Fathers Day Afternoon Tea

For my birthday my sister got me an afternoon tea  delivery, which was amazing - especially because we were living through Covid-19 lockdown so our usual cuppies out and about had been halted.  When it came to Fathers Day a few weeks later though we thought we could manage it between ourselves for our Dad, our husbands and our father-in laws. 

Between us we made...

Meringues (of course!)

Scones

Various fillings in rolls and wraps

Banana nutella mini loaves, rolo rocky road and chocolate truffles 

Mini quiches and (bought) sausage rolls 

Mini lemon cheesecakes 

Mini victoria sponges 

 We delivered our selection out to the father in laws and had a socially distanced picnic with the husbands and our own Dad.  It was really lovely.  The amount of food was amazing and all very tasty even if we do say so ourselves 🤣 

We did have a little practice run a few weeks before with just me and my sister and the kids and it went very well.  There is no wonder I am suffering from a lockdown gut but I have enjoyed the process 🐖🐷🐽

What is not to love about an afternoon tea?  Loads of food with tons of flavour and you get to keep eating until it is finished.  Need another excuse for an afternoon tea soon! 

Autumn 1st Birthday

A very quick year!

Autumn is my favourite time of year and even more so now I have our little baby girl's birthday to celebrate.

These were a bargain Amazon buy and although they took weeks to arrive they were here just in time - there were tons in the packet for mega cheap and they are great quality thin fabric.   I attached them to invisible thread and they looked so good floating down from a branch.

I have always wanted a white pumpkin and this year is the first time we have gone pumpkin picking.  I cut out the letters using the Cricut and some glitter jotter cover paper I found in Tesco.  Also a bargain!  What happened to using wallpaper to cover a jotter?!  I also cut out the letters for my backdrop from this glitter paper and a roll of pink.

Great advice!

Pinks and golds for my baby's 1st birthday 😭

We had so much fun collecting conkers and acorns in the run up to the party

Pumpkin empire biscuits - dairy free.  Ivy has cows milk protein allergy and I feed her so have been dairy-free for 9 months.  Like Sturrock's third birthday party if I am baking it I am eating it so have been doing lots of dairy-free baking the past few months!

I think I have a pumpkin obsession - the big bronze one and small gold are from  TK Maxx, the pink fabric ones are from Shop Willy Nilly as well as the other fabric ones dotted about the table.  The silver, gold and bronze light up pumpkins are from Lights 4 Fun - these are so cute lit up at night.  I love decorating for Christmas so this will take me through to my tree going up 😜

Dairy free chocolate brownies and raspberry ruffle brownies (with egg)

Autumn first birthday cake - also dairy free but containing egg

I saw this pasta in TK Maxx and thought it would go great with the party theme - pumpkin shaped Autumnal colours

Stovies is a great crowd pleaser at this time of year

The spreads

Charcuterie board - mostly dairy free

Tango fruit twist - I love how this drinks dispenser fits lots of themes - it looks pretty pumpkin shaped for this party but beehive shaped at the farm party.

It is incredible that we are celebrating her 1st birthday already - she still seems so new to me!

 I loved this party theme - so pretty and easy to put together.  I was also able to re-use lots of it a couple of weeks later for Halloween.

                 Happy birthday beautiful girl!

++++++++++++++++Check out Sturrock's first birthday here +++++++++++++++++++++

Pool Party Hawaiian Luau

Another birthday party to report on!  Eliza had a great 8th birthday - we had the best summer weather Scotland has ever seen in the weeks leading up to her party so we planned a paddling pool Hawaiian themed luau.  Typically it wasn't as warm as every other day we had but the girls all still braved the cold paddling pool water and had fun running in and out of the house with their music blaring.

Crepe paper background and wooden crates, lots of umbrellas and a few buckets this was an easy theme

 The usual savoury selection hotdogs, pizzas    and sausage rolls.


                                                                            Cocktail sausages

  Salt and vinegar fish and chip                    crisps 

 Beach theme: Rice krispie bars dipped in blue candy melts with an umbrella and a sweety frog

                   Pink dipped marshmallows

                                Foam shrimps and bananas

Rubicon sugar free juice - a token gesture really as there were a lot of sweets on the table this time!  I laid this on top of a tray of sand which went with the theme but also helped with the drips we always get using the juice dispenser at parties.  Will need to accomodate a sand tray in every party theme!  

Pineapple and strawberry mini biscuit cookies.  These took so long to decorate I don't usually put in so much effort but they fit the theme so well.  You can imagine my disappointment when my 2 year old found these and loaded them up as a 5 high sandwich and bit through them all before the guests arrived....never mind! 

He couldn't have selected the very dodgy flip flop biscuits I made that were a total flop could he?!  Can't fault his good taste 🤣

He also particularly liked the dipped marshmallows

 Mars bar krispies with token umbrellas

Sweety kebabs didn't work very well sweets all fell apart :(
 The cake this year was a last minute decision - I am pregnant with my 4th child and I really lacked motivation so I am really happy this party all came together.  Watermelon cake didn't completely fit the colour theme  I was going for but I was happy with how it turned out.

All the guests were given a grass skirt and lei to wear as well as star sunglasses but you really get what you pay for the lenses in the glasses all popped out and they were not a good fit on the 8 year olds who came to celebrate.

 Party bags this year of course involved felt - watermelon keyrings.  But I made them in advance no last minute sewing!

Inside I put a little hula dancing girl - she is so cute!  She has a solar panel and she does get pretty irritating because she ticks all day while dancing but she is addictive to watch!  Also a family stamp set, a tiny purse, a highlighter nail polish pen, pencil, flip flop keyring and some fruity sweets.

 All the hula dancers having a great time to their music

We had lots of inflatables for this party - will need to use this theme again so we can use them all again.  I'm sure an inflatable flamingo will come in handy some day??!!

The next day we flew to France - had to leave all the leftover cake to my sister!  Gutted.  I love eating birthday leftovers for days later but this was our last chance for a holiday before the baby here so off we went Eurocamping!  It was great fun and I'm glad we did.  Now it's the middle of August and the sun seems a distant memory........