My Handsome Little Man is 6!!

Posted on October 23, 2016 by Fiona Martin

Last Sunday my handsome little boy celebrated his 6th birthday. I’m so proud of him and everything he has achieved over the last year, more than I could have imagined. He started school just over a year ago and sailed through the foundation year, so much so that he got awarded with a special book ’50 Utterly Silly Stories’ at the end of the year for his amazing achievement of reading 188 books throughout the year and outshining the rest of his class in his all round abilities!

blake-6 To think he’s come this far is amazing. Mister B and his older sister Miss M are like chalk and cheese in so many ways yet have an amazing sibling bond and come together to play and help each other throughout every day. I’ve always known Miss M falls in the upper half of her class but expected Mister B to be Mister average with his silly ways, jokey nature and clown antics, but it seems he’s proved me wrong in many ways.

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He’s different to his sister in that she is incredibly sporty and always eager to try new things. Mister B is more laid back (think daddy!) although he has an incredible imagination, can play independently and come out with some amazing stories and fun ideas. He’s also very humorous and loves to tell a joke.

A couple of the areas he was slightly behind in over the last year have suddenly hit a turning point over the last few months. On our holiday this year we had a private swimming pool which the children disappeared in two or three times a day (obviously with and adult or two in tow!). The first few days Mister B was there in his armbands, but by day 3, he had ditched them and was jumping in, diving under the water and swimming a whole width on his own!!

Over the Summer we managed to upgrade both of the children’s bikes after a friend was selling some fairly new ones quite cheaply so we managed to get them both the next size up. The only downside was that Mister B’s new bike didn’t come with stabilisers. This proved a sticking point for many weeks as poor Mister B was terrified about riding without any support, yet daddy insisted he tried. It was a fraught time which I found quite hard, but then this amazing company followed me on twitter. Intrigued I looked into their product and sent them a message and we ended up reviewing the amazing BikyBiky cycling harness which turned my little boy from a nervous cyclist on stabilisers to a fairly confident rider on two wheels in just a couple of weeks!

I cannot believe within the last 3 months my little boy has ditched both his armbands and his stabilisers – amazing progress for him!

So I was so proud last Sunday when he turned 6 years old. I baked a rather vast amount of cakes for him using my new Savisto stand mixer and we celebrated with a big Minion themed disco which I felt he deserved due to all his hard work.

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The children had fun, Mister B danced the afternoon away showing everyone his funky dance moves (with a bit of break dancing thrown in!) and the party proved a huge success. (Excuse the red disco light in Mister B’s eye in the photo below – couldn’t have timed that worse could I ?!?)

blakes-party The day after his party was his actual birthday and as we had family visiting, we went to a restaurant for lunch where we all enjoyed too much food and had a good time!

4f93577e-eb94-4786-a566-9d689d846a46 All in all we spent a whole weekend celebrating Mister B’s birthday, it was hard work for me, but rewarding watching my son hit a milestone and celebrate everything he’s achieved over the last year.

As much as I hate watching the children grow up (it goes way too fast!), I can’t wait to see what Mister B achieves next and where the future will take him. I love him to bits (as we all do our children) and he never fails to give me a hug at every given opportunity.

Good luck Mister B in all that you do and every venture that life takes you on in the upcoming year!!

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Cupcake Masterclass at Mrs Brown’s

Posted on July 12, 2015 by Fiona Martin

Last weekend I met up with 8 other Plymouth bloggers at Mrs Brown’s, a local bakery and decided to do a vintage cupcake masterclass. I’ve always loved making cupcakes, although finding less time as the children get older and more demanding of my time. I’m a huge buttercream fan and tend to stick to this as is easy to work with and tastes delicious so it was interesting to work with other types icing and learn how to create different effects. I certainly picked up a few tips that I’ll be putting into practice the next time I bake. Can you believe I decorated all the cakes below with my own fair hands!

First off we learnt how to make an edible rose decoration. Would you believe that you start with 11 little balls of icing and by using your fingers to flatten and mould they become petals which in turn become a finished rose. Spray on a bit of silver lustre, add a sprinkling of pearlised balls and voila, my cake is done!

We then tried some other ideas before stopping for a break and trying a piece of a rather huge Victoria sponge cake, covered in chocolate coated strawberries, that Georgie (owner of Mrs Brown’s) had made for us. We then went back to our decorating class before boxing up our four creations ready to take home.

Here we are showing off our handiwork:

It was a great way to spend a couple of hours and I couldn’t wait to get home and see what the children thought. I think the pictures below show you of their approval for mummy’s cakes!!

Going to the cupcake class really reignited my love of baking and although I have a hectic few months ahead, I do hope to try out some new things and bake more regularly in the future!

Mister B’s 4th Birthday

Posted on November 3, 2014 by Fiona Martin

A couple of weeks ago my dear Mister B celebrated his 4th birthday. He was so excited, although had been quite specific in his requests for his special day. He only wanted a few friends round at home, for dancing, pass the parcel and musical statues so that’s exactly what we did.

After opening his presents early in the morning, we then walked big sister, Miss M to school. Usually being a little shy and reluctant to talk to strangers, he had a new found courage now that he is 4 and told everyone we saw along the way that he is now 4! lol

In the afternoon Daddy took him to the aquarium while I prepped for the party, and he proudly told the receptionist that he was 4 meaning Daddy had to buy a membership card for him. They then picked Miss M up from school and came home eagerly awaiting his friends to arrive.

Amazingly they all bought him Spiderman toys which he thought was hilarious, but incredibly pleased with them. We played various games to music and then I suggested my favourite party game to calm them down, Sleeping Lions. To my surprise they all cheered and told me how much they loved that game, and before I said anything more they were all laid down on the floor with their eyes shut… and their was silence!!

I then sat them down for some party food followed by singing Happy Birthday and blowing the candles on his Spiderman cake! Mister B was thrilled with his cake (even though mummy cheated and bought the cake! Shhh!).

For the next week Mister B has proudly told everyone, everywhere that he is 4, from the cashiers in the supermarkets, to teachers at the school, and anyone, anywhere that I happen to chat to! On the Saturday, Nanny & Grandad kindly took us to Prezzo to celebrate his birthday where he enjoyed pizza followed by chocolate ice cream. Then he opened his presents from them and as you can see in the above picture, his favourite present believe it or not was a Spiderman cushion! He has been so cute and lays his head on this everynight. Aw my baby boy is growing up, and whenever I’ve called him my little baby or little boy over the last two weeks, he turns round and says “I’m not your baby, I’m 4!!”

Mister B is 3 and Dinosaur Birthday Cake!!

Posted on October 17, 2013 by Fiona Martin

Yesterday was a very special day for my gorgeous little boy Mister B – he turned 3!! We had a fairly normal day with daddy and I working, big sister Miss M at school and Mister B at nursery. As I finish at 1pm on a Wednesday, I picked him up and we went home to enjoy the rest of the day and celebrate!!

Unfortunately mummy was a little tired the night before and didn’t get round to making his birthday cake, so once we got home from work/nursery, an eager to help little boy put on his apron and we set about making two chocolate sponge cakes. While they were cooling we picked Miss M up from school then came home to open his cards and presents. While they then played, I dashed into the kitchen to cook tea and assemble the cake – arghh!! I wanted it to be ready for after dinner but time was against me and I didn’t have much of a plan of how to construct my cake. I whizzed up some chocolate buttercream in the food processor, chopped the sponges into random shapes, slapped it all together in the hope it would become a recognisable creature.

Well Mister B was very happy with the finished result – a dinosaur cake, something he really wanted being a bit dinosaur mad at the moment. A success!!

A tired little 3 year old soon went up to bed to sleep off the excitement of the day, although he eagerly awaits for the weekend when his party takes place with all his friends.

Baker Day’s Letterbox Celebration Cake – Review

Posted on June 23, 2013 by Fiona Martin

An important part of celebrating any occasion is always the cake. So when Baker Days offered me a cake to review – how could I refuse? When I checked out their website I was surprised to see the vast choice of cake designs to choose from along with the size of cake and the sponge flavour.

We were due to receive a letter box cake which is a small 5 inch cake that is packed well enough in a box that enables it to travel safely and be posted through the letterbox! A few days later the postman arrived and a small white box was posted through my door. I didn’t even realise it was the cake and opened the box to find a little round tin, which inside contained the cake. Also enclosed in the box was a gift card and a small pack of sweeties which makes it a delightful little parcel to receive.

My initial thoughts before I received the cake were, how well would it travel? Would it all be in a one piece? But I needn’t have worried about this at all as the tin protects the cake perfectly and the cake sits compactly inside. I chose a cake design personalised with a photo and was very pleased with the results although would choose a photo with a lighter background if I was to order again.

The sponge inside the cake can be chosen from plain, chocolate, fruit or carrot – they even do gluten and wheat free cakes. We received a carrot cake and I was a little sceptical as to whether my children would eat this. It turns out that the recipe doesn’t have lots of obvious carrot pieces and in my opinion was a very moist, tasty sponge that both myself and my children thoroughly enjoyed and could easily have eaten more of.

Overall I was quite impressed with the Baker Days letterbox cakes and think they would make the perfect gift for friends or relatives who don’t live close by. I know I’m always on the lookout for something a bit different to send to my family that’s easily postable as being 250 miles away we don’t often get to see them when they have something to celebrate.

Please see our short video of our cake arriving:

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions. We are not paid for reviews although we do receive the product to try out and enable us to write the review.

Jubilee Festivities!!

Posted on June 9, 2012 by Fiona Martin

For the Queen’s diamond jubilee last weekend, the road in which we live held a street party. Unfortunately the skies stayed grey and the day was littered with light, drizzly showers but none of them put a dampener on our spirits as we all had a throughly enjoyable afternoon despite some of the time being spent huddled up under garden umbrellas with our hoods up!!

Preparations began the day before with Miss M making some princess themed bunting to hang up and mummy doing the supermarket shop for some jubilee party essentials – Pimms.

And then the party began with people appearing from various houses, some we knew, some we recognised from getting in and out of their cars and some we didn’t even know lived there! But it was amazing how everyone came together bringing various bowls of salads, jugs of Pimms, cakes and even little gifts for the children (Miss M has carried her little union jack purse around ever since offering to pay for things as it now has real money in it).

The finale of the afternoon came when one of the neighbours brought out their homemade jubilee cake. We lit the little union jack flag on the top and all stood round singing the national anthem before letting the children blow the candle out.

It was a wonderful day had by all and lots of fun for the children. It was great to see the community spirit of the day and makes me wish we had more events like this in which to bring everyone together. I think we are already planning a big lunch street party next year to which I am already looking forward to – not that I want to wish this year away – there’s many precious memories to be had yet!!