Easter Sunday & A Different Egg Hunt

Happy Easter All

Another special time of the year when we spend time with our families and friends celebrating Easter, whether it be at Church or at home, it is always nice to be surrounded by family, enjoying an Easter Egg hunt and family Easter Lunch.

As we live away from all our family, and being a little family of four, this never stops us from celebrating together and this year we decided to think outside the box and do our Easter Egg hunt, a little differently - we did an Easter Egg Treasure Hunt and it was so much fun

After breakfast(as I told the girls the Easter Bunny doesn't arrive until breakfast is eaten and they are dressed, this gives Mr C time to go and hide the eggs) the girls were straight into it, finding the letter/clue the Easter Bunny had left in their baskets.

Ruby read the clue, whilst Tilly tried on the basket for size, and off we went on our treasure hunt, it was fun, deciphering the clues and finding the hidden treats

They went all over the house, in the attic, their bedroom, even the bath and lego boxes held little Easter treats

Once all the clues had been read by Ruby, and the treats found inside, it was time to head outside for the garden hunt.

On your marks, get set,

GOOOOOOOO............

and they were off to find the eggs, it was so much fun.

The girls thought the egg hunt was over once they came inside, but we had one last little surprise - an Easter Egg and a small Lego Friends pouch for them.
I absolutely adore this age they still believe in the Easter Bunny it is priceless.

Although we don't go to Church, the religious side of Easter is still important to us, for our children to know that Easter isn't just about the Easter Bunny or receiving Easter Eggs and gifts, but that there is a religious reason why is it celebrated and each year we take time to explain this.

Now on with our Easter Sunday, homemade hot cross buns for breakfast, a play at the park as the weather was so beautiful, Ruby finally mastered the her bike and was off, she did lap after lap of the school playground and proudly so, much to Tilly's disappointment though, as Tilly has been riding Ruby's bike for several months now, poor Tilly doesn't have a big bike to use anymore.

And to end the day we enjoyed a lovely family roast ham dinner to complete our day.

Happy Easter.

Pinterest Challenge Keeps Going

It's been a few weeks since I blogged about my Pinterest Challenge as we've been away for Spring Break to Walt Disney World in Florida so here's a little catch up.

Before we left for Florida and as it was Mothers Day in the UK, I decided to make my mum a long overdue cover for her Kenwood Mixer - I thought this would be the perfect present for her, especially as I have been promising to make her one for a long time. I followed this pin and used this gorgeous Cath Kidston laminated fabric for the outside and a soft blue felt for the lining, my mum loves blue.

Shame though I totally forgot to take any photos of the cover - luckily my mum took some for me - her Kenwood Mixer is underneath and she is really pleased with the cover.

And yesterday, since I have been craving Carrot Cake for a while too, I made this pin - a very easy and quick recipe to follow and make, it's from the famous Hummingbird Bakery. I divided the mixture between 2 cake tins rather than 3 as the recipe calls for and increased the cooking time to 35 mins. I also used the Hummingbird Bakery Cream Cheese Frosting recipe to complete the cake, I did only make one quantity of the cream cheese frosting (not 2 as the recipe requires) and I found it was just enough.

OK it doesn't look as pretty as the Hummingbird Bakery one (I have absolutely zero cake decorating skills) but it sure tastes delicious.

And on the agenda this week is Kids Clothes Week - Spring 2014  although officially KCW was last week but as we were away in Florida, my plan is to have my Kids Clothes Week this week and I'm making these - The Mini Shearwater Kaftan - I have this pattern myself and love it, so as soon as I saw Toni had come up with a kids version, I did not hesitate to buy the pattern - I absolutely adore the Make It Perfect Patterns and I love supporting a fellow Australian Designer.

Birthday Celebrations

I celebrated my 31st (cough) Birthday on Friday for the 10th time.

It all started with receiving some great gifts from my family and friends - I am so excited about the interchangeable circular needles and my own Sonos player - this is in my sewing room so I can listen to Radio 2 in peace whilst sewing.

And look I got some lovely Cath Kidston fabric thanks Lesley - which Tilly has already told me she wants me to make her a skirt out of. And I absolutely love my telephone teapot and cup and British goodies.

So after school drop off I had a coffee at the Other Brother Coffee shop - my favorite, followed by a free Mani, so I treated myself to a pedi too, it was so lovely to be pampered for an hour

Then I hit the shops for a spot of retail therapy

And later that evening we enjoyed the best meal out ever as voted by all of us - we decided to go to a tapas bar in the city called Cafe Ba Ba Reeba - a true authentic Spanish tapas bar, where we and the girls thoroughly loved the food and they tried so much more than we imagined

It was a great birthday and a few days later I received a fab present from my lovely Aussie family "The Freemans"

A treasure box of goodies - chocolate, wine, cheese, meats all my favorite things.... I can't wait to get tuck into these and think of my lovely friends.