Hubby's Birthday Week

Well it is one of my favourite weeks of the year, hubby's birthday week. This year we had 3 days of celebrating meaning I spent most of my week baking Yay!

I also had collected a number of small gifts then looked at my wrapping paper and realised if I got him 2 more gifts I would have enough to wrap him one in each colour of the rainbow. 

Then of course the rainbow theme took off as I realised I had rainbow decorations, place mats and candles.

For Hubby's birthday I sent him to work with a surprise in his bag of an unsweetened chocolate brownie using 90% Cocoa Lindt and this recipe, which was excellent according to him.

I then made these Chocolate muffins with ganache for his colleagues which went down a treat. They have a fairly good texture and are simple but I did not find them fudgey but they were a hit with Hubby's colleagues (he has just moved into a new team so I thought it was a good opportunity for wifely brownie point gathering) 

For his birthday cake I made him an almond meal based chocolate cake again with 90% Cocoa Lindt from Stephaine Alexander's Cooks Companion which I iced with the same chocolate as a base for a Sour Cream Ganache.

Hubby seemed pretty pleased with the whole day. 

From my parents he received an Avengers Carry on suitcase, from Boo, Bean and I he received  a few chocolatey treats with a NZ flavour, a new alarm clock,  Captain America The winter Soldier, Castle Season 6, and a walking elephant which he and Boo both adore.

I spent Thursday making one awful batch of Cinnamon scrolls before using a recipe for Overnight Cinnamon Scrolls which worked well.

We spent our Friday, Hubby's day off, at a local park having a picnic. Seemed a good time to break in my Christmas present. For this I made Homemade Lemonade

A Cous Cous and Haloumi Salad and Sweet and Spicy Chicken. 

Which was all delicious, the park had a toddler area for Boo though he was a touch short for some of them by about half a foot. This is my lovely boys playing together.

Last celebratory bit of the week was my mum dropping in early on Sunday and deciding to take Boo with her out to breakfast which meant hubby and I were able to lie in bed and relax for about 2hours. Complete luxury.

I hope you also had a wonderful week. I would love to know what you have been up to.

Andii

Marching March & Glamping

Well we are fast approaching the middle of mad March. In our Family this means 8 birthdays which include hubby's and both of Boo's grandfathers and 1 wedding anniversary, another reason I would like Bean to await arriving until April which is a far quieter month for us.

 Our family have spent the previous weekend Glamping at a lovely educational campsite called Wollangara. I made it through Labour Day Weekend (Vic.) without it becoming labour day, thank you Bean. Hubby has discovered the joy of camping in the simplicity of just being surrounded by nature, sounds odd but it really does wonders for ones sense of wellbeing.

On camp we consumed copious amounts of food and cake as it was a working bee/birthday weekend. Boo had an absolute ball in his new gumboots, chasing chickens, riding in wheelbarrows, being adored by his cousins and being bathed in a large cooking pot. We also had some day visitors including my Grandparents for a sit down Lunch on the Sunday. It was lovely that they were able to come and join us even braving the flying fox across the river which is the Wollangara access point (this was Boo's least favourite thing)

Boo keeping warm of a morning in a snowsuit

A sit down family lunch Glamping style including homemade bunting

The last cake of the camp was a cut your own piece Mum cut the heart out of the centre

I enjoyed spending time with my extended family, helping prep meals, watching hubby enjoy the Australian bush and watching Boo in his adventurous element. I am sooo very proud of the way he wants to help, be with people and trusts that they are there to assist him. He is so willing to play with cousins rarely seen and aunts & uncles infrequently visited as though they were in fact an everyday part of his family life. This just thrills me as it is what I enjoy  most about having such an amazing extended family who warmly welcome and embrace me and mine when we are together as though no time has passed since we were last together. 

Today I also had the lovely experience of visiting a friend and her boys for a BBQ where we sat for a delicious lunch and then had our boys playing out in the yard while we relaxed and chatted. I was also delighted to discover that she too is reading The Wife Drought by Annabel Crabb. So had a lovely discussion about the book (we have both just started) and the international women's day Q&A as well as other political and cultural issues. So nice to share briefly on our children then converse as adults. I am greatly enjoying Annabel's book so far as I do adore her humour, wit, intellect and perspective on life in general.

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