Hubby's birthday cake

My husband is a bit of a quirky guy, and one of his most obvious eccentricities is his penchant for Hawaiian shirts.  To be fair, in our climate they are nice and cool in summer and as they're button up and collared they are technically suitable for a wide range of occasions.

So Geekling and I made his 32nd birthday cake in the shape of a Hawaiian shirt!  We baked a square cake then cut a slice off to cut up as sleeves.

I wish I'd gotten a picture before it was pincushioned, but this will have to do.

Happy birthday, hubby!

Rainbow rice!

I had to pick Geekling up from daycare a couple of weeks ago as he wasn't well.  While he was napping, I made up a batch of rainbow rice for him to play with in the afternoon and he was positively thrilled with it!

I used 2 x 1kg bags of jasmine rice.  They were on special for $1 each.  I divided into the number of colours I wanted (5) and then put each portion in a ziplock bag with a couple of squirts of hand sanitising alcohol and quite a few drops of food colouring.  Then I shook until it was evenly coloured and lay it on baking paper to dry.  You can substitute hand sanitiser for white spirits like vodka but it will take longer to dry.

Here it is before Geekling got to it:

Its become a permanent addition to our sensory box fillers.  I initially gave him some different sized cups, scoops and spoons (including slotted ones that the rice slowly sifts through).  I've since used it with rainbow foam letters buried in it as an alphabet find-the-letter activity, and today with plastic easter eggs to fill and shake.  It still looks great even all mixed up and when we're done I tip it into a large ziplock bag and put away for next time.

After shot coming soon!

Aromatherapy shower discs for colds & flu

First off, apologies for neglecting this blog.  I contracted Ross River Fever at the end of February and its been a long fight but I'm finally coming good now.

I came across this post for home made aromatherapy shower discs on Pinterest and it reminded me that here in the Southern hemisphere cold and flu season is about to start.  I was thrilled to note that I have all the ingredients for these, though we often buy a blended oil here called "Breathe Easier" because hubby has so many allergies and Geekling is athsmatic, and it smells very much like Vicks so I might use 45 (!!) drops of it instead of the blend, even though I have those oils. I had to stop myself whipping a batch up right now - only I think that they'd be best made fresh.  Rest assured at the first sniffle or sneeze, I'll turn out a set and give them a try.

I think they'd make a great get well gift too!

Glasses like Daddy

Geekling explored his craft box on the weekend, and is quite taken with pipe cleaners.  I offered to fashion him a pair of glasses from them, which were a big hit - "Glasses like Daddy!" and "Cool dude glasses!"

Geekling's bedroom - 2 years old

Now that Geekling is toilet trained, we've sold his nappy change table (for almost double what we'd bought it for! $45 second hand off ebay 2 years ago, sold for $80 on ebay recently).  We moved his chest of drawers to where his change table had been, moved his bookshelf to where his drawers had been and put up the play tent I made him for his birthday.  We've also now got an easel his Grandma gave him, and we blew up balloons for his birthday!

The playtent is just a hula hoop ($5), a queen bed sheet donated by Geekling's Grandma and a bunting donated by Lumpy's Mum.  The tutorial I followed is here.

Geekling LOVES the tent, loves his new Very Hungry Caterpillar bedsheets and pillow and his easel!

I love comparing photos and seeing how his bedroom has evolved.

Previous posts about Geekling's room:
Geekling's newborn nursery
Geekling's new bed

Geekling's 2nd Birthday

We celebrated Geekling's 2nd birthday last weekend at our favourite park at Chermside - its huge!  The play area is under cover, and although not a priority for us there are lots of options for special needs kids too which is nice to see.  There are toilets and lots of tables and benches and lots of grass to run around on - its a wonderful space.

We had a Very Hungry Caterpillar themed party as its Geekling's favourite book at the moment.  We ate all the foods that the caterpillar eats in the book!

 

 

I've been struck down with Ross River Fever that I must have picked up from a pesky mosquito while camping a couple of weeks ago, which put me out of action in the lead up to the party.  A HUGE thank you to:

• my mum who made Geekling's awesome caterpillar cake;
• my mother in law who made the jellies and cupcakes and supplied drinks; and 
• my wonderful husband who did the rest.  

The only thing I managed was to pick up a second-hand single bedsheet from the thrift store and stamp it in greens and red with a cut potato.

Hoot Cupcakes

Geekling's 2nd birthday is near, so I had to send cupcakes in to daycare so the kids could celebrate.  These are what were made:

They are little owls decorated with halved oreo biscuits, halved malteasers and orange jelly beans.  They look a bit like Geekling's favourite character Hoot, from ABC's Giggle & Hoot.

It took 3 packets of oreos to get enough halves for a dozen cupcakes, but the remaining bare sides are sitting with the left over malteasers waiting to go through some home made ice cream, perhaps with a touch of my home made Baileys - mmmmm.

Confession: I used packet cake mix.  I normally make everything from scratch, but my mother-in-law made the most amazing cupcakes and when I asked for the recipe she confided that it was ALDI 'Hillers' brand vanilla cake mix.  That stuff is only 75 cents a box!  And it makes the most divine cupcakes!  So its my go-to for cupcakes now.

I did however make the frosting and it was awesome - creamy, buttery but not too sweet.  I posted the icing recipe on my new Thermomix blog I am going to use to post my fave recipes and my own conversions.