The lego brick cake

My eldest son Lucas turned 8 two fridays ago and as he is a massive fan of the Lego Wii games I thought I would make him a gold Lego brick cake.



It was some mean feat! I had to make 3 square cakes and four muffins (for the studs). As I only had one square cake tin this took some time.



14 eggs, 775g flour, 775g butter, 775 g sugar, the grated rind of 3 lemons and two lots of butter cream later. Ta da -



I added some fondant icing.....



.......and found this amazing gold spray.





He was well chuffed so think it was worth all the effort. this is a beast of a cake and think I may have put on a few pounds eating it!




He had three friends for a sleepover on his birthday and think they were impressed by the cake, look -



Lucas is the one coughing all over the cake!



Hotdogs for tea in home made rolls -



I am so glad I don't have to do all that again until September for Isaac. Phew!

B xxx

My big lunch Birthday!

Sorry for not posting last week but I was busy organising a Big Lunch.

If you haven't heard of it, its a nationwide yearly event that is held on the first Sunday in June. The aim of the day is to get communities together and may be meet new people and make new friendships by encouraging street parties, picnic etc. Sounds nice doesn't it? Well when I read about it I thought what a great idea and as it just happened to fall on my Birthday I just had to arrange one.

So I asked at work (The Plough Inn, Littlethorpe - which is a lovely old village pub that serves excellent food well worth a visit if your in the area) if I could do it there. Then I set about organising who would bring what buffet food wise and everyone brought a small amount of meat for the bbq.

I also bagged a bouncy castle to keep the kids entertained, which it did very well. I'm only on there to look after my friends 2 year old - honest! I didn't do a head count but there were at least 80 people, loads of food (which was all eaten) and the weather was good. What more can you ask. Also had a little whip round for some local lads that are collecting for a skate park to be built in the village and that made just under £35. Everyone that attended has said what a fantastic time they had.

I had such a lovely birthday and received some excellent gifts, which I plan to share with you next time.

B xxx

P.s. Also did some camping in Matlock and went to see the monster trucks in the half term.

I am so chuffed with how the photos of the monster jam came out, not bad for a pretty bog standard digital camera hey? Will share more later. I bet your looking forward to that aren't you?!

The Owl and the Pussy cat went to sea.......

In a beautiful pea-green boat.

They took some honey, and plenty of money

Wrapped up in a five-pound note.

The Owl looked up to the stars above,

And sang to a small guitar,

"O lovely Pussy, O Pussy, my love,

What a beautful Pussy you are,

You are,

You are!"

What a beautiful Pussy you are!"

Pussy said to the Owl, "You elegant fowl,

How charmingly sweet you sing!

Oh, let us be married; too long we have tarried.

But what shall we do for a ring?"

They sailed away, for a year and a day,

To the land where the bong-tree grows.

And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood,

With a ring at the end of his nose,

His nose,

His nose,

With a ring at the end of his nose.

So they took it away, and married next day

By the Turkey who lives on the hill.

They dined on mince and slices of quince,

Which they ate with a runcible spoon.

And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,

They danced by the light of the moon,

The moon,

The moon,

They danced by the light of the moon.

Lucas is doing all things The Owl and Pussycat at school. He has to draw them, learn the rhyme etc.... So I decided to make him an Owl and Pussy cat in a bag especially for his class to use when learning the rhyme. I plan to make up more of these to sell at in my Folksy and Etsy shops. I got the idea from my 3 babushkas in a bag -

I have also made use of this fantastic book that I picked up at a charity shop when Lucas was tiny. I pretended to Dan that it was for him but I bought it for the Illustrations (by William Wiesner - who I must find out more about and will share when I do), it is nice that it has come in handy in another way.

Thanks for reading,

B x

P.s. I only knew the first verse!! So I have learnt something too. What have you learnt today?

What! No! Really?

Yes it is true my little boy Lucas turned 7 today. I still can't believe it and it has gone by so fast. There were some hard times and at times these seemed to out weigh the good. It was so worth it!

I am so proud of the boy that he is and looking forward to seeing the man he will become. He lights up the room with his smile, he has so much energy (constantly going 100 mph! Well until it comes to homework that is.), is so kind (would hate to hurt anyones feelings), sensative (which is both good and bad, trust me I know) and just a complete star.

Happy Birthday Lucas!

B x

This evening we will be mostly making up his new Lego sets - yay!

Oh and I will be back tomorrow, the last 2 weeks have been a bit hectic!

Also forgot to tell you Lucas got an outstanding school report. I even had a little blub (cos I was so proud!), I seem to cry at almost anything these days - even got a little choked writing this.

Parenthood

Parenthood is the hardest thing you will do in your life but also by far the most rewarding. I love the Steve Martin film so much it really should be a classic. If you are a parent and haven't seen it, you must! From trying to take photos to kids dressing up naked but for a cowboy hat and holster. It is hilarious and you should own a copy for when you have had a trying day with the kids.

The reason I was thinking about this film is because I have a parents evening for my 6 year old tonight and I am very nervous. His last parents eve was pretty upsetting, I ended up blubbing! I don't really agree with the way they grade the kids at such a young age and am not bothered about him being the top of the class. What really upset me was that he got D for both effort and attitude. I know that he has improved as he got an achievement award recently for having improved so much. I can't help being nervous though. I am just hoping if I cry this time they will be tears of joy.

I was watching clips of the film Parenthood this morning and found out (I am a little slow when it comes to new TV shows) that NBC have done an adaptation of the 1989 film. The first season is now on DVD and you can watch the episodes here. I hope its good! Sounds like it should be, does any one know when it will air in the UK? Or have I missed it?

NBC Parenthood

Another plus is that Peter (Eye candy) Krause from Six Feet Under is in it.

Wish me luck!

B x

Snowing again! Yay!

Ok so I am a little slow with the snow photos. Here is my eldest Lucas on Tuesday at the park where we had lots of fun in the snow.

This is Isaac, jumping off snow mountain. Well its more like a mound really, but we do like to use our imagination.

The snow man, I must admit we cheated some one else had made a giant snow ball and we just added a head.

Lucas giving the snowman some arms .Yes, they are a little on the small side but we didn't tell him that. After all he went to the effort of hunting for sticks and was so proud of himself.

The hat and scarf would not be my choice but were kindly loned by one of Lucas' friends. I love this photo all the boys together, mine are the two in the middle.

There has been even more snow today! Another trip to the park on the way how from school, I think and more photos too!

B x