A simple Hungry Caterpillar Cake

So as you may have seen in my previous post, for Zachary's first birthday I made a hungry caterpillar cake.

As with all my cakes my first port of call for inspiration was pinterest, I have learnt now though that what is on pinterest is not to my standard and not to be disappointed with my outcome afterwards!

As I wanted it to be simple (due to having some walls being knocked down next to the kitchen) I tried to not look at the big amazing cakes too much!

The sponges I made in advance, just a basic vanilla mix, I have started using vanilla bean paste instead of extract recently and love the more intensive flavour.

The day after I put some raspberry jam and vanilla butter between the 2 layers. Then I covered in white ready roll icing (which hurrah I managed to put on without any tears or crinkles)!

I'd bought a small pack of ready made icing colours and basically mixed some colours together to make a mottled/marbled look.

The caterpillar was made by simply rolling into balls and then shaping them by flattening them down slightly.

And then with the other mixed up colours I made up lots of small circles using a cutter, and with a little water stuck them onto the white surface. 

I stored in a cardboard box, I learnt from my cake making friend never to cover in cling film (which is what I always used to do).

It tasted lovely, and got demolished quite quickly!

Zachary turns one (post over a month late)!

So on the 6th May our little baby boy turned one!

One already! How can that be?

He really isn't so little anymore either, he's a tall and stocky lad, just like his Dad and oldest brother.

I know it's cliche but this past year has flown by and is all a bit of a blur!

Zachary is such a happy soul, you know if he's crying that there is a problem.

So content with the simplest of things.

His favourite toys are balls, and cars. He's often found with a ball in his hand or chasing one!

He's been so good with feeding, taking to solids probably much earlier than he was supposed to really, but it worked for him. I fed him up to around 7 months too which is the longest I have breast fed any of the boys, after that we transitioned him to his own bed rather than his next to me crib. It took a while for me to get evenings back due to him clinging to me most evenings and waking most times we tried him in his cot. Now though he is brilliant, he loves his sleep so much that he will have around a 3 hour nap in the day which the other two boys rarely did, some mornings we might be lucky enough to get a lie in off him-shame the other two don't though.

He adores his older brothers and loves following them around the place, the biggest smiles are always saved for when we pick them up from school, it melts my heart every time.

He is saying a few words now too, mama being his first, followed by dada, Alex (Ala), Sam (lala), hiya, and his first word to an object being Alexa haha. Since his birthday he has least 'ba' which is either ball, book, back, or balloon, and has perfected 'more, more' whenever there is a sniff of food or rustle of a packet!

He's been steady on his feet for ages, standing alone for quite some time, but only started proper steps around 12 months, since his birthday he has got more and more confident. He now walks unaided (with a few little falls on his bum) and if he falls he is straight up again!

For his birthday we kept it pretty simple, the weather was gorgeous, and as we were having walls knocked down at our place we couldn't have people over. So we opted for heading to the local Zoo for the day. My parents and brothers joined us too, we had a picnic and the all important birthday cake before introducing Zac to Cotswold wildlife park, somewhere we have enjoyed visiting for many years (even as kids ourselves).

I made a big vanilla sponge and filled it with jam and buttercream, I've always wanted to make a hungry caterpillar cake for a 1st birthday so this was my theme.

The cake was delicious if I say so myself. 

It was so lovely to enjoy a summery birthday, with the rest of us 4 having birthday's in Nov and Dec it was a real novelty.

We went to my parents for a BBQ and more cake afterwards, and it was the end of a perfect first birthday.

Just can't believe that is the last of the baby days, and last of  the baby firsts! *sob*

Ninja turtle party on a budget

Another pre Christmas post to catch up on!

Sam's birthday was in December and it was the day before James was due to head off to America so it was quite a quiet day, he had preschool all day too which I felt bad about but actually I think he loved being with his friends! We had presents opened on the bed before school and my mum popped over in the evening, he requested a picky tea and I'd made him a ninja turtle cake-his favourite character being Mikey!

 He seemed so grown up, he was super excited this year too, so proud to show off his bag with his badge on as he walked through his school gate. 

I felt bad but Sam's party was a little rushed in the planning, with James being away that week and little money it was hard knowing what to do and when to do it, in the end I had to do it when James was away, which wasn't ideal but it meant him having a party and not missing out!

He is mad on Ninja Turtles at the moment, in fact given half the chance I think he would sit there all day watching it! So the theme was easy, and I decided having a few of his friends here with my Mum's help would just about be manageable!

With my 2 included I think we had about 10 people, it was manic, especially the first half hour, but once everyone was there we sat them down at the table. 

I'd bought some green paper plates in Asda and cut some printables out to make some ninja turtle faces. I'd printed off ninja turtle colouring sheets too. I got the idea from this post on Mum's and Munchkins.

I'd also made a 'pin the mask on the ninja turtle' game for the children to play, with some only being 3 I think a few of them were a little scared to wear the blind fold to play!

After that we had all the ingredients prepared and ready to go to make some muffin pizzas, if you know ninja turtles you know pizzas are their favourite food!

These were really easy to do and were a big hit with the kids, the adults thought it was great to get the kids making the bulk of their lunch themselves too!

Simply cut muffins in half, spread with a little of tomato puree (or a mix of tomato puree and ketchup if preferred). 

Sprinkle on some grated cheese, along with any veggies, and hams and pop in the oven for about 10 minutes or so. 

Whilst I sorted food, we played pass the parcel-I always do a few extra layers just in case so it took up a fair amount of time ;)

After lunch and mini Mikey cup cakes we played some dancing games and gradually they left, and I collapsed for the afternoon whilst the boys played with the new toys, all in all the party was actually not too stressful and the kids all seemed to have fun which is the main thing. 

My Birthday at Bath Christmas market

My birthday was way back at the end of November, but November and December went by in much of a manic blur!

I'd had a Christmas market night at Alex's school the night before, and had been manically making away that week, as well as trying not to fall asleep on the sofa due to pregnancy tiredness.

Our friends had offered to have the boys for us for a couple of hours that evening and meet us at the market after feeding them, which was so, so helpful as I need James for the car to get me and my makes to the stall and also to help me out whilst there too!

As our friend is also a brilliant cake maker, I had a slight suspicion that the boys might be doing something cakey with her as James had been a little shifty and I had dropped quite a few hints in the lead up to my birthday about wanting a homemade chocolate cake for my birthday as I never get made one but always make them for others!

Anyway the first hour of the fair went well, and I sold about £50 of stock, it could have been better, but actually there really wasn't any footfall after the first hour, But still it made for good experience!

We packed up and the boys may have given the cake game away a little ;) we then enjoyed a nice kebab with our friends once the kids were in bed (proper meat not kebab van style)!

I was exhausted the next morning which was my birthday, we had arranged for the boys to go to James' parent's house and we were heading to Bath Christmas market for the main chunk of the day. James and the boys gave me some presents at breakfast which was lovely as I wasn't expecting anything as we don't have much money!

We picked up a cake which our friend had made and iced, but the boys had decorated it, it was such a lovely idea for them to do that and I am so grateful for the effort from our friends and for James arranging it for me.

We dropped the boys of and jumped in my parent's car to head to the train station, Dad decided driving to Cheltenham would be a good idea, but when we got there we heard an announcement that the trains had all been cancelled, a bit of an annoyance at the time but probably a good thing, as had we had got the train from Swindon, we would have been on a replacement coach at some point I am guessing!

As it was Bath Market, and the first Saturday of it, we probably spent over an hour driving around to various park and rides, Dad was fuming, I hated being in the car (as pregnancy was making me feel iffy) but finally as we were heading out of a massive (and full) park and ride a lady was walking back to her car, so James jumped out and walked back with her whilst Dad got the space!

I think it was after 12 we eventually made it into Bath market, and considering we had to leave at 4 it was a little bit of a stressful start to the outing!

The stalls were all lovely again (we went last year) with many different crafts, handmade goods and food and drink, unfortunately a lot a pregnant lady can't sample-but there's always next time!

I'd say a couple of downsides were how busy it actually was, we literally were like sheep in pens in one particular area by the Abbey, no one could move, you couldn't get to the stalls very easily and getting out to wider space was hard work!! The other downside being the stalls were pretty much the same as last year, with many of them pitching in the same place too, Last year everything was new to us so was all very exciting, this year didn't have quite that same affect as many of the makes were similar-don't get me wrong it was still lovely though, just not quite the same feeling for me.

I think going forward they could improve on maybe spreading the market out a bit more, I wonder if they could have some of it along the main stretch of the high street, but maybe this would loose some of it's charm. There didn't seem much in the way of musical entertainment, even just having Christmas carols or music on speakers would make a lovely atmosphere. Also maybe a couple of areas to sit and enjoy the food and drink bought too.

Yes I was as tired as I look!

Despite having money I didn't personally spend much, only buying one sweet Nordic style girl Christmas decoration, I really wish I got the businesses details too though as I'd love to get another, it was tricky to choose the style I wanted in the first place!

Edit: I've just spent 15 minutes and finally found the shop they were from and it's Salcombe trading, much bigger than I thought it would be, i thought it was from a small craft business, but pleased I found it all the same, just wish I had more pennies for the home items!!

After a few hours mooching it was time to head back as James' parents were sorting a birthday tea our for us all. The busses were very regular and apart from my Mum embarrassing us all when pushing to the front of the queue because we were first to miss the last bus it all went smoothly ;) The traffic was heavy getting out but all in all it wasn't too bad!

It was lovely to have a few hours back at James' parents and not having to cook or worry about food, the kids were happy to see us too, as much as I love them it was a well needed few hours away from them and I definitely would NOT recommend going to Bath Christmas market with younger children!

Proud of their hard work!

And to get back to that cake, it was divine, and VERY chocolatey, much to bump's and my approval :) If you are local and need a special cake I would definitely recommend Sarah (and not just because she is a friend)!

All in all it was a fantastic birthday and nice to be treated too :)

Alex's 7th birthday, Thor hammer cake

Firstly, happy new year to you all! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and a great start tot he new year too. 

Secondly I have a couple of catch up posts to write before getting into the new year posts so here is the first!

Alex turned 7 in November, he still really wanted a party this year, so we managed to scrape some money together for a bowling party, he had a few friends from school as well as James' younger brothers and Sam. They all had a great time, and it's the first party I've ever done where all I have had to do is supply the cake and party bags...apart from the price I can see why so many people do this as there was so much less stress. 

I just didn't think I could face a party at home this year with not long getting over the morning sickness stage, so bowling was perfect, and I think that age group is a great age for it too, anything younger I think it may have been more of a challenge! 

I made a simple Smartie covered chocolate cake for the party and then a 'Thor hammer' cake for back at ours later with our families. 

This wasn't the best cake I have ever made but Alex was happy with it, so that is all that counts really! I made a chocolate sponge, but the hammer was made from rice crispie cakes, really easy if not a little messy. I let the marshmallow/rice crispie mixture cool slightly before moulding into shape. I greased my hands up with butter whilst doing this and loosely wrapped in cling film too. For the hammer handle I moulded it around a kebab skewer leaving enough to stick into the hammer head. I let this cool in the fridge for a while before icing it. 

Alex loved it, but it had a couple of crude comments from my brothers haha.  

Snowed under!

It's been a busy few weeks! 

I'm trying to get myself organised for the Christmas evening at Alex's school, I have booked a table to hopefully sell my makes...! I'm hoping it goes better than the couple I tried in the summer months!

On top of that I have had some orders coming in too and I feel like I am juggling it all and panicking I won't have enough stock made up!!

With pregnancy tiredness and the dark nights I must admit I am getting a little stressed out about it. 

It's such a busy time of year at home too, it's Alex's birthday on Sunday, mine the following Saturday James the Saturday after and then finally Sam's on the 9th of Dec. 

As always money is at a tight squeeze, normally we try and cut costs on parties and have it at home but I just couldn't face that with Alex this year, we have booked bowling for a few friends, so all I have to worry about it making a Thor hammer cake on Friday or Saturday-I've not baked in so long so hopefully I get it right!!

Anyway I better get back to the making...

Do check out some of the latest makes on facebook.

Sam's 3rd birthday, and a Disney Cars and Planes cake

So last Wednesday my baby turned 3, and boy was he excited about it after desperately waiting after Alex's, mine and James' in recent weeks!!

Sam is a little character, every one thinks he is quiet, but he doesn't miss a trick and takes everything in! Once he gets to know you he will eventually talk, and he really can chat! He loves puzzles, cars and planes in particular, and can at times be a little lazy ;) he suddenly seems to have grown up a little, loosing his toddlerish ways, very good considering he will be starting preschool after Christmas (woop, woop)!

He is a HUGE lover of films, I will admit he often watches one a day when I need to get on my work orders, and it has become a little bit of a bad habit (oops). But he is a big lover or all things Disney and will happily sit through many of the pixar films in particular. His favourites being Cars and Planes, (although Toy Story, Wreck it Ralph and The Incredibles), and although it changed many times, he eventually settled on wanting a planes and cars cake-it was always going to be a chocolate one though!

I used the same chocolate cake recipe as Alex's Iron man cake, but I must admit I think I over cooked it slightly! I made one deep cake and then two smaller cakes and layered them up with some butter icing.

Then the fun/scary bit...decorating it!

He's asked for blue icing and that's what he got, it took me a while to do all the elements but it was really fun making the bottom half look a bit like radiator springs from Disney cars and then making the top half looking like the sky and using the planes shaped logo from the film cover.

I made some mini bunting for a finishing line using paper, cocktail sticks and a black pen, a little fiddly but it was needed I thought.  I cheated and used some of our mini figures as I didn't see the point in making icing ones!

We had a few of his little friends over for a party lunch, we didn't do games just had a play as in past experience, party games with 2 and 3 year olds is not a great deal of fun! Then in the evening we had family over for cake too.

He had a great day and loved all his gifts (mainly Planes themed surprisingly!) and is now looking forward to Christmas too!

How to create a simple Iron Man head birthday cake

So as you may have read Alex turned 6 on Friday and he had asked for an Iron man cake, at first I was filled with dread but in fact the cake was relatively easy, normally when I bake birthday cakes, or cakes of some importance something goes wrong, but this one time it didn't (phew)!

I baked 3 large rectangle chocolate cakes, 2 x 3 egg cakes and the bottom layer being a 4 egg recipe to make it slightly thicker.

I printed out an iron man template (plenty found online) and cut the template out of the cakes (each layer separately).

Then layered the cakes on top of one another on the board I was presenting the cake on with a thin layer on vanilla butter icing to bind them and underneath the cake so make it stick to the board.

Following some images online and the template guide I started to carve the cake into a shape, I probably could have shaped it slightly more, but I didn't want to go too far and ruin it-this was the first time I have tried cake carving after all!

Once I was happy I put a thin layer of butter icing over the whole cake and put in the fridge to harden for about 15mins creating the crumb crust (something I probably haven't had the patience for before now but I now know why it is vital)!

This year I bought my icing from Hobbycraft using the Renshaw brand. This is the first time I have used them and I will definitely be using it again, it rolled so nicely, I have never been able to ice a cake without it tearing or sticking terribly, but miraculously this time it worked pretty much perfectly for a novice baker like myself! I used as little icing sugar as needed and followed this ladies tutorial for tips-and it worked for me!

I covered the whole cake with red icing, then used my template for the yellow icing and likewise for the eyes.

For the black outlines I used some black decorating icing also from Hobbycraft, by squirting some into some decorating/writing tubes I own using two different thickness's. I will admit I wasn't as happy with the result of this but I think it looked better once it had dried as I liked the cake much more the next morning! You really need to concentrate and mind your hands with this, I had kitchen roll on hand to clean the nossle regularly which helped.

I was so pleased with the cake, and it got lots of complements, I hear the kids even ate it before they got to their cars (I did feed them honest)!

Superhero party on a budget (games and ideas)

So last Friday my eldest baby turned 6, and yes I say this every year but where did that time go?

He has flown through his first year at school and now we are almost at the Christmas nativity (in which he is one of many shepherds)!

Alex has a thirst for information and since I bought an Usbourne Atlas book for him for Christmas he has loved Geography and also finding out which things are in which country which is really great and nice to see he wants to have knowledge of it all too.

Being a typical 6 year old boy he is also in to many typical boy things like lego and superheroes so there wasn't really much surprise when he asked for me to make an Iron man cake for his birthday-I did however persuade him that making the whole of iron man would be a bit tricky and that just his face would be a lot better ;) for my cake tutorial please check in this weekend...

With money being usually tight I knew we couldn't afford a 'proper' party this year as they are just so expensive, but luckily Alex just wanted a party at home, great I thought until we saw the list of people he wanted. The thought of 16 kids in the house with just myself, mum and James to control them was a little un-nerving but we got there!

It was chaos and they were hyper but we did have some vague plans and times at which to do it! Pinterest as always was invaluable! (Here's my board for the party for more ideas).

I had spent hours making lots of super hero masks using these templates. I think I made about 20 so they had a choice and to leave extras in case any went wrong or got lost. I used cereal boxes and then covered in coloured paper, this would be a lot quicker if you have thick coloured card (I just tried to make it as cheap as I could for myself using bits we already had)!

Alex's mask

I went onto Baker Ross to find they have some super hero stickers and tattoos, I also needed star stickers, sticky back gems and elastic for the masks, they also sold glow sticks which I needed for a game and for the party bags.

They came in and made their masks straight away-this actually didn't take as long as I had hoped it would ;)

As some were finishing up their masks they gradually all queued up to play pin the badge on batman. I'd just cut a large black piece of paper up in a rough batman shape and used yellow paper to make the badges and stuck double sided foam shapes on the back.

After that Alex wanted to play traditional games such as musical bumps and statues which they all really liked as most kids that age do.

Then we played the game 3 corners (usually 4 corners but it was in our lounge so had to cut one corner out due to space) I placed a super hero in each of the three corners, the music played and they danced in the middle, when it stopped they ran to one of the corners whilst I had 3 pictures of the super heroes behind my back and picked one-whoever is on that person are out and you just play on until there is one left.

Then I manically got some of the food sorted that couldn't be done until last minute whilst they played this game, which my husband said they loved. They sat down on the floor in a circle and I got a bunch of 6 green glow sticks taped together and we called it kryptonite (which kills superman if I am correct). Basically they pass this around to music like pass the parcel, but whoever landed with the kryptonite was out and instead of waiting around they came into the kitchen to get their food. This worked really well as meant there weren't 16 kids all around the table choosing their food at the exact same time. James said it was quite hard to get to a winner so the last two spilt the 6 green glow sticks to keep in their party bags.

As we had so many children and have so few chairs in our house we put out picnic rugs on our kitchen floor for them to eat on, surprisingly they really didn't make too much mess and they also had very healthy appetites, I am not sure the school fed them lunch that day!!

We did a typical party buffet of pizza, sausage and cheese rolls, sandwiches, cheese and pineapple, crisps, bread-sticks, cucumber and carrots. After their savouries we sang our happy birthday's and then moved onto dessert.

I'd made a traffic light jelly, and made plenty of cupcakes, I'd bought super hero toppers for them on eBay which Alex loved, I also put out some biscuits of party rings and chocolate fingers!

After the food we played a quick game with some t shirts and balloons, Alex and two others who he chose wore James' and my old tops and we had blown up plenty of balloon (really small) and the kids had to fill the tops up to make them look muscular like super heroes. This was a fun game but it did get rather hectic so would may be better with slightly fewer children!

I loved how Alex ended up looking

After that we had about 10/15 minutes to spare and we were reaching the end of our tether slightly as they were bouncing off the walls, James put his projector on in the playroom and they started watching The Incredibles until their parents arrived-they were sat down so quietly for this and it actually worked out really well for pick up time too as we just called them out with their parent was there.

Alex had a great party, and although hectic there were no problems and for the most part the kids did behave (James did however move his TV upstairs after it nearly being knocked a few times in the first few minutes!), I am hoping next year Alex will choose slightly less children though ;) As ever my mum who works in a nursery was the best of help too, don't know how I would do it without her help!

We had our family over literally straight after so I didn't get to sit down until late at night and then couldn't sleep until gone 2.30am, Sam delightfully woke me at 6.30 too...! The next few days we spent building and playing new Lego sets mainly as he was so lucky and had lots of new sets along with lots of other cool gifts too! I would say that's all the birthday's over for a while but it was mine yesterday, James' on the 3rd and Sam's on the 9th Dec!

A Lego themed party on a budget!

Now Alex, like many boys loves Lego! It was a no brainer that his party would involve a loosely Lego theme! We booked a hall and had around 20 5 year olds to entertain (thankfully with the help of Mum who is a nursery teacher-phew)!

Lego colouring
As with all parties you don't get everyone turn up at once so we had printed various colouring sheets for the children-these were all found online and there are plenty to choose room. We had a range of the Lego movie characters mainly.

Create a Lego Man
One evening I had a really great time cutting out 20+ Lego figures out of yellow card. I manage to fit 3 on one sheet of A4 to give you a rough size. I had ordered lots of stickers and googly eyes for the children to decorate them with and gave this as an option as well as the colouring. Some of them really came out well and my two are pleased there are plenty left for them to use when we draw and make now.

Lego brick game
This is a twist from a game my Mum plays with nursery children at her school. Have four coloured cards behind your back and 4 coloured blocks in each corner of the hall. I had decorated them to look like Lego bricks by covering boxes in wrapping paper and then super-gluing circles to the top of them (the things we do eh)! Basically when the music is playing the children dance and jump about and when it stops they have to run to corner. I am sure you can guess what is next...when the person holding the cards pulls one out the children on that colour are out. When you get down to 4 children or less they have to run to different coloured blocks rather than being on the same one. The kids really enjoyed this and we played it quite a few times!

Pin the piece of resistance on Emmet
It couldn't be a Lego party without Emmet involoved or of course a pin the...game! I actually drew this the morning of the party in a rush-the boys have since enjoyed colouring it in. I just cut out red paper 'pieces of resistance' and took blue tac with us. This is quite a good game to do whislt someone brings the food out!

Lego head cake
I simply baked egg sponge in a brownie tin I have which is square with rounded edges, and also a 2 egg sponge in a loaf tin. The square shape made the perfect Lego head shape, and I just cut the loaf cake into the right lengths for the top and bottom parts. I spread yellow icing all over (I used butter icing because I suck at rolled icing!) and then cut two circles for the eyes and cut a shape for the mouth out of black rolled icing.

Lego moulds
These were probably the only thing I really spent money on-Lego figure and Lego brick moulds that I bought on eBay. I melted chocolate into the brick moulds (I had tried using food colouring with white chocolate but it didn't work out) and left to set and then used fondant icing to make the coloured Lego figures-bit tricky to get out so if anyone has any tips on that I would be grateful! These would be great if you wanted to use for making your own crayons too.

Lego party cake cups
Now this year I just did not have the money to spend on plastic tat for party bags, neither the money to buy Lego stickers or anything remotely good to give so I decided the main part Alex usually gets excited about is the sweets anyway! So I filled up some normal plastic cups with some sweets and the Lego chocolate bricks and placed a cupcake on top which had yellow icing and a Lego icing man on top too. Wrapped and tied with cellophane and ribbon to make something simple look a bit nicer!

Hope these ideas will be helpful for you, apologies for some iffy photos I forgot to take proper ones on the day as was too busy preparing food and getting everything together!

Sam turns two!

(Before I start his birthday was last week...oops!)

Well it 2 years since you made your slightly early entrance into the world-two years, how?!

You have grown up so much this past year, you are generally such a happy soul.

Your blonde curls made an appearance in the first months of the year- I am not quite sure where you get them from as neither your Dad or I have curls! But boy don't you get a lot of comments on them-and you love it too although you shy away and hide with a little coy smile on your face!

Like many 2 year old's across the country Peppa pig is one of your favourite programs and you pretty much know all the characters which I am not sure is a good thing or not! Although to be honest you will happily watch many children's programmes given the chance-one thing I know we need to try and stop a bit is the tele watching!!

Happy with his George pig top!

You adore your older brother (squabbling aside!) and want to be just like him, you can often be found copying his games or trying to join in a be much older than you really are. It is so funny and wonderful to hear you saying things like 'come on buddy' when playing your cars.

Talking of cars, you love them! You can often be found lining them up and creating races, sometimes getting half of our Hot Wheels cars out and taking over the lounge floor!

In contrast to Alex you aren't scared of many things, I always find it funny (and frightening) when Alex is scared of glass balconies in shops with split level and won't go anywhere near it yet you press your nose against the glass and look down, and sometimes can even be found trying to climb up!!

You are generally quite a quiet boy who just gets on, you potter around ours and other family members house and sometimes we almost forget you are there as you are very content. However you are very strong willed and when you want to (or don't) do something we know about it!

Along with your logic you are also pretty amazing at talking, you are now stringing together many words to make sentences, and are even managing to get the tenses of some words right which does surprise quite a few people. Your funniest thing at the moment is doing a Welsh accent with a saying that my Welsh Grandma says-it's actually pretty good as far as impressions go!

We didn't do too much for your birthday as you were a little unwell (and I think we were all birthday'd out!) but your friend G came over for a short while and a small amount of family in the evening for cake.

The cake requested was a 'chocolate Peppa pig cake' so of course that's what I made-not my best cake but you certainly didn't seem to mind!

You had no trouble knowing what to do with the presents this year and got straight into opening them and were obviously desperate to get the items out of their packaging!

on his new wheels!

Happy 2nd birthday! Now we need to work on the terrible two paddys that have appeared since your birthday! But until then I am really looking forward to a Christmas with you and Alex this year!

Birthday (party) pooper. Is it selfish to want to feel special for a day?

So yesterday I turned 25. Yep quarter of a century, half way to 50, I know, I know.

Now if I am being honest I wasn't expecting a great deal, I know I wasn't going to get many surprises as knew a few items I was getting from mum and one from James. Due to moving this year we also aren't buying each other much too. That didn't really bother me though.

The morning itself started with Sam coming into our bed at 3am, kicked about for a bit before deciding he'd actually go back to his room. After tossing and turning for a while I went back to sleep for about an hour for him to come back in- I just started drifting back to sleep again before james' numerous alarms rang to wake him (and me!!) for work around 5am. I just got back to sleep 10 minutes before my alarms went off, cue tired mummy-great start to the day!

It got much better from then on though, Alex came in giving me one of his big squeezes before remembering it was my birthday and shouting it out, for Sam to follow suit and to do the same.
they had breakfast whilst I enjoyed opening the pile of cards whilst they sang happy birthday and told me they loved me-very cute. Especially upon opening their card in which Alex had drawn this for me...

It's us 4 in a double decker bus apparently :)

We did the normal school run whilst my phone happily beeped away in my pocket with birthday messages. Then it was a normal morning, I ate breakfast and enjoyed Sam, I even caught a cute video of him talking and singing happy birthday to me! (I'd love to share it but not 100% sure how to off my phone onto here!)

My youngest brother had a day off due to an exam so met him after lunch in the new Costa for a drink which was nice to break the day up. Then headed off to collect Alex & my brother kindly dropped us back too so no afternoon walk back int he cold-woo hoo!

Then the day just got boring, the kids squabbled, moaned for food, I was tired from lack of sleep and after changing the 3rd dirty, smelly nappy of the day from Sam I felt a bit flat. I was glad when mum popped over, as she was the only one who did all day.

I already knew I had no birthday cake, James said he was going to make one the night before but understandably was too tired and Sam refused bed until late that night when I was at netball. I can't remember the last time someone made me a birthday cake, or even 1 single cupcake which I would have been happy with. I try and make birthday cake for so many members of our family on their birthdays...

I was adamant I didn't want to cook so gave the boys leftover pasta bake from the night before and hoped something would be made or bought for me later....but that didn't happen and I ended up with McDonalds as my birthday dinner (after a bit of arguing as I wasn't being helpful in saying what I wanted, when really I didn't want to choose I just wanted something done for me as a treat)!! At least I had my favourite dessert I made the day before to enjoy afterwards. We did nothing special that evening just sat in front of the box, just like any other day...

I was down and moody, James tired from work and well I felt it was another birthday that I missed that special feeling, I don't mind not being showered in expensive gifts that doesn't bother me. I much prefer the effort someone has put in-not that I would say no to a lovely gift or course ;)

I just feel that I put so much effort into everyone else birthdays, just wish I had the same back, just once. I know I don't like eating out so that ruins the easiest thing to do on a birthday evening but just a nice home made meal would have done for me.

Apart from our wedding day I can't remember the last time I felt special, really special. I just hope that next year will be better, or am I just being selfish and asking too much? Is it too much to want one day of nice surprises/treats a year when you are a stay at home Mum with a husband who works silly hours?

Is my birthday doomed for the foreseeable future, it comes at the end of the month, before pay day at the most expensive time of the year-another problem we had this year is James had no money to even buy me a cake, and had to use my credit card to buy my birthday card and small gift from the boys (in a last minute dash to the supermarket the night before my birthday-nice last minute planning...)!

When I've been asked whether I had a nice day I haven't filled with excitement and smiled, I've just gone "it was ok, didn't really do much", maybe I am just feeling silly and selfish, but is it really so wrong to just have a day to feel great?