Octonaut's to the HQ! A Photo Essay

Noah Turns 5!

Way back in February, just a couple of weeks into the school term, Noah announced he was having an Octonauts birthday party this year, and that he had already invited his entire class. His Birthday is in December!

Well, over the course of the year, and a fair bit of too-ing-and-fro-ing on Noah's part, we managed to whittle him down to inviting only his cousins and 5 of his "crew" from school for his Octonaut's party. We spent countless hours making a Giant Kelp Forest, Giant Jelly Fish, Baby Octopus', Sea Anemones, and Paper Plate Fish for decorations - the best part of the decorations was that they used up all the leftover decorations from previous parties, whether that be paper lanterns from the Baptism, Hungry Caterpillar Party and the Mexican Fiesta, or paper plates and cupcake holders from the same.

We set about creating Octonaut Invitations and making paper Octonaut hats for all the guests. For the food we made blue bowls of jelly with fish swimming in them, marshmallow pops and chocolate dipped Oreo cookies with the Octoalert symbol on them. 

My amazing Sister-in-law offered to help with decorations and did she deliver?! 3 foot Octonaut figures complete with all the details and nuances that make the characters come to life! My boys were blown away. So we used these as a backdrop for an Octonaut photo booth.

We booked a reptile show, Walkabout Reptiles, which was a huge success and all the kids were so brave holding lizards and snakes and even a salt water crocodile! We played a "Peso's Rescue Mission" game where all the kids were given "creature cards" and had to rescue their animal from a huge fishing net, and we had a treasure hunt for Calico Jack's hidden treasure.

Here is my photo essay of how the day went.

Anybody need any Octonaut Decorations?

Margarita & Taco Fiesta

What better way to celebrate the New Year and my hubby's birthday than with a margarita & taco fiesta. Sombrero's, taco's, limes, margarita's, Ole!

It was another occasion of cooking for several days beforehand, buying too many sombrero's, juicing what felt like 100's of limes, and feeling pretty shattered by the time the party came around. Hello being pregnant in summer!

So what was on the menu?

It was decadent and delicious - even if I do say so myself! It was definately a feast if not a fiesta and I think everyone enjoyed the margarita's, swimming in the pool and chill-axing on New Years Day.

So, what were the superstars of the day? The goat cheese and roasted pepper quesadilla's, the chipotle pulled pork and the the desserts. Martha Stewart came to the rescue when hubby said he wanted a chocolate cake whilst we were at the supermarket shopping for all our supplies - I had planned on making my tried and true Scandinavian almond cake with cream and berries. So I googled and chose the Sweet & Salty Chocolate Cake from Baked Bakery in NYC as it was described as satisfying "every chocolate lovers appetite". It took me a good 3-4 hours to make, set back my other food preparations a fair way, and was responsible for some swollen cankles. But it was well worth it!

My sister-in-law made the amazing Death by Chocolate dessert which comes from Symon's Suppers TV Show. It was rich, decadent and delicious. Jess substituted Heath Bars for Crunchie Bars and omitted the wafers. I think I could feel my arteries clog up a little as I ate it and it is best served in small portions! Amazing!!

The goats cheese and roasted peppers quesadillas came from my hubby's "Authentic Recipes from Santa Fe" cookbook and are pretty straight forward to make. Simply scrumptious!

Ingredients:
8 flour tortillas
250g grated monterey Jack cheese (I used Coon tasty cheese)
200g crumbled goat cheese
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 red bell pepper, roasted & cut into thin strips
1 yellow bell pepper, roasted & cut into thin strips
1 or 2 New Mexican green chiles, roasted & peeled, deseeded & cut into thin strips (I substituted large green chillies)
Salt & pepper to taste
Fresh basil or oregano (I forgot about this ingredient)

Recipe:
Preheat oven to 180C.
Sprinkle tortillas with jack cheese and 1 tablespoon of goat cheese.
Heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat, add onion and sauté until translucent. Add garlic and continue to cook until just golden. Add the bell peppers and the chile. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Divide among tortillas and top with additional goat cheese.
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the cheese melts.
Cut into 4 pieces, sprinkle with fresh herbs and serve warm.

Hubby was responsible for the chipotle pulled pork, and that remains his secret. I was in bed the night before the party when he began making and cooking that little beauty. It involved a pork shoulder, lots of marinating ingredients and a lot of slow cooking. It was divine!!

Happy Birthday Nathan!!

4th Birthday Morning Tea

Yesterday, Noah turned 4! It is hard to even describe how fast the last 4 years have gone, but then if you are a parent you understand this phenomena. Last year for his 3rd birthday we held a huge firetruck party, with all the trimmings. This year was a quieter affair, and we decided on just inviting our family to share in Noah's celebration. With everyone so busy at this time of year, we decided a morning tea still allowed everyone to get to their other commitments for the silly season. And so it was that we hosted a high tea of sorts for our 4 year old son!

Our menu included a cheese platter, a fruit platter, a bowl of berries (Noah was so impressed to find this included blackberries - which are hard to come by here in Sydney and super expensive when you do find them), oreo truffles, hazelnut truffles (for my gluten-intolerant mum), fresh baked scones (baked by my handy hubby from my Nana's recipe), tea and coffee. It was a delicious spread for  a warm, and slightly muggy, summer morning.

Of course, there was also cake. Noah had been telling anyone who asked that he was having a "Bob-The-Builder" party for his birthday. So running with that theme for the cake, I set about deciding on a cake. I saw this pin describing "super fancy cake decorating...that would make [me] look pretty clever" - hard to resist right? So I picked a simple drawing of Bob, and set about making my buttercream icing and drawing the cake decal to place on top of the cake. And I think it turned out pretty damn good. We had a minor arm amputation and some running of the icing due to the hot weather, but it looked good and tasted great.

Noah was certainly pretty excited to see Bob on top of his cake!

After much candle blowing and lots of eating and playing it was time to say bye to Noah's birthday for another year. No doubt the next year will fly by just as quickly!

Busy Bee

Nothing like a 1st birthday party to get you doing arts and crafts at 11pm! Thankfully this was not a 1st birthed party I was hosting, however I did need to create "Birds, Beetles & Butterflies" appropriate accessories for my son for this party and I hadn't realized it was dress-up until the last minute.

Noah nominated that he wanted to go as a Bumble Bee so I started putting my mind to that. My first point of call, of course, was Pinterest. However, I was disappointed this time with what I found there - as nearly all the "Bumble Bee Costume" pins were for girls - with yellow and black tutu's and leotards. I also knew we had 2 birthday's on the one day and so I didn't want Noah turning up at the later "Lightening McQueen/Cars" inspired party as a bumble bee in yellow tights and a leotard.

I decided I would make some wings and some antenna and that would be sufficient. I have made various "wings" for parties as I grew up (or rather helped my Mum and Dad make them) - butterflies and fairies featured predominantly. 2 wire coat hangers, some pantyhose and sequins and ribbon to decorate.

So during the boys naps yesterday I shaped the wings with the mallet and stretched the black pantyhose over the  frame of the wings. I had decided to ask Noah to help me decorate the wings with yellow cardboard circles I cut out. However, my very astute 3 year old informed me, "Bee's have stripes Mummy! Not dots silly!" Hence the 11PM completion of the wings as I had to rethink my decorating techniques. I settled on gold and silver pipe cleaners.

Noah was thrilled this morning and wore the wings the entire party. The headband antenna were not quite so successful - he really didn't like having them on his head (I remember hating plastic headbands as a girl - they always seem to dig into your head). So I wore them for the majority of the party.

Noah had fun buzzing busily around the garden thats for sure!