Happy Birthday Monkey

Waaaay back on August 31st Monkey celebrated his 2nd birthday.  It was a rather confusing day for all of us... not your run of the mill birthday.  Daddy had to leave for work at 6am so we decided to leave the normal morning stuff of presents and chaos until later when daddy was able to be there and we were all awake for it.  So our day started off with a school and kindy drop off like any other Wednesday then heading to the city for morning tea at one of our favourite cafes.

 They only had pink cupcakes, he didn't seem to mind

We love this cafe.  It's a lot bit out of our way and is a lot bit more expensive than other places but it has tables that the kids can draw on, a wonderful kids menu and toys and books and really good coffee.  That wasn't why we picked it though, Monkey's great Nanny had come for a visit and she was leaving later that day from the city train station and Aunty Chimera works just down the road so she could get an hour or so off work and join us.  So we had a special birthday morning tea with Great Nanny, Grannysaurus, Aunty Chimera, Aunty Juliette and our favourite Ladybug.

"It's just what I've always wanted"

Later that evening once everyone was home from work, school and kindy we FINALLY got to the presents!  Two small gifts that his brothers picked for him while we were on our camping trip in Winton (post to follow on that trip) and some more gifts and cards from family and friends and the gift to end all gifts... the Lego Duplo fire truck he has longed for and dreamed of for what seems like forever (to a two year old).

 CANDLES!!!

That evening we had a special birthday dinner.  His only request was that he had GRABY!  He has come to love gravy, it's amazing what he'll suddenly eat if it it's smothered in gravy.  So, with his only request being "GRABY!" (yes, it's always yelled, he loves it that much) I decided that a lovely lamb roast was in order... and a store bought cake since I was making cakes for his birthday party the following day.  So, decorated with only sprinkles and his little Muttaburrasaurus figurine he bought in Winton he had cake and candles... and he was beyond thrilled!

 "Who are these people and why are they in MY photo?"

We had a small gathering the following afternoon for his birthday.  His request was for "RAAAAA caycakes" which with my mummy interpretation skills I figured out was dinosaur cupcakes.  Still, our small gathering cleared up 45 dinosaur cupcakes!

"Mummy, someone has left footprints in my cupcakes"

It was a wonderful fun filled couple of days for my little two year old... as you can tell, he had fallen in love with dinosaurs after our dinosaur hunting adventure the weekend before his birthday.  Having a birthday 24 hours after returning from camping isn't ideal... but he had a blast and I'd do it again tomorrow for him if I had to.  I love little kid birthdays, they really do seem to be magical for them.

Dragon's Birthday

Dragon's birthday came fast on the heels of Lion's... Same as it does every year... it's just taken me a while to get to blog it. 

October 30th was Dragon's 4th birthday.  We started the day with presents and kisses!



Big brother kisses are very special... even if he does make it go on forever so that you can't unwrap your gift.

 He's not quite sure why Grandpap and Nano are sending him an eyeball... we had to explain that it was a science kit for him to do some 'sperimentin' with and I promise, his expression changed to a little more excited and a little less confused.

He received a Duplo Caravan Family set from mummy and daddy... this is the one I won waaaaay back on Childhood 101.  He loved it, I had done some careful implanting of ideas in his sweet little head when we were browsing the Lego aisles at the shops but he has enjoyed taking the family camping and combining it with the Duplo Camping Family set that Aunty Chimera got him he has had a blast... Though he did put aside the dad from the camping set... that way between the two sets there was a dad, mum and three boys... sound familiar?

We went small scale on the 'cake' after dinner that night because he was getting a real cake for his party (family get together) the next day.  We had some left over "rocks" from Lion's birthday cake so we piled one each on a plate and melted some candles to the plate and he thought it was the funniest cake but absolutely loved it!  The poor boy had to compete with two brothers and a father all trying to blow out the candles for him... but I think he got them all himself in the end.

The next day we gathered the family to celebrate the two boys birthdays... but we called it "Dragon's party" for the sake of peace.  Dragon had been trying to decide what sort of cake he wanted for days... it was a really big deal for him and none of my suggestions were working.  We were browsing in Target and he came across a silicone cupcake form for a butterfly where you can put all the funny shaped cupcakes together and they make a butterfly.  That was what he wanted, since I had been waiting for something definite to be decided I grabbed the form and we headed off... until two rows later the same sort of thing was hanging up only it was a car shape... well, the butterfly went back and a car was purchased.  They also do a dinosaur one but try as we might we cannot find it anywhere.  This was quite possibly the worst cake I have ever had to do.  I did try to convince him that I could do a better car without the form and we can use his favourite mint pattie biscuits for the wheels... nope, it was this and only this cake.

It didn't matter how close together you put the pieces the icing still ran down between them and left gaps, and they kept moving apart as I tried to ice them... but he thought it was wonderful it was his favourite colour and it was the car he had chosen.  I am so glad that even when he can be so picky about something he is still really easy to please in the end.  Just please, whatever you do, don't judge my cake decorating skills on this cake alone :-)  or my mad photoshop skills... you could never tell that I got rid of his real name and wrote in "Dragon" on the computer... could you?

Now, like all 4 year old boys who get a sword wielding ninja for their birthday... he used the sword to cut the cake.

I hope he never tries that trick with a real ninja sword!  The cake was my usual chocolate cake recipe but using gluten free flour.  So it was egg free, milk free, butter free, gluten free... it was barely a cake at all... but it still tasted really good!

Then to round out the excitement, on Monday he had kindy and wanted a cake to share with his friends like Lion took the cake pops for his friends.  I didn't have it in me to make another batch of cake pops so I just made a regular cake.  That particular day they were going on an excursion to the aquarium so I went a bit wild and made a Blue Linckia cake.  He loved it.

Again with the mad photoshopping skills :-)  And that is the best photo I got of this cake, I'll have to check if Kindy got any of him with it.

I think he quite enjoyed his extended birthday.  It seemed to go on for days and days, just rubbing in the fact that my sweet little Dragon was turning four.  But really, I was ready for three to be over, there has been a few struggles between us for three and four is so much more grown up... at least that's what we're working on.

Happy Birthday to my sweet Dragon boy.  xoxoxo.

Lion's Birthday

On October 26th, our sweet Lion turned Six.

The day started bright and early... and then had to just wait until Daddy woke up.

EVENTUALLY... Daddy woke up and we could get on with the present giving...

Attacked by kisses with each present, he didn't seem to mind.

This was a long awaited, long dreamed about, often talked about Lego model.  You can't tell how excited he was, can you?

As you do, Lion took cake to school for his birthday.  I tried my best to make something he had seen and fallen in love with.  I didn't tell him I what I was trying to do, just in case it didn't work.  Thankfully it kind of came together and Lion took cake pops to school for his class mates.

Cake pops shaped like Lego minifig heads.  Unfortunately I couldn't get hold of a proper pen for drawing on their faces and although the textas I had were non-toxic, with all the allergies and stuff around I thought it was best I didn't use them.

For their birthday they can ask for anything for dinner, Lion asked for pancakes with bacon and maple syrup.  After cake with his class that day and a birthday party to come the next day we compromised so that we could still have a 'cake' for dinner...

The next day he had a few friends over for a party (he only wanted 4 friends, I could not have been happier!) and we did cake all over again!

This one was a crystal mine with a rockmonster protecting it... we love Lego Powerminers here.

He was a bit disappointed that his party was 'just' in our backyard when all the parties he's been invited to for his mates have been at McDonalds or at an indoor play place or something but in the end he was happy to have it at home, I think he just thought that once you are at school, that is what you do because none of the others had partied at home.  He had a great time and all his friends enjoyed themselves and ate and ate and ate.  I had three very tired boys to put to bed that night.

Happy Birthday Lion!

Turning One.

Blogging brings up a whole new sort of denial... like, if I don't blog it then it didn't happen... right?  Like the fact that I haven't blogged about Monkey's first birthday means it hasn't happened... right?

RIGHT?

Oh, okay. It happened.  I can't get out of it, my baby turned one.

His last moments of zero.

The weekend before Monkey's birthday we had a little party for him... or for us, depending on how you look at it.  Just family and a few of our friends around for a sausage sizzle and a cake.

He got lots of presents.

He loved the help unwrapping his gifts.

He had a little chat with Aunty Juliet and Uncle Romeo about the screwdriver they gave him.

Of course, there was cake... very angry hungry caterpillar cake!  We wont talk about the cake and what it was supposed to be and what happened for it to end up having a last minute makeover and turning into a very angry hungry caterpillar.  It tasted yummy and that is what matters.

The family shot that you have to have... even if the birthday boy just really wants to get this all over with.

He had just learned to blow so I thought we might be able to get him to blow out the candle but he wasn't really sure what to do.  He had plenty of helpers for the job though.

He got the head of the very angry hungry caterpillar and he had picked the eyes off and gobbled them down before I could stop him.  He must have known that mummy would want to stop him from eating them.

On his real birthday he got the rest of his present...  Our toys have been slowly taking over the house so I asked people that may have wanted to give him a gift to contribute to one larger toy that would last longer.  So all the gifts he got at his party were pieces of this present...

Which his brothers were very excited about too...

He had a great time checking it out, making sure it really was as wonderful as it looked and then...

TADA!  I've got a cool tool bench.

We had plenty of cupcakes left over and plenty of icing too so that night we had another very hungry caterpillar.  Monkey knew what was going on this time and he wanted that cake.  He made the right face for blowing the candle out but still didn't actually get it to work...

I tried to get a photo of Wolf and his boys... Wolf looked at the camera, Lion smiled cheesily for the camera, Dragon tried to make Monkey look at the camera and Monkey wanted those little green eyes again before mummy got to them!

I think he had a good day.  He wasn't real well but he partied through it.

Dear Monkey,
It made me sad when you started being more independent as you got closer to your birthday.  Playing with your big brothers in the sandpit, wandering around the house up on your feet, feeding yourself more and more.  It also makes me very very proud to be your mummy.  Happy First Birthday, I love you!
xoxo Mummy.

Birthday Soup for Little Bear?

(image credit)

Man, I love that book! But no, our Little Bear didn't get birthday soup.  She got a birthday cake that tasted nothing like soup! (although one day I want to make her a birthday cake that looks like a big bowl of soup)

I made her birthday cake again this year (1st birthday cake here, 2nd birthday cake here) and she finally got that Cinderella cake!  We had a little conversation about what sort of cake she wanted for her birthday and it went something like this...

Me- What sort of birthday cake do you want Little Bear?

LB- Um, I wand an ithetweam take pweese.

Me- But it'll be really cold, are you sure you want an icecream cake?

LB- Um, yeeeeeah, I wand a warm one.

Me- A warm icecream cake?

LB- Um, yeah, dats wad I wand.

 

So, nothing like being set an impossible task, there's no way I can fail her, right?

 

We talked around in circles for a few minutes and decided that a princess cake would be good.  I didn't commit to a particular princess because I had no idea what I was able to pull off so I thought I'd wait until I could see what props were available and if it was going to be one of "THE" princesses or just your generic run-of-the-mill princesses.

 

I got to Target to check out the girls toy section and I found these cute little princesses with a spare change of clothes (because all good princesses need a spare change of clothes) and figured I'd find out which one she would like and make the cake in the shape of something from that particular princesses story.  I rang Chimera and started asking but then I had to stop and ask a mother and daughter who were standing there which princesses I was actually looking at!

 

So, Little Bear has a bit of a thing for Cinderella so I grabbed a Cinderella and went and cleansed myself with a stroll down the Lego aisle and started thinking about what shape to do the cake... at which point I realised I had no idea which story belonged to Cinderella.

 

I can pretty much sum up my princess knowledge here... Ariel is the mermaid, all mermaidy stuff is hers.  Belle is from Beauty and the Beast, the rest of them I can remember their names usually but as to which prince and which story the belong in... I'm lost.

 

So, I considered hunting down the previously mentioned mother and daughter team... but that might just be a little weird.  I mulled over finding another random little girl to quiz about Cinderella but figured it wouldn't help my cause to get locked up somewhere out the back of Target while I awaited the cops.  THE BOOKSHOP! I can go to the bookshop and look up a book on Cinderella (I make it sound like it's in the reference section, hey?) and find out what her story is.  On heading out though I got a chatty checkout chick... I shared that I was getting this to make my nieces birthday cake... she wanted to know more... I didn't know any more... so I asked her!  I had my suspicion so I just came out with it...

 

"Is Cinderella the one with the pumpkin coach?"

 

She gave me a blank look that I interpreted as "How on earth would I know?"

 

But it turns out it was probably more likely "Are you seriously dumb as a post that you don't know Cinderella's story?"

 

"Yeah... yeah she is" said the girl.

 

"thanks" I said and then mumbled something about having boys and never being a girly-girl and it wasn't on the QCS test and I never took Princesses and their back stories 101 at Uni...

 

So, I had that sorted, I would do a pumpkin/coach cake.

 

The weekend for cake making was really busy... time slipped past and it was the morning of the afternoon of the party.  I ditched any thoughts of actually making the cake and frantically headed to Woolworths to buy something, anything that I could shape into a coach.

 

We got home and I had four hours until the party but the baby was cranky, tired, grumpy, hungry... I got that sorted, I had 2 hours until the party... plans had to change.

 

I started making the icing... and I didn't have enough icing sugar.  I never run out, how did I get so low? I never let my self NOT have a spare bag in the cupboard.  I tore the cupboard apart and send Wolf out to buy more while I started making icing with what little I had... and shaping some cakes to look like a coach.

 

Then, I did something really stupid... I coloured ALL the icing I made the one colour (spilling the bottle into the mixture as I did it so it ended up much brighter than I anticipated)...

 

At this point I am considering dumping my HUGE batch of bright pink icing on one of the shop bought cakes and stuffing Cinders in the top and feeling secure in the fact that Little Bear wouldn't give a toss if I did that, she'd love it anyway.  But I soldiered on.

 

So, JUST as my big boys are returned home by their grandparents and with 1 hour until the party...

 

I finished the cake...

 

Then, with much fear, I carried it on my lap as we wove through the streets of our town to Little Bear's house for her party.  I had visions of turning up with a cakeboard filled with mess and smears of pink icing from my head to my toes... I didn't even want to think about how I would clean the car after that!

But we did make it, and the cake wasn't too bad even though it wasn't home made.

And although it's not a lot like what I originally intended it to look like, I think Little Bear liked it.

Help me if you can....

Now you will have that song stuck in your head for the rest of the day...

You're welcome.



So here's what I need help with...

I've gotta make a list...

Well, I don't gotta but I wanna...

30 things on my list...

30 dot points...

30 items long...

I need to do my list by Wednesday...

Because that's my birthday.

I want to do a 30 before 30 list.  I know a lot of people do these sort of list and I thought that with my 29th coming up it was a good excuse, and if I leave it another 10 years I'll have to think of 10 extra things to accomplish!  I figure with my history of non-stick-with-it-edness (it is too a word) this will help me to actually stick with some things and see them through so I can cross them off my list.  These things can be things that benefit me, things that benefit others, easy things, hard things, cooking challenges, craft challenges, stuff with kids, stuff with Wolf, whatever... within reason.

here is my list of what "within reason" means...

• No, I will not try a pole dancing class, but thanks for the suggestion, Em.
• I don't have a lot of money so for the most part they need to be free or use things that I have or can get/do cheaply.
• I am not interested in embarrassing myself just for the sake of ticking something off my list.
• I don't have mountains of free time to dedicate to weekly classes of any sort or that sort of thing.
• I'm not up for danger... I decided last night that I could swim in a cage with sharks (totally not related to this list, just a show we were watching on TV) and I could skydive, but really, I don't need to do those things and I do need to stay safe for my family's sake.

I started a list when I was out with some girlfriends last week celebrating one of their 29th birthdays.  I would like to do some things to benefit a couple of charities I support, I would like to cook my way through a cookbook, try a couple of crafts I haven't tried before, perhaps cook my way around the continents for a week, but I still have a lot of list space to fill.

So, put your thinking caps on and let me know in the comments... what should be on my list?

SK8

Part of Wolf's 40th birthday excitement was the loan of a longboard from the skate shop around the corner from his work.  The owner of this shop hates me.  He gave Lion a skateboard (and helmet, thankfully) for his second Christmas when Lion was only 15 months old... yes, a 15 month old with a skateboard!  Anyway, Lion has my co-ordination gene so the whole concept of balancing on the board is a little challenging for him, hence he has a lot of spills.  Dragon is still not prepared to stand on a skateboard yet so he has less spills but he is also getting to be a bit of a daredevil on his scooter.  I have already posted one photo of Wolf riding the board but here are some of my other two big boys from that afternoon...

boys = skinned knees

About to stack.

From memory he caught himself before the ground caught him.

He did not want to pose for this one, Daddy was just out of frame to reassure the nervous Dragon.

More than happy to pose for this one with his tough-guy look.

Just ignore the fact that he's also fixing up his hungry-bum.

These were going to be a part of a Super Sized Sunday Snapshot... Then Lion and Dragon puked their guts up all over the place.  We had DC and L over for dinner and had just got the kids into bed... I am pretty sure Dragon's isn't a stomach bug but was more of a sympathetic puke... Lion has continued to try for gold in the vomitolympics.

I think I jinxed myself.  I cleaned out under the laundry sink 2 weeks ago and found 2 almost full bottles of disinfectant, nearly 4 litres all up, and joked that at least I was ready for the next vomitageddon... looks like it's happening... never say the "V" word.  So, I have pulled all the towels that I was going to wash tomorrow out of the basket ready for clean up duty, I have a stash of chuck-buckets piled beside the boys door and one next to each of their beds, so as one is used it can get rinsed and left in the bath tub to be dealt with in the morning.  Now all I have to do is get some extra bedding ready to go and then I can go to bed and pray that all the preparation was unnecessary.  I hate puke.

Shhhh, don't tell anyone...

Wolf is having a birthday today...

It's a big birthday...

He's totally having a midlife crisis...

But I love him anyway.

Happy 40th Birthday

to my wonderful husband.

(the first photo was taken on Maggie Island two months ago, the second outside our house, this afternoon)

Slimey Slimey SLIME!

When you are having a Messy Construction Site Party you need some messy stuff for all the tiny little construction workers to play with. So, Dragon and I had a special little time on his birthday making 20 Litres of slime for the party. I had made this before but I couldn't remember the recipe so I looked it up and then I thought I would record it here for future use and to share with the wider slime loving community.

First you gather all your stuff. Because we were making lots and lots we needed a great big trugtub to hold our slime and the only main ingredient ingredient is... Lux Soap Flakes... shown here by my incredibly handsome model.

Measure out 1 cup of Lux for every 2L of water you want to use.

Start adding warm water. If you don't have a little tiny helper you can start with boiling water to dissolve it faster then add cool water to bring it back to a usable temperature. I just used water from the hot tap for the whole thing because I knew it wouldn't burn my sweet assistant as he stirred it with a whisk for me.

Once you put in the right amount of water just keep stirring. Add any colours you want at this point so you can make sure the colour is what you want. Adding it earlier can mean you add way too much or way too little. So add it now and put in a bit, stir it, a bit more, stir it, until you get the colour you want. The foam on the top doesn't colour much and will trick your sweet little assistant into thinking you don't know what you're on about. Not that you could tell that's what he was thinking from this photo.

Pull back the foam and prove to your chocolate coated assistant that it is a beautiful iridescent snot colour and you actually might know a thing or two about slime making. Only for captain chocky-face to inform you that you haven't got rid of all the soap flakes (they do continue to dissolve as it sits).

Leave it to sit and cool and the slime will thicken and get all slimy and goopy... tease your kids when they are in the bath by pretending to sneeze on them and flicking slime everywhere... Pull it out for your modified pass-the-parcel game for the next days birthday party.

After all your friends have left, put on your daggy clothes, grab any willing children and have a slime fight!

Just in case you missed it in all the fluff the recipe is... 1 cup Lux Soap Flakes, 2 Litres of warm water, stir until soap dissolved, stir in colouring, leave to sit and cool.

Dragon's 3rd Birthday

My wild little Dragon turned 3 on Friday. He's been my baby for so long it's been a hard one seeing him turn 3!

His day started in the usual way waking up early and waiting for daddy to wake up... um, nope, not this time! Poor daddy had been woken up early by the roadwork men to shift our cars out of the street so it was TIME FOR PRESENTS.

Lion was chief present presenter and huggler. It all happened so swiftly that I almost missed it!

The first gift was the two mini Tonkas off their cake from Sunday from Lion and Monkey. I know, it's almost re-gifting isn't it?

Then from Daddy and Mummy he got a Duplo car set and a witches hat (and one for Lion, I had forgotten to give it to him on his birthday and I thought it would help ease the "it's not my birthday" dramas that I knew Lion would have but it didn't because it wasn't the yellow and black warning tape that he knew I had and wanted for his birthday).

Monkey watched all the happenings with little interest, posed for a photo with his big brother and was thoroughly confused with all the excitement.

Aunty J came to play for the day and help me get the house ready for their party the next day and we went to the shops for a birthday lunch with Grannysaurus and Aunty J (Lion was at Kindy so it was a quiet day for Dragon).

We made some slime and did some baking in the afternoon which Dragon had a blast with!

Dragon picked his birthday dinner...

Apricot Chicken with Rissoni... which he then chucked a fuss about and didn't want to eat until the VERY LAST MINUTE.

And for dessert it was BIRTHDAY PUDDING!!! Yummy homestyle butterscotch pudding and custard. I know it looks like they are all blowing the candles out in this photo but it was Dragon that actually got it out!

So my sweet little man is 3. I'm so proud of everything he has learnt this past year and what a lovely boy he shows me he is every day. Happy 3rd Birthday Dragon!