Tyler's 5th Birthday & Fireman Sam Birthday Cake ♥

It's no secret that I love taking photos, but strangely enough, for big occasions such as Christmas or someone's birthday, I never seem to take many photos at all. I guess that's a good thing as I'm living in the moment instead of observing it behind a camera. But still, I do like to take some snapshots of our times together, as I love looking back - as does Tyler now he's older.

On Friday my lovely Tyler turned 5. I've had this beautiful, happy little soul in my life for half a decade now and I couldn't be more proud of him.

Sadly, Jacek had to work on the day of his birthday, so I made sure that he had the best day ever. I was able to bring Tyler downstairs on his own in the morning to let him open his presents as Beau was still asleep. I was so glad it turned out that way as it was nice for this to just be Tyler's moment.

He was absolutely delighted with his gifts - a whole host of Fireman Sam playsets and Sylvanian Families toys too, all perfect for his very imaginative self.

I took videos of him opening his gifts to show Jacek when he got home. Jacek has asked me not to share the videos on my blog or social, wanting to keep these moments just for us and our family and I totally respect that.

I don't do birthday parties for the boys, it's just a personal decision. So instead, I took Tyler and Beau to the softplay, where Tyler's best friend Luke and his baby cousin Eliot were there to meet us.

By chance another of the boys good friends from school arrived at the same time as us, Tyler was delighted and I'm sure he thought I had set the whole thing up! Tyler later told me that this was his favourite part of the day.

In the late afternoon some of our relatives arrived to celebrate with us and Tyler finally got to try a piece of his cake - he had been asking all day to cut it!

I got him a Fireman Sam cake with lemon sponge on the top and chocolate biscuit cake on the bottom, it was delicious!

He loved the decoration of it too and had great fun popping his characters on the ladder.

He had a smile on his face the whole time his 5 sparkler was lighting and was delighted by everyone singing happy birthday to him. I was so happy that people had come to celebrate with us.

Putting him to bed that night he told me it was "the best birthday ever" and my heart melted. It wasn't a big, fancy birthday or anything, but it was full of all the people and things he loved and that made it just perfect to him.