I can’t quite believe that Alexi is 2 years old, but then I think all of us can agree that the past 2 years have been one giant, crazy blur.

Everyone remembers where they were the day South Africa went into what we thought would be a 21 day lockdown, to flatten the curve and help the health care system. The 27th March 2020. It’s a day I’ll never forget, because as an essential worker I drove, with goosebumps, through the ghostly streets of Cape Town to my radio show, in disbelief of seeing an empty city. It was also the day we celebrated the milestone of Alexi turning a mere 4 months old. Here we are 20 months later, celebrating him turning 2 years old today 2️⃣🎉🎈 on the 27th November 2021.
All but 4 months of his life have been in a pandemic and as this mind-boggling world continues to get even crazier, Alexi has been an anchor❤️⚓️ in our world. He is a reminder of what pure innocence and joy is. 🥰 He has always been able to calm me. It’s hard to explain, but even in the womb – if I was feeling anxious or if I was nervous before walking out on stage in front of 1000s of people, he’d give me a kick and I’d feel this serenity wash over me. In the world today, he has the same ability – with a look, or with a hug and I feel truly blessed to have him in our family and honoured to be his Mom. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the sweetest, gentlest, funniest, most loveable little boy, with the most contagious laugh! We absolutely love and adore you! ❤️❤️❤️🎉🎉🎉

It was Alexi’s first birthday in Greece and our Summer baby became a Winter baby! Luckily the weather was actually really great on the Sunday we had his party.

For as long as Alexi could speak, he’s been asking for a Peppa Pig Party Please – without the front p’s: “A ‘Eppa ‘ig ‘arty, ‘ease!”

We went to JUMBO, a store here that is just amazing – you can get everything. The joke is, it’s the store that tells you what you need ( and don’t even need, but will want.) I’ve tried so hard to stick to my list, but it’s impossible. I am in awe/disblief when I see people in the queue with between 3 and 5 items. How??
We bought party hats, plates, serviettes, party packs, bubbles, peppa pig, stickers, sweets, candles and so on.

In Greece, you can order pre-made cakes in different characters, but they’re usually a chocolate mousse cake. Cakes as we know it – like a sponge / chocolate/vanilla/carrot cake is known as “American cakes” and aren’t common.
I decided to bake his cake and I was actually really excited about doing it. I remember my Mom baking my birthday cakes and it was always more special.

Thankfully, I had some Betty Crocker help with the Devil’s Food cake mix and chocolate fudge icing. I baked 2 cakes and layered them on top. I was going to use Kit-kats as the fence, but they would have been too short, so I used the Greek biscuits (founded in Athens in 1922) called Caprice. They’re crispy wafer rolls with cocoa and hazelnut filling – they’re more-ish! The wafer actually went soft from the icing, but were still delicious!

I sliced off some of the bottom layer so that the top layer would fit snuggly and iced those as a little taster/ mini birthday slice for Alexi on his actual birthday!

Funny story around the Peppa Pig toppers… At the supermarket, they had these lucky packets of Peppa Pig characters that you can stick onto pencils. The idea is to collect all 12 and it’s a surprise as to what you can get. I bought some, hoping for the Peppa family and got George, Peppa and Daddy pig, but no Mommy Pig. The next day, I went back and I looked like a crazy woman feeling all the packets to see if I could make out Mommy pigs shape. I eventually decided on 4 packets and decided to buy all 4, with the hope that one of them would be Mommy. The one that I was really sure it was, I decided to sneakily open. I felt like I was shoplifting – it was so funny… but in my head, I was like, ‘well I’m buying it anyway – open or not.’

As I peaked into the torn open packet, low and behold, there was Mommy Pig smiling at me. I popped the other 3 packets back, saving myself some Euros and feeling rather chuffed with myself. Hey, we have to take the silly wins where we can.

We held Alexi’s party at Parco, in Vouliagmeni. We discovered this restaurant on an enclosed park, which has been amazing, because we can enjoy a meal and a glass of wine, while the kids play. I was actually worried because on Saturday night, it poured and poured and I was worried we would be washed out, but on Sunday morning, while it was chilly, the sun was shining and it turned into a gorgeous day.

We ordered platters of delicious Greek food and salads, chilled wines and beer and enjoyed the sunshine.

Sox and I had a moment of feeling sad and homesick because it was the first birthday party we were having without our best friends and family back home… but also really grateful that we got to celebrate our baby (not-such-a-baby-anymore) with our Greek family and new friends. It was such a wonderful day!

Thank you to everyone for making Alexi feel so special and celebrating our son-shine! 😉