Tobias is 9!

Oh my… this is cliché but time, indeed, has flown by!

My little boy is 9 today! As a good friend said, we are at the halfway mark; another 9 years and he would venture out into the world on his own. Or at least that’s what people tell me will happen… i don’t know if i will be ready by then, or ever ready for that moment at all. But that’s not what this post is about. This is about celebrations, celebrating 9 wonderful, funny, frustrating, amazing, confusing, loving, scary, heartwarming years of having him in our lives!

This year he asked for cake-pops as his birthday cake. So off i went to research and make these little lollipop-looking cakes which are oh-so-adorable but time-consuming to make. (Last year’s cake was cake-in-a-cone.)

Here’s the process and final results in picture summary:

The process goes from top right, round to bottom left, then onto bottom right & then up and into the middle with the shots of the assembled "cake".
The process goes from top right, round to bottom left, then across to bottom right & then up and into the middle with the shots of the assembled “cake”.

Basically i baked a cake (i cheated and made one with out-of-the-box mix), crumbled it, mixed in icing, rolled the mixture into equal sized-balls, refrigerate it, dipped into chocolate and decorated it. i followed this recipe and this recipe. It took time but it was quite fun to make. i will make them again if an occasion calls for them.

Then there was the birthday party with his friends. This year we had it at the Armoury Museum in Solothurn (Altes Zeughaus). i was a little anxious as to how the kids would react as not all are interested in suits of metal and swords. But it went well.

We had to move our party from the Wednesday to the Friday cos there was another party which half the kids Tobias invited (and Tobias himself) were also going to on that same Wednesday. It turns out the Friday before a long weekend isn’t a good idea either, we only had 6 out of 10 guests make it. It was ok. The smaller group worked out well.

The kids got to listen to some interesting stories and facts about armour and how they came about and what they were like at the beginning. They asked questions and voiced some of their own ideas about armour. Then they all took turns to try on an actual suit of armour. All of them complained of how heavy it was and could not imagine how knights could walk in those, let alone fight.

Right: Them listening to the lovely museum lady, Left: Examining the suit of armour (the only one they were allowed to touch).
Right: Them listening to the lovely museum lady, Left: Examining the suit of armour (the only one they were allowed to touch).
King Tobias and his Knights.
King Tobias and his Knights.

Of course, we saw lots of different types of armour and weapons.

These are just a couple of shots to show the amazing collection the museum has.
These couple of shots don’t do justice to the amazing collection the museum has.

Then the kids set about making their own cardboard armour. They worked really hard on it.

The kids were really serious about making their armour look the best!
The kids were really serious about making their armour look the best!

They weren’t quite finished but it was time for cake and presents.

King Tobias and his Knights of the Square Table!
King Tobias and his Knights of the Square Table!

The wonderful museum lady read us a knight story (Tobias got to pick 1 of 3 stories) while we ate the cake the museum made (a simple chocolate sponge cake with a thick layer of chocolate cream on top).

Then they got to put finishing touches to their armour and here they are, knights battle-ready 😉

The knights were all excited to go out for battle!
The knights were all excited to go out for battle!

All in all, it was a nice little party.

We also had our little celebration at home, just eating the cake-pops and taking our annual birthday shot:

i think that pose is going to become tradition and look at father and son going for that cake-pop!
i think that pose is definitely going to become tradition and look at father and son going for that cake-pop!

syc

To My Mother…

She is my mummy!
She cooks my favourite foods, my comfort foods and my nourishing foods.
She makes sure my room is clean, my clothes are washed and i am properly dressed.
She laughs with me, cries with me and makes it all better.
She shows me how good life is, how hard life is and that she will always be there for me.

She does all the above without a second thought for herself.
She gives till she has no more and yet she gives some more.

She makes her children her world BUT
To us, her children, she is our world!

My Mummy is my everything!
She is the BEST!

i love her with everything i’ve got and i know it is not enough.
i hope and wish i can and will always say and show her how much she means to me.

She is my mummy!

This year, my little guy gave me some really sweet gifts which he made in school.

He grew some cress and made clay hedgehogs to decorate the plate. He also crocheted a line, decorated with beads, to be used a hanging picture line.
He grew some cress and made clay hedgehogs to decorate the plate. He also crocheted a line, decorated with beads, to be used as a hanging picture line.

i hope i can follow my mother’s example and be a good mummy to my little guy (who’s really not so very little anymore).

syc

It’s a Birthday for Daddy…

This post is actually 10 days after Husband’s birthday but the week has been crazy busy and we did celebrate it late (he was away for work).

So 2 days after his actually birthday, i cooked a seafood dinner (well, sort of, we had 2 seafood dishes and a veggie dish) in celebration. In the late afternoon, Tobias helped to prepare the cake or more like cakes. i decided that since it was just us i will not make a whole cake; it would take us forever to finish it. And there was a recipe i wanted to try: Chocolate Lava Cake… an absolutely calorie-filled yummy cake! Or more like mini cakes.

Left: Tobias helping to mix the batter, Right: the mini cakes before they go into the fridge.
Left: Tobias helping to mix the batter, Right: the mini cakes before they go into the fridge.
The traditional birthday shot.
The traditional birthday shot.

It was a small simple celebration at home but we enjoyed it, and the cakes too. Although it was a little too bitter for Tobias’ taste; it was made with dark chocolate.

Oh and that very long present you see in the picture above, that is a Scratch Map; where the countries are all covered with a golden foil and you can scratch off the places you have been too. So appropriate for constantly travelling Husband/Daddy, don’t you think? You can read more about it here.

In case you are interested, the recipe is from Chef John at FoodWishes ; he has some great recipes and i love his videos!

And here, as Chef John said in his video, is the money-shot:

The chocolate is supposed to be a bit for liquid, i think it's a bit overdone here... next time i'll get it right ;)
The chocolate is supposed to be a bit for liquid, i think it’s a bit overdone here… next time i’ll get it right 😉

Hmmm… hungry just looking at it…

syc

PS: even though it was 4 mini cakes, we didn’t finish that last one, even after a week, cos it was just so rich! But oooh… so yummy… 😛