A very yummy barbeque

Summer fruit pavlova 

Turkey mince Caesar burgers

Fathers Day Interview

This year as part of our fathers day celebration we undertook a Fathers Day Questionnaire Interview as past of the boys card to Daddy. Here is what they said. (Questions were taken from a few of the different, many and varied Father's Day Questionnaire ideas you can find on the internet, plus some of the boys own ideas) We hope to make a tradition of it, at least until Charlie is big enough to answer too!


1. What does Daddy do at work?
Ollie;  He cooks salads. He is a Chef
Max; Makes some food
2. What does Daddy do at home?
Ollie; He relaxes and watches the racing cars and kisses mummy.
Max; Sleeps
3. What does Daddy like to watch on TV?
Ollie: Rugby
Max: Football
4. What does Daddy do after you have gone to bed?
Ollie; Makes dinner and watches farm programmes
Max; Kisses me goodnight
5. Who does Daddy love?
Ollie; Mummy and us
Max; MEEEEE!
6. What is Daddy’s favourite food & drink?
Ollie; Salads & Beer
Max; Pancakes & Beer
7. How do you know when your dad is happy?
Ollie; Because he has a smile on his face and kisses you
Max; When he is smiling
8. What makes Daddy cross?
Ollie; If we shout or if we fight 
Max; I don’t know
9. Name something that your dad is really good at?
Ollie; Cooking and making lego with me
Max; He can do tricks; like exercising 
10. Name something that your dad is not so good at?
Ollie; Maths
Max; Climbing up trees
11. What does your dad do for you that your mum can’t?
Ollie; Makes loads of money, and does good lego
Max; Making lego
12. What three adjectives best describe your dad?
Ollie; Hard working, loving and helpful
Max; Crazy or sumfin?
13. What is your favourite thing to do with Daddy?
Ollie; Playing on the Wii with him
Max; Playing lego with me and Ollie
14.   What do you like the best about your dad?
Ollie; He laughs a lot and smiles and is really happy to see us
Max; When he does shaking to music
15. When is the best time to talk to Daddy?
Ollie; On the weekend
Max; At bedtime
16. What is cool about your dad?
Ollie;  He knows about cool music
Max; Daddy’s not cool.
17. What do you know about your dad that other people may not know?
Ollie; He put love in his salads
Max; We are getting him a present
18. How much do you love Daddy?
Ollie; A million and nine hundred and seven
Max;  I love Daddy a hundred times; more than a house
19. If you could buy Daddy any present in the world what would you buy?
Ollie; a big machine full of beer
Max; Another coffee machine
20. Is there anything you want to say thank you for?
Ollie; For being the best Daddy in the world
Max; Thank you I love you.

Strictly Come Dancing Party- Glitter Ball Birthday Cake

Glitter/Mirror Ball Birthday Cake - like the Strictly Come Dancing trophy?

The other Strictly Come Dancing themed party item I made was the cake! It was ambitious (for me anyway) but I was up to the challenge, ably assisted by my mum and friend. I had to be as my sister is always upset that she can't be at my boys parties, not because she loves her nephews so (though she really does) but because she wants to eat their cakes!

Glitter Ball Cake - in progress

I forgot to take any photos while I was making it until this point!

My mum baked 2 cakes for me. Lovely chocolate cakes and she rented a soccer ball (dome) mould to make the 2 halves of the whole ball.

I then sandwiched these, one on top of the other with some chocolate butter icing. I spread the whole ball with a thin layer of butter icing to ensure the fondant icing would stick. I used grey fondant icing. I rolled a large circle, lay it over and then cut away the excess to ensure it folded around the ball to the base plate. I rolled the remnants as thin as I could and cut it into squares. I stuck these onto the original fondant layer with a little heated peach jam. 

I sprayed this whole thing with edible silver lustre spray. And sprinkled with ample edible glitter!

I decorated the plate with some black fondant shapes (from patchwork cutters) and moulded a 3 and a 0 out of pink fondant (around silver-foil forms) And stuck these to the top of the cake with cocktail sticks.

I also copied the font from Strictly Come Dancing to write my sister's name (Julia) in pink icing and stuck this on to make it look more like the Strictly Come Dancing trophy in cake form!

And ta-da!!!

The only trouble was getting it up the bumpy, windy, hilly, narrow roads to the venue on my own. Unfortunately I had to brake suddenly to avoid a car coming the other way and the top slip across the bottom and looked less than perfect on arrival!

Strictly Come Dancing Party Glitter Ball Pinata

 The last item I made for the party was a Glitter Ball pinata.

In retrospect should have sprayed silver under the squares as if you looked carefully could see  the newspaper)

You can just about see the pull string at the bottom (attach the string inside to a wide bit of card so pulls the whole base out)

Punch balloons covered in 2 layers of newspaper dipped in flour and water - drying outside (as drips!)

Boys playing with the punch balloons first

I thought about this for a while and did some online research. This is the youtube clip I found on how to build one. I didn't follow it exactly. I wanted it to be a pull-pinata rather than a bash one so I made a trap door as shown here. I made the squares a ruler width as that was easier and quicker. I ended up using no more nails to stick them on because that was all I had to hand. I filled it with metallic foil wrapping paper that I cut into little square/rectangles, glitter and a few sweeties (though not too many as I was worried about how strong the trap-door would be!) I made it with the image in my mind that my sister would pull it open at the end of the night (after it had served it's dual purpose as a glitter ball decoration) and get showered with confetti and glitter.
It worked well except that there was no where to hang it!

Strictly Come Dancing Surprise Party!

This weekend was my sister's surprise 30th birthday party. So now I can post freely without fear of giving the game away! 

As usual I had a few creative ideas up my sleeves that I just couldn't stop myself making! 

First I made some judges paddles. I envisioned everyone holding them up as she walked in. A bit cruel but as the older sister I feel I am entitled! So I made these out of cardboard, spray painted the fronts gold and silver with a bit of extra glitter. I painted the backs black and then using a homemade template sprayed the number 30 on the front using black spray paint, for speed. They didn't have the most perfect finish but they got the point across!!!

They also doubled as fans for the entire evening as a bonus!

More strictly party posts to follow...