets more beautiful each and every day. Nick and I absolutely adore her and she is starting to show signs of adoring us, which makes my heart feel like it will burst.

The first few weeks at home with a tiny baby who could not breastfeed consistently were very hard. Sterilising bottles and expressing breast milk on a four-hourly routine was laborious, tiring, time consuming and a bit soul destroying. But seeing our Sophie grow and thrive made it all worthwhile. We have been blessed with amazing help from family, friends, and some wonderful professionals who have made all the difference to us. I am certain that I would have given up breastfeeding had I not had such help and encouragement. Happily Sophie is now fully breastfed and although we don't get it absolutely right each and every time, she is growing and is for the most part a happy baby. Parenthood is easy, broken sleep is hard, but we are getting through it as a team and we are so thankful for our gorgeous girl.