Rainy days and Mondays...

Prince Charming has the right idea for a rainy day I think...

Rain, rain go away, Caitlyn's all dress up, wants to go outside to play...

Looking at your mum's baby photos is really really funny!

Friday Fun with Caitlyn

Firstly we supported Canteen and Caitlyn chose a beautiful pink bandanna.  I find the bandannas especially good for when we do baking.

Today Caitlyn and I did some baking.  It was one of the tasks I set for myself on my List of 35 - to have regular baking sessions with the kids.  I baked some banana bread (my grandmother's recipe) and Caitlyn made some chocolate cupcakes.  Here are some photos to share:

Caitlyn thought they tasted very yummy!

Hard to believe it is only 5 months!

One of the blogs I really enjoy reading is this one.  I love it because they always write about something that gives you food for thought.  Things you are able to apply to your life.  In their latest entry 30 Truths I've learned in 30 Years there was especially one point that stood out for me.  One point that really made sense and it was "Enjoy the little things, because one day you may look back and discover they were the big things".  Isn't that just so true?  But anyway, just my thoughtful moment for the day.

Yesterday Caitlyn drew the cutest picture.

I find it quite interesting to see how her pictures have changed.  Not too long ago she would draw this big head with arms that come out the side and legs at the bottom, like this one, but suddenly the arms are now coming out the body rather than the head.

I also love how she writes her own name even if she can't write the "y" correctly just yet. 

Recently she also tried to write Bianca's name and got it mostly right. 

 
It is really cool to watch her learning develop in this way.

I must say we are really happy with her daycare centre.  They are significantly better than the previous one.  I love that she is in the "get ready for school" class.  It is not school as such.  They certainly don't teach them to read and write, but they are teaching them some essential skills to help them be ready for when they start big school.  They teach them a bit more independence, encourage them to recognise their name and try to write it on their artwork (even if they get it wrong).  And they have had quite a few school visits to date with one of the local schools.

It is quite scary to think that Caitlyn will be 5 in February already.  That is only 5 months away.  And then my little girl will be in big school.  She is starting to get pretty excited already!

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!

Hello and Welcome

"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...)

The things we got up to in the holidays (mostly a photo story)

The last few days were truly relaxing. Up to Christmas and even the few days afterwards that Terence's brother was here, was still pretty busy. Not only with Christmas preparations, but also showing Alistair some of the things New Zealand has to offer. After Alistair left, we kept it quiet and low-key. We didn't really go to the shops other than to find me a new cell phone, a new oven light bulb and to buy groceries and I must say I really enjoyed the slower pace of the last few days - very relaxing.

Every morning we got to sleep in. I have wonderful kids! Bianca likes to sleep in a bit too and each morning we'd wake up and Caitlyn would be quietly playing next to the side of our bed, patiently waiting for us to get up. I really don't envy parents whose kids get up and demand attention from 5am each morning!

Apart from this we took the kids to the park where they got to ride their scooters, Bianca got more practice with her roller blades and they even got to play at the park for a little bit.

Then we went to Staglands which was lots of fun and we got to see many cool animals.

And we've gone for walks. Caitlyn and Terence did shorter walks, but Bianca and I enjoy walking for around 5km. All the way to her school, around her school and back home again. The best time for us is around 7pm and it is really peaceful. You can hear the birds as they go back to their nests for the night (even though it still looks really light) and I love seeing all the pretty gardens and all the trees. Bianca would take her scooter and scoot ahead while I follow - I love that she is able to do this! And when I read on some of my South African Facebook friends' statusses that they never go for walks because it is not safe - then I feel truly blessed that we can do this without a worry in the world.

Today it was back to reality and to our normal routines to some extend. Caitlyn's one daycare started again today and Terence was back at work and Bianca and I mostly amused ourselves. We visited the library where we borrowed a bunch of books and a highlight was spending time with 5 little kittens at one of the SPCA fosters who live really close to us. It was sooooo much fun :-)

Please adopt me - I promise to be very very good...