Woods, Waves and Walking

We began our morning with organising some egg cartons to do a nature hunt, an idea my friend Bec gave me. Danny had a great time decorating some of the egg boxes. He was very excited to do the nature hunt with his friends in the woods. We couldn't find any berries of feathers though. Still the kids had fun chasing each other and pretending to look for the big bad mouse from the Gruffalo.

It was 32 degrees today so after the woods we decided on a refreshing dip in the sea. Serena absolutely loves the ocean and kept leading me in towards the waves, as soon as a wave would crash up against her she would squeal with delight. I have never seen her walk so much holding my hands as she did on the beach, she seems to like the feel of the sand beneath her toes. The beach seemed to giver her a new lease of confidence with her walking as that evening she walked everywhere all on her own.

Party time!

The Bat Boys!

Go Super Heroes!

Wonder woman is having none of it!

Happy Birthday Dear Danny!

This is Danny's embarrassed face

Make a wish Danny!

The Super hero family!

Here is the cake the night before, waiting in the fridge

So today we celebrated Danny's 4th birthday with a party at the pool. The kids had a great time splashing around, getting chased by monsters in the whirlpool and sliding down the inflatable slide, splashing into the water!

Once we had all worked up an appetite we sat down to feast on some delicious food. Kids parties are the perfect target for crappy food, which is fine once in a while but if you get invited to a party every week and each week there is rubbish food, that's a bit more often than I'd like for my kids to be eating junk food. So I decided on popcorn, bliss balls made with dates, nuts, cacoa powder and honey, rice crackers, fruit, LCM bars (https://.iquitsugar.com/recipe/lcm-bars/) and KFC (Kid Friendly Chicken) drumsticks which I took from Sarah Wilsons' 'I Quit Sugar' recipe book. Since going to kids parties I can't help but notice that fairy bread (white bread with hundreds and thousands sprinkled on) is the most popular food of choice but if your kids are anything like my Danny, one bite of that and he will be higher than a kite and grumpy once the sugar wears off so I opted for a more natural form of sugar high.

Once the kids were dry it was time to turn into Super Heroes or anything they could get their hands on. Ryder had already brought along his Batman outfit and Danny was pleased to have a twin. Serena was Wonder woman and the others had wings and princess dresses on. Even Davie became Batman for a little while! And me, well I don't need the costume as we all know how super I am!!

Danny's face was a picture when it came to singing happy birthday. He is not a huge fan of singing and gets a little embarrassed when everyone sings to him! Never the less he loved his cake. I thought it was going to be a failure as I had ordered a Batman cake topper for it but when it came to peeling it off from the backing it wouldn't come off and was breaking apart. So a scrapped it and decided to stick some super hero Lego figures I had into it and it worked a treat, it looked better than sticking a cake topper on and it was 3D! The cake I made was wheat, gluten and dairy free and it's a Jamie Oliver recipe (http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/chocolate-recipes/epic-vegan-chocolate-cake/ ) and it was delicious!

A fantastic 4th birthday party, thank you to all who made it!

Happy Birthday King Danny

Danny turned 4 years old today. One of the Steiner traditions is for the child to wear a crown because on their birthday they should be treated like royalty. So today Danny got to decide what we were going to do and he picked the animal and bird park. We met Meeka there and said hello to all of the animals, particularly the rabbits where you can sit and stroke them, although Serena thought it would be fun to pull their ears.

Danny was very lucky with his gifts, he received the Octopod from the Octonauts that he has wanted for so long, dinosaurs, spiderman jacket and batman PJs which he decided to get changed into there and then at the animal park. He has more gifts to come too so he will be sending out lots of thank you cards.

Serena and Lennox are good friends and Serena decided to feed Lennox some strawberries for morning tea. Lennox is a few moths younger than Serena but they are both the same size!

In the afternoon we went to the cinema and saw Pete's Dragon which Danny enjoyed. He was exhausted by the end of the day.

Another Steiner tradition is to recite this poem to the child on the eve of their birthday (this is what I read to Danny last night in bed):

When I have said my evening prayer

And my clothes are folded on the chair

And mother switches off the light

I'll still be 3 years old tonight

But from the very break of day

Before the children rise and play

Before the darkness turns to gold

Tomorrow I'll be 4 years old

4 kisses when I wake

4 candles on my cake

'Every child is an artist'

Danny pulled out the paints this morning and decided he would paint a rainbow with Serena being his loyal assistant. It's not often Danny likes to paint so I love to encourage it when he wants to do it. He enjoys mixing the colours together and especially likes painting with black (I think that has something to do with Batman). Serena was carefully scrutinising the brushes. Picasso sums it up nicely when he said. 'Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.'

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Beach Life

With a lovely day today and temperatures of 27, there is no better place than the beach! Danny and Meeka had fun digging in the sand and Serena is intrigued by everything they do.

Feathered Friends

Today we decided to feed the ducks with Meeka and Annabelle. However, the ducks were very shyand it took them a while before they feasted on the bread we threw for them. It wasn't long before Danny grew bored of duck feeding and instead decided to strip off and 'jump into the ocean' as he put it. Meeka quickly followed suit. Danny made his own water bomb out of a dumped plastic bag, filling it with water and pouring it all over Meeka, and Meeka had her turn too. This kept them entertained for ages.