Eight

Eight. Hard to comprehend my squigy cuddly little baby boy is now a long lean lanky, callused palmed and boofy, eight year old boy. How the years have melted away.

The eight year old boy was lucky enough to score TWO cakes this go round, a pretty mean feat considering mum had spent the best part of the week prior away at Westech Field Days in Barcaldine. But seeing as his birthday fell on a Saturday, a second cake was required to share with the 6 little friends at school.

 

There was plenty of sisterly love going his way. Momentarily at least!

Lego and games, and a new hat, boots AND WHIP. All dogs in the district are cowering. Boy can crack a whip far better than his mother (who’s whip cracking skills are very lacking).

Cake One was a chocolate and freckles masterpiece that did not last past morning smoko.

Cake Two was a lot heavier on the sugar laden embellishments. Smarties and TV Snack biscuits surely do hide an absolute multitude of sins, do they not?!

Happy Birthday Angus. Now about that whip. Back corner of the back paddock is a brilliant place to practise your whip cracking, son.

Dodgy Birthday Cakes, Edition 1, 2014

We have an eleven year old in the house. How did that happen? Second day of school, she set her alarm so that she had an extra 10 minutes of time in order to unwrap her pressies before making lunch and doing other chores. (father and I have placed bets on how long this new found efficiency and time keeping will last).

A new work hat being on the list of requested gifts and duly delivered, amongst girly things like earrings and flowery headbands. (hat is palm straw, brand is  Sunbody).She didn't request a cake style as such, kindly saying "whatever you can do mum!". Inspired by something I'd seen online with flowers (possibly real deal!) I ratted around in the craft drawer, and emerged triumphant with this pink beauties from the $2 shop. What their original purchase was for I do not know, but who knows when you might need a pink peony for something. Maybe not so dodgy this year (its the palette knife gifted to me last year, I swear its a game changer!)

And just like that, she is eleven. And we are not even thinking about the fact that this is her last year of schooling at home. Not even going there at all.

A pictorial catch up

There's been plenty to occupy us around these parts of late, and each activity is worthy of a blog post of its own, but because I can't be bovvered, I'm going to do the edited version :-)

The stars aligned and lick run day fell on the weekend for once at the prickle farm. The cows are now out in what we call our "bush country" which until recently was unfenced on the northern boundary. I'd never been out there before (no tracks) so after putting out lick and chatting to the cows, we headed out to check out the new fence and The Gorge.

 

Our back boundary is The Great Dividing Range/ Burra Range.  The high point along the new fence affords a view that stretches for many many miles to the north.  I was also excited to find some little outcrops of slate like sandstone rock - GARDEN PAVING ANYONE?! Loaded into the ute with some coercion required ;-)

An updated shed photo...

Moving right along, this was meant to be a summary of events wasn't it!!

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We went for a little horse-play-day at a nearby friends place. Being short on horses that weren't too light on in condition, Angus had to entertain himself. Girls had a great time, despite Georgie's pony having his naughty pants on. BBQ followed. Late night. All tired!

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Yes, time for the third edition of Dogdy Birthday Cakes for the year! Boy mumbled something about rainbow, which I interpreted into decoration (and badly done at that!).

He is now SEVEN. My word, how did that come about so quickly....

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We went to a wedding at the Atherton Tablelands, which involved a little bit of touristy tripping about and a lot of soaking in of the green stuff. And checking out the farming things happening, as you do. ;-)

     

Wedding was in a glorious location and was just lovely, and marquee set up beautifully with all of the little touches. Loved it. Bride collected bottle after bottle and spent hours hot gluing hessian string, which turned out brilliantly!

I went with a black and white dress and black jacket ensemble as you can see. With a pop of orange. The little boy clown was an extra surprise accessory ;-)

We also took the chance to have a mini holiday, loathe to leave the green. Visited some local attractions and waterfalls.

(Lake Euramoo, a volcanic crater). Climbed a million steep steps in our water fall viewing quest. Nearly needed to take out second mortgage to eat at Lake Barrine fine dining establishment (however we were STARVING and indeed the food was good). Did not see a platypus (not surprising) but did feed several well fed ducks and a not so smart but very round eel. Climbed a few more thousand steps. (Ellinjaa Falls below, one of the ones that one can see from the bottom)

Headed home taking in The Crater, Dinner Falls and Millstream Falls on the way (more uphill downhill walking! ye gads my aching calf muscles, but at least NO STEPS) and stopping to let the kids frolic in the popular swimming/camping spot Archers Creek (near Innot Hot Springs). Not a bad way to spend some time, sitting by a running creek in the nicer temperatures of the high lands!

And then home James....Where the temperature is NOT nice, the skies hazy with dust (we home, rather than smoke) and more washing than I can poke a stick at.

Need a holiday to get over the holiday!

She is nine (dodgy birthday cakes - edition 2/2013)

The years keep rolling on by at a fast pace, one minute you have a troublesome toddler, the next a ratbag 9 year old. How did THAT happen?!

There was much deliberation over cake choices (but kindly realising the limit of mum's abilities, they make their requests to allow for a wide margin of error, and their expectations low!), and much the same from parents re giftage.

A new bike and much longed for onsie (which much to her delight, included a bum flap!) plus Diary of a Whimpy Kid books were unwrapped with glee.

Much much mess was made in the decorating of the cake.

Discovered that candle in the cupboard wasn't in fact a nine, but a six. Sharp knife applied, some creative candle rebuilding and TADAAH! It now IS a nine.

With the school now only have a population of 10, it means that cakes can be brought back to regular sizing, rather than giant slab cakes to feed a large crowd!

And inside the cake, the requested RAINBOW! (which apparently was very hard to focus on...perhaps my lens did not recover as well as I thought it did?!)

 

And now, with barely two scant weeks between them, I have to roll out another birthday cake for the little boy. Not sure if I can handle the pressure to produce... (but I will say this: a friend gifted me with a pallette knife and said it would make all of the difference. It did indeed make smoothing the icing much easier. A pity the cake underneath wasn't all that smooth!! ;-)

Dodgy Birthday Cakes 2013 #10

Poor Kate always ends up with the dodgiest cakes - end of school holidays, start of school, its soo hot...needless to say baking and decorating inspiration are always at an all time low. This year was no different:

It actually looked better in real life, and the pale pink buttercream turned out really well, which makes a change for me.

The candles were lit and were blown out very quickly (a strong breeze helped!) and cake devoured in record time, despite there being less kids at school this year!

I'm getting a bit slack with the photos I have to say, I didn't take many at all (a few more on my phone, which I have been using a lot!)The

I now have a child in double digits...scary much! She was a very lucky girl and got a lot of thoughtful presents from family and friends and so was feeling very loved and special. Granma got her a 500 piece puzzle which we put at the end of the dining table. Lets just say she didn't do a whole lot of it, but Mum, Dad and sister did. Distracting, mind bending bloody thing. But now of course we are all hooked and even Dad has said I need to get another. I'll think about it. He thought Instagram was bad at wasting my time...

One cake down, three to go...

tales of dodgy birthday cakes, volume 3, 2012 {Final Edition}

I was barely over the trauma of the last birthday cake, when it rolled around far too quickly, the birthday of my little baby boy. Who turned SIX on Thursday (but still has to stop, and count to himself, on his fingers, the number that comes after five, as he forgets his new number!). He woke up Thursday morning, and as soon as his eyes popped open rolled out of bed and came flying out "ITS MY BIRTHDAY TODAY!"

I was already well and truly up, baking his cake before breakfast as our adventures the day before (nothing too exciting, just requiring us to be out far later than expected) meant no cake got baked.

We did presents before breakfast....

Lego and a grader being well received. And look at that gappy toothed smile. That tooth had been hanging on by the slimmest of threads for days, and he lost it, literally, on the lawn, eating a pear.

Again, I made an attempt to get all fancy like with my cake decorating. A small attempt.

100's and 1000's cover a multitude of sins, including no crumb layer of icing, however half an hour in the freezer tends to help sort the crumbs out. This time I went for a plain old chocolate cake, with a liberal application of chocolate butter cream, and heavy handed application of sprinkles, as you can tell. Floor is also looking very colourful, despite my best efforts to control the flow and direction.   Cake of course was inhaled by the school kids, with just enough to bring home for afternoon smoko. And I think my newly six year old boy had a pretty good day.  

Tales of Dodgy Birthday Cakes, Volume 2, 2012

Reading the wonderful blogs of my online mates Amy and Fiona, and having email discussions regarding cakes and the making of, may have lead to believe, somewhat rashly, that I had the skills to carry off a layered rainbow cake. Those that care to, may see my instagram feed (see link in tab above) and the much knashing of teeth and tale of woe as the cake baking did not proceed as planned.

However, never one to waste a good cake, no matter how dismal its colour, I soldiered on, resolving that with a good chocolate icing, and heavy handed application of smarties and sprinkles, that a multitude of sins could be hidden. And after all, its not all about the cake, its about the Birthday Girl!

The Birthday Girl arose from bed earlier than normal, and feigned nonchalance, that she had forgotten it was her birthday! (yeah, right) Being an evil mother, I had hidden parcels from sight with only one small measly gift bag being on view. Finally she made enough noise to awaken the dead get her siblings out of bed so the gift opening could happen before breakfast and school time.

a new dress was scored (with a great deal of room to grow, thanks to mum not reading the tag properly in her whirlwind trip through the shops last week) lady bird slippers which give this quirky kid quite a kick, and some cool lego...(she was so proud to read the instructions and build unaided by adults but possible hindered by big bossy sisters and inquisitive little brothers)

and in a weak moment (from mum) some additions (LAST EVER!) to the pet shop family. They are quite a hit with the kids in this house.

Finally off to school, and for morning tea, some cake...

(that would be dad's grotty finger holding the matches in the front of the photo)

And finally, the big reveal....

Where things weren't as bad as they initially seemed, although my original plans involved a deep blue, kelly green and bright yellow. Pantry revealed a total lack of  yellow colouring, the blue went a lovely hue, as seen above and the green took on a lime hue (held together by PINK icing which was meant to be red).

Never the less, the cake was consumed down to the last crumb, and the kids went on their merry way, well and truly hopped up on sugar and the great deal of artificial colouring that went into each layer of cake!  

And the gappy toothed Flossie is now eight....my goodness.