"Bake someone happy!"

Day 54:

Today Opeie was looking pretty fed up, after a creative morning and a tasty lunch he lay on the floor like he had just given up, I guess we're all having moments like that at the moment, mine usually come when he's in bed and I find myself really thinking about everything. I had a bit of a sweet tooth so I told him to make some cakes, which seemed to give him that boost he needed to get a smile back on his face. We found a recipe, sorted the ingredients and I just left him to it, 50 minutes later we had some delicious banana bread cupcakes and a happy content boy,"" yummy.

"Get out of my way, you Cakesniffers!"

Its been a tough few months with our lives changing so much with the split. As I said in the last post I feel like I've really lost myself in all of it and I know the boys are feeling the same way, Opeie especially. With his mom not being around I've been trying as best I can to keep him busy and in the company of the people that love spending time with him. This has not been difficult at all because we have the best group of friends around us and they definitely more than make up for our lack of family. 

Over the last few months we've spent a lot of time hanging out with our friends Charlotte and Rich, usually walking the streets of Shropshire in search of Pokemon. To continue the love of all things Pokemon and our blossoming friendship, they invited us round to theirs today to bake cakes and decorate them in a way that only Pokemon enthusiasts know how.

As the saying goes 'A baking session isn't successful unless you've messed up a couple of batches first'. No you're right, no one has ever said that, but as we all had a good laugh about the mess we made and Rich pointed out that the one batch looked like it needed vegetables and gravy with them, it was clear that the muck ups really add to the memories of the afternoon.

We soon had a decent batch to work with though so we set about adding some flair to our cupcakes. While we created our masterpieces we chatted about all sorts and I was reminded yet again how in awe I am of that amazing 7-year-old of mine. He loves being around other adults and is such a confident kid when it comes to general chit chat, everyone seems to adore him as much as I do.

With the first couple of cakes finished it was time for an action shot, Pikachu... I choose you!

The cakes ended up taking so much longer than we expected but thats the great thing about being around amazing friends, you get lost in all the fun and the time just flies by. With the cakes finished the only thing left to do was check to see if our creations tasted as good as they looked...they totally did.

These may be some of the toughest months we've been through but being surrounded by such amazing and caring people has made us realise that we really are the luckiest three boys.

"Mommy you are AMAZING"

Mothers day! the most important day of the year in our house for me and the boys as Mrs M really takes care of us all and although I like to think that we show her how we feel about her every day its nice to have that one very special day of the year where we can really make a fuss of her.

She's not my mom though so its only right to let one of the boys write this post and our eager 4 year old was quick to step up the the plate as he wanted to write about his lovely mom (in his own words) and pick some great pictures...

Opeie just asked me to add on the end "I think mommy is beautiful!"

"If baking is any labor at all, it's a labor of love. A love that gets passed from generation to generation."

Cooking is a big thing with Opeie, his block of chocolate sandwiches and hot boiled egg cakes are to die for. Of course, I am talking about his play food but we don't limit his culinary ideas to just role play. I like to think that I let the boys get involved with all the things I do, I think it's important for them to experience all the things that I do no matter how mundane. Opeie is quite partial to a spot of hoovering.

When it does come to food preparation though he is always excited at the prospect of getting involved. Making smoothies or green juices (hulk juices as he calls them) is what he enjoys most these days and I love that he just wants to be a part of everything we do.

He makes it quite clear daily that he is 'a big boy' and when a product comes along that is used by adults but has been scaled down for big boys and girls he is pretty much in his element. When our recent Bigjigs toys play patrol mission arrived, Opeie's little smiley face said it all. I could have written a glowing review just on that expression.

The young chefs baking set is a perfect product for a little chap who loves Mary berry and the great British bake off. With everything you need included for a miniature baking session it was time to get our hands dirty. Because of all the dietary issues in our house, cooking and baking is a great bit of education for Opeie, using different types of flour and being able to discuss why we don't use dairy etc.

Opeie was loving having utensils made for his hand size, i hadn't really thought about how difficult it must be using our whisks etc until this baking session. Bigjigs toys really did cover everything, mini rolling pin, whisk, tins, trays, cake cases, measuring spoons, cookie cutters and my personal favourite the mini oven glove (which we only used putting the cakes in the oven). Opeie had been desperate to get started on his baking session and with his young chefs baking set Bigjigs toys had helped him become even more a part of what was going on. All we needed to add were the ingredients and a chair to stand on.