Diaries of a white mother raising a black baby: A baker, a photographer and an over the top mother

Emma's 1st birthday party was a small very understated affair, with a couple of Hello Kitty paper plates, a bought pinada and a few friends. Nothing wrong with that of course,but I have since realised just how much I love throwing parties for my kids.

And so n the 3rd February we celebrated Ben's 1st birthday at the gorgeous George & Lucy's in Chartwell.

Celeste from Cilla Bloom Photography took the pics for us and what a splendid job she did. Looking them through again makes me smile a lot. The little guests had a ball and so did the birthday boy...and that's all that matters.

Danielle from Moemas did everything to do with the food, from the beautiful cookies, the Mickey Mouse cake and the ingenius fruit cake. Keri, the face painter, was an absolute hit and happily painted and repainted faces...

The essential styling bits, like the letters 'B', 'E' and 'N' were either bought or hired from In Good Company, the little party shop that has everything you want but nothing you actually need and the rest of the things were found around our house and made by me...

The glass vases I bought for Emma's 3rd birthday and just dusted them off. New ribbons were bought to wrap around them

The gift boxes were bought at Plastic Land, the washi tape from In Good Company and the little tissue paper flowers were made by me. I also made the little tags and used baker's twine. The tissue paper mickey mouse shaped garland was a quick cut out job done the night before...

I didn't put anything in the party boxes, except for the Disney Pez dispensers. The idea was for the guests to fill their boxes with whatever they wanted. We did the same for Emma's party and it worked well

The garland with the party hats was put together by yours truly. I found some old fabric around the house, as well as cupcake 'cups' and some glue. A bit of sticking here, pulling there and tying fabric in between and VOILA..

Without a doubt the piece de resitance! Danielle's brilliant fruit cake.

The little red wagon was a Christmas gift from Ben's granny (my mom) which came in handy to hold the bubble sticks. These were bought from Toy Zone...

The dessert table inside was very much my 'Pinterest' dream but Danielle and I figured that the party table for the little ones should be fun. So we hired the sunflowers and the big bug from In Good Company. The toadstools were recycled from Emma's party last year. Danielle also made Mickey Mouse shaped lollies with sherbert for dipping.

The Mickey and Minnie Mouse ears were purchased from China Mall and The Party Spot in Woodmead.

We did a little makeshift photo booth. I bought a frame from Makro, removed the glass and hung it up. The props come in a very cute little box from In Good Company and are reusable

Keri the face painter did an amazing job and was more than happy to spend a little more time with us just so she could get everyone painted. Emma of course started off as a lion, like her friend Charlie, but then wanted to be Spiderman, just like her friend Luca.

What's a Mickey Mouse party without a cheese station? I found this cheese board while we were on holiday in Knysna (yes, they're available in JHB, but I'm a bit OCD like that). I also bought a cake stand, 3 buckets, 2 bowls and a giant glass bowl IN KNYSNA. Which was transported back to JHB with 3 suitcases, a nappy bag, an Emma and a Ben...