April 11th 2010

19. Have a picnic in the park.

Woo hoo! It's sunny!
For Charlotte's birthday I decided to invite a few friends round and have a little teddies bears carpet picnic. Our house is teeny so it was to be an intimate affair and not much chance of letting the children play outside in our courtyard garden *cough* as the weather was predicted to be grim (when I decided to host there was supposed to be snow on its way!). If only I'd known that the weatherman would be so wrong. It was a glorious weekend so a quick change of plan meant we headed off to the park.
Our local park used to be rubbish, only a year ago I blogged (in my rather neglected park blog) about how rubbish it was. 2 swings and a rubbish slide thing. And lots of dog poo and broken bottles. Oh how it has changed! There's park benches, lots of little children's equipment, a deathslide, some big swings. Fab.
We threw down some blankets and cracked open the sandwiches. The children had a fab time and so did we. I think we needed wine though. Must plan better next time.
It's such a shame that the weather can't be guaranteed, it would have been lovely to invite everyone but I couldn't risk that it might rain and we'd all be wedged in our front room!

April 10th 2010

16. Bake once a month

Continuing the 'Birthday Weekend' (I thought you only got those when you turned 18 or something. 2 is little, hope we're not setting a precedent) I made baby owl cakes to go with the now deceased mummy owl. Poor orphan owl cakes.

April 9th 2010

89. Visit a farm

April 9th was my baby's birthday. Not so much of a baby now, a big number two girl who can talk, and is starting to count, surf the internet and browse you tube on an iphone and spending most of her time arguing and fighting with her sister. Bliss...

Anyway for her birthday we decided to go to a farm a few friends had recommended, Park Fold Open Farm in Bolton. I've always been a bit wary of open farms, there's quite a few big ones around here where they seem to want to bleed every last penny from you by having animal themed bouncy castles and huge entrance fees.Not that I've ever been to one, that's just the impression I've got when I've looked into it. I wanted something a bit more like an actual farm. But clean. No stinky pigs for me! Park Fold is exactly that, it was lovely. Because of the time of year there was chicks and ducklings, lambs and piglets. Lydia got to feed a lamb (Charlotte wouldn't go near, she wouldn't even stroke one) and we petted rabbits and guinea pigs. The girls played on tractors outside (we had a fabulous day, the first of a few days of lovely spring sunshine). We even went on a tractor ride (This was a bit hairy and at times I imagined overturning into the pond and how our horrific deaths would be reported in the Daily Mail. I'm a touch melodramatic.)

Much fun was had by all. Even me.

April 8th 2010

17. Make birthday cakes for each of the girl's birthdays

So, here it is, the first of the birthday cakes!



Charlotte turned two on April 9th. At the moment we have a bit of a thing for owls, I seem to be subconsciously drawn to them, and we have lots of clothes with owls on. A while ago my lovely friend spud made one for one of her megaboys and I fell in love with it. It looks fantastic but was so simple to make and it tasted quite delicious too. Sadly there wasn't much to taste. After a birthday tea at my parents I carefully put the cake into the tin, using the lid as the base so the sides wouldn't get squashed when I was getting it in and out. I then carefully handed it to my husband, explaining that the tin was supposed to be upside down so not to turn it the right way. Then he carefully carried it outside and dropped it on the drive. I might have had a small breakdown.