Day 228 - Happy Birthday to Me!

So today is my birthday! This is the extremely impressive birthday cake that Dale made for me as the follow up to a delicious slow cooked dinner! Having never made a sponge cake myself before, I was pretty amazed by this one, particularly because Dale doesn't cook all that often. Henry was impressed too; his eyes lit up when he saw this, just saying, "Cake!"

Day 221 - The Start of Something Big

Henry got a whole bunch of Lego for his birthday. Some from us, some from Nanna and Opa and also some from his Uncle Dion. Being from a family of big Lego builders, we are very pleased to see that he is getting into his new toy so quickly! It won't be long until he is building big cities like David and I used to!

Day 218 - Cake!

Dale finally made it home this afternoon after his extended weekend away. I was in the middle of making his birthday cake when he arrived. I made a lemon cake that was split and had a marscapone cheesecake filling and topping and I have to say that it was pretty good. Henry has turned into such a birthday cake fiend in last week it isn't funny! With my birthday coming up, there is no end in sight to the cake!

Read more about Dale's trip away here.

Day 216 - Happy Birthday and Bye, Dale!

Today is Dale's birthday and for a whole week and for a bit he will actually be 37 and I will only be 36! It was an early start for Dale today who left for a ride down to Melbourne with his friends Andy and Pete.  A football game and some debt collecting are apparently a fun way to spend your birthday, according to Dale's face this morning!? By the end of the day it seems that both missions were successful. Happy Birthday Dale!

Day 211 - Happy Birthday Henry!

Today Henry is two years old! Although he found yesterday overwhelming, he has shown a lot of interest in 'birthdays' and of course 'cake' over this weekend! This is Henry sitting with Hoot, after his bath tonight after all of the visitors had gone and everything was back to normal. We are looking forward to our sleep going back to normal after a couple of unsettled nights!

Happy Birthday to our beautiful little man! We think you are pretty amazing :)

Day 210 - Henry's Birthday Lunch

We had a little family gathering today for lunch and in order to celebrate Henry's birthday which is tomorrow... yes the little man is turning 2!

Dale did a fabulous job seeing the cupcakes out to completion. He really can cut it in the kitchen under my guidance, ha ha. We made Henry Hoot cupcakes, which I have seen a couple of places online lately. Blue icing on a chocolate cupcake was topped with two halved Oreos, each one with a brown M&M in the middle and between those, an orange M&M for Hoot's beak. Yes, Henry finally relaxed enough to enjoy himself, despite being very overwhelmed and he made time to enjoy some cake!

Day 209 - On the Road

Today's Photo A Day July project was "On the Road" and so being time poor, I went literal. Here is the wheel of my Mazda, 'on the road'. Coincidentally my family was on the road this afternoon, driving to Canberra to celebrate Henry's second birthday with lunch tomorrow! Friday and hitting the road really do go together for my family with all of us doing the Canberra / Sydney run regularly!

Day 175 - Dani's Birthday Lunch

Yesterday was Dani's birthday and today we went for lunch at a cafe in Parramatta Lakes. I tried very hard to get a photo of Dani with her gorgeous birthday cake, but as the candles were lit, the children there wanted to get in close to the cake, as children do! David organised a delicious white chocolate and strawberry swirled mud cake with white chocolate ganache which was enjoyed by all, including Henry who kept wanting more. Happy Birthday Dani!

Day 108 - Peta's Birthday Portrait

Happy Birthday Peta!

Peta and I went and had coffee this morning at Art Oven in Manuka and followed up the coffee with a little trip to the portrait gallery. Having not really been for a good look there before (even though I have been there a couple of times) we were looking forward to enjoying the collection. Additionally we were very happy to find that the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2012 was currently on exhibit. You can see the photos that were on display here. I had a few favourites, including Mum by Christopher Pearce, Romela by Regan Kennedy, Frog Hunter by Mathew Abbott and Nikki and Nick by Emma Phillips. The one I liked most though was Caravan Kids by Jennifer Stocks.

Outside the exhibit, Peta and I enjoyed playing with the photo corner which had been set up for taking our own portraits! Here is Peta in her birthday portrait. I look forward to seeing what she has come up with for my portrait!

Day 97 - Birthday Girl

Well it isn't Robbie's birthday until Monday, but we enjoyed a birthday gathering at Robbie's place in the Blue Mountains tonight. As you can tell in the picture, Robbie was very pleased with her ladybug birthday cake and we all enjoyed the cake as well, which was delicious! Happy Birthday for Monday, Robbie!

Day 85 - Birthday Cake Baking

I decided to bake this month's birthday cake for work instead of buying it. As one staff member who is dairy intolerant, had a birthday during the month, this presented a small challenge. I could find a couple of recipes for dairy free cakes, but couldn't think of any icings that would be dairy free but still taste good. After finding a recipe for and making an almond meal and orange cake, I was left with some cooked pureed orange which made a wonderful addition to a plain sugar syrup to pour over the cake. Problem solved!

Day 74 - 2M's Birthday Layer Cakes

2M has been doing a bit of work on the topic of celebrations this term and what better way to celebrate than with birthday cake! Here are a small selection of some of the decadent birthday layer cakes that 2M created last week, in the foyer at school!