Nemo's 3rd birthday

This year we invaded my parents for Nemo's birthday (again!) the difference this year is that my brother and sister in law also came with their twin girls. 

My poor parents were bombarded, I think we were only in the door a few minutes before we start slipping items of clothing into their washing machine! 

To get the stressful things over a done with after that awful night of cake making I spoke about last night I managed to get the cake from this 

To this 

I had frozen the cake to help it keep fresher for longer and this helped decorate it the next day as it was solid. I felt really pleased with the outcome considering how frustrated I had felt the night before so I packed in up for the journey to Leicester  which took about 5 hours. 

Of course obvious as it sounds now as the cake was defrosting in the car the decorations kind of  "sunk" the cake went back to looking a bit messy. 

After more agonising then I care to go into I eventually managed to patch the cake back up again and here's the final result

Overall I was happy with it although it's perhaps one of those cake that looks better standing a meter or 2 away!

Mum actually pointed out the the wobbliness of the cake made it look like the boat was sailing! 

Treasure island made with left over cake and brown sugar! 

The sea is made from buttercream icing and I used some fondant icing to make the shark fins sticking out!

Mr Shark and barrels made from two rolos and a button stuck on top- I have to give credit to Nemo for the idea of the button on top! 

Usually I feel a reluctance to cut cakes I've spent hours (in this case days...) on. This time I cut the boat up with joy. I was so fed up with it!!

So anyway onto Nemo's birthday. He opened some of his presents in the morning and opened different presents over next two days! 

Here is Nemo with his pirate quilt

Nemo has been doing so well with his potty training- he's very rarely having accidents anymore. However his success has meant we have stopped giving him a chocolate coin for every wee and poo in the potty and now he just gets a sticker. (Nemo was so reluctant initially he needed a lot of encouragement). Nemo definately feels the injustice of this change and doesn't take the offer of a couple of grapes instead well! 

There was a definite pirate theme this year. Me, my Mum and Sister all made pirate themed items! 

We headed to soft play in the morning to tire the children out, this meant they had a lovely long nap in the afternoon!

The twins arrived and as usual their favourite family member appears to be Poppy!

The children all loved eating the pirate cake and I scream for pudding!

The next day saw us heading for Wickstead Park. It such a hot and sunny day- two layers of sun cream and I still got a little red on my face! Thankfully I managed to apply the children's sun more effectively!

I think Nemo looks like a King with his cousins as his court in this photo!

There was this amazing water and sand area in the park. It had this great interactive water features for the children to play in. I think we spent hours here. 

Having spent all day awake no nap Pebble eventually fell asleep on Grandma! 

The twins were not far behind!

Now this was probably one of the most hilarious things I've ever seen- S on the right was falling asleep but had an ice cream. She literally fell asleep licking it then would wake a few seconds later and try to lick it again!! 

The next day I went fabric guiding with mum to get me topped up for some upcoming projects then we headed to the park.

Nemo got the chance to try out his new scooter and dinosaur helmet. 

I had wondered if I really needed a helmet considering I see so many children on scooters without them but am so glad I did. On Facebook there's been a campaign - Georgia on my mind encouraging people to use helmets after their daughter fell, hit her head and has had a life threatening head injury. It's definately affirmed to me how important it is 

We left in the early afternoon (after ensuring we were fed up on BBQ food!) the children did really well both ways and we managed a 5 hour door to door journey with one stop without Nemo wetting himself both ways! 

Can't believe my little boy is 3 - how can it be that the little baby I carried for 9 months is now a little person. He's such a lovely and fun little boy. To indulge myself in a soppy moment Here are three photos of me and Nemo all taken on his birthday the forth was taken a couple of weeks ago. 

I am so lucky to have my beautiful boy :)