Missing Cake

Seb's birthday turned out good.

Looking back on my blog all the recent posts have been about birthdays.  From July to October we have a birthday every three weeks, its a very busy time of year for us.  Other half kicks it off on the 19th July then there is no rest till all six of us have celebrated our special days (or not as in my case).

I was cruel to Seb.  I didn't bake him a cake or cupcakes, I bought a cake instead but refrained from letting him know.

I waited until the Friday night and I told him that I was so sorry that I didn't have time to bake. He said that was okay and not to worry about it and that he would be just fine.  All day Saturday, which was his actual birthday I dropped in now and again that we didn't have his cake or cupcakes done. Each time Seb was really grown up and gracious about it.   He was given some chocolate from a friend so he even agreed that I would use the chocolate bar and put a candle in it to sing Happy Birthday to him.   We had a nice meal and afterwards I disappeared off to 'prepare the chocolate'.   Everyone was in on the secret.
When I walked back into the room with his cake this is what his face was like ...

You could not have faked that look for a million pounds.  He was thrilled with his cake and not one bit cross that I had tricked him.

We got him a kindle as his main gift, which he was delighted with.  He also got plenty of books, chocolate and a few other bits.

This year we didn't really plan any birthday parties.  Money was a bit tight for a while and to be fair I thought the children could have a choice of what to do now they are getting older.  Each child opted for a day out or a shopping trip.  Seb chose to go to the transport museum, despite visiting the museum on a previous birthday he still loved it.  

Tree Today Gone Tomorrow

I love our front garden.  Its not very big, certainly very small in comparison to the back garden.  However the little garden is pretty and has a cosy feel to it, if you could describe a garden in that way. When we moved in to our house there were two little trees in one of the borders, they were fine and didn't cause any trouble at all.  Over the years the trees have gotten larger and have at times been in the way.  They block the light and  I cant see the children playing from the dining room window.  They had to go.
Our neighbour who is a keen chainsaw-er very kindly offered to do the deed for us.  So on Saturday we decided that while the rain stayed away we would go ahead with the job. Sol got very upset at the prospect of losing her trees.  She hid from the sound of the chainsaw and wanted to make a tree grave for our two trees.  She came round however at the promise that I plant something new and pretty, something that will attract butterflies in the summer. 

The rest of the week was uneventful.  We had another day up in the city of Belfast shopping.  Seb needed new shoes for his Boy's Brigade club so we made that an excuse to go shopping again.  He did well him and his sisters got chatting to the shop assistants in the Geox shop and ended up with three Geox watches to go along with Seb's new shoes.
Later on in the Castle Court Centre Seb was watching the Pretzel makers at Auntie Annes pretzel stall, he watched intently how they stretched and rolled the dough.  After a few minutes the pretzel guys came over and gave him this huge pretzel for free.  Seb was delighted of course and they were more than happy to give him further demonstrations in pretzel making.  I thought that was really nice.

Washed Away

The weather today is dreadful.  That statement is an understatement!  With much of the UK on flood warnings all I can say its pretty darn cold and wet.

We braved the rain yesterday, I needed to go to the bank to pay my wages in and Toni wanted to spend some of the money she received for her birthday.  When we arrived at the shopping precinct I sat in the car texting my friend, telling her I didn't want to get out the car.  It was funny, she told me to send the kids instead.  I am glad we did the errands yesterday as today is no better.

When it is not raining, or windy, or cold and I am not working I would walk in the evenings. I know this doesn't really make an interesting blog post but I wanted to share some of the sunset coastal photos that I have taken on my walks.  Just a little note though, the photos are mostly phone photos and are not top quality.

 This one is my favourite, just because I sat and watched the heron fishing for a while this particular evening.  That night whilst I was taking the photos there were bats swooping around me each time giving me a near miss as they followed the line of the harbour wall.

Another Birthday and A Sticky Patch

Here we are two days past Toni's birthday, she is now ten years old.  True to form the birthdays in our family always have a little run of bad luck.  Toni shares her birthday with the anniversary of the death of my mother. It is sometimes hard to not forget about how my mum died on my daughters 5th birthday, I try my best to put it aside for Toni's sake.

The day was boringly uneventful.  Other half had an idea inspired by the latest series of The Apprentice, so in a bid to get some inspiration we visited a neighbouring town and its market.  In the years gone by my memories of the market are a buzzing lively event, but sadly on Saturday it was dull, small and lacking in pizazz.  Anyway we had a good morning looking around, Mag bought himself a winter hoody and the kids were more than happy looking at the toys on offer.

Toni had raised the point that she didn't like the icing on shop bought birthday cakes and requested that I would make her cake for her.  Better still she later asked for big swirly cupcakes which to me are easier to make than baking and icing a birthday cake.  I have done the kids cakes before but they are usually a two day event and I am never 100% happy with their outcome.

Earlier in the week I had taken the girls shopping to Belfast and got all of the kids pretty much kitted out for the winter.  We had a great day and are planning another trip later on this week to get some shoes for the boys as that was about the only thing I couldn't get.

The girls enjoying their shopping spree.

Oh, and something funny to add.   Sol has a huge sense of humour, she just makes everyone smile everywhere she goes.  As you will know from the blog posts I write she has to wear a patch on her eye for a number of hours every day.  These patches are sticky and pretty, Sol likes to stick them in memorable places as she hates to throw them away.  It is now a standing joke that everywhere we go she leaves a patch behind on a pillar or a fence.  At the shopping precinct in a nearby town she has a few patches dotted around.  She sticks them on the rear sides of the parking pillars usually and checks them each time we visit.  One particular patch was stuck on the pillar near a bank, it was stuck there for a couple of weeks and it looks as though someone found it. It was unpeeled and stuck onto the window of the bank much to our amusement.  Three weeks later the patch was still stuck onto the bank window!  This shows that the bank people do not clean their windows.  You can just about see in the photo, it is worn but still there. 

Cupboard Love

I need to throw a few updates at this page, however this one couldn't wait.

In our house we have a spare room, we call it our 'wee room'.  Wee being a word that the people from Northern Ireland use in front of just about every object or person they are talking about.  Wee, is a term of affection or simply just just a word when no other words will do. ("Do you see that wee man walking down the road?" this does not mean do you see that little man walking down the road, it simply is a less formal way of calling the man a man.)


Anyway our 'wee room' as we call it is actually a laundry room as such.  I use it to store bed linen, ironing, spare towels, winter/summer clothing, holiday stuff, surplus food, cleaning supplies and small electrical appliances, DVDs and I loads more. Everything goes into our wee room and its many cupboards and spaces.

The children often make dens in the wee room, especially when the weather is bad.  the other day Sol and Seb decided to set up a boys play area in the room.  Sol has been going through a stage where she pretends to be a boy and plays with boy toys.  This elaborate game lasted for many hours and spilled into the evening.  Sol and Seb made makeshift beds on upturned storage crates with cushions on top to soften them.  This rolled on to a sleep over and the children had no trouble in going to sleep in their new comfortable (not) beds.

We left them to sleep but around midnight I started to have second thoughts about their comfort and safety  and we lifted the sleeping children into their own beds.  It was really funny in the morning when Sol woke up and she had no idea she was actually in her own bed, she was not impressed.

What Is It About Birthdays?

What is it about birthdays lately? We don't seem to have the luck that we need to have a complete birthday without some sort of incident. Last night other half was taking Mag to his club and the car went 'pop'.  Out of the exhaust billowed thick black smoke and after a few minutes it settled down.  This morning was a different matter, other half left early to go to his secret handshake meeting and I could hear him kangaroo jumping the car down the road.  After a few minutes the car was fine, or so it seemed.  I  had planned on taking the children out for the day, after all it was Mag's birthday and I at least wanted to do something a little different for him.  However, I waited for the call from other half ... it never came.  I had a feeling there was something wrong with the turbo on the car so I eventually tracked him down to explain.  He said that the car was fine, but unconvinced I held on at home for him.  Next thing I knew I got a call explaining he was kangaroo jumping down the road again with black smoke pouring out the back.

Fast forward a couple of hours and the car was at the garage up on the ramp getting checked out. I met other at the repair shop there so he could get home if the car had to stay.  Just as I suspected it was to do with the turbo, lucky for us the pipe had just popped off and was easy enough to fix.  The guy didn't even charge us which was a huge relief as we just didn't have spare cash for an unexpected car bill.

We didn't get our day out to the city in the end but we did go to a local shopping area to do some birthday shopping.  Mag, birthday boy, got a tee shirt, some game cards, a book, and he ordered a pair of boots which should be in his possession on Monday.  He is very happy as he also received a gaming wheel and a stand for his favoured game Gran Turismo.  He is as happy as a pig in muck today.

Caramel Cupcakes

I made 36 caramel cupcakes today.  Each caramel cupcake has caramel frosting with caramel sauce drizzled on the top.  I finished the cupcakes off with a Rolo for decoration.  I can't wait to try them.