Party Time!!

On Friday we celebrated my middle son's 5th birthday.  It's mad to think that it's been 5 whole years since he barged his way into the world 5 days before my planned c/section date!  Creating drama from the start with a prolapsed cord and being rushed into theatre for an emergency c/section, sometimes it feels like I haven't stopped with him.  Still, I wouldn't have him any other way!

On Friday my mum and sisters came round and we had a bit of a family tea party.  We bought Aled some games to go with the second hand Nintendo DS that my mother gave him.  We thought it would be funny to give him the games before the DS.  Along with the DS, my mum also gave Aled a little case to keep his games in and an embroidered t-shirt.  My sister Susan gave him a t-shirt she brought back from South Africa and my sister Helen gave him a Lego Darth Vader torch.

After some snacks, we brought out the cake.  Aled is really into the Lego Batman game at the moment, so I baked a rectangular and a round cake and hubby shaped and decorated it to look like the character Harley Quinn from the game.  Judging from Aled's face, I think hubby did a good job!!

Yesterday we had a birthday party with some of Aled's friends.  As the boys are huge fans of Lego and of Legoland, we decided to hold the party at the Legoland Hotel.  On booking, I checked what was included in the price and although at first glance, it appears quite pricey, I was surprised at just how much you get for your money.  We got 2 hours in the hotel restaurant, table decorations, a buffet for the children, party bags and the cake!  When you think about adding that all up for a standard party in a hall, you would be looking at roughly the same cost, so I thought this was fantastic value.

Having already been pleased with my choice of booking the party here, I didn't expect to be completely bowled over with what we received!!  We got up to the restaurant and was shown to our own cornered off section of the restaurant.  One of the most child friendly things that the restaurant has (other than the play area in the middle of it) is the tablecloths.  They are like a giant colouring in sheet and with crayons on the table, the kids got stuck in! 

We then let the kids head off into the play area.  They all had a great time running around and with Xbox's set up with Lego games, the boys were in their element!  Our host was always around making sure that we were happy with everything and even offered teas and coffees for the adults.  So often at children's parties the parents are forgotten, so this was a really nice touch. 

When I gave the nod, the food was brought out.  I have been to parties at soft play centres before and have never been that impressed with the spread, but this one was fantastic.  There was plenty there to eat for not just the kids, but also for the adults as well.  I had booked for 12 children but only 9 turned up, but even with 9 kids and 6 adults there was still loads left over!

After the kids had finished, we let them go back to play.  Hubby took some of them to the outside play area and they had a great time running around out there.  Before we knew it, it was time for the cake.  Our host came out with about 5 other members of staff and we all sung happy birthday to Aled.  The cake not only looked fantastic, but I can confirm that it also tasted wonderful as well!

The cake was then taken off to be cut up for the party bags, which were also provided as part of the package.  Inside the party bags, we had a Lego mini-figure and Legoland pencil, notebook and rubber.  We did add to it a little by putting in a bag of Haribo and box of raisins. 

I would like to say a huge thank you to Legoland for making my son's party such a fantastic one!  I would recommend them completely to anyone considering where to have a birthday party in the local area.  

Jackie. x

Happy Birthday Noah!

Today my littlest boy turns 3.  I can't believe how fast the time has gone!  In just over a weeks time he will be donning a school uniform and starting nursery!

A few hours old

Noah has always been the laid back baby.  Where Aled was always quite highly strung and needed plenty of attention, Noah was the complete opposite.

Noah was born by elective c/section.  After having two c/sections and with the fact that Aled's was an emergency, there was no way that the consultant was going to let me have a natural birth.

I found myself more nervous the morning of this c/section than what I was for either of the other two boys, but everything went smoothly and he was in my arms in no time.  At 8lbs2oz, he was also my biggest baby!

Noah's ezcema

On the whole, Noah was a happy baby.  Even though he suffered from dreadful eczema from about 5-6 months old right up until just after he turned two, he always had a smile.  Most of his first year was spent on anti-biotics from the infections caused by his eczema, but this still didn't get him down.  From about six months old onwards, Scratchsleeves and sleepsuits with build in mitts were our best friend!  He is still prone to getting a flare up every now and again, but nothing like he used to.

As he's gotten older, Noah and Aled's relationship has blossomed as brothers.  There is the usual fighting (on an hourly basis) over toys, but you can already tell just how close those two are going to be when they are older.

He's a cheeky little monkey, but we wouldn't have him any other way. :-)

Happy birthday Noah!

Here is a little montage of my baby from birth to 3.  I hope you enjoy!

Jackie. x

Reason to Be Cheerful (#R2BC)

Well, it's that time of the week again and I have survived one more week of the school holidays! Yay! This coming week is a bit of an exciting week for us, so here are this weeks Reason's to Be Cheerful:

Picture from www.coolest-birthday-cakes.com

• Sunday is Noah's 3rd birthday!!  I can't believe that he's going to be 3 and starts nursery in two weeks!  Time has flown by so quickly, he will no longer be my little baby. :-(
• Of course, birthdays mean cakes.  Noah has asked for a dinosaur cake again this year, so I am going to attempt to make one like the one on the right there.  Wish me luck!!
• Birthdays also mean days out.  I am really hoping that the weather report is lying at the moment and really the weekend is going to be hot and sunny.
• The weekend off work.  Since starting my weekend job, I have made sure to book the birthday weekends off.  So a whole weekend off work, yippee.  :-)
• And of course, it's a Bank Holiday weekend, so even more time to relax.
• Today is Aled's last speech therapy appointment, so next week we can do what we like, when we like. :-)
• We had a great time at our play date yesterday at the park and had a nice picnic and fingers crossed, we will be having another play date again tomorrow.
• I got my first two sponsors for the Race for Life that I am taking part in in October.  The link is there on the right if you would like to sponsor me. ;-)

Well, that's me for this week.  What are your Reason's to be Cheerful this week?

Jackie. x

I found me some treasure Capt'n

As you know, yesterday was Aled's 4th birthday.  Currently he is really into Jake and the Neverland Pirates, so with this in mind, I decided to make him a pirate themed cake.  After doing a bit of a Google search, I came across this video of how to make a treasure chest cake.  Perfect.

First things first, I needed a 13x9" cake tin.  All I have are some standard sized round tins, so off to Amazon I go and end up with this one made by Wilton.  It was only when it turned up that I realised just how big a 13x9" cake was going to be!  My usual sponge cake recipe wasn't going to work for that!

So off to Google I go again, looking for recipes suitable for the size of the tin.  The only receipes that I can find are american ones, so in the end I settle for this Yellow Cake recipe.  What I loved about this recipe is measuring in cups.  It's so easy!  Why don't us Brits measure in cups instead of faffing about with the weighing scales?

I did have to trim off the edges, as they were slightly overcooked, but all in all I was pleased with the way the cake turned out.

One thing that I decided to do differently to the video was to use Chocolate Ready to Roll icing as opposed to butter icing.  I cut the cake into three and gave it a crumb coating using chocolate buttercream.  I then covered the base cake with a layer of the ready to roll icing.  I cut the small section into a wedge and placed that on top of the bottom layer using buttercream to attach it and covered that with a small bit of ready to roll.  Lastly I crumb coat the lid and cover that with the roll out icing.  I then cut out two strips of ready to roll in yellow and place that on the lid to look like straps and a small piece to look like the lock.

I used a thin layer of buttercream on the bottom and stuff a load of sweets in there.  As it's the wrong time of year to find chocolate coins in the supermarkets, I ended up using Quality Street & Roses sweets and Hershey's Kisses as the 'treasure'.  I then put another layer of buttercream on top of the wedge and put the lid on top.  I make sure that the middle is well and truly stuffed and hoped for the best!  I honestly couldn't believe that it worked! lol.

Aled loved his treasure chest cake and I was really pleased with how it turned out.

Jackie. x