We celebrated Hamish's 2nd birthday with a picnic BBQ at Clareville beach. After the torrential downpour of the week before we were lucky with the weather. It was such a beautiful day.

The kiddies had a wonderful time playing in the water and digging in the sand. Clareville beach is a great spot for an outing. Pity it's so far away!

Sarah and Duncan had requested no gifts but I hate to turn up empty handed. In lieu of a gift I made Bakerella's Cookies and Cream cupcakes. Unfortunately, I only had time to make 12 cupcakes. Andrew pointed out that there wasn't going to be enough to go around especially if there were lots of people there. Andrew was right, of course. There were about 20 kids there and with all the parents, 12 cupcakes just weren't going to cut it.

So I made an executive decision. The cupcakes were for the adults. In my opinion, cupcakes are totally wasted on children as they generally just lick the icing off the top and leave the cake bit behind. The kids enjoyed Sarah's colourful and tasty train cake and the cupcakes were distributed amongst the adults. There still weren't enough for all the adults. I need to be a better sharer.


Happy 2nd Birthday Hamish!

More photos (slideshow) on Flickr.

Here is a cute photo of Hamish and an action shot of lambykins. Thanks for sharing Sarah.

Well, hello there! Sorry I disappeared for a bit. This semester at uni I bit off more than I could chew. At the beginning of the year I signed up for 3 subjects (which is one more subject than a part time load). When I did that I forgot that I had still had a 2-week prac and a prac-related assignment to complete and two supplementary exams to sit. So, 7 assignments, 3 exams and one very stressed Jess later I'm all done for this semester. I have a little bit of a break before next semester starts and I'm planning to fill it doing stuff I love.

First up, I had some crafting to catch up on. Sarah and Duncan had a little boy, Hamish, in March. I was already 3 months late with my new bubba gift. For Hamish, I put together the following gift. It has some of my favourite new bubba stuff in it:

• Lambykins - one of my favourite things to sew for a new baby. Lambykins is very easy to put together but he is so cuddly. I must admit that I had a few cuddles here and there while I was stuffing him. I'm sorry Hamish, lambykins comes to you pre-cuddled and pre-loved (just a little bit).
  
  
• My Place by Nadia Wheatley and Donna Rawlins - this was one of my favourite books while growing up. It is the story of a house in Sydney and the area around it as told by the children who lived there from 1988 back in time to 1788. Each decade has an accompanying map with lots of little tidbits. I used to spend hours poring over these maps. The book has great reread value. You discover something new everytime you read it. (Can you tell I'm a fan? I just used it for my latest English uni assignment.)
  
  
• Mr Messy onesie - an impulse buy. But seriously, what baby isn't a Mr / Lil Miss Messy?
  
  
• Giraffe wrap - I've sworn off wrapping paper. Although wrapping paper makes presents look awfully pretty I decided that it was very wasteful. The present is only wrapped for a little bit and then the paper is discarded after only one use. I've been looking for better things to wrap my presents in. For adults, I've been using tea towels (I brought about 50 tea towels home with us from our travels). For babies I decided to use swaddling wraps. Now I just have to come up with a solution for the in between ages. Any ideas?

ugh, sorry for the blurry photo. I only just finished lambykins before heading out to hang out with Sarah and Duncan (and the rest of the badgers). Unfortunately, it was late afternoon by this time and the light was not the best for photo taking.