What a Weekend (!!!)

Phew! What a big few days we have had! On friday I talked about my face lump (on my wedding blog). That afternoon I had planned to have a go at making a flower crown but the weather was amazing and I spent the rest of the day outside playing with the kids and finishing up painting some signs.

On friday night we went to the annual guy fawkes day celebration. It is so much fun; there are bouncy castles, food stalls, live music and, at the end of the night, a massive fireworks display. It was the first time we had been as a family and the kids had an absolute blast.

First we took Milly for a ride in the helicopter (one of the perks of  Dion working for a local helicopter company that just so happens to be owned by his Aunt & Uncle).

Baby girl rocking the earmuffs, getting all pumped to go up in the chopper.



Tommy couldn't care less about the helicopter, he was all about the truck!

Getting comfy.

Off we go!

My kids weren't too keen on the camera. Cheeky wee monkeys!

The fireworks at the end of the night were so much fun! It was the first time Tommy had seen fireworks and he loved it.

After the fireworks, we dropped the kids off at my parents place (45 minutes away) and crawled into bed at about 2am.

On saturday it was one of Dion's friend's 30th birthday. The party started at about 4 in the afternoon and, while I was in bed at a somewhat respectable hour, Dion made it to bed at 6.30 am!! We went to pick up the kids from my parent's house that afternoon and when we drove past on our way home we saw some of the people still partying!

If that wasn't exhausting enough; we had to get up early the next morning to get the kids ready to go and spend the day with their other grandparents while Dion took me down to Dunedin hospital for my appointment to discuss the removal of the face lump.
We rushed around like headless chickens and managed to make it to the hospital just on time. The doctors, of course, were running behind schedule and I wasn't seen for an hour and 20 minutes. The appointment was short and sweet; the doctor felt my face up a little, explained what the game plan was and put me on the waiting list.
So, I will be having my face cut open sometime in the next six months and right now I'm just crossing my fingers and hoping I don't look like Nelly on my wedding day!!

Photo from here

Wouldn't that be attractive?

Hayley x

Fishing

You may remember that for Milly's 3rd birthday we got her a Barbie fishing rod. She has been itching to try it out since August so, when the weather started warming up a bit, we decided to pack up our fishing rods, drop Tommy off with the grandparents and head down to the river to catch Milly's first fish.

 

It was a beautiful day and she was so excited (not nearly as excited as her Daddy though).

 

One thing this experience taught me about my daughter is that she is not a patient child, not even kind of, she has the patience of..  well.. a three year old! Daddy started off trying to teach her to cast the rod herself but she bacame frustrated very easily so we decided it was easier to just do that bit for her, for now at least. Everytime Dion cast the rod out Milly would immediately exclaim "THERE"S A FISH" and she would grab the rod from Daddy's hand and begin to reel it in, of course there never were any fish on the end of the rod.

 

 

After a while of fishing with no luck we headed back down the river toward the bridge where Dion thought we had a better chance of actually hooking something.

Yes, she is wearing a pirate hat. This girl is way to cool for a regular sunhat!

We still didn't catch anything so Dion and Emily launched the little RC boat (with fishing wire and a hook attatched) to see if they could catch anything further out.

Success!! Kind of.. they cuaght a teeny tiny fish. Emily didn't care that the fish was tiny, she was so excited that this fish was all she talked about for the rest of the day.

Our next stop was the river mouth but by this stage Milly's patience had completely run out and instead of fishing she began splahing the water with a stick (probably scaring away any fish within catching distance).

Then she jumped in!

It wasn't long before she was completely soaked!!

We have taken her out fishing a couple of times since and, despite still not having caught a fish, she loves it. She always asks us to take her to 'the fishing beach' and gets very upset when she gets into the car and notices the fishing rods aren't in there.

I can't wait till Tommy is big enough to go fishing too!!

Hayley x

Hearts Update

Just a quick update on the heart cushions I was sewing. I'm pretty pleased with how they are turning out so far. I can't wait to stuff them all and have pretty hearts everywhere.

 

These are just a handful of what I have done, they are so fun and easy and, such a satisfying sewing project.

 

Hayley x

Easy Cheese Quick Bread

This might just be my favourite bread ever! I have made this a few times now and my whole family loves it. It is so easy and quick to make and it turns out great every time.

 

The recipe for this bread can be found here . When I first made the bread I followed the recipe exactly but I found that there was a little too much sugar in it for my liking so I halved it, and for me that was perfect.

 

This bread can easily be changed to suit your tastes, I like to add rosemary to mine and top it with cheese but it is just as delicious plain.

 

Here are a few pics of my last loaf to encourage you to go and test this recipe out for yourself.

 

Hayley x

Red Velvet Cake Pops (or how to fix a terrible cake)

 

 

 

For Dion's birthday last month I decided to make Red Velvet Cake (linked to recipe).

 

...I messed up...

 

The recipe says to bake the layers seperately but I broke the first rule of baking: always read the recipe thoroughly before you begin. It wasn't until I had already begun making the batter that I realised and I don't have two cake pans the same size so I decided to just bake one big cake and cut it into layers after I had finished baking it.. BIG mistake! The cake turned out super dooper dry but it tasted sooo amazing that I decided to stick with it and see if a thick layer of frosting would save the day.

 

...It didn't...

 

I'm not sure what exactly went wrong with my cream cheese frosting but it just wouldn't set, even with the maximum amount of icing sugar recommended in the recipe it just would not stiffen up. I made a second batch and had the same problem, so I gave up and frosted the cake with it anyway.

 

It was a total mess but man, it was delicious. We ate half the cake before I decided that all this wonderful flavour was going to waste in this dry, goopy mess of a cake; that's when I decided to turn it into cake pops.

 

 

I put the "cake" into a bowl and mashed it up until it was smooth.

 

Then I formed it into balls. I managed to get 16 balls out of half a cake.

 

Then I shoved sticks in them and popped them into the freezer to firm up overnight.

 

First thing the next morning I melted some chocolate and coated the cake balls. I saw a picture on pinterest that said to put a chocolate melt on some baking paper and put the freshly dipped cake pops straight onto them so they would have a perfectly flat bottom, it turned out great.

 

And then we taste tested them. I told you it was first thing in the morning, M was still in her pjs.

 

 

And that, is how to fix a over dry, goopy, otherwise almost inedible cake.

 

Hayley x

Milly's THIRD Birthday

Last month baby girl turned 3. I've kind of been putting off posting about it because I didn't end up getting many photos and the ones I did get weren't great. I'm pretty sure posting about the party is more work than making the party itself haha, but here it goes..

 

 

The party was held on the weekend after her actual birthDAY and because we had been focusing so much on the party Dion and I nearly forgot about her birthday all together (not that she would have known). The day before her birthday I whipped up a batch of cupcakes I made half of them pink and left the other half white and then frosted them with pink vanilla buttercream, then I placed them into these handmade paper doily cupcake liners, I saw the idea for these on pinterest, they are so easy to make and they look so impressive.

 

 

The kids loved the cupcakes and Milly's favourite part of every birthday is always blowing out the candles.

 

A couple of days later a very special package arrived!!!

Milly had no idea what it was and she was so excited when she opened it up and found a Barbie. Not just any Barbie though, this was a 'Birthday Surprise' Barbie from Mummy's birth year. This is the barbie that I put on the top of her cake.

On the morning of her party, we let Milly open her presents from us.

Her first present was a Barbie that she had been wanting. After she opened this up she made Daddy go and find her tutu and fairy wings so that she could dress up to look just like Barbie.

And her second present (and definitely her favourite) was a Barbie fishing rod. It's been over a month since she got it and she still hasn't stopped talking about it, she can't wait to go fishing with Daddy. We will hopefully be able to take her out this weekend, fingers crossed.

Her final present from us was a tinkerbell outfit. She would wear this everywhere if I let her.

Onto the party. Here is the dessert table all set up. The empty plates were supposed to hold doughnut cakes like this but we couldn't find small doughnuts anywhere, so instead we filled the plates up with those little mini pies and sausage rolls - not desserts but still scrummy.

Dion was amazing and he set up the balloons and streamer behind the dessert table, he also hung streamers on the ceilings and put balloons everywhere. I'm much to short to reach the super high ceiling in the playroom, so I'm very lucky to have such a tall man to help me out.

Here is the beautiful little birthday girl, I made her hair into a big bow ontop of her head and she looked so gorgeous unfortunately this is the best photo I have of it, she had ants in her pants that day and just would not hold still.

Before cake time she decided it was time for an outfit change, she sorted through all of the clothes she had been given and decided on this cute purple jumper. Then it was her favourite time.. She made us relight the candle twice so she could blow it out again.

Here is the inside of the cake, I'm so sad we didn't get a better shot of it, it was really pretty in real life.

I loved the way these washi tape wrapped baby food jars looked when filled with lollies.

Milly had an amazing time and she is so excited for her next birthday, she has asked me to do a mermaid theme. I can't wait!!

Hayley x