weekend love {picnic party edition}

Our weekend was filled with more indoor, air conditioned play (so grateful for all this rain in Melbourne today!), and prepping for a little party for our big two year old. Just a small family affair at a nearby playground to keep the kids entertained (and perhaps, selfishly, to keep grotty little chocolate cake covered hands off my new couch.. ahem).

I headed here to find a good location, something new for the kids to enjoy, and decided on our chosen playground because it offered a huge undercover area given the warm outlook, with half a dozen big tables and bench seats which I thought would be ample for a Sunday morning party, just in case there were a few other families there too. How wrong I was. We turned up at 10.15am to find two elderly men, laid back in deck chairs with beer in hand, and white table cloths covering EVERY SINGLE TABLE UNDER COVER. Don't panic Tahnee - think of a Plan B! I picked a spot between two big trees with some big boulders that we could use as tables to keep the ants at bay. Our little party swiftly became a picnic. It wasn't ideal, but my wonderful sister moved quickly and helped make everything pretty and orderly.

The kids had a wonderful time, getting hot and sweaty on the play equipment. We shared morning tea and watched the icing melt off Peppa's chocolate buttermilk layer cake gumboots (which of course, I had spent hours on.. why didn't I consider the heat when making the bloody cake?! Lesson learnt..), then we sang to our boy and chopped up the melted gumboots. Still delicious!

We retreated back to the air conditioner in the afternoon, lots of playtime with the birthday boy's new toys. Hubby had to work in the arvo, right through to some ungodly hour of Monday morning, so I was left on my lonesome to flake out on the couch and enjoy the flash bathrooms the Blockheads had come up with, followed by Mr Holmes and Miss Watson. Yum yum bubblegum - on both counts. Total girl crush on Lucy Liu ever since she did Ally McBeal.

I hope your weekend was a lovely one too.

Linking up with Lou and Em.

*Guess what time the old guys finally got some company to sit at all those tables? 12.30PM!!! Around the same time the other three family parties in the playground were wrapping up.. it's okay old men - you sit in the comfort of the HUGE shaded area that could have easily housed 150 adults and small (some, even brand new) children from the heat of the day. Another ice cold beer? Pfft.

dumplings anyone?

So you love dumplings? Can't get enough? Then of course you've already bought your tickets to the World's Biggest Outdoor Yum Cha, yes? Of course you have! Because they're sold out. But just because the sit down lunch tickets have been snapped up, doesn't mean you have to miss all the fun. BYO rug to the Treasury Gardens, Melbourne, this Sunday 3 March. Come along with your family and friends to enjoy all the free activities and entertainment, and of course - THE TASTIEST DUMPLINGS IN TOWN! I'll be there to take your photo while you're stuffing your face - what better incentive is there?! After the face-stuffing, come and say hi!

Chan's Dumpling Festival is proud to be a part of the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival, 1-17 March 2013.

8/52

A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013 {I really love this week's collection}

Ruby :: always my party favour helper

Cole :: what? you don't watch Play School like this too?

Eliot :: blowing bubbles and a 'paane' flies overhead

Enjoying the 52 Project each week with Jodi

birthday boy

This was meant to be a weekend love post. Seeing as it's now THURSDAY, seems a bit silly to call it that..

While he showed no sign of noticing, Eliot's birthday was a little disjointed. Hubby had been working interstate for a week and arrived home mid morning - almost to the minute when our boy had arrived into the world, two whole years ago. Then in the afternoon Ruby went off to a friend's birthday party - whose invitation had already been accepted before I even noticed it was on Eliot's birthday. I'm totally in the running for Mother of the Year.

He woke (far too early thanks to his sister) to a lounge room floor full of balloons, and a little pile of lovely presents. He wore his big brother's recycled birthday crown (mama was too exhausted to create another) as we shared pancakes with homemade honey - his favourite - and waited for daddy to arrive home, bearing more gifts from the Apple Isle. It was another hot one in Melbourne so it was mostly quiet afternoon play in the cool of the air conditioner, with pizza for dinner and a two-two train cake for dessert. I was less than impressed with my efforts for his first birthday cake last year. You see, on the day of his party last year we had Tim come in the morning, and then had the party in the afternoon. Instead of holding his party the day after Tim was to come, I thought it a good - and perhaps noble - idea to have these two huge events on the same day, in order to save family having to travel over to our side of the city, twice in two days. Sometimes it is completely necessary to ignore all noble instincts and THINK ONLY OF YOURSELF. Lesson learnt (always the bloody hard way, yes?!). It was too much in one day. Just too much. Something I had waited so long for suffered (through nobody's fault but my own) and Eliot's poor cake suffered too. Like a cake is that important.. but it is to me. I love to make an effort for the kids because they love it so. And my mum did the very same for us when we were children. Getting to choose our cake out of the Women's Weekly Birthday Cake Book every year. Hello Memory Lane.

He's all about the traaaaaaiiiiins at the moment, so I got to do my very first train cake, on a number two shaped track. Simple to construct and fun to put together. As I brought it to the table, his little eyes lit up like firecrackers as he squealed 'trrrrrraaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiin'. We lit the candles, over and over again, the kids picked at the carriage loot and filled the remaining gaps in their bellies with delicious cake. More cake was devoured for breakfast the following morning. As it should be.