3rd Birthday Dairy Free Farm Party

Sturrock does not need to be dairy free... but his baby sister does and I am feeding her and I love to eat plus I was making all the food so the party was almost entirely dairy free 🙋

Some healthy farm fresh snacks

Cocktail sausages 

  Mini cupcakes in the barn windows

 Milk bottles full of white marshmallows

 Nectar

 Milk (the only dairy at this dairy party 🤣)

along with strawberry and chocolate milk in my little milk bottles - these were from my wedding I made shortie ingredient favours like these ones

 Pick your own strawberries

 Raspberries

 and blueberries

 Found these carrot sweets at Easter and held onto them for my theme

 Loved these little bags for the pringles to look like tatty sacks - they are Lidl bakery bags folded down on themselves

I have yet to do a party or event where a meringue doesn't feature and Ivy was still reacting to eggs at that time so made these aquafaba meringues.  They worked great!  For any egg intolerances these are just like the real thing - they just smell funky while mixing them up :) 

 The star of the show is always the cake - pretty basic field cake with a few fondant animals and a John Deere - Sturrock loves a John Deere he had a saying for a while if he really wanted me to agree to something it was a John Deal 🤣🤣🤣

 Been a while since a gingerbread made an appearance at one of my parties ( here, here and here) but I loved this so much to go with the theme and dairy free version tasted great

These however didn't taste that great although the kids all seemed to like them.  Chocolate flavoured just isn't the same as chocolate is it?  I really miss chocolate the most out of going dairy-free.  Ivy has cows milk protein allergy and is allergic to soya so it has been very hard going for me adjusting my diet.  Hundreds of people do it I know and I wouldn't have it any other way I am so pro-breastfeeding it wouldn't enter my head to use a forumla instead but could she not have been allergic to vegetables or something I wouldn't miss SO much?!  

 I used a dairy free empire biscuit recipe for these but didn't sandwih them together just kept them singular.  The empire biscuits I make out of this recipe are fantastic however I think they need their friend to keep them together - these were very crumbly and I did them again for my next party and same thing happened but in between times making them into empires this didn't happen so looking for a better dairy free biscuit recipe that will hold up to icing and also cutting into shapes.  Tastes great though so I wasn't complaining.

I love a tiny cupboard of cakes I did this at Eliza's third birthday too with a different cupboard and Muddy Puddles theme

 The birthday cake was sponge so I like to make the alternative chocolate cakes as cupcakes when I do a sponge birthday cake ya know in case there is not enough cake or I get bored of one flavour?! 😜  We took these to Tiny Talk with us for a mini party there too.  Sturrock is such a great signer he has over 200 signs.  These cupcakes were made without eggs - using aquafaba again as he replacement - and they were aqua-fab!

 Another dairy free treat - peanut butter cups.  I tried lots of different dairy free baking - I am so surprised more coffee shops and restaurants don't do dairy free baking because a lot of time there is only the switch of butter to dairy free spread and stork block is dairy free so it doesn't taste any different!  I have tried to tell a few local cafes how easy it is to cater to so many people who suffer but so far not been very successful although have had a couple of great finds along the way.

 Can't believe he is 3 already!  Time flies so fast.  Have absolutely adored being off work on maternity leave and getting more time back with my boyo as well as the baby girl. It doesn't seem long since I was uploading photos of Eliza's 3rd birthday how can it be Sturrock's turn?  So much has happened since her birthday not least getting engaged, married and having two more babies.  It's incredible to think I had no idea all this was ahead of me 💌  What will the next few years bring???

 A few shop bought items featured too because they fit the theme - hay bale Krispie squares

 and Oreo tractor wheels

 Put his Bruder toys to good use too as the cutlery, straws and plates dispensers

We had a great day celebrating with his friends he met at Tiny Talk and their mums who have become great friends.  We played a few games including pin the wheel on the tractor 

Some more homemade touches 

 As always I love a themed party bag to take home - I painted initials onto little plaques

 and made felt finger puppets to match an animal based book each

 A packet of sweets, an animal slap band and a piece of cake to take away = a lovely little party bag

 Goldilocks is a bit of a brute 🤭 I apologised to the child who received her 🤣

I love making things out of felt for party bags I have made so many things now to match my themes like Mr Men, Princess and the Wizard , Under the Sea and Woodland

I upcycled an Ikea kitchen for his birthday too 

 My Dad made this lovely set to go with it - he is so lucky!  Homemade presents are the absolute best - well maybe when you are 3 but I imagine my 15 year old would say different 🤯🤣 I love this present so much.  They look great in his little cafe

I really do adore a party and a theme and this one was so easy and fun to shop my house for all the bits that would tie it together.  My favourite bit of putting the table together is going around the house looking at things in a different way to see if they could be incorporated.

Next party is Eliza's 9th!! 

Quiet /Busy book For Big Boy

Finally I can share with you my quiet book or busy book I made for my big boy.  I made one for his little sister and finished it just in time for us going to Florida and after realising I had spent so much time and effort on his little sister's book Finlay thought he would like one for himself (he can't see green cheese!)  I did include some superhero figures in Eliza's which I knew he would love so I transferred these to his and got to work on ideas for an older boy's book.  He will be 9 this year so he is beyond learning to do buttons and laces etc  - he is beyond the whole idea of the book actually but I felt bad that he wanted something like Eliza's and I loved making hers and seeing her use hers so I didn't mind making another one.

The front cover I decided to go with superheroes.  Finlay is obsessed with heroes - you may remember his Superman obsession - there is something wrong when Finlay is not in some hero dress up or another and even if he doesn't have the outfit he can be found in a vest that is too small with a headband of his sister's round his neck and a coat hanger hanging down his back = Hawkeye!! Resourceful :)   So incase you don't know these badges are Captain America, Superman, Spiderman, Batman and Green Lantern

As usual I spent LOTS of time on pinterest looking for ideas for big boy quiet books but at the time I looked there weren't many - I looked again recently though and there were lots more!  I was nearly finished though so I stuck to my original plans.  

Finlay like a lot of 8 year olds loves video games of all kinds.  Since I had the felt heroes from Eliza's book I went from there.  The first page of the quiet book is "Choose Your Character" like when playing the wii... 

A little hero city scene

 I made a mini book for the characters to stay in

Each attached with a little bit of velcro so they can be removed to fit on the little Finlay 

                                                 Spiderman

 Mario and Captain America

                                             Batman and Iron Man

And a little zipped pocket on the inside front cover for hero accessories like masks, capes, hats and moustaches :)

I hand sewed and glued the heroes using felt - Spiderman was the most intricate with lots of sewing but he is also my favourite :) 

Next page I went with was "Choose Your Country" - again when playing video games you are often asked for your country or language so I thought Finlay could learn the European country flags - or even just their names for a start :) 

Lift the flags and you find out the name of the country - pretty dodgy handsewn country names but he can read them so they will do :) I just used felt and glue for the little flags and sewed across the top of each flag onto the page so they could be lifted up to see the name of the country.

The next page is similar - "Choose Your Continent"

Under each lift the flap is the Continent name.  I plan to add the names of the seas on here as well - possibly loose so he can place them where he thinks they should go - and also some animals/mountains etc of note for each continent.  I saw this felt map but I had the idea before searching for this - I didn't see it used in another quiet book - I'm sure someone somewhere has done this but I've not seen it. 

My next thought for the "video game" book was are you right handed or left handed but couldn't think of anything suitable that would teach Finlay anything for this so I came up with the skeleton page 

Each name is attached with velcro so he can take them off and start again labelling the skeleton - I did sew on the little pocket but it is far too small for all the labels so only a few could stay in there - there is always the zipped pocket at the front of the book though.  Again I looked for a felt skeleton to copy online and found this one which I really liked but I knew I wanted to make a skeleton before searching - I didn't copy this from another quiet book.

Next I gave up on the video game lay out because I had no more ideas :) 

I put on a multiplication table because Finlay is learning all these just now.   

I called this "Multiplication" because this is one of the songs Finlay and Grandad danced to all the time when he was a little boy =) (by Bobby Darin)

Next page I did see a pin for (and here)

X and Os.  These have little magnets to keep them on both in the little X and Os and on the page - but they are not good :( They fall off when you lift the book up - they are good for playing the game but not for transporting - so these also stay in the front zip :) 

I also looked up felt fractions and came up with these

I was fed up of sewing writing by this stage so I used a paint that is actually for candles but I really wanted this finished so I just tried it out!  I then sabotaged it by leaning in it without meaning to oops - typical me really.

These are all attached by popper buttons so they can be removed and put together.

And that's it!  I could have done more I had more ideas but I spent so long on it - these things do take months!  Even though I worked on this at least an hour or two most nights.  

Like everything I do I just like to get on with it not spend time drawing it first and measuring it out so I just sit with my computer beside me and cut out shapes free style - the continents I just had a map on my computer in front of me (not the felt map I pinned - a real map) and cut the shape as best I could.  Not geographically correct I know and I apologise if I have missed some important nook or cranny out but I was going for the idea of the continent Finlay won't know if it is exactly right or not:) 

Same with the bones and the flags etc I just cut and stick I don't measure.  I don't have a printer so I can't even print templates out - I really need to invest in one and now I have bought myself some freezer paper I might just cut out some templates next time :) 

Finlay is really happy with his book and I am happy with it too - the pages this time are all felt and I didn't use my sewing machine once!  - I have a drama everytime I try to use it!  Combination of dodgy machine dodgy user I think.  I will practice - just not on a quiet book - they are time consuming at the best of times!

So what do you think of this "educational" quiet book? :)  

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