Another birthday.....

another cake!

Brian this time.....

Evie and I had a go at our own version of Black Forest Gateaux which was always a favourite.....


and is still a bit of a favourite it has to be said.....


we now get a 5 week breather before Isaac's special day... phew!

We need it in order to munch our way through all the cake we've built up!

She's nine....... already!

well, rouse myself I did after the last blog post, and made all sorts of preparations for our next day of excitement - though at times I thought Evie might just die with the waiting!

After having been in bed on Wednesday night for about three hours, Evie appeared at the kitchen door and asked Brian and I, 'Isn't it morning yet?' I had to inform her that it wasn't even bedtime yet for the two of us and then I escorted her back to bed, whereupon she cried into her pillow, 'I hate sleeping, it's so boring'!

I met her again in the corridor at 1.30am and then finally allowed her into our bed for a birthday snuggle at 5.30am........

Celebrations had to start immediately of course.....

Presents and cake in bed (no eating of cake of course, just the exuberant singing of 'happy birthday to you' with candle blowing out and wishing at this point!!).....


don't you just love her hat? It's a real Aussie Barmah hat that she has had her eye on for quite some time. She was REALLY excited to get it and has worn it non stop since she opened it!

Buzz Lightyear was requested to be the 'man of the moment' for us this year..... (it was going to be Ron Weasly from Harry Potter but Buzz knocked him off top spot.....). Needless to say my 'themed-birthday-cake-decorating-skills' were mightily challenged with this one..... oh, how I long for a plain victoria sponge request!


As in previous years, the child whose birthday it is gets to choose all food for the day..... Evie chose to have fresh coconut milk for breakfast...... go figure!


Morning tea was iced doughnuts with sprinkles...... (see, the hat is still on!)


We did eventually manage to leave the house (with hat still in place) to go to the toy store so that Evie could spend all her birthday money on some Schliech animals to add to her collection - here the big cats are having a face-off.......


We fitted in a party lunch, some jigsaw puzzling, a game of 'Deal or No Deal', played with the big cats a bit more, ate more cake (sadly, Buzz's legs are no more!!) and finished it all off with a family movie night.....

I love making memories with my precious people.......

We're at the beginning of our birthday bonanza here in the Poxon house....

me first.... yipee....

closely followed by the smallest one.... and then, without a breath drawn, the man of the house.....

it's great fun.....

lots of excuses to eat cake and buy gifts, lots of party lunches and movie nights to enjoy and lots of renditions of 'Happy Birthday to you' are heard from our home....

I was presented with this marvellous cake:


as requested, a Bruce Bogtrotters cake from Roald Dahls Revolting Recipes. Brian and Evie were the chefs for this one and the story of the cake is explained here so I won't go through it all again..... save to say, this may not look much - but in the taste stakes it is a winner!! (let me just clarify that it wasn't presented to me with a big slice missing..... that was a little taster the children and I had for afternoon tea before Brian got home from work....... yum)

Don't you think I look good for my age too?

I was the excited recipient of a SHINY new iPod touch.... which I have played with pretty much constantly since it was unwrapped.... it's a lot of fun I have to tell you! I also received a lovely handmade necklace from my precious daughter and some cinnamon scrolls (handmade) from Isaac......

OK, when I have recovered from eating so much of the above cake I will rouse myself and get on with preparations for the next day of excitement.....

A day at the beach.....

we have just had the LAZIEST of holidays.....

two weeks doing ABSOLUTELY nothing.... except have morning and afternoon tea ...... make cakes to accompany said refreshments.... do a little bit of sewing & crocheting..... and stay in my pj's until the sun was well and truly in the middle of the sky!

I just about managed [to get off the sofa/drag myself away from the sewing machine] to cook a meal each day!

oh, this slow pace of life suits me...... REALLY IT DOES!

We also squeezed in a couple of days at the beach where some friends have a little 'get-away' and had kindly given us the keys.....

The second day we were there was GLORIOUS.... warm, bright blue sunny skies and it definitely didn't feel like the middle of winter....

Oh look, there's one of those afternoon teas I was talking about!!



As the day had been so nice we decided, just as the sun was setting, to make our second trip of the day to the beach..... Isaac had a desire to dig 'sink holes' - he has always had a fascination with digging holes right at the edge of where the waves reach and then watching the waves fill up the hole and then he digs it out again.... and so it goes on.


just a couple of photos of the kids..... they are great.... such fun to spend time with.... don't they look all windswept and beachy.......



Then Brian decided to play the 'let's-dunk-the-kids-head-first-into-the-sinkhole' game.......


so the kids decided to play the 'let's-push-dad-into-the-sea' game......


but look who ended up getting soaked...... oh, what a surprise!


there was nothing else for it but to go to the local fish and chip shop and get huge bags of fish and so-hot-they-could-burn-your-lips chips with lashings of salt and vinegar...... yummy!

back to reality now......

oooooh, more postcards.....

I'm loving the mailbox at the moment.....

Not one, but two postcards for us today.....

One from a little girl in Germany....


what a cute postcard huh?

And the other one came from China....


We've stuck them on the wall around our world map and found the towns from whence they came.....

We've sent a few more postcards off as well to places like Finland, the USA, China and another couple to Germany.....

I love it when I can find the world in my mailbox!