Big Celebrations

Well, August is that month in my family, the one where everyone seems to have their birthday and every week has cake scheduled in it. With the hubby's birthday landing on the bank holiday Monday this year, my sister was able to manage a sneaky wee visit up with the promise of a big get together with the family, as well as tons of Aunty and Uncle time for us with her two.

Firstly, I was able to pass on the big sewing project I've been working on for my sisters birthday. I found this amazing print and just knew my sister needed a dress in it. With the whole family being cat daft (I'm working on my nephew to be in team dog), I couldn't resist the opportunity to make some matching pieces for the kids too. I have threatened a matching waistcoat for the brother in law (he did get a matching tie that I forgot to photograph!). Check out the AWESOME hat I got in return!

Saturday was a BBQ at my older sister's house as a small get together. We had originally intended on meeting for a dog walk at the kelpies first, but upon arrival discovered it completely full with no parking available. It didn't spoil the day as we had been running late to begin with, and afterwards, once the kids were safely in bed, we adults enjoyed a murder mystery party with friends. Alas, I was not the murderer, but with my false beard certainly got the kudos of the best costume! It's the first murder mystery we've had were people 'died' during the course of the meal! A good laugh!

Sunday was a packed itinerary! We started the day swimming and continued on the water theme with a very soggy doggy show as we attended the West Calder Dogs Trust fun day. After completely acing temptation alley and showing us all that old dogs can still learn new tricks at the agility, we all gave up during the egg and spoon race. Whilst we grown ups didn't mind the rain, it wasn't fair to keep the little ones put in it. So we decided to bring forward the family birthday bonanza.

A very soggy doggy - just imagine what the kids were like!

With four cakes on the table, there was certainly no shortage of treats! I tried to keep things varied with a nice marzipan sponge for my sister, the rocky road/white Christmas layer cake which was mine, the chocolate Dalek piñata cake (hubby's) and the sugar free monstrosity that was for my brother in law. The BIL was an honorary mention as his birthday had not been celebrated within the family and it was my first shot at making him a cake. Whilst making a fully sugar free dessert was a challenge, I was happy with the outcome - my niece enjoyed helping to decorate it and chose where to place the characters. I'll have a master baker out of her yet!

After the cake, we ushered the family out of the way and took the kids to the walking with dinosaurs arena show. I will be honest, I wasn't sure about taking a 15 month old to the show, but he was absolutely enthralled for the whole thing, and even cheered on the torosaurs during their battle!

We took hubby's birthday quiet. With such a late night the kids were understandably tired, so we gave the Kelpies another shot and this time were successful. It's the first time the play park has been quiet enough that I felt I could play in it myself, and I will say that it's a superb play park - even if most of us got stuck in the twisty slide! We followed that with soft play were we treated ourselves to hot chocolate and cake (yes, more cake) and watched my nephew figure out how to get onto a slide himself and go down.

Yesterday was home day for my sister. After a morning of reassembling the house (my niece was rubbing elbows with the boys in the man shed playing beetle drive - my sister did try to sneak in with the aforementioned false beard and was denied access!) we went trampolining. It was a good way to end the visit as the kids were tuckered out and there was no complaints about having to go home. my niece did try her hardest to convince her parents to stay longer, but with them both working the next day, there was little room for negotiation.

All in all a very good weekend! Missy is absolutely tuckered out from the affections of her cousins. She always impresses me no end with her absolute tolerance to the children. We are hoping to get visiting down to Manchester soon, so hopefully it won't be so long until we get together again!