Party

We decided to have Rachel's party at an indoor soft play center, they do all the work for you, the kids arrive and play for an hour and a half and then they go through to a party room where they get their food and cake. They do everything for you, they can do the cake and party bags too although I did decide to do these myself. She wanted to have a dolly cake in yellow, which i spend hours making. And it was worth it when she can downstairs on saturday and told me it was beautiful. I did not get any pictures of them actually playing but they had great fun

All the kids having their food, when i looked under the table afterwards i was so glad that it was not my house
Blowing out the candles, we could not just have 3 candles, it had to be lots.

More swimming

Swimming pics again, this time with the underwater ones

He just giggled the whole time

In the beginning the teach you to hold the baby and say their name and then ready swim and then run a wet hand over their face, so they start to learn to hold their breath each time they hear those words. We practice each lesson and at home in the bath.
going under

Swimming with his teacher

The finale: Swimming underwater with a release from his teacher to me

Birthday

Today was Rachel's birthday - she was asking all of last night if it was her birthday yet and woke up really early this morning. We got her a wooden toy kitchen. Not sure if you can see the grin from this angle, but she was delighted.

All for me!!!

Brother watching the action
Mom and Dad this is the calender you got her and

the pots for her kitchen we also gave from you guys.

Sarah: You gave her the wooden plates and bowls and cutlery set.

These are the knitted food things she got.

sandwiches

Biscuits and cakes

Fish Fingers, chips and peas

fruit

All the booty

Making Mommy a meal (fish fingers and chips)

Only on your birthday are you allowed cup cakes for breakfast!

Cup Cakes to take to ballet

Saturday

My sister and her boyfriend Mike came on Saturday for a pre-birthday celebration as they obviously could not be here on her birthday which is a Monday this year.

This is Rachel on the trampoline with Jenni - i just love the hair.

So we had a trial run of making the Dolly Cake that is required for the party on Saturday. My first cake attempt - lessons learnt:
1) need a tastier cake - was a new recipe but it tastes like nothing, so back to my tried and tested all-in-one cake.
2) not all things that say natural are better: the food colouring i had was 'natural' but you needed so much to do anything and it tasted horrible!
3) A fabric torso will be easier than icing
4) Don't ice dolly cake when Rachel is awake, as it is impossible to do with her on your lap.
5) make sure you have all the ingredients and don't need to send your husband to the shops twice after telling him we have everything.


She opened her presents from them on Saturday. I bought some knitted food on ebay to go with her kitchen set. Jenni had seen them on ebay and i got them for her and Mike to give Rachel along with some wooden vegetables.
yummy, had to convince her she could not eat them

The kids

Ebay

we have discovered the joys of bidding and winning stuff on ebay, Gavin has one on tender hooks until the last seconds of the auctions. It is fun though and we have pick ups some great bargains. I got all the clothes below ( including the ones he is wearing- looks carefully he is in the middle) for £10, there are 10 baby grows, 12 long sleeve tops, 11 T shirts, 13 pairs trousers, cardigans, coats, shoes, socks and more ( over 50 items)! And I have had my first sale too. I send off a box of 0-3 baby clothes today.

Caleb swimming

So my boy goes to baby swimming now


And a half smile, will try get a better one