Little Miss Sunshine birthday cake

I had such fun making this 1st birthday cake for Little Miss Felicity!

And of course it was gluten free.

I purchased Duff branded fondant from Michaels (with 50% coupons) and it was surprisingly easy to work with.

Felicity loved eating the cake especially the lemon flavoured yellow fondant.

Coat rack

Blank wall:















Painted space:















Hooks up:















Hook racks painted:



















Photos up and coats up:

Valentines Box

Our Silhouette machine has been getting a workout this year.

Here was the creation that Andrew and Lucy devised for her valentines box for school.

The 3D heart decoration at the back has a heart shaped photo of Lucy hanging inside it.

The teacher was so impressed she showed it around to the other classes.

Heartbreaker

Blanket from baby cloths

Although Felicity is still a baby she is no longer a newborn and hence no longer needs burp cloths.

So I was happy to repurpose them into a blanket for our loungeroom.

If you look carefully you'll see the pattern is off. Yes that's what happens when you sew 20 minutes a day with kids running around.

Although its not perfect, it is much loved and well used.

Cooking

Standing

Little Miss Felicity turns 1!

Toy hospital

Lucy's babies were getting a little lean. Actually more than lean, skeletal. Given that some of them were nearly 6 years old they were doing ok but clearly had seen better days.

But they weren't so good for cuddling.

So Bill and Franz went on the operating table to be restuffed. Lucy stayed close by to check they were ok throughout their operations.

Afterwards, the patients along with Charles and Piggy were given new ribbons.

Lucy was more than happy with her healthy babes.

Happy Easter 2012

Happy Easter to all our friends and family!

Here are the kids baskets this year (minus the sheep pillows I made)

This year I made the baskets using Amazon boxes and wrapping paper. I cut out their names and glued them on the front. They look so cute!

Another tooth lost

Lucy's first loose tooth was a long drawn out ordeal over 2 months. When the gum went red and the tooth went grey Andrew pulled it out [much to Lucy's surprise and shock].

The second tooth was a different story entirely. We encouraged her to wiggle it all the time and as such at school just after lunch it popped out on its own.

The teacher gave her a super cute tooth necklace for her tooth as well as a certificate.

Lucy was stoked!

Easter craft - sheep pillows

Every year for Easter the kids get sheep themed presents. This year I came across these super cool sheep pillows at purlbee.

I had so much fun making these sheep and they took so little time that I was sad that they were finished so quickly.

They are sitting in the Easter baskets waiting for Sunday!

Spring craft - a good use for peeps

I saw this cute project at Martha Stewart and thought it would make a good decoration for spring. Given its yellowness it also works for Felicity's party!

I used an old garden pot but got the rest of the supplies at Michaels. Painting, plastering and hot gluing later and this was the result.

And given the indestructible nature of peeps this craft will be a family heirloom for many years to come!

Pizza

In planning for Felicity's upcoming party we were looking through some pizza books and Sydney take away menus and quickly came to the conclusion that we had slumped to a mediocrity in pizza creation. Whilst we were above the American staple of pepperoni we were below Australian standards. Call it cultural backsliding.

So on Sunday we tried out two new pizza recipes: roast pork with apple sauce and upside down baked lemon cheesecake [both from the cookbook Theo & Co - thanks Adam]

Both were magnificent. The pork one started with a base of homemade apple sauce with a hint of cream. Then sliced wood-fired roast pork and shredded mozzarella cheese. Followed by sliced garlic roast potatoes and drizzled with white sauce. The dessert one speaks for itself as it was exactly as named - a baked lemon cheesecake topped with strawberries and drizzled with strawberry coulis.

Everyone gobbled down these creations. Happy full bellies led to happy naps. After 4 slices of pork pizza Lucy managed to eat 4 pieces of lemon cheesecake pizza! We enjoyed these pizzas for lunch on Monday and they were just as good reheated in the regular oven the next day.

I can see more experimenting to come!

Veggie Tales concert

On Saturday afternoon we headed downtown to attend the Veggie Tales 'God made you special' concert that was a benefit to the Yahweh Center Childrens Village.

So many people were there it took 25 minutes to get into the place - unheard of in Wilmington!

There was so much singing and dancing (though not by our kids). They did love the Bob and Larry soft toys and flashing wands that Andrew bought however.

After the show we had special backstage passes so we got to meet the cast and have some photos! Felicity loved it! And Henry gave Bob plenty of high fives.

Oh where is my hairbrush!

Catching a breath...

It's well and truly spring! After a mild and pleasant winter we have emerged into a gorgeous season, albeit one filled with pine pollen. The azaleas are in full bloom (a little too early for the annual azalea festival) and our bottle brush plants (left) have many many flowers.

As I mentioned last time its been a busy time here and one of the reasons is all the crafts that are going on. I'm hoping to start sharing them with you soon!

We have also had SO MUCH SICKNESS. We have been to the doctor pretty much once a week for the past few months. Everyone seems ok at the moment so hopefully all the germs have gone away.

Today we went to the opening day of strawberry picking. In about 10 minutes we had 3 full buckets of big red delicious strawberries. We're going to make a strawberry cheesecake and some strawberry jam. Of course we all ate strawberry ice cream at the farm. Felicity loves ice cream and screams when the person feeding her takes too long between mouthfuls. She loves all types of ice cream and now she can add strawberry to her list of preferred flavours.

We also did some planting and got our herb garden into shape. No vegetables this year because we'll be in Oz during prime time.