Making Fun

We were all at home the other day, the day was very bright and hot and we were enjoying our lovely garden. But Husband was super busy tidying up the garden instead of relaxing. Now don't get me wrong he did a great job clearing away leaves and such but I decided that it was my job to MAKE him have some fun. So I gave the girls some washing up bottles, filled them with water and told them to "get daddy".
The look of shock on his face was priceless.
But I couldn't leave him defenceless so I gave him a bottle too, stood back and took a bunch of photos. Of course I didn't get wet at all; Well I was the one holding the camera and we couldn't let that get wet now could we? It didn't hurt that I was also standing right behind Baby Boy who didn't want to get wet either.




Let's get him

 


Hey girls what's going on?




Daddy's turn now.




So much fun.





Down the back; the best place




I agree!




Not me I'm holding the camera.





Teenager joins the fun.



Being Six

Youngest Girl had her 6th birthday.

Her birthday is at the end of June so she always starts her countdown the on the 1st of June.



Opening first presents.





Well her day finally arrived and she had a lovely day, she got many of the things she wanted as I've been paying attention and buying things on her little list for about 2 months.

Here is some of what her day looked like.




My one legged bear

 

 The birthday child is always king or queen for the day, they have pancakes and sweet cereal as we homeschool they get a day off with fun activities. This time was a little different as they ALL had pancakes because I'm trying something new, I got the idea from http://jennipriceillustration.blogspot.com/ have a look your kids will love it. We had rabbits, flowers,frogs and whatever else I could make with the left over batter.

Youngest Daughter loves to dress up so she got a pink velvet skirt and matching neck tie with a large birthday cake pink velvet hat. She has been bugging me for a watch so that was one of her gifts too.





As you can see she is a bit of a poser.



This was supposed to be a frog.

 

 

These were some mini cupcakes I made, we ate these at lunch time because Husband and Teenager were at work and school and cake is always needed in some form or other on a birthday after a meal.        



Here we are about to have the birthday meal,

and here I am about to deliver the eagerly awaited cake.

Look at this face, we are singing 'Happy Birthday'
 her cake is in front of her and she couldn't be more pleased.

Again with the posing. Youngest Daughter wanted a butterfly cake so I googled  different ones and settled for this one. I used pre-made roll out icing this time and I think it turned out pretty good. Quite tasty too.

Fathers Day

I've always enjoyed baking but I'm trying to be a bit more creative, so when fathers day was approaching I decided to make a shirt cake. Now I'm the type of person who would rather try to make something myself to avoid the many preservatives that are in so many of the foods we eat and this is what I tried to do with this cake. I tried to make my own roll out icing. As you can see I didn't succeed as I'd hoped to. 

I now know that there are a few more ingredients in roll out icing than just icing sugar and water.

Although Husband was very happy with his shirt cake all I could see was drippy shirt. So I made the decision to make any future cakes with pre-made roll out icing.

As you can see the girls had fun helping me with the clean up, Middle Daughter was actually lying across the island licking all the icing sugar that she could.

 

I found some  ideas from other sites to make some great gifts for fathers day, one was this photo of the kids, I can't remember where I found it but I will search for it so I can give credit where it's due.  Husband really loved this gift and and I must say I do too.

JAMES 1:17
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

Keeping Secrets

There is something that I do with all of my children individually and none of them know that it's a universal thing.
I keep secrets with them.
Every now and then I will go out with just one of them so they can get some mummy time without having to share me, it could be anything from going to the supermarket, to the post office, into town or simply going for a drive.
While we are out we get to chat, laugh and have fun with each other and I get to know that particular child better.They have my undivided attention and they can be extremely helpful in the process if I am doing chores. They love it and they really don't mind where we go  it's not about where we go but the fact that they are out without the others and having one on one time.
During the course of our time out comes our secret. It's usually a sticky cake from the bakery or a hot chocolate and biscuit in a nice little cafe' . Of course it must be kept a secret from the other siblings because we don't want to hurt their feelings by making them feel left out. But they can't wait to whisper to daddy all the fun things we've done together as soon as we get home.
This has been going on for quite a few years now and I've been wondering for a while if they've sussed me out yet, and today middle daughter was having some extra cake ends (you know those sweet crunchy pieces that are so tasty) and she asked me "mummy does anyone else have secret treats". Firstly I said  "I can't tell you" and her response was " I bet they do" and I thought 'the cats out of the bag now' so I said "if they were having any secret treats I wouldn't be able to tell you because it would be a secret". She looked thoughtful after that as if she wasn't so sure.
I think my secret is still safe but not for much longer I suspect.
The reason I began doing this was because we do a lot of fun things as a family but I wanted each of my children to have special happy memories of their very own that only they would remember.
I never make a big deal out about who I'm going to take with me and I don't have a rota or anything like that, it's just very natural in the way that it happens. I may be just popping to the shop and say to one of the kids when the others are preoccupied with something " do you want to come with me" and it's as simple as that.
Being a christian gives us a special unique relationship with God that is very different to all the other Christians over the face of the earth He is the most caring, nurturing and loving parent we could ever want or need. And even though we can never reach His level of parenting skills ; We can try.