HNY

A year in (very mini) review: Two new nephews. Arlo's first steps and words. Dream job realised. Brilliant pals and family. Lots of laughs (and a few tears). A looong summer. Wonderful weddings. Being part of our little family of three, the best team going. Balance.

If 2013 was a year of change, then 2014 was a year of settling in - to being a family, to figuring out this working mum thing, to living in the country instead of the city. To sharing so many amazing things (like babies and bumps and engagements and weddings) with friends and family who deserve it all. I'm not sure what I want 2015 to be a year of, I think I'm going to wait and see what it becomes.

Baby love

      

My little sis is about to pop with her first baby (D Day is actually today!), and I am just so excited! I couldn't resist throwing a little baby shower for her to celebrate, mainly as an excuse to get all her lovely mates together for prosecco and cake. My main aim was to give her a relaxed, fun shower that wasn't overly-cheesy - we didn't particularly fancy sniffing melting chocolate in nappies (!) so I searched for some alternative games that would help break the ice while actually being a laugh at the same time:

    

1. Please don't be alarmed, these are not actual babies. They're our predictions of what my sister's baby (Baby Woods for now) will look like. We printed off a selection of pics of generic babies, and a load of different photos of my sister and her boyfriend so that everyone could do some good old cutting and gluing and make a merge of the two of them. The results were not only really funny (I seriously hope my nephew doesn't have a goatee as some of the guests predicted) but also mildly terrifying. We stuck them on the wall in a baby gallery for the rest of the shower, and I saved them all in a scrapbook of the day that I made for my sis after so she could cherish / be freaked out by them forever more.

2. The next game required a little prep in advance. I filled a baby vest with lots of little baby things and sewed up the arms and legs so everyone had to feel and figure out what was inside. There were 20 things in total, ranging from a safety pin to a condom (it was all the things a new mum needs, after all).

3. The last thing I did was give everyone a plain white baby vest and a load of fabric pens and let them get creative designing something personalised for Baby Woods. My sister picked a winner at the end of it (we did a blind judging, a la the Bake Off) and she got to take away 12 different mementos from the day which will no doubt come in very handy soon enough!

    

And then we all ate cake. So much cake. I think every guest brought something homemade and delicious with them, so we had more cake than any of us could ever eat, but we gave it a good go! So after the games, and opening of lots of tiny and very cute baby gifts, we rounded things off with cake and prosecco. It was the best day.