This boy is 7 years old!

A birthday is not a birthday without presents and a cake. That's it. Simple.


Licking the beaters is just icing on the cake*, so to speak.

A syrup cake was on order - from the Friendly Food cookbook put out by the RPAH Allergy Consulting Unit. I have never had what I would call success with this cake. It cooks for about an hour. The outside becomes overcooked and rock hard (like, saw it rather than cut it) and the inside is questionably cooked (like, hmmmmm, maybe needs another hour).

Anyway.
Here it is in all its undecorated glory with the imprint of Hudson's sweet fingers - they match his sweet tooth*.I wonder if he managed to eat any.


Speaking of sweet tooth...
While a few of us were sitting at the table Hudson off-handedly commented "Mum, I lost my front teeth." It was so nonchalant, so understated, that it barely registered on my consciousness. Then it did. Hudson lost his front tooth. Just one. Just like that. Did we know it was wobbly? Maybe. Where was it? We all headed off to look for it in his bed. Found it. On the floor!!! So there you go.

When we got back to the table there's poor little Declan with tears streaming down his face - not the centre of attention as he had expected of his birthday. So we quickly swung back into birthday celebration mode to save this little guy from a big inferiority* complex.

The cake is always a challenge but a challenge I am prepared to take up. This time around Caitlin and I had already discussed what we thought we would do. We were prepared.


The cake eating time was set for 5pm - that gave time for Soph and Nick to get back from the beach and Alan and Annelise to pop around from home. Having visitors is the cachou (I think that is plural as well - like sheep) on that icing on the cake*. In this family a cake without cachou on it is probably not appropriately decorated.

So here's the boy - 7 years old. He sung "Happy Birthday" heartily - as you should.



PS See all those white choc buttons? Later, after the candle-blowing, cake-cutting and cake-eating, I came back to clear up the table and put the left over cake away and lo and behold all the white choc bits were gone! I wonder who ate them. :)

* All puns, idioms, proverbs and oxymorons intended. :)

Have you ever....?

Have you ever been to a craft day or a scrapbooking day, or whatever and found, when you got there, that you had left some significant bit or piece at home? Yes I have, many a time! But none as bad as yesterday!

I did something unusual - I took ALL my paper, ALL my alphabets, ALL my stickers, ALL my rub-ons and ALL scraps so that I didn't have to know exactly what I was going to do. I did have an idea, though, and took appropriate photos and pictures for inspiration.

Caitlin had a plan too. She threw in a few extra things to the stash and we left - somewhat in a hurry. As we were driving away from the house I asked if my flat pack (the significant thing) was in the car. I was assured that it was.

HA! Well it wasn't. That's all my tools, adhesives, pens.. Nor were the few extra things that Caitlin wanted in the car.

Susannah was all set with her drawing book and pencils while Caitlin and I fiddle-faddled around until Douglas saved the day.

As an aside... Have you ever had something stinky, rotten, decomposing, foul in your garbage bin? Something that WHOOFS and it's still 5 days till garbage collection?! We did. Phew.

Douglas dealth with that in the same trip, so all was not lost. :)

Hennyway. Let's get back to the point.

Here are Caitlin's layouts from yesterday.



And here are mine.


This one is totally and utterly scraplifted from Kerry Lynn who I just happed upon when checking out the Kenner Road Kits.




And this one is my interpretation of Challenge 117 at Scrapping the Music.
The layout was sitting on my desk and I said to DH "I don't think it is finished. It needs something," and Declan off-handedly said "Star" as he left the room. And it just so happened that I had a star that came from the same set of stickers as the title! So there you go.

First Layout of 2010

It's not often that a layout comes together "just like that" but this one did. It probably helped that I used the Graphic 45 Fashionista range of papers that I have had for yonkers. I'll tell you something else... It is easier to get the sewing machine out to stitch on a layout than apply rub-ons, imho. I did the latter this time.

So here she is - Sophie-lee - all ready to go to her Year 10 school formal.