Bouncy Castles, Burgers and Cake

Can I just say that I am shattered. If I stop now and sit down I will slump over while I stare into the distance and possibly dribble a bit.

The party is done. We survived. Actually, it was great fun. The nice bouncy castle people upgraded our inflatable to one with a roof, for free and unasked, when they knew what the weather would be like. But apart from one brief shower, the rain held off and the sun even came out. Below is a photo of said bouncy castle filling our entire back garden. It's not that the bouncy castle is huge, it's more that our garden is very small. I am standing in one corner and our neighbour's wall is behind the castle. Luckily we live near lots of parks!

It was too cool and windy too eat outside as I'd hoped, so we had an indoor picnic consisting of mini burgers, chicken nuggets, fries and salad. No child would touch the salad until one Dad there told them all to think of it as a bushtucker trial and bet them that they couldn't eat any...of course then they all ate the salad.

No patriotic theme here, just finally using up the very last of the Jubilee party things...

The individual bottles of strawberry milkshake were a huge hit. I will definitely do that again. There were no breakages - the bottles are really quite sturdy - and they are much less inclined to spill than those paper cups which seem to tip over at the earliest opportunity.

In the last week, Angus has requested a car birthday cake, then a tiger birthday cake, then finally a green monster cake. Which frankly was a relief as the green monster was easy to bake and fun to ice.

I've recently had a revelation regarding kid's birthday cakes which goes something like "You are not a professional cake decorator. Give yourself a break." The cake is the buttermilk birthday cake from Nigella Lawson's How To Be A Domestic Goddess, my go-to birthday cake in my go-to baking book. The buttercream icing is horribly, perfectly green and it was great fun to make. Angus grinned and said "My green monster cake!!" when he saw it, so at least he could tell what it was.

I made about one hundred (no, eighteen) strawberry milkshakes cupcakes from Hummingbird Bakery: Home Sweet Home. They are yummy but my word, they are sweet! Tooth achingly sweet.

I decorated them with cut up paper straws.

I like to see a mass of cakes lined up before a party, like a little cupcake army - it makes me feel like I've done something right. If all else fails, there will be cake!

And remember those sunflowers? I potted ten in little plastic pots and added a bow.

With a cupcake and a balloon, they made for very economical and hopefully fun party bags. 

Here is the birthday boy, wearing a mask that someone left behind, happy, probably quite over tired and definitely over fed.

Today we met up with John's parents in York. We visited the National Railway Museum, always a hit, and had a lovely lunch out. A great day, and we will all sleep well tonight.

Happy Birthday Angus. You are four today. My baby, my big boy, stubborn, affectionate, questioning, quiet in company but non-stop chatty at home, hater of vegetables and liker of Peppa Pig, quietly adoring of your big sister and beloved by everyone in this house.

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Last weekend, this little blog was featured in The Telegraph. I am both very happy and very shy about it. Many thanks to those who happened to read it and sent lovely emails and messages. And many, MANY thanks to you out there who visit here and read, old followers and new, nearby and thousands of miles away - it's really wonderful to me that you stop by and your comments continue to make my day.