It was Mum's birthday on Sunday so we went out for dinner and then afterwards we returned to the rentals for birthday cupcakes.

I made banana cupcakes with cream cheese and white chocolate frosting. I used Martha Stewart's banana cupcake recipe which is awesome. Her recipes always produce tasty and moist cupcakes (hur hur moist). The frosting is from a different book but basically goes like this: melt 225g of white chocolate, let it cool for a bit, beat in 150g of cream cheese, spread on cupcakes. Yum!

To keep the boys amused in restaurants we've taught them how to play 20 Questions. Leo always picks an animal and likes to give you helpful clues. He will say "can I give you a clue? This animal likes to sunbake." It's nice that it's not about winning for him yet.

Oscar loves to pick something that he thinks will take us ages to guess. It usually does. For example, last night I asked the question "would you find it in a musuem?". His answer "you might, but it would be a very silly musuem." What was the object? A nappy! The other day he picked something that was in outer space that wasn't a planet. We spent ages asking different questions: "is it the Sun?", "the Moon?", " a comet?", " an asteroid?". Andrew came in late and suggested the answer... Pluto! Oscar might be too smart for his own good.

Happy Mother's Day Mum! We lunched at No 1. Harris St @ Pyrmont. Great food but disappointing service; this seems to be the norm at No 1.


So, who looks best in my funky, new hat? Personally, I think it suits me best... Paddy looks like Duckie from Pretty in Pink, Dad looks like a fisherman, Mum looks like a bohemian, Andrew looks like a Garden Gnome and I look HAWT baby!

Yesterday evening we attended the pre-award party for the Archibald prize at the Art Gallery. For $60 we got champagne, nibblies and a chance to view the portraits before the judges announced the winners.

Because of the impromptu protest against the war in Iraq we had to walk from Pyrmont to the art gallery. A 40 minute walk in heels (ok, they weren't that high but it's not like I was wearing sneakers!) is not much fun. I headed straight to the alcohol table when we got there and after a couple of glasses of champagne I was feeling much better. Paddy and I then spent the next half hour ambushing the wait staff coming straight from the kitchen. I was really hungry! (and I wanted to get my $60 worth *grin*).

After we had our fill of nibblies we went downstairs to view the exhibition. They have 4 prizes, the Archibald - portraiture (painting), the Wynne - Australian landscape or figure sculpture, the Sulmann - abstract Australianna and a new photographic category. We also entered the competition they were running - if you picked the winner in each category, you'd go into the draw to win a week at an art school (how exciting!!!! *grin*). They've since announced the winners and I didn't get a single one right. Obviously I don't know anything about art :D.

the one I voted for	the winner

Oh, it was mum's birthday too! Happy Birthday Mum!!!

Photos from Mum's Birthday dinner are now up (Click here). Dinner was at BJs eatery in Glebe and the food was both delicious and inexpensive. Mum is now jetsetting off to Noumea for a week of lazing on the beach. Sounds wonderful, I'm jealous.

Some interesting triva questions from the evening:

1. Name 6 Olympic (Summer) sports that involve balls that bounce?
2. Now name 6 other Olympic (Summer) sports that involve balls, bouncing or otherwise (not used in the previous question)?