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! 

Woodland 6th Birthday Party

Happy Birthday to Eliza my lovely little girl

Finally getting around to recording my party activity for the last year after having a beautiful baby boy.  I need somewhere to record all my parties because I stopped printing photos years ago and have no record of my babies' birthdays anywhere but here.  Even if no-one else ever reads this I will know where to look if I want to reminisce about their party themes.

Not a forced photo at all...

Here are my three lovely children all happy and friendly with each other as usual...  Finlay the moody (was then) 12 year old.  Still moody but a year older.  Sturrock the newbie and Eliza the girl squashed in the middle of her two brothers.  Sturrock is wearing a handmade dinosaur romper.  My favourite shops for these types of clothes are JMW Kids and Love Bee Baby 

The theme for Eliza's 6th birthday was woodland.  I am so glad I have moved house now and have a much more neutral background for any future parties.  That wallpaper is horrendous I can't believe I ever liked it haha.

I love to "shop" my house for things that will fit a theme and because I had a new baby I kept this all really simple.

The cake I made myself.  I was very last minute with it and hadn't really decided what I was doing until the day before and luckily Sturrock helped me by sleeping well.   I usually have a covered cake for birthdays but I really liked this one and could easily eat this right now...

The return of the "snail" wraps from Eliza's 2nd birthday.

A fish bowl didn't really fit the theme but possibly there is a pond in the woods?  Teddy bear crisps tick the box though

Cake and meringues standard party food at mine!

Chocolate raisins and nuts in cute little boxes from dotcomgiftshop

Rubbish photo of mars bar krispies and rabbit shaped shorties

Empire biscuits - Finlay's favourite so Granny delivered! 

The picnic basket I inherited from a lady at work makes its appearance again!  Great prop for loads of themes 

Tiny toadstools - I loved these so easy and cute - raspberries with a mini marshmallow how simple! 

Again the star dishes might not fit the theme but they were white and useful :)

Awww she looks so little without her teeth 

Easy cupcakes to take home

I don't like to cut the cake for people to take home I find it way easier to have cupcakes pre-boxed in the party bags so I can sit back and enjoy all of the cake party.  I also always have the fear that all the cake will be eaten and I won't get enough haha I am greedy like that. 

Party bags

My go to party bag is a brown paper bag but I ran out of time and didn't deorate or do anything exciting here but with a little bird gift tag (again dotcomgiftshop) they were good to go.  Inside this year's bag were little woodland themed note paper, hedgehog nail files, animal temporary tattoos, a pen, rubber, badger plasters (random!), hedgehog and badger hair clips, woodland magnetic bookmark (all dotcomgiftshop) and as usual I made some felt animals

Owl, fawn, fox, squirrel, bird, hedgehog and toadstool 

I left these to the last minute (don't I always?) and they are really quite ugly haha.  Made them into brooches this year so they could be pinned to somewhere.  Always wish I kept a full set for myself of my felt creations but I am always so glad to be finished the ones I need for the party I couldn't think of anything worse than making extras!

Here they all are waiting for their new homes in the party bags

I wish I could choose a theme early and start making the felt rather than the stress of a cake, felt animals, party bag shopping and prop "shopping" the house.  But even her 7th birthday party  I knew the theme way in advance and I still ended up finishing sewing little animals at 6am the morning of the party.  My only excuse is we just moved house and the only finished room was the room the party would be in (and it was only finished a few days before)

I am looking forward to having lots more parties in my neutral new home for Eliza and Sturrock - Finlay I am pretty sure would die of embarrassment if I even suggested a themed party for his 14th??  But maybe by the time he is 18?

Eliza with her baby brother such a good big sister to him

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Up market Easter picnic

Our Easter picnic every year is hilarious...tubs of marg, loafs of bread and packs of ham just purchased on the way to the picnic.  This year I warned them all we were going up market and to get their picnics in order.  I have been pinning a bit but hadn't really planned a table because I am busy with Finlay's party plans but it got to Friday and me and my sister decided we really should put in some effort.

Eatser biscuits... Uncle Grant kept changing this to Teaser and I tried to fix it but ended up with Eatser!  Haha I can't spell!

That's better :) Recipe for these here.

Sandwiches 

Mini quiches and crackers 

 Cheese board and sweets

My little Easter Bunny! I have been practicing my face painting -my gran thought she was a tiger!

Two face - very Easter-ish!

 A bunny in the hedge

 Easter banner

Marshmallow lollypops











Little gingham cover for the potato salad












Easter picnic up market style with bunting, wicker and brown paper.  The other guests at our picnic still brought their marg in a tub, ham in a packet and uncut breadsticks....however there were homemade shorties, custard creams and cranberry biscuits so they were allowed on our table:)

 There were also mini trifles I made which are so cute - I found these little jars in Ikea and have been waiting to use them for something brilliant like this.  

I also found these bottles in Ikea and filled them with cherry juice and pear and elderflower juice

Not so up-market drinks station!  There were 8 adults so we had a flask each - I don't know how much tea and coffee we thought we were going to get through!  It was quite a cold day - still some snow on the ground but much better weather than we expected!  

So good to keep the Easter tradition going with a picnic whatever the weather but a nice change to eat such lovely picnic food! 

Happy Easter 2013!