Aurelia’s 1st Birthday
2021 was much like 2020, a year of interruptions, lockdowns, home-schooling and disrupted events.
Our plans to host a birthday party for Aurelia when she turned One at home surrounded by all our family and friends were dashed by the ongoing Covid situation so we had to adapt our plans.
Instead we ended up having a sequence of smaller events to celebrate.
Taking our inspiration from our daughters name we set a theme of “Golden Sunshine” for her birthday as play of words on her name: Aurelia Yun-Mei Kelly Ong. Aurelia is Latin for Golden whilst Yun Mei means ‘Golden Sunshine’.
We sent out to our guests the original invitation to her birthday party along with a change of plans note that invited them to join us on the day of the party for a zoom call instead.
With news that restrictions would be easing later that month we also included an invitation for a picnic for a month later. As the new picnic date coincided with the day she turned 13-months old we decided to set the theme of a “Baker’s Dozen Picnic” in a nod towards the 13-month celebration instead of the usual 12-months celebration. Traditionally baker’s used to slip an extra bun into your order if you ordered a dozen - hence the 13 bakers dozen reference. We also included a packet of sunflowers for our friends to plant a sunflower in honour of our daughter.
For Aurelia’s actual birthday, which was on Thursday the 7th of October, we went to the local park to enjoy some takeaway fish and chips and an orange syrup cake. As the grandparents lived in the same local government area as us they were also able to meet us at the park to wish Aurelia a Happy Birthday.
For Aurelia’s birthday I made a custom watercolour cake topper that read: Aurelia is One with a sun and flower image incorporated. We would use this cake topper again for the zoom call and Bakers Dozen picnic with friends and extended family members.
Despite predicted rain on the day, our sunshine girl shone brightly and the sun stayed in the sky long enough for us to enjoy our little picnic lunch. We are lucky to have a nice park and delicious fish and chips in our local area to have made the most of her birthday day.
For Aurelia’s birthday gifts we shopped at our local toy shop Toys and Tales in Beecroft. As retail premises were closed due to restrictions the staff did an amazing job by texting us toy options to choose from and wrapping them beautifully for us to then order over the phone to collect outside the door. As a small business owner myself it was important that we tried to support our local businesses doing it tough rather than jumping on the internet mail order bandwagon.
Aurelia loved the cloud walker we chose for her as her main birthday gift. As she has been gaining confidence on her feet she loved the freedom of being able to push it around and walk whilst holding onto the support rail. The blocks will be something she will also get years of use out of as her brother, aged seven, still enjoys playing with blocks also.
On the Sunday when we would have hosted the party at our house for all our friends and family we instead organised a zoom call. As our local friends would be joining us for the picnic planned for the following month the call instead was filled with friends and family living interstate and overseas. It ended up being a really nice way to include them in celebrations as they wouldn’t have made it back to celebrate in person anyway.
For the call I made a version of Queen Pudding featuring apricot jam (for our sunshine girl) inspired by the Blackberry Queen Pudding I made for Aiden’s first birthday.
In hindsight it probably wasn’t the most photogenic dessert to choose for a zoom call party and too messy to try and eat in front of the cameras as well! But then like many these past few years zoom calls can be tricky things to negotiate. Technology has never been a friend of mine so nothing much went to plan but it was wonderful to see the faces and hear the voices of distant friends and family.
What did work well on the zoom call though was the backdrop of honeycomb fans. I loved working with the honeycomb fans as they were easy to hang and I like the fact that they can be folded back up and stored away for future parties. I think when decorating for a party it is important to think about issues like sustainability when choosing decorations. I’ve always preferred to start by working with a background that is naturally interesting - like our verandah with the wisteria vines - and then adding in decorations like these paper decorations which add colour and vibrancy to enhance that setting.
The backdrop prettiness was completed by a beautiful bunch of flowers, poppies, paper daisies, chrysanthemums, roses and lisianthus that all conjured up those golden sunshine vibes from the theme that we were carrying throughout the different events.
A month later on Sunday, November 7, on the exact 13-month “birthday” for Aurelia we organised a picnic in the park for our local friends and extended family to attend.
With a forecast of rain and storms it wasn’t the easiest event to host and setup! With morning rain looking like it would ruin our plans we ended up setting up quite late once we realised there would be a brief gap in the weather around lunchtime.
We hung up the honeycomb fans from the zoom call from the rafters of the covered picnic table, set out a radiant yellow table cloth and loaded up the picnic table with lots of delicious baked treats.
In the tradition of baking a cake for my children’s birthdays I baked a lightly spiced sponge cake with the leftover apricot jam from the zoom call cake, covered with buttercream for Aurelia. It was my first time playing with different coloured buttercreams to make a patterned design on the cake, a sunflower of course! I loved the simplicity and prettiness of this technique so it is something I would try to do again one day.
Other sweet treats included some homemade lemon curd tarts, lemon squares made by my best friend Jasmin and some mini eclairs and donuts purchased from Dolcettini in Dural.
I also arranged for some flower arrangements to be delivered by Catherine from Ivy Trail Events to add some extra prettiness and make the picnic setting more special.
The flower plate you can see in the back of the above image was also another special little detail planned for the celebrations. As one of our lockdown school holiday activities we ordered a paint at home ceramic kit from Pinta Crafts. Aiden made a goldfish candle holder and I painted a flower plate for the party.
For the thank you gifts for my guests I handed out a bakery box filled with homemade lemon ‘sunshine’ iced shortbread cookies. I also included the recipe
As several friends messaged me after the party to say how much they enjoyed the biscuit they were rather thankful that I had included the recipe for them to make their own batch of cookies also.
Decorating the cookies was also a really enjoyable part of preparing for the party. I had made similar iced cookies for Aiden’s 7th birthday party and am liking the style of a light icing coating on a cookie and then painting in details using the edible paints made by Sweet Sticks that are available from Miss Biscuit. It also suits my watercolour style!
A third party also meant a third opportunity to wear a pretty party dress. For little girls there is so many options to choose from that it’s hard to stick to just one special dress!
It was definitely a good idea to have a picnic later on with friends - we had missed seeing everyone. Whilst the party was short due to the incoming thunderstorm that meant we could only party for a couple of hours, we made the most of that precious time.
Thinking back across all the days, it was interesting to reflect on how our daughter seems to be indeed well named. She surely must possesses sunshine powers - not only for the sunshine and laughter she brings to our lives.
The day Aurelia was born was forecasted to be rainy. Instead she was born shortly after 3pm in the brilliant sunshine, the rain held off for another day and a bit. On her first birthday there was supposed to be more rain but it didn’t rain until the afternoon once she’d gone home and fallen asleep for her afternoon nap. The zoom call was also another day of predicted storms - the wind picked up and the rain swept in just as we were packing away the honeycomb fan decorations. Finally on her picnic day with guaranteed rain and storms sweeping through we managed to sneak in a picnic for a couple of hours at lunchtime between storm fronts.
Another final element that we included across all three events was playing the song “Cover me in Sunshine” by Pink and Willow Sage Hart. This song is one that Aurelia loves, it makes her smile, and it also reflects both our experience in the last two years and also her sunny personality.
With all the different plans and uncertainty over whether events would go ahead we didn’t end up booking a professional photographer for any of the gatherings like we normally would have done for a significant event like a first birthday.
So one very final thing I did to mark the occasion of my daughters first birthday was to arrange for a mini photo shoot of the two of us at the beginning of December. I had seen Yuka’s amazing floral work and it looked like an amazing experience to try.
Hananingen is an amazing Japanese florist known for its beautiful artistry and Yuka runs the Sydney Studio bringing this floral practice here to Australia.
I gave Yuka a copy of the designs I had done for Aurelias birthday invitations as an inspirational starting point for her own creative work.
It was a really wonderful experience to see her transform those ideas into an amazing floral masterpiece. An even more amazing experience to be adorned with so many flowers. I felt rather like a botanical queen!
So in the span of several months and many different ideas we celebrated the wonderful milestone in life that is a child’s first birthday. Our daughter Aurelia who we love very much indeed.
