Alex had his birthday party yesterday which he shared with his school friend. Today we hosted a family tea party in the birthday boys honour. Combine the parties with an impromptu sleepover for Daisy and her friend last night and I think it is fairly safe to say that I am well and truly knackered and could really do with a weekend to recover from this weekend. Here is the birthday boy on his actual birthday with cake number 1 (from M&S and rather disappointingly dry).
The main party on Saturday went well. My nephew coached 21 six and seven year old boys at football and then it was off to Pizza Express for tea. The pizza part was very chaotic, have you ever tried to keep the noise level of 21 hyped up boys to an acceptable level? Luckily we had an upstairs room in the restaurant to ourselves. I think the boys had a great time, although I was well and truly ready for a large glass of wine by the end of the it all. Here is cake number 2 (made by the lovely Jill AKA the cake lady, her cakes are never dry!) The boys requested a cake with two Barcelona players on the top. They were very pleased with the cake and managed to scoff the players rather swiftly.
Today my morning started at 7.2o am when three sleep deprived youngsters thought it would be a great idea to get up and play on the Wii. The little buggers didn't go to sleep until nearly midnight and unbeknown to me Alex had set his alarm clock to go off at 7am this morning. Daisy and her friend had sneakily moved all their bedding from her room into Alex's room and camped out on his bedroom floor. His room is at the very back of the house and is fairly sound proof. As I couldn't hear them at all after 11pm I naively thought that they had fallen asleep - little did I know it was midnight gone before they went to sleep! I knew there was a very good reason why I HATE sleepovers. Grumpy tired children and me just don't mix.
It was lucky they did wake up early as I had loads of baking to do this morning. I made a tiramisu, a Nigella old fashioned chocolate cake and some meringues all before 9 am. Mr P took Alex off to his football match, whilst I took Daisy for her horse riding lesson. Back home for tidying and tea preparation before my family descending upon us at 4pm. I can safely say that I am really looking forward to a birthday free week this week.
I am off to quilting tomorrow armed with my new fabric stash that I managed to buy on Tuesday. My friend Julia and I headed off to Wallingford in Oxfordshire to a brilliant fabric shop that specialises in quilting fabrics. The shop was so organised and was packed full of the most loveliest of fabrics to choose from. Good job Julia has an eye for colour. She helped me pick out my four fabrics - two prints and two plains, in varying shades that will hopefully be turned into a lovely patchwork cushion cover. I also invested in a cutting board, rotary cutter and ruler, so that I can practise at home all the techniques that I will learn on my course. Here's my fabric stash, do you like my colours. It was the greyest of days when I bought them, so I really felt the need to pick cheery colours that lift my spirits when I look at them.
I managed to complete all three of the tax returns that I have to file last week so I feel free once again, what a lovely feeling. I can enjoy what's left of January now without the worry of horrible tax returns hanging over my head. They always feel like such a burden.
On Saturday afternoon I managed a very sneaky trip over to Great Missenden (before all the party madness kicked off) to visit the little gallery that stock the work of Katie Almond the ceramic/paper artist. I am a very naughty girl! I blew some of my tax return earnings on another one of her jugs. Can you imagine my delight when the owner of the gallery informed me that she will have some more of her work in over the next couple of weeks and in particular some very gorgeous little coffee cups and saucers. So watch this space. Do you like my new jug? It's much taller than the one I got for Christmas. It has an iced lolly on the inside and a Colemans mustard jar on the front along with a walnut cake - very random indeed! I love them both. They are sat on my kitchen window sill for me to admire. I wish I was a clever artist who could produce things that people raved over and admired.
Right it's off to bed for me. I might try and squeeze in a few pages of my book before I hit the land of nod. It the next one in the Lynda La Plante series that I am working my way through. Not my normal sort of read but good none the less.
Till next time.
Alison
x
You deserve that jug just for having that hectic weekend - a sleepover AND a party for 21 children - in fact you might even have earnt a medal!!
ReplyDeletePhew! I am exhausted just reading this post! 21 kids! And a sleepover!!! The cake is gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteI find the thought of doing tax returns is actually worse than the task, well done for getting them finished. As for the birthday partys, sleepover, baking, daisys horse riding and alex football I'm tired just thinking about it!!
ReplyDeletePene x