Pinterest - do you pin?

Pinterest.

I'm not sure if I'm coming in very late to this or (for the UK) just as it's all beginning to take off. I signed up for my Pinterest account in early April and two months down the line I'm addicted. For someone who likes everything to have it's place, Pinterest is a dream, the new board possibilities are endless, if you have something you don't know where to pin, create a new board! However what's really great is that you can create your Pinterest experience to be tailored around what interests you. You can neatly put your interests into boards and rather then following someones whole pinboard collection only follow their boards that you connect with.

Like this blog, my Pinterest is divided by two big things, and then whatever else takes my fancy:

Charlie:
Toys for Little Boys - anything I see that would be perfect for my 2 year old
Baby Stuff - ideas for babies, toddlers and general babylicious things
Books my Toddler Loves - a record of all the books C-bear really really loves - to get on this list they must be demanded to be read at least 3 times in a row

http://pinterest.com/pin/90423904988643309/

Books:
Books I've Read Recently - a quick, fast and easy way to put up what I'm reading now
Bookshelves and More! - a new addiction (and my favourite board), beautiful bookshelves (plus it looks like there's a lot of Pinteresters with the same fetish)
Books my Toddler Loves - Links C-bear with my book addiction
Authors

Other:
Foodalicious - yummy treats
Too cute! - it's the Internet, you've got to have a cute animal or 10
Beautiful home - ideas for
Want! - self explanatory
Misc

Fun filled weekend

We had such a great weekend, mine (sorta) started on Thursday with a work event to meet Rachel Allen and decorate cupcakes, it was great. Plus I picked up a really cool tip for homemade cake toppers - rose petals, brushed in egg white and dipped in sugar - once they dry they're beautiful and tasty! I made some on Friday to use on C's birthday cupcakes. On Friday I had another work event, chaperoning a competition winner to meet Hilary Mantel and hear her speak at the Southbank. We had 5 toddlers in the house on Saturday for a birthday party. We played pass the parcel, elefun and had a party tea. Much fun and much mayhem. Today C and I visited the park twice, played with bubbles and he mastered the big slide.

1 - Cupcakes at the Rachel Allen event - really strawberries in the butter cream!
2 - Smart rose petal cake decorations - brush with egg white, dip in sugar and dry
3 - Toddler birthday tea
4 - With best friend Miss C at the party
(4) (again mistake!) Dino joining in with the party
5 - Cleaning up after the party
6- Eggy bread - first time we'd made it, the little guy loved it
7 - Boys in the pop up tent
8 - party tea again
9 - Henry doll joins the party too
10 - Bubbles with Daddy
11 - Mastering the orange steps on the climbing frame
12 - Trip trap over the bridge
13 - Boys on benches
14 - Tired out
15 - Nap time

Birthday Frosting

Photo from my brother, C-bear loved the blue frosting on his cupcakes!

2nd Birthday

Phew, we're tired out! C-bear had a lovely family birthday party at his Nana's house yesterday. I took Friday off and made him a Gruffalo cake! It took ages, but was worth it to see how happy he was when we lit the candles and everyone sang happy birthday. He had such a lot of fun, some of which was captured above. Photos from L-R:

- Waving bye bye to Reuben as we walked to the park
- A mouse took a walk.... gruffalo cake!
- Super cousin! Lots of fun with 1 yr old M
- Blowing out the candles with Daddy
- Excited peekaboo from behind the french doors
- Pants on head!
- Pop up tent - a hit
- Blue frosting moustache (his tongue wasn't long enough to lick it all off!)
- Reading with Auntie N
- Cat and boy
- Duplo safari from Nana and Grandad
- Cousins :)

Party bags

We're having a family birthday party on Saturday for the little man and then the following week we're having a mini party for some of his toddler friends. I've been thinking a lot about party bags, we didn't do them last year, but now the boys are two it's exciting for them to have something to take home at the end of the party. C-bear was given a lovely party bag from a recent party, it had some great toys in it but I was a little disappointed that it was also full of sugar sweets and a couple of toys that weren't age appropriate. When planning C-bear's party bags I selected things that I would be happy for him to play with, no additional sugar (they'll get enough with the cupcakes) and just a few nice quality things instead of loads of tat.

So, here's what I've got. We're only having 4 little friends over, so my budget was a little larger then if we had loads of kids coming! The raisins and fruit flakes I bought in multi-packs and we usually have some in the cupboard for C-bear anyway. The rubber cars I bought two sets of four from Sainsburys, they were £2.99 per set and perfect for 2 year olds as no small parts. The two spare ones I gave to C as a birthday present this morning. The gruffalo badges I got in a set of six from John Lewis. The mini bubbles were a set of four from the party section at Sainsburys. My favourite find, and the most expensive were the confetti disco light bouncy balls! These were £2 each from Hawkins Bazaar, C was given one as a Christmas present and loves it, so I was pleased to find somewhere that sold them to pass on the disco lights love.

The last day of being a one year old!

Following on from my despairing post yesterday we've had a wonderful, lovely day today. C-bear is much better and on this, the day before his 2nd birthday, he's been the best little boy in the world! We spent our bank holiday Monday at home, playing with Charlie and finally finding a break in the rain to get outside and blow off some toddler energy.

We gave him his birthday balance bike early so he could have some time to play with it outside:

He's got about an inch to grow before he'll be able to balance on the bike by himself, but loved it when Daddy bear and I pushed him in the park. I'd also like to say a big thank you to Lenny. Who's Lenny? Lenny is our new YouTube friend :) A couple of days before we gave him the bike I googled for a film showing a toddler wearing a helmet on a balance bike, so I could show C-bear what fun having a bike could be and this film, starring Lenny, was absolutely perfect. Charlie loves watching Lenny, over the past 72 hours we must have watched this film over twenty times.

Other things we've crammed in today:

- Painting - C-bear pulled out the plastic tablecloth and asked if we could paint, I couldn't say no!
- Made birthday cupcakes to share with the staff and children at nursery tomorrow. I used recipes from this book (which I was given from my work when I went on maternity leave, because as a mother you need a good cake book!), I made carrot cake cupcakes, lemonlicious cupcakes and double chocolate cupcakes. The carrots I made from coloured icing (I cheated and bought it ready made) C-bear, in his usual fussy way ate the green icing but refused to try the orange icing, I think he thought it was actual carrot!!! Charlie helped me decorate them and was a little overwhelmed by so much "caaaakkke".
- Made a cushion nest and had general rough-housing shenanigans with Daddy.
- 2nd visit to the park, the sun was finally our so C and I went to the play park, where we made sand ladybirds, played peepo and rode the favourite blue dinosaur.
- Finally got to eat one of the chocolate cupcakes with an orange for pudding!

It's been such a lovely day and I can't wait to fill the next year with many more like it xxx

Two Terrible

In two days time C-bear will be two and this weekend we've had a taste of what's (hopefully not) to come. Simply put, OMG how can my two year old turn into such a monster?

Yes, I've heard of the terrible twos, yes I've read other Mummy blogs with posts like this, but seriously I never ever thought my darling boy would get so angry over such little things. Things haven't been in our favour, little man has had a cold for a few days now and Daddy and I have both caught it as well. As he's almost two for the last week he's moved out of the baby room at nursery and in with the two - four year olds and to top it off its been raining constantly for over a week so he's been cooped inside. Things that have started epic lying on floor/ eating mud/ screaming until he's physically sick tantrums over the past two days:

- Trying to trim toenails
- Mama shutting the baby gate to cook lunch
- Having to go home early from the park because it started raining again
- Nappy change
- Not being allowed more then one cup of juice
- OCD over always having to shut the baby gate

It feels like there were more but my brain is so frazzled I think I'll stop there! I may well invest in this sign:

Image taken from Epic Mom - http://1epicmom.com/2011/05/19/ode-to-the-terrific-twos/terrible-twos-3/