Harry turns 8 and Rainbow Cake

the beginning of the night

Ballet girls

Cousins

Dinner over and movie about to begin

Harry and his lovely friend Joe who he has known since he was about 2

Archie getting in on the action!

School friends

Rare moment of concentration and silence

Morning pancakes

Last weekend was all about Harry who turned 8 years old on Monday. We decided that he could have a sleepover so last Friday night we had a grand total of 10 little darlings over. They were all such good kids. Harry had contingents from Ballet, from school and from Family. No one was left out and all kids got on very very well with each other which I think is pretty amazing considering their age and that some didn't know each other. After a little play, we fed them all with pizza, hot chips, the mandatory red sausages and fizzy drink followed by make-your-own ice cream sundaes and birthday cake (which the kids ended up taking home as they were all too full to have any on the night). Then they all got into their pj's and we made the lounge floor into one big mattress which they (and the dog Archie) loved. I had rented a few movies so they watched Brave and Arthur Christmas with some popcorn, lollies and chips followed by teeth-brushing and multiple trips to the loo. After giving them the hard word, they were finally asleep by 1am (and awake again by 545am)! 

Considering the lack of sleep they were all pretty perky in the morning. I got up and made them all hot chocolates and then 'whipped up' loads of pancakes with some fruit on the side. Pick up was 930 am and the kids seemed to have a fantastic time as did the birthday boy.

I decided to surprise Harry with the cake this year and pretty hot on the blogging circuit is the rainbow cake. It looks pretty lovely, and while it's a pretty basic vanilla cake, if you love buttercream you will love this. I got the recipe from here which seems to be the hot favourite recipe at the moment. I made a plain vanilla buttercream rather than the icing she makes. It looks pretty spectacular and while it's an easy cake to make (and it used up some of the copious amounts of egg whites I have in the freezer too), it's just a little fiddly and time consuming. I used the good cake gel colours to get the intense colours you need although from what I have read, people have found the standard food colourings to work well. It was lovely to see his and the other kids faces when I cut it as they were all trying to guess what flavour it was (chocolate was the favourite choice).

All the bowls of batter coloured

Well iced so it was all covered up so he couldn't see what flavour it was

Happy birthday Pup (the candles glowed the same colour as the wax)

Not the best photo but you get the idea....

Gingerbread Houses

As yet undecorated

Holls decorating

Harry being creative

Dons getting in on the act too

Reubs 'jacuzzi'

Reubs finished creation

Holls with her finished creation

Harry with his....looking 'surprised'

Harrys

Our joint effort (mine and Dons)

Holls one

Harry's

After a mad mad mad weekend celebrating our baby's 8th birthday and after a sleepover with 10...yes 10!!! children over, I thought I hadn't had enough to do so spent the whole day baking these houses for the kids (and us) to decorate. Lots of butter and flour later and we had 4 houses ready to go. The gingerbread recipe I used was from a new book I was sent for Xmas called 'The Great British Bake Off' and didn't use eggs at all. The gingerbread itself was delicious and it held together nicely although I didn't find it the easiest dough to work with as it was quite hard to lift without breaking the shape. In the end I rolled onto a piece of baking paper roughly the same size as the shape and lifted that onto the tray before cooking This year I tried doing 'stained glass windows' using boiled lollies crushed up and put into the windows before baking. I thought they looked really effective. 

To decorate them I had about 7 bowls full of different lollies for us to use so the kids could really go to town and do whatever they liked. They each had their own little bag of royal icing and they all managed to pipe nicely...although I helped a little with the roof. We all really enjoyed this activity and while it literally took all day to prepare, it was well worth it. Dons and I joined forces to decorate ours and then took it over to the woman across the road who has 3 kids to enjoy as a Xmas treat. There are loads of templates you can use on the internet but even though I thought this one would be small enough, the finished houses were quite big. Although this is a time-consuming project it certainly spells out Xmas and heralds in the festivities and is well worth it to see the enjoyment the kids (and us too) get from decorating the houses.

Gingerbread Houses (I made 4 times this recipe)

350g flour
1 Tbsp grd ginger
1 tsp grd cinnamon
1/2 tsp mixed spice
good pinch salt
1 tsp baking soda
175g unsalted butter
150g brown sugar
4 Tbsp golden syrup

Sift flour, spices and soda into a bowl.

Put the butter, sugar and golden syrup into a large pot and stir over a low heat until it is all completely melted and smooth. Take the pot off the heat and tip in the flour mixture. Mix well with a wooden spoon to make a firm dough.Tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and leave until cool enough to handle, then knead gently to make a neat ball. Leave until cold before rolling out.

Bake at 180 C for about 10 mins.

Harry Turns 7!!!

Harry's last night of being 6...he slept with me just as he had 7 years ago...and kicked me all night just as had 7 years ago too!

Dons and Harry

With his PSP which he was desperate for

Mummy and Pup

With his cake...banana with cream cheese frosting as requested

Me, Pup, George, Russell and Dons

At ballet

Loving it

At dinner

 Our little baby turned 7 on the 17th December. Although we had celebrated with his friends the weekend before with a big disco, the actual day was just as great and exciting...and very full. It started with George and Russ coming over for breakfast of Harry's favourite Pancakes, Bacon and Rockmelon. He was thrilled with the present he had been harping on about for months which was a PSP as well a couple of other bits and pieces. After breakfast we had his last ballet until next year as he was determined not to miss it because 'it's my thing Mummy'. Then we popped home for a half an hour and went onto his little friend Ruby's birthday party (Ruby turned 8 on the 16th December). After that we raced home and took him out for dinner at Star Thai in Ponsonby which was lovely. Needless to say we were all shattered by the time we got home after a drive to look at the Xmas lights. But Harry had a fantastic and full birthday....now onto Christmas Day!!! If you are wondering where Reuben is in these photos, well you try getting a photo of a 14 year old boy...it is near to impossible!