The Boy… Aged Six

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I'm a little bit late putting together this collage this year, but life's been hectic and like many things it's been delayed until the Summer holidays to do it justice.

Every year, to celebrate The Boy turning another year older I do two things; video him answering the same set of questions, and a collage of his favourite things. I love to see the progression and there's been a few changes, but while Peppa Pig has never been far away before, her day is now firmly over unfortunately.

The Boy aged six

You can find his collages aged three years old, four years old and last year's photo, aged five.

Making Celebrations More Special (Review)

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A few weeks ago we celebrated Mr. TheBoyandMe's 40th birthday, something he'd been avoiding and was also inevitably going to arrive on the 20th March regardless. He wasn't particularly keen on a huge celebration but it's not possible to let a big birthday go by without a little bit of a fuss being made, despite the bronchitis and laryngitis he had developed.

Balloon Time helium balloons 1

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Personalised LEGO Birthday Party Invitation

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I like themes for birthday parties, and when we decided to have a joint birthday party with The Boy's best friend, the theme was set of a LEGO party. Suitable invitations seemed quite elusive so I lost myself in Pinterest for a few hours, found a number of ideas for inspiration, and set to making our own personalised invitations.

Personalised LEGO birthday party invitation - editable [Read more…]

Days 216-222 of Project 365

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216-222 of 365

10th August 2013 (Saturday)

216. Swing Low (The zip wire at Coombe Mill is one of the big draws for children, and I can't begin to tell you how many times he's been on it this week. Sunday was an incredibly rainy day, and I'm so glad that we brought his red all-in-one waterproof, it was very much needed on the feed run and for outdoor play. This was also the last photo taken on my much-loved Canon EOS 300D before it died; one of the mirrors inside broke and every photo was black from a third of the way down. Having just been presented with a brand new 55-250mm lens by Mr. TBaM as an early birthday present, and so I could photograph the wonderful location we were staying in, I was left with little choice but to order a new one and await Tuesday morning's delivery eagerly.)

217. Sodden (I rarely include photos of Mr. TBaM but I want to illustrate exactly how wet it was: we had to peel our clothes off after the feed run and wring them out; The Boy even cried because he was so wet and fed up. Luckily, by mid afternoon the skies brightened and we were able to indulge in a stroll around the farm.)

218. Hero ("Ah, there you are Guy!" was one of the most heard phrases of the week. The Boy adores Guy, one of the Coombe Mill triplets, and was keen to chatter to him about anything he could. We found him in the goat enclosure and he spent a great twenty minutes with us, accompanying us up to see the deer before continuing his game of 'Manhunt' with his friends while The Boy looked on wistfully! Oh and my new camera came: this was taken with it and my new lens.)

219. Farmer The Boy (Need I say anymore? He adores driving the tractor with Farmer Nick!)

220. Wrong Way (We ventured off site today to visit Lappa Valley Steam Railway. I will confess that I wasn't overly impressed with it for the price, but The Boy's eyes lit up when he saw the crazy golf course. Looking at the sky, it's hard to believe the monsoon that plagued us on Monday!)

221. Country Kids Go Rafting (Earlier in the week, we had made stick rafts and Fiona was very taken with the idea of having a competition at the end of the week for organic rafts. It was great seeing people gathering their sticks together on the Thursday and walking along the main path, there was a vast array of designs waiting on the patio tables outside the lodges. It warmed my heart to think that a simple activity I'd done on Tuesday with The Boy, sparked such comradery and good-natured competition. Even Fiona's children made rafts, and families waded down the river watching their rafts from the wooden bridge to the stone bridge.)

222. Birthday (36 today! Driving 5 hours back from Coombe Mill was not the best way to spend my birthday; a) because I had to leave Coombe Mill, and b) because my numpty of a husband forgot to look up directions until after we'd driven past the right road, and then sent me off on country A or B roads, which were little more than lanes, for 40 miles. 40 miles which took 90 minutes. I was pretty cross! Nonetheless, we finally made it to my parents' house for my family birthday tea! )

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TheBoyandMe's 365 Linky

Days 160-166 of Project 365

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160-166 of 365

160. Ground Force! (Little did The Boy know that the groundwork that he and daddy were doing on Sunday was for the area that his climbing frame – his birthday present – is destined for. We've done some relocation work of some fairly permanent features to accommodate the frame, this area used to be a patio which housed his Little Tikes house.)

161. Retro (The four eyebrows and tongue of concentration make a reappearance in this photo. I'd bought him one of those snake twisty things (that could make telephones and balls and stuff) that were all the rage in the 80s and he was absolutely fascinated with it.)

162. Shadow (Today was one of those deceptive days where it seemed mild and cloudy, yet when the wind blew the clouds away, the heat was extradordinary. We had to do a lot of shopping for his birthday party and as he'd been such a good boy we went up to the clifftop park. It's very peaceful up there looking over the Bristol Channel, and the skies cleared to reveal a scorching heat and the most amazing late-afternoon shadows.)

163. Surprise! (The Boy's birthday! Unfortunately I had to work, as did Mr. TBaM. This is a new one for us on The Boy's birthday as I'm usually off work, Mr. TBaM takes the day off and we have a family treat day out somewhere, but not this year and it made me sad. However, I raised home from work and we led The Boy into the garden with his eyes covered by his woolly hat. This photo was taken the very moment that he whipped it off to reveal his birthday present; a climbing frame.)

164. Adventurer (The climbing frame is going to play a huge part in our play I suspect! His confidence has grown in just one day from slowly stumbling from one rung to another of the jungle run, to walking over and barely holding on!)

165. Monkey Boy (I wondered when he'd discover the monkey bar aspect to the jungle run, it seems it was to be today. He's swinging from a single bar, he can't move himself onto the next rung yet, but he is enjoying hooking his legs over the frame – to take the weight – and moving his hands along to the next rung. He's certainly building his technique though.)

166. Blow (Today was the big day, The Boy's Pirate Party. Up to goodness knows what time last night baking a cake, decorating it at 7.30 this morning, running around like a blue-arsed fly all morning, and it all paid off as the party went brilliantly. It did rain for the first hour, but stopped and brightened during lunch. They were able to get outside and play – on the climbing frame – once the birthday cake had happened.)

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TheBoyandMe's 365 Linky
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Days 76-82 of Project 365

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76-82 of project 365

76. Sensory (Having spent the day in bed, completely drained and aching from a flu bug, I managed to drag myself downstairs and set up a light play box for The Boy. I used waterbeads and small submersible lights in plastic Easter eggs and The Boy had great fun playing with them.)

77. Eggy Sticks (We started decorating the polystyrene eggs I'd bought him for Easter. I put them onto kebab skewers as it makes them easier to paint without getting paint everywhere! It's taken all week to finish them off as we both fell ill with the flu bug and recovery has been very slow.)

78. Decay (I couldn't quite bring myself to throw out my dying tulips as the colours and shapes were gorgeous!)

79. Daddy Robot (Today was Mr. TBaM's birthday and The Boy was desperate to get him a robot costume, no easy task for an adult!)

80. Tired Eyes (We had to fly solo today as nanny, who had been looking after us all week, came down with the dreaded flu bug. I'm ashamed to say The Boy spent the day being entertained with the television, iPad or laptop. Dreadful parenting!)

81. 'Ear, 'ear (We set to making our Easter Bunny mask yesterday, as we'll be away in the week leading up to Easter.)

82. Speckled Egg (We finished off our Easter decoration eggs today, far from eggs-citing but I'm panicking about packing before our holiday tomorrow!)

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TheBoyandMe's 365 Linky
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How Not To Make A Birthday Cake (Or The Biggest Cake Fail Ever!)

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2

Look alright, doesn't it?

However, it looks vastly different to what it was meant to look like. It was meant to look a little like these crafted by my talented friend Jenny from Mummy Mishaps…

mummy mishaps cakes

I gathered my ingredients, two sandwich baking tins, two packets of chocolate fingers (white chocolate and milk chocolate) and the packet of red, white, and blue peanut M&Ms to top the cake, and got mixing.

All was going well! The two cakes went in the oven at the lower temperature of 170°C (as instructed by Jenny who told me off for baking them at 200°C), and I set the timer for 25 minutes.

And then I adjusted it for another 15 minutes as the middle was wiggly still.

But opening the door to check it, made it sink in the middle so I ended up with two very concave sponges.

Which fell apart when I tried to get them out of the baking tins.

Literally broke in to five pieces.

And that's five per cake.

Out came the two tubs of chocolate Philadelphia which I was going to use as the filling and frosting, and I started to use them as glue.

Only the cake fell apart as I prodded the 'glue' on it with a knife.

So I bunged the top on quickly, and set to surrounding the outside with chocolate fingers, again using the chocolate Philadelphia as glue.

I ignored the fact that it was lopsided.

Or that the edges were falling off.

Or that the middle was 2 cm lower than the outside.

The chocolate fingers fell off halfway around.

By which time I was quite pissed off, to be blunt. I hacked the bloody thing in half, grabbed the orange ribbon from my last bunch of flowers from Mr. TBaM, wrapped it around the cake and then couldn't fathom out how to hold it in place.

Dressmaking pins, that'll work!

Then the M&Ms were out of date.

BY FIVE MONTHS!

1

This is why I make cupcakes.

Happy birthday Mr. TBaM!

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