Chocolate Avalanche Cake

It's a tradition in our family for me and Andy to make the children the biggest, chocolatiest (is that a word?!), most outrageous cakes for their birthdays.  We figure, hey, you have one birthday a year, you're only a child for a short time, so what the heck - when it comes to birthday cakes - it has to be a whopper.

But Sam bowed out this year, opting for a shop bought Manchester United cake.  It was a hard journey taking that to the till and paying for it, my heart sinking with every step knowing that my 7 year old son had rejected family tradition.

But three weeks later, Eleanor rose to the challenge of requesting the family favourite.  It always starts with just me decorating it, but by the time it's finished the whole family is usually crowded around, adding a bit here and another bit there.  It's become a really fun family time and a tradition where the birthday child gets to decorate their cake before going to bed the night before their birthday - even in Eleanor's case when it was way past bedtime and the final malteser went on at 10.15pm.

It was named the avalanche cake because when you cut through to get a slice, the maltesers tumble down, so you have to position your plate right to catch them.  The slices are also too big to fit on a side plate - so totally over the top, so grotesquely indulgent, but like I said, it's only once a year.

The Party To Make Up For Parties

Maddie has missed out on many birthday parties, purely because her birthday lies in the summer holidays.  Sharing the same day as her I remember from my childhood, all my friends having parties, sleepovers and fun days, but when it came to my birthday nobody was around, mainly because they were away on family holidays or my family was away on holiday.  I got used to having quiet birthdays, but despite this my Mum and Dad always made sure I had a good day, making a fuss of me and getting me nice presents.

Maddie mentioned last year that she hadn't really had a proper party for her birthday.  Over the years she's been very gracious about this, has never moaned or complained and never asked for anything the others had.  She's seen them have laser quest parties, bowling parties, sports parties, swimming evenings, pizza building parties, gym parties, indoor activity parties, discos,  .....  but Maddie's days were quiet, like mine had been.  So, this year, for her 11th birthday, we decided to have a party to make up for parties, inviting the friends she felt closest too and the friends she wanted to get to know better in the future.

The only obstacle that faced us, was it being in the holidays, friends being on holiday and this year, herself being away at a Church camp on her birthday.  So her celebrations have spanned nearly two weeks!  A few presents opened before she went away, a cake and shoebox stuffed with small goodies smuggled to camp in her leader's car as a surprise for her birthday morning and a party and sleepover the weekend after.

Maddie has the most fabulous group of friends.  Sadly, not all of them could make it, but she had a great crowd at her Water Walkerz party last night. As well as asking her older brother at the last minute if he'd like to come and bring a friend, which meant a quick phone call to another friend, the group was made up of a neighbour, Brownies pal, school friends and church friends.  Girls who had never met each other before, but who got together to have a great 2 hours of fun, water zorbing, sliding the chutes, playing volleyball with the lifeguard and munching on the poolside buffet.  They even did a fantastic job of singing Happy Birthday to Maddie so loud, they drowned out the sound system!

Four friends came home afterwards, two went home at 10.30pm and the other two stayed over for the night, finally drifting off to sleep some time after 3.30 this morning.  Filled up with pizza and midnight munchies, the girls still managed to fit in a breakfast of sausage, eggs and bacon.  It was a real shame to have to send everybody home, but Maddie has had a great time.

Birthday Gaming

Joshua's 11th birthday arrived quite early yesterday morning.  After teasing him mercilessly that his much wanted and long awaited PS3 was out of stock in town (only partly true as Game truly had run out, but we 'forgot' to mention HMV had them in), we managed to convince him we'd arranged a special courier delivery service to have it at the house by 9.00am.  This was our feeble and very wishful attempt at not being woken at some unearthly hour by a boy who for the last two weeks has established a 5.30am waking habit because he's so excited about the big day.  He didn't need to know the 'courier' was Dad, delivering it from the wardrobe in our bedroom.

At 7.30am it was plugged in and ready to go.  He was plugged in and ready to go two weeks ago when he found out that Grandparents hadn't bought him presents as they had contributed to it too.

But in addition to being the Birthday Boy and really rather special for the day he was also tagged with the label of Most Awesome Big Brother by Eleanor and Sam who have now inherited 'free of charge' his now redundant PS2.  Sam's already picked up some pretty nifty moves with the Ratchet and Clank games and is now teaching Eleanor how to work through the levels. 

So, a quiet, but happy gaming day for him, followed by a chocolate birthday cake and Chinese delivery.  We still can't get us all in one car so a trip to a local restaurant was out of the question. But not being ones to let a thing like that get us down, we decided a bit of the restaurant would come to us instead.

So yesterday, Andy and I were the best parents ever. I'm going to remind him later today that we still are - it doesn't hurt a kid to be reminded of basic facts like that :-)

The real party is tomorrow night.  Six of his friends meeting him at the swimming pool for a couple of hours swimming, back to ours for gaming, pizza, DVD, midnight feast and sleepover.

The girls have friends over too. Lilos have been brought down from the loft, extra pillows have been plumped up, stocks of goodies stashed in the kitchen, another birthday cake baked by Dad and the Sega Game Gear dug out for the retro gaming corner.

It's gonna be a fun one!

Sam is 4!!

It's a common theme for all parents to wonder where on earth the years have gone when celebrating their children's birthdays. But having Samuels' 4th birthday suddenly arriving it whacked me with the huge realisation that there really are no more babies in my house.

He's not even a toddler anymore. He's a little boy. Sometimes a naughty little boy. Sometimes a very good little boy. Sometimes a help and at other times a menace.

But in all he is, he was given to me to love and it's a gift I'll never forsake.

Ten Years Ago Today

Andy and I were given the most miraculous and precious gift.

Our first child, Joshua.

Happy Birthday to our wonderful, treasured, and very much loved little man.

Mum and Dad
xx

The Best Thing About Making Cakes

Is getting to lick the bowl afterwards.

An Old Fashioned Kind Of Birthday

When I asked Eleanor a few weeks ago what she'd like to do for her 5th birthday she excitedly jumped up and down and declared she'd like one of those parties at the indoor padded climbing places.

I was OK with that..... until we took up pad and pen and started to write an invitation list - it hit 45 names before I called a halt to proceedings. All the while she was reeling off the names of her chums in Foundation Stage, I was mentally clocking up said number by £7.95 per head, plus the nightmare of handing out invitations and co-ordinating replies.

I'm a good Mum, but I'm not that good.

After sitting her down and explaining that there were too many people we struck a deal that maybe it would be too large and because everybody does these sorts of parties, it would be just like all the others and that maybe she should do something extra special just for her BEST friends.

So, just as my Mum had had done for me as a child in the 70s, she had her best friends over for three hours on her birthday for a playdate and birthday tea. Lots of bouncing on the castle in the garden, arts and crafts creations for them to make and take home and a birthday tea in the garden in the blazing sun.

With a giant chocolate fudge cake baked by Daddy and decorations in the form of pink and lilac smarties adorning the entire surface, her day was complete. ('Operation Girlie Smarties' was aptly performed by me and Joshua spending 20 minutes sifting through the smarties bin at the Woolworths pick'n'mix the day before - how we managed to pull it off without being accosted by a store detective suspecting us of foul play on the sweetie stall I'll never know).



Happy 5th Birthday Eleanor!

Birthdays Are A Family Affair

In our house everybody gets involved when there's a birthday coming up.

We wait until the Birthday Boy is tucked up in bed.

Then we wrap his presents....

... and write out his cards.



Then when he wakes up we help him open his presents.

Then we sing Happy Birthday as he blows out his candles (and Mummy feels a little embarrassed that her cake effort has left Thomas looking like the Fat Controller put something herbal in his coal bunker and caused him to de-rail).

Happy 3rd Birthday Sam!

Happy Birthday Sarah

Have a great day - I hope you do get what you want for your birthday - you know who/what I mean!

Hugs. Have a good one.

The Birthdays Are Coming Round Again

Both Samuel and Eleanor have birthdays next month and I'm toying with the idea of making their birthday cakes. With Sam hitting three and Eleanor a very grown up five, it dawned on me this week that I have yet to make them their own cake.

I used to make cakes for Joshua and Madeleine, but with working full time and having more children and the associated responsibilities taking my time away, I've not made one for years.

I always feel guilty nipping down the shop and buying some mass produced creation in a cardboard box. So, this year, I'm going to try and make an effort.

Maddie got Noddy and Big Ears in their car for her 3rd birthday. We transported it in a box to a camp site without her even knowing as we were on holiday over her birthday. I was amazed it was still in one piece!



On his 4th birthday, Joshua was a huge Postman Pat fan.




Thomas was made for Joshua's 3rd birthday. Sam's also a huge Thomas fan now so I'm stuck between doing a replica for him of this one, or trying a completely different novelty cake.





For Eleanor, I'm thinking along a butterfly theme.

Whatever I do, it will mean a day off work, as these babies took around 8 hours to bake, cool, cut, mould, assemble and ice. But I loved every minute!