The last day of being 4....

The smallest member of our family turns 5 tomorrow.  Five!  Blink and you miss it.  Seriously!

 

Who doesn't remember those last final moments before you meet your new person?!

 

 We were a little jaundiced.

 

Turning 1 with a babushka party.

 

 

Turning 2 with Humpty Dumpty and our obsession with all things Play School!

 

 

Turning 3 with That Rainbow Cake from Pinterest!!!

 

 

Turning 4 with an almost life size Peppa Pig cake!

 

 And here we are, almost being 5....

 

Stop.  I want to get off now.



The boy turned 9!

 

We went vintage Womens Weekly Birthday Cake this time round....

 

 

...The Football Cake!

 

Does everyone else do the present unwrapping on their parents bed?  We snuck the bike in behind him while he was unwrapping another exciting gift - socks and jocks!

The Dimples!

 

We went to Bounce in Glen Iris.   It's basically a massive warehouse full of trampolines! I quite possibly might have had a bounce or three myself.

We also dealt with a massive green eyed monster today.  Poor Isaac - every gift Oscar got was all of a sudden the only thing he ever wanted in his entire life!  It was all very melodramatic!

 

I learnt a big lesson myself today too.

Never kiss a 9 year old boy in front of his mates.  Not even if you are the closest girl when the knife hits the bottom of the cake!

 



 

Happy Birthday Oscar!  We love you very much!

My creative space...The Peppa Pig Party

Better late than never, right?!

 

Miss Matilda turned four at the start of the month and we went with Peppa all the way!  She really is the bees knees and quite hilarious as an adult to watch... especially since I read somewhere recently that a close inspection of Daddy Pig reveals a head that closely resembles a dick and balls!!!

 

(I'm sure Matilda will love reading that when she gets old enough to trawl through this blog!)

 

It was a hot hot hot day so the party had to stay inside (unfortunately!).

 

Party games included Musical Muddy Puddles, Pin the Tail on Peppa and Pass the Piggy Parcel!  I also managed to make mini Peppa Pig colouring books for everyone to keep them entertained at the party table! Party bags included Peppa Pig hair clips and pony tail holders found at the last minute at Best and Less...score!

 

 

The cake might have been a little on the large side!  The benefits of the husband owning a bakery meant that I was able to ask him to bake and bring home a slab cake to cut Peppa out of.  He walked in with a cake almost a metre long and half a metre wide!!!

 

Below is how I've made lots of my birthday cakes and it generally works out well.  I would normally bake a standard size cake or cakes earlier in the week and freeze them.  On the day of cake construction just take them out of the freezer and cut out the shape/s you need.  Cover completely with buttercream icing and then use the ready rolled stuff like a jigsaw puzzle on top!  Because the cake is frozen there are virtually no crumb issues when cutting out the cakes and the chill sets the buttercream icing really well.  By the time you get around to cutting the birthday cake the next day you have one deliciously moist defrosted cake to eat and enjoy! 

 

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Other lovely creative spaces are right this way!  

 



Isaac is 6!

I spent the day baking today for this spunky lad.

 

All he wanted was a $100 note...

 

... The Skylanders Game...

 

 

... and a new remote controlled boat since Milo accidentally ate the last one!

 

Tomorrow we are off to the indoor skate park for his party with a slight Mario theme to it so the grand cake baking had to happen today.

 

Pinterest on the iPad acting as my guide to various Mario cakes on the interwebs.

 

I covered him with buttercream icing, only dipping my finger in once or eleven times!  (Really, how can butter, sugar and vanilla essence taste so good??!!)

 

I colour and then cut out all the pieces I need like a jigsaw puzzle and lay them on top of the buttercream layer.  For Mario I only covered the top, not the sides cause I don't know how to do edges without messing up the icing!

 

So handsome!

 

 

Ta Da!!!!

 

Some of his proportions are a little off, like his mouth is a wee bit small, but the birthday boy loved him when he got home from school today and that's what really matters!

 

 

 

My creative space...

Isaac turns 6 tomorrow!

 

Clearly this... 

 

 

... is NOT going to be finished!

 



Those four missing squares at the bottom there... once I have done those, I'll be halfway...as long as I don't count the weaving in of those dastardly ends or coming up with a border of some description!

 

Want to create something similar in crochet? Three round grannies are your answer... even four would make this project a little less, um, lengthy! 

 

Five!  It's a wrist killer! 

 

 

A work in progress

I had a dream....

 

(don't mind my shoes!)

 

I think my dream got to big.

He is currently just shy of the width of our king size bed.

I still have 164 squares to do and join. 

The ends to sew in

An edge to do.

 

Each square is taking me about 16 minutes.

 

16 x 164 = 2624

 

2624 divided by 60 minutes = 44 hours (rounded up)

 

That's 44 hours of work peeps to just get the squares done.

Before the 26th of October.  Isaac's birthday.

 

I had a dream...

And am now having a nightmare!

 

(but, my word, how cute is Mario going to be!!!!)

Birthday bonus.... Tonsilitis!

Ahh, 37.  What a welcome you have given me.

It started on Sunday night when I went to bed with a funny tickle in my ears that seemed to reach it's fingers into my throat.  Monday I just felt weary.  It started to hurt when I swallowed.

Tuesday, my birthday.  I had grand plans of meeting some lovely friends for lovely coffee whilst being lavished with lovely gifts.  Instead I woke up at 3am vomiting with achey bones so bad I sobbed while my husband snored.

Is there anything more pity party inducing than spending your birthday lying on the couch moaning?

I did manage to bake my own birthday cake on Monday afternoon.  A very sad looking replica of the sewing machine from the Australian Women's Weekly Birthday Cake Book.  At least the kids liked it, and I have bags of left over lollies in the cupboard since I only used a couple for decoration anyway.

And I did end up with lovely gifts of course....

Birthday money was used to finally pick up the ipad I had on layby.  It only took me three hours last night to crack my wifi security so that the bloody thing could work!

And some very lovely friends of mine spoilt me with a lovely pile of goodies too!

I'm off to Hobart next weekend (all by myself!!!!) to catch up with some friends and family so I am planning on celebrating my birthday a little better then.  Salamanca Market, The Stash Cupboard, dinner out, staying in a hotel.  Yes please!

Have you ever been sick on your birthday???

Birthday Month!

August is Birthday Month for me!  I insist a fuss be made at least a week either side of the actual date which gives interstate relatives and friends plenty of time to get their large and cumbersome gifts in the post.  I love my birthday!  I still count down the sleeps.... 12 to go for those interested parties!

I'm hoping my ipad gets picked up from layby (a marvellous invention that...layby. I've picked it, put a deposit on and will just hand over the receipt!)

I've booked a weekend away in Hobart for the end of the month too.  Since I am originally from Tassie, I'm quite looking forward to catching up with some friends and family and most importantly spending an entire morning wandering around Salamanca Market WITHOUT ANY CHILDREN!

I'm also hinting to anyone that will listen that I want the sewing machine cake from the Australian Woman's Weekly Birthday Cake Book!

Birthday Month started with a bang when I won this sweet little prize from Amelia and Atticus blog.  I realise it's not for me but I have as much fun putting the girl child in cute outfits as she does wearing them so I benefit as well in the end!

In other news, I'm thinking of returning to teaching!  We are just waiting for Darren's work to settle into some kind of routine and I then I'll start picking up some relief teaching days... I hope.  Going through some old photos last night I came across this smashing effort I made for Book Parade Day....

 I totally rocked that Cardboard Hippo Sandwich Board Dress Up! 
The book - Too Loud Lily.

 My teaching buddy and I.  Bek was Wanda Linda from The Terrible Underpants!

This must have been 2002/2003 before Oscar was born.

Happy Thursday everyone.