My weekend as a nurse, cake maker and hostess: India turns 3

Well, sweet friends of PB, thanks again for your compassion about Sammy’s surgery. You have no idea how much it has buoyed me throughout the past few days. You see, not only did we have Friday to endure – that was the mere *precursor* to the rest of the weekend! Hmmm. I can’t handle this pace for much longer…Okay, time to wrap up our weekend so I can post about other things!

My day as a nurse and a housecleaner extraordinaire

My Saturday was spent as Sam’s nurse, giving him eyedrops every few hours and administering Nurofen. Fortunately, he wasn’t mopey. He scooted around everywhere, creating havoc as he pulled things this way and that. All while I was trying to clean the house. We still had a huge pile of Joshie’s 5th birthday presents on the sofa, all waiting to be stored away. Which of course meant that space had to be found for them. Yep, that little snowball of housework just kept on rolling, getting bigger and bigger as the morning went on. And I was doing the housework all on my lonesome as Mr PB and the pixies were up at my parents’ house, working on a Top Secret Project which I’ll reveal in my next post (believe me – it’s worth a post of its own!). Oh, and I did I mention that I had about 5 loads of clothes to wash, dry and sort out?

My day as a party planner

When they returned, we hared off to Spotlight as Miss India was turning 3 the next day and we had a party to organise! I *somehow* ended up carrying 12 kg Sam around. I was exhausted. Mr PB and I were snapping at each other as we shoved pink (of course) serviettes, decorations and balloons into our basket. Not nice. Oh, and all the while listening to Joshua’s protestations at everything being so ‘pink’. Hmm. We then escaped the store to commence an epic ‘witching hour’. Almost rivalling this one.


My evening as a present wrapper


And then I started the next episode of the Night of the Great Wrapping – remember this one? Sigh.

My morning as a birthday cake maker

The pixies all awoke at their normal unseemly hour on Sunday. There was no sleeping in for a Certain Mother. No, my darling daughter was turning 3 and there were presents to be unwrapped! She was delighted to receive two divine handmade creations of the lovely Courtney of A Silver Nutmeg & a Golden Pear. Here’s the sweet little skirt.

I adore this denim dress with Courtney’s signature birdie (pink for Miss India) and contrasting pink (no, really?!) spotted and floral fabric.

Fortuitously, Joshie and India had a mid-morning sleep. For a while, we even had all three pixies asleep. Sam soon joined us, though, as Mr PB and I tackled the daunting reality of pulling a party for a dozen or so family and friends out of thin air. It was noon, the party was starting at 3 pm and the only thing we had done was cook a couple of cakes. They were meant to be magicked into this Magic Toadstool in the Women’s Weekly Kids’ Birthday Cakes Cookbook.

Hmm, just a *few* small problems – the two cakes didn’t remotely resemble those domed shapes, we didn’t have any toadstools or hearts and Mr PB insisted I use the icing mixture which came with the packet mixes (instead of the usual butter icing). That was my grave mistake.

While Mr PB hurried about, cutting up a fruit salad and baking slabs of brownies, I took a deep breath and attacked the cakes with a knife. And promptly removed too much cake. Oh no! Too late to turn back, I then attempted to cover my handiwork with the packet cake icing. It turned out to be a terrible, sticky, viscous mess, almost impossible to get off the knife, let alone stick to the cake where it was meant to. I was panicking by this stage. Mr PB and I exchanged terse words. And all the while, Sammy was undoing the ‘childproof’ locks on the cupboards, pulling out pots and pans to bang on and wanting to be picked up. Oh, and crying for good measure.

But the clock was ticking! Panicked, we rang everyone and asked them to come at 3.30 pm. Shortly after, we rang again and shifted it to 4 pm. Then my parents turned up, ready to watch the birthday girl unwrap their presents. I continued to ice the horrid cake, all the while attempting to maintain a *calm* and *measured* conversation with my Dad who was feeling poorly after his eye on operation on the Friday. I ended up shoving the cake in the freezer in an attempt to get the icing to set! Then I had to make the fairy bread (with more of those blessed 100s and 1000s) and ice the cupcakes. With seconds to spare.


My afternoon as a hostess


The guests started arriving. I pulled the cake out of the freezer – the icing was still wet. Sigh. Presents started appearing. Wrapping paper flew everywhere. The pixies and their friends were prancing about, helium balloons tied to their cupcake icing-smeared fingers. Musical Chairs was a hit.

We cracked open the bubbles and started to relax. Just a *smidgen*. It was fun. I *even* had a few conversations with our lovely guests including sweet Sarah. Miss India had a ball. Here she is playing with our little trooper, Sammy.

And she loved her cake. Here it is.

Not taken at the same angle as the book’s, note. Hmm, I don’t think this was my *best* cake effort on Planet Baby to date. But my darling daughter was happy. And that’s what counted. The guests finally departed and then yes, witching hour began. Groundhog day. Hours of cleaning later, Mr PB and I crashed into bed. All ready to start another week ☺. I hope you all had a far calmer weekend than we did (now that wouldn’t be hard!).