A big birthday

 We had two birthdays in the same week. Mine was the big 50 with Eli being 12. Eli had an awesome day Kart racing with the boys.

Future racing drivers. Not sure about all the posing they did, but hey!

For the big 50 celebration the family went back to Mt Cook and stayed at the Hermitage. Gorgeous destination and we raced ahead of a huge winter storm. Rained like crazy for one day and then snow and white out.

Walking in white out conditions was fantastic. We managed a 5km walk without getting lost. Though the track markers (which are a metre tall) only had about 3 inches poking out of the ground.

 Then we stayed another day due to roads being closed all over the country. That day was spectacular. Sunny and stunning views.

The Twig and Tale tie back boots were used heaps in our hotel room and made us feel cosy as we looked out the window.

Giant cupcake as a birthday cake

Eli is 10! He wanted a giant cupcake birthday cake and a lolly bar. Whew that was a lot of sugar. Tip to self... Never have 6 x 10year old boys to sleep over (I honestly think it is called a wake over).

Lego Birthday Cake

Well Jakob is 10 tomorrow! I decided to try some of the icing skills that I learnt at a course at the Make Cafe. It has been a little bit of a juggle as the lady who took the course gave us lots of information, but it was all verbal. I still don't know where to get half the icing, powder etc that she talked about. But loved making it all.

So what I have done is used a bit of what she taught, used things that my Mother-in-law and shown me to do and sort of mixed it up.

The result is a Lego cake. I made one cake batch and put it into my mini loaf tins. Then iced each individually to look like separate Lego pieces. It seems to have worked OK  This was a trial run as I will make more for his party on the weekend.

I link up to some of these places

A practical day

Isn't it gorgeous. Love the big candle

Well today was a day of getting on with house jobs. I did a little bit of work for Longsilver Construction but mainly tried to get on top of all the little things that pile up. I don't know about you but jobs that are 5 or 10 minutes I think that it doesn't matter as I can just do it anytime. Problem is I don't do it!! So today was looking at the glasshouse, checking the chickens, Pruning the roses etc.

The roses are weird. We have a Graham Thomas rose which is meant to go to a max of 3 metres - well it is currently climbing along the verandah (for which I am really happy). The rose to the left of it is loving memory and is just fantastic with an amazing scent and long single stem tight red roses. Then further left is a rose that Aaron bought specifically to climb along the verandah. But can we get it to do what it is meant to? No. We did not want to be boring with iceburg so that rose is yellow with orange edges and it is vivid and amazing, but hideous thorns.

before

After

I have also been looking into age appropriate jobs. Thanks to Audrey for starting me in that direction. We have been stuck in the perpetual cycle of feed the dog and chooks, clear the eggs, empty the dishwasher, sometimes a vacumm and clean the bathroom. Today I started Jakob on folding washing. He is doing the towels, shorts, trousers, undies, socks, teatowels to start with. We will progress to shirts later. I want both the boys to be able to run their own home and be able and sufficient by the time they leave, I feel that as a mother it is important for me to teach them those things.

After all that hard work we had a milo and some birthday cake for afternoon tea. I was really blessed yesterday when Dawn and Mikayla turned up with a birthday cake for me. How amazing is that!!! I never bake my own cake so normally don't have one. Aaron's mum also made one which we had for pudding last night. Wow I am doubly blessed. Heading off for our second try at an anniversary weekend away. Have a great weekend all.

My morning

This morning I have had a leisurely breakfast and read in bed. Thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes. Aaron gave me a coffee in bed this morning and I got to open my presents. Fantastic. I got the boys off to school and decided to have a relaxed start to the day as my work day is just a pile of phone calls and paperwork.

So I made another coffee (yes I am a bit of a coffee fiend) and freshly poached eggs on toast. Conveniently the chooks laid two fresh eggs this morning, so I used them. YUM. So I went back to bed! Looked at my two fabulous books, kept Morris company and relaxed. Now it is time to get on with things!!