Cards

What do you do with your birthday and other cards once the occasion has passed? I always feel bad throwing them out but that's what I usually end up doing because really you just get too many of them and there's not much you can do with them really.

But my Mum kept each of her kids a scrapbook that had all the cards from when we were born, from our baptisms and from our first birthdays pasted into them. Inside of each card she's made a little note of the present we received for the occasion. They used to live at the top of our linen cupboard and I always remember pulling them down to flick through them every now and then.

My scrapbook lives with me now, this is it...


And inside - lots of Holly Hobbie and other late 70s pictures going on.



So I've been keeping all of Matilda's cards and last week I finally stuck them into a scrapbook I bought from Smiggle, with letter stickers from Kikki K and I had to make a pretty elastic band to hold it all together because it was getting pretty thick.



I've also stuck her hospital bands and tag from her hospital bed in there for her to look back on when she gets a bit older. I wonder if hers will survive as long as mine has.

My form of meditation

After such a busy few weeks I had a lovely afternoon yesterday while G and Matilda slept. I baked, it was very meditative.

Raspberry + apple crumble cake, banana + cinnamon muffins and after-dinner mints (flourless chocolate cakes with mint butter cream).




And slow-cooked our dinner... braised pork with risoni. The recipe is from Delicious magazine, I think a few months ago and I'm pretty sure the recipe is by George Calombaris. But don't quote me on that. Whoever wrote it, it's yummy - but I think next time I'll change the pork to chicken. I am not really into pork.


I find this kind of cooking very relaxing.

Cookery

I feel like the last few weeks have been on fast forward and today was the first day of life at normal speed again. Finally, a few minutes to take a breath, have a cup of tea and do a load or 6 of washing.

First we had Matilda's birthday party and then her real birthday and last weekend was the local country show and I (in a moment of pure craziness) had agreed to organise the cookery competition.


So Friday night we accepted all the entries and had judging and then on the weekend I had to be around most of the time in case people had questions and to stop kids (and adults!) from sticking their fingers in all of the cakes.



Lucky I had my little helper there some of the time.


It was fun really, apart from the little punk kids who stole my wallet (It was found later in the men's toilet minus the cash, but that was only about $10 and I got all my cards etc back which is the most annoying part of having your wallet stolen). Fun, but I'm glad it's over. Now... just have to get my life back to some kind of normal.

1st Birthday Party Report (warning, this is really long and has lots of photos and is probably really boring to everyone but me)

So the birthday party is over! It was such a big day but we had a lot of fun. Matilda doesn't seem to mind being the centre of attention at all!

Thanks to the help of a few family members I think everything from my to do list became a reality for the party. Matilda had a good sleep in the morning and was in a great mood all afternoon. I really couldn't have hoped for anything better. Even the weather was behaving and we had a perfectly clear and not too cold Brisbane winter's day.

We took so many photos - so apologies for the length of this post - but I couldn't narrow them down any further. Show and tell time...

The birthday cake - a ladybug, of course


And some cupcakes to go with - snails, flowers, gardens, caterpillars and toadstools.


Also to eat: my mum made chocolate eclairs -


Choc-dipped strawberries, provided by my sister


Lemon Tassies, recipe from here (Martha Stewart)


Cinnamon and Vanilla Madeleines


Meringue caterpillars for the big and little kids


Chocolate mousse flower pots


Plus some afghans made by one of my aunts and neinish tarts from an uncle, which I forgot to photograph.

For the non sweet-tooths -

Mushroom and herb palmiers, made by one of my cousins


Le Cachat (goat's cheese spread), recipe from an old Dish magazine and really really yummy.


Potato nests with smoked salmon and watercress


Plus lemongrass + chilli chicken, lamb + feta filo fingers, homemade sausage rolls and little mexican vol-e-vouns. Oh and we added some mini-frankfurt butterflies and sandwiches for the littlies.

To drink, strawberry milkshakes for the kids with marshmallow polka-dots


Champagne for the big kids


Then, to decorate, we set up a little play area for the children on our back verandah, complete with their food table, an activity table (for colouring-in and bubbles) and a dress up box filled with lady bug and other costumes.


Matilda had her final inspection of her special area just before the guests arrived.


We also had balloons and flowers


And a 'happy birthday' sign for the front door.



Because all the little people invited are really fairly little (the oldest is 3) we only played one party game.


We had butterfly nets to catch chocolate lady bugs, frogs and bees that were hidden while we were blowing bubbles in the back yard.




For the guests we filled the lady bug pencil cases with little goodies



Stickers, toys and some lollies.


Matilda had lots and lots of fun opening her presents and playing with her new toys (she was very very spoiled!)




She also did very well with her birthday cake, apart from grabbing at the lady bugs spots and trying to eat the candle.


Then all that was left was for us to clean up the mess.


Which 3 days later, we have almost finished doing.

Exhausting, but lots and lots of fun.

Getting ready for a party: activities and favours

2 days until party time and I think I might actually be fairly organised for once.

I bought some little red bottles of bubbles for the little people to play with and added a few black spots to give them some lady-bug style.


For the goody bags, I've made some little pencil cases to fill with goodies.


Well, when I say made I kind of cheated. I made little pouches and them glued them on to cheap pencil cases from a $2 shop - so I wouldn't have to do the zips myself. I am no good at zips and there wasn't time for me to learn. I used to cover pencil cases like this when I was in school and it seemed to work alright then so, it's back.


I think this one might be my favourite.


And I've bagged up some lollies to go inside them with a few other little bits and pieces I've collected along the way.


Lady-bug coloured jelly beans and some little toadstools. Sweet :)

Now, on to some baking!

Getting ready for a party: activities and decorations

Matilda's 1st birthday party is on this Saturday, so slowly slowly I'm getting organised for it.

Inspired by these, I decided to make some little colouring in books for the little guests for them to colour in during the party.


Because we're having a ladybug's picnic, I found free printable colouring in pages on the internet of ladybugs, butterflys, caterpillars and other garden creatures and plants. I sewed them all together with a different colour cover with each little guests name on it.


And I've been making some colourful paper chains in front of the tv at night.


Lots to do, I hope for once I can actually get done everything I want to do before Saturday. We will see.

Also we're crossing our fingers that Matilda's first tooth has stopped giving her grief by Saturday, we've been up half the night for the last few with it and she hasn't been a happy little thing. Can't have a grumpy birthday girl.