A tale of two Birthday Cakes and some Mythical Creatures

Here we have the two birthday cakes. What a story! Lets start by saying, there was a party the day before her birthday at Tolosa St Reserve. We'd invited alot of people, and surprising many said "yes". This is awesome, but it meant that I had to make two cakes to make sure there would be enough. I was also making Fairies in A Meadow too, so initially I was going to make 20 chocolate fairies which had colour (see above pic). Well, I spent one and a half days (which I didn't really have) to make those. Each time I made two, one broke coming out of the mould. I also had an enthusiastic Monika who wanted to eat them straight away. So with the problems I was enduring I made the decision just to have enough for the cake, and to do plain chocolate for the Fairies in A Meadow. Well, I had enough coloured ones to do a fantastic birthday cake, having them all standing in a circle supported by their wings. Monika got into these a few times as everyone was curious and wanting to look and they didn't keep her away! Anyways, I'd saved enough to do the cake and have plenty of plain to do the Fairies in A Meadow. Then on the day of the party I FORGOT both cakes (both Gluten Free and Dairy Free by the way, and the white choc was sweet williams that is GF and Dairy Free, so I had made up a couple especially for the party in case there was a child who needed that). So... that meant she had two cakes for her birthday instead. Below is a Bratz Pixie cake. This was meant to be with Nan and Pop when we visited them at home so she could get her presents from them. Before we got out the door that day, she'd got in and eaten or bitten into all but these two left on the cake. The others were spares of the Fairies in A Meadow. So Above?Below is the result of two days of cooking. Not quite what I was hoping for... but at least the birthday girl enjoyed herself, right?

Below is just before the final eating of the cake (she's grabbed a fairie and started plowing in before blowing out the candles, its has melted a bit onto her face).

Here's a better picture. Look at that mischievous GLEE in her face. HaHa Mum, I GOT IT!

Here is the boys at Nan's place, it was cute so I'm sharing it.

Here she just blew out the candles with the cake at Nans, she was so fast I couldn't actually catch the glow of the flames...

So this is her second go at blowing out the candles!

Getting into her present bag at Nans. This is cute little story. She's a great cleaner upper, (why else would we keep such a cheeky lass around?) Nan's got a toy bucket, and she knows she has to put toys away when its time to pack up. As a gift, Nan had given her a toy with wheels and since a large majority of toys have wheels in the bucket she immediately took the toy from her pressie bag and put it over in the toy bucket.

Nanny has now taken a little something from us. Every time she gives the birthday child a gift she now gives a little gift to the others. Here they are enjoying little lolly bags she gave to them.

We gave Monika a COOL SCHOOL, similar to the DACS (digital art creativity studio) from Fisher Price. She loves it in short bursts. It takes the place of a keyboard for use in a PC, in fact it has a little keyboard, and a place to do 'writing' etc. She also got a Dora CD expansion pack for it, and a Littlest Pet Shop, way too young of course, but she wants to play so bad when the others do, so why not? She's over shoving every little thing into her goblet, so there is no danger there. As per our family tradition, she gave each of her siblings LPS toy each too, with the exception of Kai again, who got a Bee Beany Bear, which he was wrapt in again.

The Party: Here is the Dragon Pinyata, that Andrew put so much effort into making and it was the highlight of the BBQ party! So cute isn't it? Its paper mache and plaster of paris.

And here is the Pin the Tail on the Dragon game:

Here is naughty Monika trying her best not to be caught on camera.

Here is the costumes, theme: Mythical Creatures (I took photos of all the dressed up children, but I won't be posting them here without permission): In descending order, Kai is a Marine Orc, Dante a Swamp Monster, Labyrinth the MerFairy, Raven is a Tengu (Japanese Shape Changer - in this case he is a Raven), and Monika, the Fairy Princess. Monika and Labyrinth have new wings from the fairy shop. Beautiful aren't they? They can do anything to them, sleep in them wear them in the car, trample mud into them and they'll come up good as new with a wash in the washing machine. Great, aren't they?

The Mythical Creatures of course is an extension of the learning we've all been doing. We have not moved on from Greek Myth yet, we are amazed at how much there is to learn, that and it is on top of their other lessons, and sometimes we jsut don't get time to do it. That's all for now, Q.

Belated Birthday Blog

Firstly: Our Spring Garden. Well this is us weeding it and finding out after our very wet winter what survived. Well, we got ourselves a few cauliflowers and a bean stalk or two still OK, and our blackberry cane is going strong. Very pleased actually, chuffed that we have some hardly plants going, the cauliflower/blackberries are fantasticly hardy. YAY.

My very naughty princess above, after shes been into the gluten free flour, which happens on the occasions the older children leave the kitchen door open (frequently) or on the odd occasion we forget to (like when she's been asleep). OK we are all guilty, but at this stage there is no stopping her from getting into EVERYTHING... just a case of trying our best. But isn't she cute?

Well, it should be the birthday girl first, but blogger won't let me change the photos around without much screwing around so its this way. As I've mentioned in previous birthday posts before, our family birthday tradition is the birthday child gives a small gift to the her (in this case) siblings. So, considering the cute but cheap (in the big toy sales) small interactive animals were about, Monika got a baby duckie (fur real).

Ahhh, the birthday girl. Here is a littlest pet shop interactive toy $2 at Toy World. Makes her very happy, and it doesn't burn a huge hole in our pocket, since we're trying to be frugalish. On the other hand here are her new DSI accessories. These were quite well priced, all under $20, its the DSI that hurt. But we've made the decision to have these little hand held games machines for the older ones during the time we may or may not have electricity (or limited) while we build our new house. It can be recharged off the car battery as we drive!

Obviously this was the After above, and the During below, lovely blogger.

Below we have a wrapt Kai with his gift, a Wall.e PS2 game, he and Dante have played the demo that was free to absolute death, and when we saw this for $10 we thought - Christmas! Then we realised we didn't have a gift for him from Labyrinth, so guess what, he got this to his utter joy. So happy all round there.

Here's Monika with her duckie in a box, she's still not used to the whole notion of birthdays yet.

The best photo of Dante and his Trike, which is from the makers of Fur Real, only labeled differently. Kota and his dinosaur pals, he got the Trike...

while little brother Raven got the T-Rex. Considering that Labyrinth's birthday was late last month, these are still favourites with the children, all of the above presents, I think we chose well. I admit we get it wrong, I'm sick of buying toys which are forgotten in a week or less. These are not worth having! I spent alot of money on the Little People, which got a fair amount of use with the three biggest, but neither Raven nor Monika use them, they might use Duplo/Lego, but it's the rare toy they actually play with. Monika is a bookie kind of girl, puzzles and mischief is her prefered play activity, whilst poor Raven is just too sickly to really enjoy play. When he is up to it, he'd rather play silly buggers, racing around the house, now spring has come along, he's actually enjoying a little time in the dirt outside, and a bounce on the trampoline. Monika is actually fitter than he is, he has the energy of the couch potato many days out of a week.
I must apologise for the long gap between posts. Life has caught up with me and after recovering from my broken arm, I've had a few weeks of assignments, the last of which is due on Friday. After I finished my last one last Wednesday, I've been frantically organising Monika's 2nd birthday party, and had my first breather yesterday for the first time since Labyrinth's birthday. YAY the birthday season is no over, the beautiful weather is making me feel much better and I have been getting out into the garden a little (really must get those seedlings in tomorrow at the latest). I also have a great need to catch up here! So, I'll be doing my best to put up Monika's party, and a big catch up on thier school work very soon, but we're about to lose internet until Friday, so I'll do my best to get as much up today as possible! I've also have my assignment and getting a few last minute online things done. Til later then. Q.

Happy 7th Birthday Kai!

Yes, it's the season for birthdays... and everything was cut down alot in order to afford his big present, the Resistance Retribution PSP pack... (we didn't have an activity like a family trip to the movies - that doesn't happen... although he did want to go for a laser skirmish or Zone3 activity, again, this couldn't happen... and the other toys given out were quite small really)

Young Monika above with her new Baby Bratz boy (picked up for $5 at toy world)... and she loves it, I was so happy because I wasn't at all sure how she'd take it?

Dante, Raven and Kai all recieved the smallest transformers, this is intended to be both practical and ensure they'd want to play with each other.

Labyirnth got a Littlest Petshop Pet, its a badger.

Kai recieving a gift from the only grandparents he gets to see/have anything to do with as we're estranged from the others. Reasons too personal to disclose.

Birthday party and cake time, with Nan and Poppy, the cake is an army scene meant to 'replicate' the Retribution games ... army mad boy, but he loves yellow and cuddles and he's not violent or harsh, just a great child really, just his interests lie in a place I don't understand, but I accept that it's just him.

That was how we spent the day, just relaxing and slowed right down to just enjoy it. We didn't actually even have a new DVD or anything for him to play with, the only other thing that was special was we all had a steak each for tea, under $7.. Y Bone. Even so, we all had a great time, no one was stressed or rushed and we didn't have to pander to any one elses needs, and Kai went into his birthday fully aware that if he got this PSP that there would be very little else, and a very small christmas indeed. However on the upside, he's got it now and with all our future intentions it will be great during the time we don't have access to the majority of our things and the probable lack of electricity. Anyways, it has to be short today as so much is happening! Q.

Dante turns 8!

A half month on, unfortunately, here I am blogging about it! Such is life, at the moment. Very quick explanation before moving on, I have been diagnosed with Coeliac's Disease. I am starting a new blog about the recovery and an explanation of the disease here. The simple truth is that I have been too sick/lethargic/depressed (all symptoms) to get it together. I hope to be blogging at least weekly or more from now on though. Just because it is a requirement of homeschooling in Tassie. We are in fact considering a move to Victoria... and with that I still will blog but the requirements are far more flexible.

Dante's eighth birthday was celebrated with Nan at Richmond, on the green and a with a visit to the maze. It was a really, really great day, we had a picnic with rice balls and fruit. Nanny brought heaps of lollies and fruit for the children which was great too.

After our picnic, Dante got to choose an appropriate 'bear' from the Teddy Bear Shop, which was located on the green. Here they are with their presents. (Explanation: The birthday child gives a gift to each sibling so no one feels left out.)

Here's a pic of the birthday boy in his new clothes with his favourite gal. He really dotes on Monika. She's wearing her new clothes too. The cute story behind his choice of clothes is he wanted to pretend he was an office worker, all grown up. Too young to understand the implications of that, so it is simply tooties.

And here we have some photos from the Richmond Maze. We spent an hour exploring the maze and then we enjoyed a much deserved drink back at the cafe. The lovely guy who owns the maze/cafe used his calligraphy skills to write each of our names and to write a special birthday message to Dante.

Later that day we enjoyed a lovely steak and veges followed by a special kind of cake - a gluten free chocolate cake. It was very much enjoyed by all (excepting Labyrinth who has a mental distaste of anything that might be a bit alternative). They'll all be gluten free if Raven tests positive to Coeliac's Disease (or any do) in the next few months, then she'll really complain! But that is for the other blog!

OMG I FORGOT TO BLOG MY BABIES B'DAY!

So Sweet & Happy...

Admittedly, I've been very busy and enjoying life as much as I can, but that's no excuse! Monika was 1 on the 20th of September. She is now walking lots! She got a Little Touch Leap Pad and lots of books as her main present, a nice new skirt and butterfly top, and she and all her siblings had a wonderful day. Despite the rain and wind we had a lovely day, a play at Hungry Jacks where she was doted on by her Nan and Pop. The presents she gave her siblings were well recieved as captured by the camera above.

Below is pictures after the event. They enjoyed a community based Circus Feista at the newly built Brighton Civic Centre at Bridgewater. Not only did they get to see preformances, they got to do craft, get face painted, try out some fun "circus" type activities and feed on copious amounts of fruit kebabs, cake and other deliously healthy fare. Here they sport their puppets and their face paintings for the camera. This happened on Tuesday the 23rd of September. They were also reaquainted with their Aunty Michelle and her two children, J aged 4 and E is aged 11 months. They've come to visit from far off Perth-istan. They had a ball with them. Nan was also there to watch and help watch over the many grandchildren that were sprouting out of the nooks of everywhere.