It was Ali's birthday a couple of Sunday's ago. She woke at exactly the same time that I began to contract the day she was born - which freaked me out! We had been up until 2am decorating and wrapping presents because I was so late home from work the night before, so I was really lethargic. Ali was buzzing though and seriously excited when she saw everything downstairs. What an array of presents!
Ali had asked for a 'Charlie and Lola' themed birthday party but could I find a Charlie and Lola birthday cake? Could I hell as like! When I realised it was going to cost approximately £60 to have one made I could have cried. So I was on to Asda quick sharp to ask about getting an image transferred onto a cake and whether I should bring it to them on disk or as a copy, but they said no as it was copyrighted! Panic -Panic -Panic. With no other option I had to have a go at it myself! Now the whole world knows I couldn't bake a cake to save my life, so what was I to do? Well, I'll tell you exactly what I did. I took a flat plain sponge cake, reconstructed it in the shape of 'Lola's' head, iced it and decorated it. No one was more surprised than me when it turned out to be absolutely fabulous! It seems that I am a genius at cake decoration! Genius mind you - not fluke! You can be the judge - praising comments always welcome!
Can someone tell me when parenting became so competitive? It's like there is this group of you and a few years ago you were all dragging each other through the hard times, going to baby massage and having coffee while the little ones were in the creche; and now its - my child is cleverer, my child can do this better, my child can do that better, and my child's party will be better than yours.... I really thought I would be above and beyond this but for some reason I can feel myself trying to better the others too, not in a planned or intentional way though, it's weird. For some reason we feel compelled to behave like this. We went to one of Ali's friends parties and she got three presents from one of her relatives - two dressing up outfits and some dressing up shoes. Some being the operative word. Not just one pair of dressing up shoes - five! And I thought Ali had loads of presents, unbelievable. My cake was better though......
Another one of my friends kids had a birthday party and Ali was invited, just Saturday gone, and it was so fabulous. She is the epitome of the phrase 'earth mother'. She recycles, eats healthily and organically and the family go on many outdoor pursuits. I mean she even used toweling nappies as opposed to disposable when her kids were small. Everything I thought I would be but definitely am not as a mother. I love her to bits though, don't get me wrong, and I don't know how she does it. Anyway, the party. On arrival to this outdoor activity centre/grange she took us up to a small hut and woodland area where there was a huge plastic ground sheet covered with pva glue pots and creative crafts and tools. The kids were given a small canvas bag to decorate themselves as a party bag - which in itself was such a great idea. Following all the impressive healthy food (even healthy carrot cake!) there was a puppet show performed by her friend, to the story of 'Cinderella Green Recycling Queen' - complete with adult jokes for the parents. So funny! And following the show, all the kids got to make a puppet for themselves. Having been on night shift just before the party and going, going and going on no sleep what so ever, I thought I would be beside myself by the afternoon. I didn't really feel it until about 3pm and I think I had just as much fun as Ali did! Worryingly it did draw out the OCD in me as I tried to get Ali to stick on a variety of shapes, colours and feathers equally spaced out and colour coordinated!
My tomatoes - oh my tomatoes...they are coming along just brilliantly. I have some starting to ripen and redden already. I am so excited! Yes I am getting my kicks from growing tomatoes! Something is seriously wrong in my life. We have had 9 cucumbers thus far and there are several peppers coming in also. Not bad for my first attempt at green fingers! Ali loves it though. She cannot wait to try the tomatoes!
