eleven today

A new beanie, a long sleeved top and a fleecy jacket, all ready for winter in Scotland! Some new clothes and shoes for Ellen Grace, some pretty tattoos, a roll on perfume, and an iTunes voucher. I think you AND Ellen Grace were a bit spoilt today! Happy Birthday darling girl!

XoXoX

thirteen

I don't have to look hard to see the same baby face from all those years ago!

Our Harry is thirteen today. He is such a great kid and I am so unbelievably proud of him. Ben and I both are.  He never ceases to amaze us with his capabilities and creativeness. I can't wait to get started on these teenage years - something tells me the best is yet to come!

Happy 13th Birthday Harrison!

nine

I don't believe it - NINE!
You are one cool cat Miss Matilda. xxx

friday favourite

my favourite photo taken this week (taken on Ben's birthday)

on the eve of eight

Our sweet darling girl Matilda. Tonight you are seven. Tomorrow you will be eight!

Friday Favourite: Legs Eleven

Here's my favourite photo taken this week. I'd love it if you'd share your Friday Favourite too, just add a link to yours in the 'comments' below. 

PS We ate ice cream cake for breakfast this morning! Parent of the year :) 

It's a week old, but follow this link to Cristina's Friday Favourite...it's super cute!

Friday Favourite: Birthday Bedhair

Ben's Rice Paper Rolls

Ben makes a pretty mean rice paper roll. Seriously.  Just the other day our mate Kristy wrote us an email asking Ben to send her a list of the ingredients he puts in his rice paper rolls (see I told you they are good). When he and Till cracked open a new packet of rice papers for lunch today and started chopping and grating and soaking I ran for the camera! 

So here's that list of ingredients, just for you Kristy x mwah (kisses are a bonus)

Ben's incredibly delicious rice paper rolls 

- the filling -

:: lettuce - all chopped up (Ben uses kitchen scissors)

:: a handful of chopped roasted peanuts

:: a big bunch of chopped coriander (we like HEAPS)

:: a smallish bunch of chopped fresh mint

:: a grated carrot or two or three

:: a big splash of sweet chilli sauce

:: an equally big splash of tamari

:: chopped cold meat (today Ben used left over cold pork....but sometimes he uses BBQ chicken or cooked prawns)

:: a packet of rice noodles - softened in hot water and drained

And that's it! I'm not going into the knitty gritty how-to. Those instructions are on the rice paper packet. I also haven't given exact quantities cause that's not how this works for Ben. He just throws it all in a bowl and mixes and tastes and then adds whatever he feels is missing!! Yes....it's a very scientific process.

And yes my Ben is manly enough to wear that babushka doll apron. Real men are. If you don't have a cute little carrot grater girl like we do, we can probably rent her out for a fee (with that hat I promise). She can soak rice paper sheets for just the right amount of time too.

PS If we have some freshly grated beetroot, we add that too. You can really put whatever you like in rice paper rolls.

PPS It's Ben's birthday today! 36 years young. Happy b'day Bean....we think you (and your rice-paper roll making skills) are rad!

Ar me hearties

Tough pirates? Um, no. Cute? You betcha!!!!!! In fact, these photos almost cause me to weep....all I can see is their cute baby faces from years ago. Yes, Harry and Till pulled those exact cute cranky expressions when they were babes. Oh why do they have to grow up? I love these pirates to bits.

Thanks for inviting us to your pirate party Wilkes. Dressing up is always so much fun (and all we had to do was raid our dress-up box).

Les français fête d'anniversaire

I'm interrupting the A&H Show blogroll to bring you today's important event...Till's French Birthday Party. I promise to get back to the show soon.

Till was going to have a birthday party, a while later we decided she wasn't, then weeks passed (as did her actual her birthday) and I suggested 'what about a friend over to play'? Somehow 'a friend over' became 'Can I have a few friends for a birthday afternoon tea'? and then somehow that plan morphed again to become..."Now we are having a party, with 10 kids...this weekend.....oh and it's going to have a French theme"! For several years now, Till has been intrigued by the Eiffel Tower and hopes desperately to visit Pairs one day. A French themed party seemed appropriate!

Now I don't normally do parties! They stress me out BIG TIME (as in I become a complete crazy nut, losing patience with everyone and panicking about every detail). Crumbs on the floor can almost cause my head to pop off and kids running through my house will often lead to steam coming out of my ears. But today's party went well...and given that we organised the whole affair in less than 4 days, I'm feeling pretty chuffed with myself! Even the mess didn't cause me to twist my knickers! Till had a GREAT time, and really, it was all for her. Seeing Till's happy little face throughout the whole party helped me to remain cool, calm and collected - knowing the party would only last for 2 hours may have helped too!!!!!!!

Ben and Till put up the decorations the night before. There was red, white and blue aplenty.  Ben made 'french' play-dough for the take-home goodie bags. We gave brown lunch bags some flair by gluing on a pretty 'Thank you' label and a paper doily.  Each bag was filled with stickers, novelty erasers and a few sweets. Croissants with jam and cream were served for lunch, as well as french dip with crackers, french fries and sliced french bread with pizza topping (Yes, a little Italian snuck in - Italy is close to France after all). For beverages, I mixed fruit juice with soda water, which went down a treat with the thirsty hordes. Till didn't want a cake and instead requested mousse au chocolat. I did however have a small cupcake, just so we could sing and have a candle. What birthday would be complete without that ritual!

Many games were played (you've got to keep the little muchkins busy is my way of thinking). First up, a game of Zingo, then musical statues, followed by 'Pin the Madeline on the Eiffel Tower viewing deck', followed by more musical statues.  Ben supervised a game of blackboard 'pictionary' while I got them all burning some energy on the verandah with a vigorous game of 'Red light, Green Light'. And then I think they played musical statues again! There were no prizes (that's not my style) - just good clean fun and laughs! You know, the kids didn't even ask about prizes!

Till was very spoiled, receiving some lovely gifts from her friends. I think that photo above beautifully depicts how delighted she was! I was proud of her graciousness and good manners! And don't you just love her dress? It was a present from Ma. The photos don't show it, but around the hem is a gorgeous French inspired streetscape.

Well I've vacuumed and mopped. The decorations are down. Even the blog post is complete. 

Phew. 

I survived.  

Et maintenant à vous détendre

Follow the String Birthday Girl

Our birthday girl woke a little earlier than usual.  Upon rising from slumber Till discovered a trail of string starting from beside her bed and leading out the door and beyond. The wool pathway zig-zagged every which way through the house including outside along the verandah. I think Ben may have got a little carried away (Ahem almost 300 metres of wool and string in fact). Miss Till wasn't particularly patient with the "following" and "winding-up" part of the treasure hunt...she roped in the bystanders to do most of the winding-up work and cheekily scuttled ahead at every opportunity! But in the end her (our?) efforts were rewarded - because what seven year old girl can do without a Lego Friends doll house?

Birthday bonfire & sleeover

No wind + clear skies + a raging hot bonfire + marshmallows on sticks + sausage sizzle + cake and ice cream + pillow fight + movie and popcorn + hot Milo and chocolates + a sleepover + pancakes for breakfast + six of your best buds (and a friend to keep your little sister occupied) = Best 10th birthday bash EVER!

NB. Harry designed his cake - the rocket represents the number one and the moon is of course the zero!

Ten Today

Harry at 10...

Eats "EVERYTHING...but I LOVE Dad's fish!" Reads "Adventure books and books about transport, particularly planes" Best book EVER "Lego Ideas but I also love my Dangerous Book For Boys"

Watches "Tintin cartoons" Enjoys "playing with Lego and horse riding" Can't stand "people who steal, computer viruses and cleaning up!" Hoping "I can live on Norfolk forever" In the future "I want to work for NASA" Loves "My family" Feels "happy right now" Best subject at school "Art, oh and maths" Free-time "I'm in the middle of making a Lego stop motion video right now"

Here's the birthday loot

Yep, one VERY spoilt boy here....Lego Technics, Vintage 'Famous Five' books, the entire Lemony Snicket series, poseable art model, two very cool t-shirts and a copy of The Invention of Hugo Cabret! And tonight's dinner request...Chinese (yum).

And here's a Harry favourite.  A song and video clip he has loved since he was two!

Happy Birthday Harry - 

We can't wait to see what's in store for you during the next 10 years! 

The sky's the limit!

9.364

Goodnight sweet boy! DOUBLE DIGITS tomorrow.

The cake decorators

Daddy hasn't had time to go fishing lately...so we'll make him a fish cake!

Birthday Ben

Oh how I totally, completely, utterly, wholeheartedly love and adore this man!

Happy Birthday my dearest Ben! 

You are fabulous xxx

Holidays: Day Fourteen

reading a clue - wearing her new b'day crown

It took Till a long time to fall asleep last night - she was just too excited. Well this morning, her birthday got underway at 2am - yes you read that correctly - 2 AM for goodness sake!!!!!! Of course she was promptly sent back to bed....but her fabulous brother set his DSi alarm to sound at 5:30am.  So, it's been a looong day....and there's a very tired birthday girl here who right now should probably be in bed (you know how these things pan out...the tears have started and we, or rather Till, is feeling a little bit fragile).

Months ago, Till had requested a present-finding treasure hunt after reading a story where a little girl had to solve clues to locate her birthday presents from around her home.  I assigned Ben the task of writing the clues (he's by far more poetic than me), and he did a fabulous job. Till and Harry had a blast solving them and finding her gifts.  The first present was located in the fridge, the second in the under-stairs cupboard, the third was hidden inside the BBQ, the fourth in the shed, and finally, the last gift was located under our bed. It was so well received, I'm imagining Harry will be asking for a birthday treasure hunt for his next birthday, and perhaps this will be a new family tradition.

Breakfast tastes better when someone else does the cooking!

After opening presents we headed out the door to the 'Golden Orb' cafe for a special birthday breakfast.  The birthday girl had one thing on her mind: pancakes! Funnily though, she ended up ordering French toast. Harry ate the Big Breakfast, and didn't leave a crumb.  This boy of mine is eating as much as Ben these days - he must be having a growth spurt. Till's most favourite and precious gift accompanied us - a pretty little treasure box with it's own padlock and key (to say it's prized is an understatement). She also received a jar of cashew butter (it was a request - and VERY hard to come by on NI) and her very own grown-up teacup and teapot. Would you believe, Till loves a cup of herbal tea!

Till spent the day playing quietly with her new toys; Lego, puzzles and a hoola-hoop. Tonight we had a special pizza dinner, with Matilda's friends Abi and Ellie joining us.  After dinner Till's birthday cake made it's debut.  Birthday cakes are a big deal in this family, with much love, thought and creativity going into each masterpiece. Till has been ogling the Women's Weekly Cake Book for the last 6 months (it's probably the most read book in our house).  She set her sights on the swimming pool cake about 2 months ago.  I tried to talk her out of it, but to no avail. Well it has blue jelly in the middle, and well, er.  Look, I really don't mind what ends up on a birthday cake - I just have an aversion to jelly. But, it wasn't about me, and Till got her wish.

Here are some of the clues...and the gifts they led to

Well all in all, Till had a great day. And she sure was super spoiled! Thanks everyone for your birthday wishes!

PS I actually didn't eat any birthday cake - I'm still on my sugar-free mission.

Hip hip hooray, Matilda is 6 today