List of 35 on my 35th

Now this is where I wish I was turning 21.  So much easier thinking of 21 things than coming up with 35...

In my 35th year I will try and do as many of these as I can.  I might not get to do all of them, and that's okay.   It is a fun little project that I saw on Marcia and Julia's blogs. And I'm always up for a bit of fun.

And now in no particular order, here is my list:

1. Organise and do a Christmas present delivery to kids in hospital over Christmas with the help of Sarah.
2. Bake something and visit Winara House again.  If I plan it for the October school holidays Bianca and Caitlyn might come along.
3. Bake some biscuits for Christmas and deliver it to the Sevenoaks Dementia Unit.  We did it last year and it was extremely rewarding.
4. Plan with the kids and make something for Christmas for the residents of Winara House retirement village.
5. Plant a good variety of veggies in the new garden boxes Terence is busy building for me.
6. Reach my goal weight.
7. Do regular walk / run sessions.
8. Find and enter (and actually participate) in a 5km event (hopefully a run, but otherwise a walk).
9. Learn to play some or the other music instrument (other than the recorder which I have been trying to learn).
10. Learn a new language (or at least make a start of it). I've always loved languages and I seem to have a fairly good memory when I think of the few Sesotho phrases I learned all those many years ago at school.
11.  Make new little boxes for the kids' advent calendars.
12. Look for fun activities we can do together for the little advent calendar boxes.
13. Make at least one handmade Christmas present for Bianca and Caitlyn each.
14. Shave my hair for the Child Cancer Foundation.
15. Declutter!  Loads of things to sort out and many things to get rid of.
16. Visit the huge book sale here in Waikanae end of October and stock up on some great second hand books.
17. Go and see Roxette in Auckland in Feb 2012.  (Can't wait!)
18. Make a new Youtube video clip of Bianca.
19. Start Bianca's treatment photo collage which I really wanted to do in 2009.
20. My mum's immigration.
21. Bake / cook something with Bianca and Caitlyn once a month so that Bianca can add recipes to her recipe book.
22. Go away to either Taupo or Hawkes Bay as soon as Terence has annual leave he can take.  I would say go on holiday to Australia (I've never been there), but am still waiting for the "wonderful" South African home affairs to send my new passport (sigh!).  We do love Hawkes Bay and Taupo though. 
23. Organise a fun professional photo shoot with Bianca and Caitlyn.
24. Go and visit Bianca's tree (click here to see) when we are back in Auckland in November for Bianca's cheerleading competition. 
25. Knit a square for Christchurch (see details here).  Done!  (See here)
26. Do a special craft activity with the kids once a month.  Bianca asked me yesterday to show her how I made their treasure chests in December (see here)
27. Have a regular family games evening (the non electronic kind).  We enjoy games like Dominion, Puerto Rico and Bang.
28. Sift through thousands of digital photos and make a photo book for Bianca and Caitlyn.
29. Sit down and go through our budget again to make sure we stay on track.
30. Our business website.
31. Business product launch.
32. With daylight savings time just around the corner do more things outdoors like picnics on the beach.
33. Look at study options.  I started a degree a number of years ago, but then Bianca became sick and I had to put it on hold.
34. Do a gratitude blog post on a regular basis.  It is easy to take things for granted and to forget we have lots to be thankful for!
35. Do something nice for somebody else when they don't expect it.

What are some of the goals you are hoping to achieve?

Caitlyn's 4th Birthday celebration. Part 2...

One of the challenges here on the Kapiti Coast is finding a suitable party venue.  I suppose I could have it at home, but one of the times we did have one of Bianca's parties at home when she turned 3 one of the kids drew with a marker all over Bianca's toys and so I wasn't really in the mood for an invasion of 12 kids ranging in age from 3 to 5 (with 2 being 7).  The unfortunate thing is that there are not a lot of venues here on the Kapiti Coast and while technically this is summer and technically we could have it at one of the outdoor parks, I'm also aware that this is New Zealand and that there would be a chance of rain.

We ended up choosing the Kapiti Gymnastics.  Caitlyn did a fun gymnastics session last term and absolutely loved it, so this was the perfect venue.  And so today that's where we went.  For the first hour the kids went wild with bouncing on the trampoline, balancing on the beam, jumping, climbing, swinging on the big rope swing and jumping into the foam pit. 

Then when the hour was finished, the kids came into the party room that we set up 20 minutes before the start and it was time for lunch.  

And then it was time to light the candles.  To read my adventures in making this cake, click here.  This cake is a "goody bag" cake.  Basically it is cake squares wrapped in sugar paste icing and decorated with a sugar paste teddy bear and some lollies and instead of the typcial goody bags, kids get to take this one home :-) (thanks to Debbie Brown for her cool idea in her book 50 Easy Party Cakes).

Caitlyn opened all her presents at home because we simply ran out of time at the party.  What a lot of fun!

Not so dreamy after all...

11pm is not the best time to find out the cake you are busy making is... well... uhm... not going to make it.   But I'm rushing ahead of myself.  Taking a few steps back...

As some of you know Caitlyn chose a kitten on a big ball of wool cake.  So I set about making a test cake just to see what is involved.  And yes... I learned that just because the book says "easy cakes" didn't mean it was all that easy.  But okay, I figured out a few things I could do to make my cake as nice as possible for Caitlyn's birthday party.  Then, not so long ago, Caitlyn changed her mind.  She decided she would have a "Dream Castle" cake from the same book.  No amount of persuading could get her mind off that cake.  That would be the one.  I have to be honest that at this point I was secretly pleased it wasn't the kitten cake anymore because it just seemed so... well fiddly.  And last time my kitten didn't exactly look like a nice kitten, the size was all out, the eyes were not quite in line, maybe if it was an alley cat - all living it rough and out there protecting its territory, but then I would have a hard time explaining the big ball of wool.  Just can't picture this wild alley cat playfully sitting on top of a ball of wool.  But anyway.

The "Dream Castle" cake from the same "50 easy party cakes" book looked less fiddly and simple enough.  And I mean how hard can it be to cover 3 big swiss rolls in sugar paste icing and plonk some on top and on the sides and stack mini marshmallows on top with a few basic shapes for windows and door?  And it looks beautiful.  And so I made big mistake number one - actually believing it wouldn't be that hard :-).  And somewhere in all the rush to get things for her party, get kids to and from school, house work, and all the other things I had to do, I didn't have time to make a trial cake.  But then this one wasn't fiddly like the kitten cake.

And in the meantime I'm making little teddies out of sugar paste icing as I had another idea which I will talk about shortly.  And the teddies actually came out looking okay.  It certainly looked a bit like a teddy.  So all was on track :-). 

At 9pm on Saturday night (yesterday a.k.a. the night before the party) I was frantically busy trying to construct my "dream castle" cake.  By 11pm I knew my cake was just not going to make it.  You know when you ask your husband what he thinks of the cake so far and he looks at it, pauses (clearly trying to find the words and trying to work out if it is worth being honest and I guess figuring out what is nearby that I might fling at his head ;-) ) and then tactfully say "carry on then we'll see what it looks like then".  And I had to admit, it didn't look very "dreamy".  In fact it didn't look much like a castle, it just looked like swiss rolls, clumsily wrapped in light pink sugar paste icing and plonked on a board.  No amount of decorating was going to make it look like a "dream castle".  And then Terence asked THE question "why didn't you make a test cake of this one?"

And then the panic set in.  It was 11pm at night and my cake flopped and the party was the next morning.  Thankfully I actually had a plan B even though it wasn't really a plan B up until that point.

The very same "Easy party cakes" book also has some "Goody bags cake".  Basically this is a bunch of cake squares, wrapped in white sugar paste icing and you then put the teddy on top with a few lollies and this is the perfect thing to give away at the end of your party.  I thought this would be cool because this would replace the typical goody bag you would typically hand out at the end of your party.  Also because the party would be over lunch the kids would not need as many sweet things and they can just take a cake and lolly "goody bag".  So at 11pm last night this had to be it.  There simply was no more time to actually start a big fancy cake from scratch.  Luckily my teddies were all made so it was really just for the cake squares.  By 3:30am I felt happy with what I achieved.

The only thing that bothered me was where we would put the candles.  I didn't really want to stick candles into these cake "goody bags" and then Terence had a great idea.  He suggested I take one of the smaller covered swiss rolls and put that in the middle which would have space for the candles and then we could put all the teddy goody bags around it and that... turned out perfect!  I was certainly very pleased with the final result and best of all Caitlyn's guests thought it was pretty neat taking home one of these edible "goody bags" :-).

I think I'll make another post just about Caitlyn's party with all the photos :-).

Edited to add:  I learned that you hide any fancy cake books from your kids.  Off to go hide my book now ;-)

Caitlyn's 4th birthday celebrations - Part 1

So here is part 1 of Caitlyn's birthday celebrations.  Caitlyn turned 4 on the 22nd of Feb, but will have her birthday party with her friends this coming Sunday 27 Feb, so we'll share photos after the event :-)

Caitlyn started her day opening presents :-)

 Both girls got new shirts from family in South Africa and decided to wear it.

Caitlyn took some cupcakes to daycare to share with her friends.

She chose to have pizza for her special birthday dinner.

Because she'll have a proper cake on Sunday, we just made a few cupcakes to have at home.

Showing 4 fingers = 4 years old :-)

Blowing out candles.

I've been playing around with sugar paste icing to try and make little teddy bears because I saw a pretty cool idea that I want to try out for Caitlyn's birthday.  

Part 2 to follow...

Happy Birthday Caitlyn

I can hardly believe Caitlyn is 4.  It feels unreal that in exactly 1 year she'll be going to "big school".  It feels unreal that she is no longer a baby, but has become this "big" girl who is quite independent, considerate, kind, likes to help, has a great sense of humour and loves to dance and run and play. 

I look at the below video clips and it is just amazing to see snippets of her "journey".

Caitlyn, Mummy and Daddy and your big sister Bianca (who used to be Bakey when you just started speaking) are so proud of you and love you very much.  We pray that today will be filled with lots of fun, surprises and blessings and that the year ahead will be wonderful for you!  You are an amazing kid and we are so blessed to have you as part of our family :-)  Happy birthday!

"Now that wasn't so hard, was it?"

I cannot believe that in exactly 1 week Caitlyn will turn 4.  Caitlyn is so excited she can hardly wait and keeps begging me to tell her what she'll be getting for her birthday :-).

Not so long ago Bianca decided that even though it is still months before her birthday, she wanted to start planning it - the invite list, the games they'll play and of course what cake she'll have.  And so she dug up a book that I've had for a while (so long I can't even remember where I got it from) - Debbie Brown's 50 Easy Party Cakes (yeah right!  Easy!!! [insert roll eyes here]) (Definitely not easy in my world...).  So anyway, Bianca was paging through it and at first was all determined she was going to make and decorate her cake, but I think since then she's decided it would be my job.  And of course then Caitlyn had to page through the book and immediately decided she wanted this cake:

And she's absolutely set on it.  Sigh!

So last night I finally set about making a practice cake.  You know just in case it turns out a huge flop and then I can't only start the night before her party.  So best to practice a bit before and know what is involved.  Oh my goodness!  This cake is fiddly.  I managed to bake 2 bowl shaped cakes that I managed to put together to resemble a round ball and then it was time to role the thin pink strands that go around the ball and that was pretty tough - thicker in some places and thinner in others.  And it felt like it took forever (not the best decision to start at 10pm).  And then the kitten.  Why do they always make it look so much easier than it really is?  By the time I was finished I had this tiny little thing on top of this big round ball - almost looks like a mouse a bit.  And the eyes are not quite symmetrical.  And so by 1am I finished and stumbled off to bed and this morning Caitlyn got up - all happy and well rested and said "now that wasn't so hard, was it?" (if only you knew my girl, if only you knew...)

Edited to add:

As requested - here is my first attempt.  Excuse the second photo it is very blurry (but then it was 1am in the morning...)