Goodbye Dummy

So this big sookie boy is about to lose his dummy.  Santa picks up dummys from two year olds on Christmas Eve and gives them to more 'needy' babies.

As parents, there is nothing we can do about it so don't blame us Tom.
Besides there should be enough else going on that a little thing like no dummy for bed shouldn't be a problem right? right?
Here is the book that explains it all....

Volcano Cake

The next in the series is Charlie's 4th Birthday Volcano Cake.  I have no idea where this idea came from. It is certainly not in the Cake Book.

First step was making the flames.  I smashed up red and orange lollypops and melted them down.

I was quite pleased with the result..

Next I made two of my favourite chocolate zucchini cakes in ring tins and stacked them on top of each other. Covered them in chocolate ganache, sprinkles of red sugar and lava. The six candles banded together made a great high flame.

Thanksgiving

Our first thanksgiving was so much fun. Especially because Mum was here with us so we had a beautiful table with an ironed tablecloth....

 Charlie and I painted and cut out Turkeys with thankful thoughts on the feathers.

We cooked everything we were supposed to...Roast Turkey, mashed potato, sweet potato, bean casserole, two types of cranberry, apple pie, pumpkin pie...phew.

  This is me attempting to carve the turkey.

A lazy session at the park was required afterwards! 

Best new surprise was Cranberry Salsa.
1 pound cranberries, 1 orange, 3/4 cup sugar. Blitz it up!

Cat Cake

Here is the beautiful cat cake I got from the boys for my Birthday....

Charlie's 4th Party

Well here is the big 4 year old all ready to take on the world..and his first proper kids only party!

Food: A vague animal theme.  Owl cheese biscuits, hedgehog watermelon, cat pizzas, duck fairy bread  

and a volcano cake!

Games: We painted pet rocks, played a hyped up pass the parcel (first time for many), did a picture only dino egg treasure hunt, and a calmer pin the bug on the flower game. 

We ended with a pinata that our squirrel had been trying to get in to all afternoon much to Mums delight.

Favourite quotes from party:

"Our house is WAY bigger"

"Can we come to Charlie's next party"

"My favourite animals are wizards (lizards)"

"Where did you learn to do all this Ms Bianca"

The Map

Here is a 'map' of our Californian holiday.  Charlie looks looking at it and taking it to preschool to show everyone where he had been.

 

Tom On: Constipation

An overheard conversation:

Tom: "Charlie you want a super fruit? (prune)"
Charlie: " No thanks Tommy"
Tom: "They tasty and make your poo not feel ouchy"

Clever boy.

My First Halloween

First Decorate the House:

Mice on the Stairs

Owls in the trees

 Andy's awesome pumpkins

 Spiders and Bats

Make some food:

Squid Dogs - fun to make by poking spaghetti through dog pieces before cooking.

Pumpkin Fruit - sort of...

2nd round of owl watermelon after first exploded all over the floor.

Get some friends looking silly:

or cute

Trick or Treat time:

Ahhh that was fun...till next year...:

About a Corn Maze

The last hot weekend of fall. It will be snowing by wednesday, and Andy is very keen to get to a corn maze.  So keen we arrived at 9.10 to find it didnt open till noon.  So we went for a walk...

Built a bridge and crossed it....

Had some hot chocolate (clever mum)

Found some barrels to ride in....

Finally the corn maze...hot, tired, hungry, lost...

Lucky for corndogs...food on a stick that can be eaten on the way home..

Colour Treasure Hunt

Today to make the walk to the park more interesting we went on a colour treasure hunt.  It was a surprising success.
So.... I got two egg containers and put a little colour sticker on each pot.

And then we started collecting.  We even got some help from a friendly gardener on the way who also gave us some seeds to plant in the garden.

The best bit is we can use them again if I hide them for a week or two!