Birthday cake dramas

Have you ever had one of those days where just about everything seems to go wrong? Where you don’t know whether to laugh or to just cry with the overwhelming frustration of it all? It was my nephew’s first birthday recently and understandably my sister D wanted it to be special. She had booked part of a local café [Oliver's Garden] to keep things fairly easy but wanted to make a beautiful cake for A. I offered to be her baking assistant for the day, and so the day before the party we got together with our baking tools and ingredients.

Our first major disaster happened when we took the giant rectangle cake out of the oven and went to turn it out onto the cooling rack. The bottom of the cake stuck and the cake had a massive hole in the middle. We tried putting it back together but it was just unsalvageable. So at 8.30pm I trotted back to the supermarket to pick up more ingredients and back at the house to start over again. This was on top of all the little things that kept going wrong (the juices from my take away stir fry lunch ending up all over me, my sister’s leather bag and the pram), the fluid lighter melting because where it was sitting near the stove was too hot, the scissors falling apart in my hands, an egg being smashed as I went to pick it up…..I think you get the picture!

Luckily the next attempt with the cake was much more successful and was turned out onto a cooling tray pretty perfectly at about 2.30am(!) We must have had our run of bad luck, because the day of the party went so well. The cafe was the perfect location, with it close by a playground and lake (complete with ducks).

[the finished product]

[cuddles with the birthday boy!]

[some of the bunting we used to decorate]

[play area for the babies]

[party hats!]

[I wish I could wear this skirt! Isn't it gorgeous?!]

[more cuddles!]

Have you ever had a day where everything went wrong? How did you cope with it?

Camping Holiday

I've been away camping this past week with my parents and my sister's family. We try to get away most Easter breaks, and usually head up to the same spot on the Murray River each year. It's perfect (especially after the Easter long weekend crowd has gone home) as there's a lovely beach that goes down to the water. It was such a relaxing break, and the perfect opportunity to get through most of the book I'd been reading - The Sunne In Splendour 

This is where we had our seats around the fire. We cooked most of our meals here as well as damper. My nephews loved toasting marshmallows here a couple of nights too.  

This was my tent - please excuse the towel hanging out to dry, it does detract from the background view. 

My nephew A even caught a fish! He was so proud! But it was just a touch too small so he had to put it back in the water.