Squibblog

party photos

My week has been filled with cleaning, sorting and working, so there's not a lot to blog about, but here are some photos of Nell's plaster painting party. 18 kids, paint, glitter, cake and 'What's the Time, Mr Wolf' (which never fails to remind me of Harvey Keitel and his speech about oak bedroom suites) 

There are also some gorgeous photos of Nell at her second party, sharing her birthday with her newest Uncle Lee for whom she was a flower girl back in May.

six types of icing

When we were watching MasterChef, our whole family loved to see the contestants struggling to make the incredibly complex desserts (like the mousse cake created by Adriano Zumbo) but I mentally scoffed at anyone making seven different types of dessert to put on one plate.

Today, as I finished off Nell's Barbie cake, I realised that there are three cakes stacked up with six different types of icing. Chocolate holding the cakes together, crumb coat, two flavours of butter cream, Royal icing flowers and fondant preserving Barbie's modesty. It took most of the day to make and my feet hurt. So do my teeth.

Normally Nell's birthday cakes are simple affairs, all chocolate cake with pink or white icing and smarties. This is the first time I've make a cake to her order. It's all to do with being five. You may recall that I made Zac a volcano complete with dripping lava when he turned five.

Five years old is a milestone much like turning one. Or turning 40 (more on this in a week or two). Five is when kids go to school, when parents hand them over for a huge chunk of their lives to the influence of others. Five is when baby things are put aside for good, and when I have to acknowledge once and for all that I no longer have babies - I have children. *sigh*

So my way of marking these milestones is with icing, and lots of it. And after my first foray with a piping bag in many years, Nell says her cake is 'the most beautiful ever'. So worth it, then.

zac does the plough

Evidence that Zac really can ski now (video thanks to Poppa Miley)

halcyon days

These are our halcyon days. Although that phrase is often used to mean a time of peace and prosperity, I once had dinner with my friend, the lawyer and wordsmith Julian Burnside, on a clear and warm winters' day when I was pregnant with Zac. He told me the story of the real meaning of halcyon days, which comes from a Greek legend and refers to two weeks of calm weather in the middle of winter. That was a halcyon day (in both senses of the phrase), and so was today.

Today was warm and bright, and Nell turned five. It has so far been filled with presents and laughter and sunshine and sugar.

Nell woke excited to open the growing pile of present stacked up in the playroom, 

fresh air and lots of company

Last weekend we ventured into the NSW country with a group of families to relax and soak up each other's company. Despite the cold, we spent a lot of time exploring the farm we were staying on, while the children enjoyed pony rides around the yard. Nell was absolutely beside herself with joy and looked scarily at home on horseback.

This particular group of friends has been traveling together for almost 20 years and inevitably our weekends together are a little chaotic, and becoming more so since the kids were born. 

halfway mark

The year is half over and, thankfully, I don't feel panicked that it's slipping away from me. We have really packed a whole lot in to these last six months: the kids rushing ahead in leaps and bounds, Soy and I toughing out the GFC by keeping as many balls in the air as we can.

In about March, when I was feeling particularly low about the economy and our ability to make a living working freelance, I actually went out and did an interview for a job as a lawyer. I thought that if things got really desperate, I would use the skills I know will make money. Boy, that was a wake up call. The very idea that I might be stepping back into that life made me sick to the stomach.

Maybe it was my look of quiet desperation, but soon afterwards Soy said to me 'we've worked too bloody hard to let this thing beat us.' And that day my attitude changed too. 

in praise of male teachers

Zac has been enjoying school even more than usual this past term. And I put it all down to his new teacher. His original teacher left after term 1 and I must say I was a little concerned about how Zac would react to a change.

Turns out that Mr K was the best thing that could have happened in Zac's Year 2 life. Just the right balance of nice guy and cool dude, Mr K plays drums in a band, does karate and put in place a strict homework policy. Zac thinks Mr K is 'fantastic', Mr K told us he thinks Zac is 'awesome'. It's a match made in heaven, obviously.