Jakes 4th B-day.

Heres some piccies from his big day. We went out for a family dinner on the sunday and he had a party at care on the Monday.

Rocket ship cake for the care party.

It was a Rainbow cake so heres what the inside looks like.

Jake n Grans Cake for Sunday night. (was choc)

Traffic light cookies for care

3D Teddybear cookies... Biggest mission ever!

Early present opening, so I had child free time on the sunday to ice everything, but then I couldnt put the darn thing together! But it did the job for the day untill I could get someone else to fix it!

His Bear all made and ready! Im so pleased with how it turned out!

Dinner pic, with Mr Zane next to him. (I knitted Jakes top for his b-day)

Care party pics

Mr Bear dressed in his vest n scarf (made by Gran)

Opening a pressie.

The boy turns 4 in 6 days!

So what better time to decide to make him a teddy bear! Because last minute ideas are the best ones dont ya know! I got the kit at the craft fair on Friday and thought hey why not make it for Jakes B-day... Ive got a couple hours spare....
I chose "George" with long pile fur. He stands (or sits). Kit was from http://www.dlyellbears.co.nz/

Pattern all layed out and traced ready to be cut out... Im pretty nervous about here! (note theres no spare fur for me use if I bung a part up!! eeek.) The instructions say "only cut the backing not the fur" Well sure, I totally know what that means! So an hour later its all done and cut. (No fur was cut either ;) )

I was warned to pin it well before sewing because its a long pile fur and can slip. So I pinned and pinned! The ears were a mission! I need to sew and then pin more for most bits, but need thread to match first (plus by this point Ive been at it for 2 hours and gotta pick the boy up from care!)

I am also knitting him a jersey, hopefully its ready for the big day. Really I only have the sleeves left to knit so should be do-able!

Trucks and Dirt, all a boy could need.

I took Jake to the field days yesturday. It was so tiring. Cost me a small bomb, but oh well, he seemed to enjoy the animals and tractors and I scored a few bargins on gloves and socks and fudge... ;)

This must be the tamest cow around, it just sat there and let the kids pat it, the fact it was penned at a steak house selling steak sammies for $5 probably had a few things to do with it!

Just before getting on this tractor he turned me to all serious and said "Dont worry, Im not going to really turn it on"

The pants Jakes wearing are some lined waterproof pants I made him (ottobre pattern, "eskimo pants"), I have also made him some jeans, must remember to get a pic.

Ive been busy knitting, I finished Jakes poncho, still have to dye it... which means I have to remember to buy the dye!

And Ive knitted a kimono top as part of a swap. The pattern was nice to knit and best of all no sewing up needed!

Mothers day

My poor neglected blog!


Darn study and work are getting in the way of my fun time!

It was mothers day on Sunday, but I had work so Jake was at his fathers. He did come home with a card for me tho which is just so cute!

Me: Is this me Jake?
Jake: Yes its you and your a monkey!!
Hmmm thanks babe. I guess that makes me a super special mummy ah??

And inside some of his lovely writting. Hes taken to writting like a fish to water! Im so proud of Mr 3! Im expecting novels from him by the time he starts school ;) And hes LEFT HANDED! Keeping the Tait tradition and following his gran and mother.




on the left hand side is a drawing of a flower :D

New edition updates

Its been such nice hot sunny weather in Hamilton this week, its wonderful. Jakes been cooling off in the afternoons after care by jumping on the tramp in the sprinkler, keeps him entertained for ages. He cant use the tramp without the sprinkler at the moment, it gets way too hot and burns ya feet!

We have EGGS!!! Only one girl tho, Ive been giving the other three a lecture every morning about earning their keep, Im wondering if they are nesting somewhere instead of the nesting box? Jakes loving collecting the egg every day he calls it "special egg from chooks bum" Shes laying bigger each day, at the moment they are pretty small, the first one was tiny! (and fair enough too... Im sure if my first child was small and not 9lb 7oz I would of managed it better too! lol)

And Jake got some new babies today, hes such an animal lover and is so caring with the hens and cat I decided to let him get a couple of zebra finches. He spotted them at the pet store a few weeks ago and loved them! Thankfully he has cheap taste, they were $9 each, the other birds for sale were $30 upwards. I think he likes how flighty and action packed they are compared to the bigger less moving birds. He chose the only white one, was set on having it (poor pet store girl had a mission catching it!) and said he wanted a random grey one (bet the pet store girl was glad about that hehe). They are wonderful birds, sing lovely tuned songs, it is very cute and relaxing to listen to them. :)

The white one got out of the shoe box when I went to transfer them! Dammit, I knew that would happen, thankfully Id closed off the hallway and kitchen. I had to wait for her to land on the ground and chuck a towel over, got there in the end!

Sorry Little einsteins

But Jake cant help you on your mission this afternoon (for those who dont watch LE, they ask the child to help them solve the issue and go on a mission, Jake said No, I asked why not?) because hes....
"To big to fit in the TV" !!
Oh dear I said, Im sure you can squeeze you in if you wanted Jake?
"No its square, Im not."

Fair enough I guess.

Anyway today I was bored waiting for the porridge to cool down this morning so made a bag for Jakes inhaler. I used some monster fabric that was used to wrap a swap I recieved a while ago (... 2 yrs ago...) and always planned on making something out if it. See it pays to put things off and stock pile fabrics sometimes you do NEED it ;)

The inhaler goes in the pocket (still to be snapped) and spacer in the main body of the bag.

I even got out the hammer and put in a proper eyelet.

And for good measure, Jake with his inhaler, I covered it in stickers to make it more fun. But hes actually accepted it well and already asks for it when he gets wheezy (not bad for a few days of use!)

Then this morning we went Strawberry picking. Much easier then Blueberry picking... almost too easy... Didnt take long to fill four icecream containers at all.

Jake and Mum

Grans bum was in the way of some good ones... and yes she knocked him over when she stood up and yes I just stood there and took a picture and didnt give any form of warning about the child behind her...

M, L and Z, L was the master at picking the green ones... ;)

The loot. 3 icecream containters full. (M took one)

And Ive been Pav and meringue making! I wanted to do some meringues so Jake didnt miss out, as the pav is going to have cream on it. (Mean mummy will NOT have pav without cream!! ;) ) I put 100s n 1000s on them. Will take most of them to the bbq tonight at a friends. (odd looking because I dont have a piping bag, tried to make one but the bottom seam brust and I had mixture oozing ut of two places! so mish mash meringues it is!)

And my Pav... Its a pretty good looking pav too if I dont say so myself!

I think I may have found the secret to pav making..... At first when I started I thought I was a bit mad.... towards the end I decided that yes I was in fact a bit mad... but look at that pav! And what secret weapon am I talking about???.....

A hand held mixer! Haha, I have a normal big mixer but it is missing a beater... for the last three years! I dont think it will ever show up :( but Yes I did make both a pav and meringues with a $12 warehouse handheld mixer!! It got a bit hairy towards the end, when the handle even got too hot hold and the pav was cooking on the beaters, but Im sure that happens often?? I pushed forward and figured hey worse case I kill my cheap mixer, $12... I can spare it so long as the pav works! then it got a bit smokey smelling (well a LOT smokey smelling!) so I stopped... Decided it was beaten enough anyway. Wonder if it will work next time I try to use it!

Ive also finished off Jakes outfits and made a last minute crayon roll. Im suprised I got the clothes done! Just have to snap them tonight, Im wanting to use jean snaps but I cant find my tool for it!! Dam! Will have a proper hunt for them later, fingers crossed its somewhere simple!

Kmart tree day

Jake was still too sick for care today (First time on a new antibotic so I wanted to keep an eye on him, plus he was still a bit wheezy and needed his inhaler a few times) So we jumped on the bus and dropped the presents off at Kmart. They had a scale this year aiming for 5000! 5000! Thats lot of kids in Hamilton going without! (I assume its for local kids because they collect until xmas eve so dont have the time to transport the gifts else where) Sadly it was only at 250-300 :( I wish we could do more. Jake took great effort in carefully and nicely placing them under the tree, so cute :)

After this we went for 'icecream' Jake was limited to a choice of two sorbets (only dairy free items) but he really wanted one of their monster icecreams so I asked the girl serving us if she could make it a monster and she did, right down to rolling it in the coating (but it didnt show agaisnt the bright red) Thank you very much Wendys :) She didnt even charge more for it. Totally made his day :D (He had eaten the nose and mouth before I got a chance to take the pic but you can just make out the eye balls on the last pic.)

Oh and apperently waffle cones "taste like wheatbix" hahaha.

Today I did Jakebs name out of wooden blocks covered in scrapbooking paper, I totally stole the idea off Laura http://kahurangiskies.blogspot.com/2009/12/manaia.html Which makes for a change ;) I think it looks great, wonderful idea, now I have to work out how to put it on the wall still...