Birthday Party Day

Today was birthday party day. The ususal stresses that attach themselves to a birthday party were all there, they had been for weeks.

Ohh one thing I forgot to mention, this party wasn't a family party or a friends birthday party it was in fact a works birthday party. 

I can see the cogs in your mind turning, asking why a works birthday party? Well the answer is really simple, my shop is one year old and my gaffers above wanted us to celebrate, so guess what we did.

My shop manager along with the rest of us had been organising this party for months, the events leading up to it and the big day itself, we wanted to make this day as special and as fun as possible.

We all decided that we we're going to decorate the shop and dress ourselves up in a Vegas theme style birthday party.

My manager organised for her friend to make us a birthday cake, which I must say was rather fab.

We brought many different birthday banners and various decorations to decorate the shop in.

We put on a good array of hot and cold food and we even had alcohol ( obviously none alcoholic of cause ).

 

Our fancy dress costumes were totally fab, the female members of staff dressed as flapper girls, the other guys dressed as night club singers ( something like Frank Sinatra I think lol ) although one looked more like Michael Buble lol.

 

I decided to go down a different route, I decided I would go with the gangster look, not sure if I pulled it off or not what do you think?

Well that was our party, all done and dusted, booth staff and customers had fun and the day was a success so all turned out well in the end.

Project Code Name:Birthday Cake

I wanted to push myself one step further for my son's birthday than I did for my daughter's a few weeks ago.

I read a blog post not long back about baking different cakes, their post was mainly about a piñata cake which to be honest with you I really took to the idea of.

I baked a simple but lovely cake for daughters birthday but I thought to myself why not take up the challenge of a piñata cake, so I did and here's how it went.

My eldest lad was at school and my youngest lad, who's birthday it was, kept going on about 'his birthday cake' how could I not bake him one now.

I will admit to you all before we go any further, I did use packet cake mix, I ain't good enough yet to use proper ingredients lol.

I knew in my mind how the final outcome was meant to look but getting there was going to be the challenge.

I knew I needed a top whole layer of cake and also a bottom whole layer of cake. I knew i needed butter icing inbetween the layers and the outside of the cake needed butter icing too.

The middle of the cake was the tricky bit. The space where all the lovely sweets would sit, just waiting to be set free.

I baked the top and bottom of the cake and added orange essence to the mix to give it a extra bit of taste.

The middle of the cake I added melted chocolate and again orange essence to the mixture for something extra.

I cut a circle shape out of the middle layer, layered the middle on to the bottom of the cake put the sweets in the hole added the top layer and the cake came together.

To finish offI i made red butter icing and pasted it on and around the cake then finished it off by adding decorations.

Project : Birthday Cake was a success.

I was even a little creative with some left over mix, I made cupcakes yeah me lol.

Christmas is a time for giving

Every year for about five years now at Christmas time I have helped organise and run a Christmas raffle where all the proceeds have gone to a various charity.

This year will be no different. I have already started emailing different companies asking them to kindly donate a prize towards our raffle.

I say this year will be no different to any other year I will do my bit for charity, but it will, for this year I will putting all my effort (and some more) into raising as much money as I can for the Lullaby Trust.

Why the Lullaby Trust? I was asked while I was promoting our event, well I said, the reason why I personally chose the Lullaby Trust is very very simple. A very good friend of ours Jennie Henley lost her little treasured angel MatildaMae to infant cot death.

Jennie and some very special family and friends are doing all they physically can to promote the Lullaby Trust and the everlasting memory of  MatildaMae.

My wife and I asked Myleen Klass if she would be so kind as to blow bubbles to the sky in a tribute to MatildaMae when we we're lucky enough to meet her in Merry Hill Centre this summer.

  

Although that was a fitting little tribute to an angel in the sky, I did't think that was enough for me, I wanted to show my support in another way. So I decided that whatever we raise from our Christmas raffle would be donated to the Lullaby Trust in memory of little MatildaMae.

I have tried to reach out far and wide for prizes for the raffle. So far our local Kingswinford Co-Op store have kindly donated some nice bottles of wine and so very generously Worcester Cricket Club have donated two match day ticket to a game of the recipients choice but my biggest coup so far is from Worcester Rugby Club who have so very kindly donated four, yes four match day tickets to a game of the winners choosing.

I really hope that between now and the beginning of December our prize list will continue to grow and that we can raise alot of money for such a worthy cause and in memory of Jennies little angel MatildaMae.

Starting School

Today my little boy grew up he will always forever be my little man, but today was the start of proper school.

Although he had been at this school for a whole school year and a half he has now stated in reception school.

My little man took his first step of many along the bumpy long road of education, it will be know doubt filled with many many ups (hopefully) and not so many downs (again hopefully), but for now he can just go to school happy in the knowledge that his little friends will be there waiting to play joyfully each and everyday.

Today was a little different, for today all the new little reception kids looked list in their massive playground.

 

Yet not a tear did I see from parent or child alike. Maybe the parents were being strong for their little ones but behind closed doors the river's of tears did flow and many the kids have changed over the years got stronger got less emotional, just think "hey ho it's just another day at school".

I sit hear listening, listening to my daughter (who is 1 next week) and my youngest boy playing, my lad pulling at my wife's heart strings by  saying every now and then "I miss J.R mummy".

I think how soon the time will come round for their turn to go off to start their own educational journey, I just hope and prey they all take a firm grasp of life and live it to the full, enjoy thoroughly and don't waste a single day of it.

#MySundayPhoto

Random I know, but thanks to a good family friend who goes by the name Eliza, when this song "what does the fox say" was first introduced to our house I thought omg what a mad song, but as the week went on I played it when the kids were sad or upset and it brought a smile out of them and it even brought a funky dance from my youngest lad.

Scalextric Fun

I had today (Saturday) off which is a rarity in itself. So I thought I was going to be able to kick back and chill. That idea of mine didn't last long at all, my OH had bin up most of the night with our unsettled daughter, so being the nice husband I am I let her lie in and I got up with the kids.

To be fair it was ok, the kids got up had their breakfast and all was well. We tidied away the breakfast stuff so there was space to play. 

The boys played nicely with their toys whilst L-A played her playpen. I sat back watched the kids play in anticipation of fighting, yes I'm afraid to say I sat back waiting for my boys to start fighting. But to give them their due they didn't, they played very nicely so my relaxation in my chair was much appreciated.

You must remember that I got up with the children at about 6.30, so the lie in I gave my wife, well ... shall we say was acceptable I thought, I didn't get her up till bout 11.30.

My wife got up inquiring where her morning cup of tea was, as she does after every lie in, so guess what my response was .... "The kitchens that way" lol, no before your in uproar, I got up and made her one.

She informed me that our local church was holding a scalextric afternoon. This sounded fab to me so I thought it would be great to take the kids up to.

We opened the doors, walked into the church hall and I was amazed by the layout that awaited us.

 

The boys were in shock they hadn't seen a scalextric layout like this before, in fact I don't think they've seen a scalextric layout before at all.

 

At 50p for practice laps and 10 race laps, it was good value for money and JR and the rest of us had loads of fun either watching or playing scalextric.

#MMWELLYWALK

We're going to the #MMWellyWalk... Are you?
On 2 nd November 2013 we are going to the #MMWellyWalk at Beale Park in Reading. It is going to be a fab family fun day in aid of a great cause – The Lullaby Trust. The event is in memory of a beautiful angel baby, Matilda Mae, who died on 2 nd February 2013 at 9 months of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. You can read more about her legacy at www.edspire.co.uk.
We are going to be wanging our wellies, singing songs with Gymboree, painting, cutting and sticking with the Rainy Day Box Company, naming a giant teddy bear, frolicking in fair ground fun with Beebies Baby Store, bubble blowing, capturing magical moments with Scryver photography & Virtual Booth, taking a trip on the Beale Park Miniature Railway, eating cakes courtesy of Charlotte’s Kitchen Diary, reading stories, playing games and so much more!
There will also be lots of chances to win some fantastic prizes, meet some amazing people & bid for Wellies signed by the stars!
We look forward to seeing you there too! Tickets are available at www.beebiesbabystore.com and are £9.99 each. Under 11s go free!

Magic Chocolate Moment

This picture means so much to me, to some its just a picture of a child have a chocolate button but to us its way more than that.

My daughter was born on the 13th September 2012, she was born perfectly fine and was discharged from hospital with no concerns at all.

Well that soon changed, soon she became a poorly baby, every bottle feed came back straight back up with vengeance. We even tried changing milk brands but to no success.

After quite a few doctors appointments and health visitor consultations we were booked into see a dietician at our local hospital.

The dietician was lovely, caring and so understanding, which made a change to our doctor who seemed to have given up on us.

The dietician took L-A straight off shelf milk and tried her on neocate formula milk. Within two weeks L-A had regained the weight she had lost, gained her appetite back and was no longer being violently sick.

Although  L-A missed out on chocolate for her first christmas, thanks to the dietician putting her on a dairy free diet she was able to have chocolate at easter.

Thanks to Tesco she was able to enjoy a packet of dairy free chocolate button at easter too. 

Our holiday friend

My wife is a big kid at heart. So when we went to Disney World in Florida for our holiday she was able to let her inner child free. 

She decide that before we went she was going to purchase herself a new little friend, a talking Mickey Mouse who interacts with various points in Disney World.

This little chappie became our holiday companion, he went everywhere we did,

to take car rides to see shows,

 

to see parades/3D rides,

 have meals,

 meet and greet various characters

 

and even to the pub in Epcot lol.

  

Parenting

What is parenting? When you decide the time is right to have children no one says heres a manual that will guide you through the next 18 years (and more) of yours and their life. No they don't.

You walk past parents of all ages acting differently around their children, some polite, calm, sensitive and respectful other rude, loud and far to interested in anything else other than their children.

What lessons do you learn? What parenting values do you take on board? Some you discard straight out of hand, "I'll never be like those parents" you hear yourself saying but admiring the parenting skills of others "I hope I'll be like those, treat my kids nice".

No two parents are the same, not even two people who are together, we all have different paths in our minds of how perfect our children are going to be, how they will never fall off the straight and narrow.

Realistically all kids aren't perfect, they all do little things that are naughty, cheeky mischievous sometimes (sometimes more than others) but that is our learning path as the parent and theirs as the child to follow, to hopefully be that perfect child in every parents eye, one day they too will be the parent and want their children to be perfect.

Only time will tell how perfect they have become or even how perfect you have become as the parents.