Busy, busy, busy!

Okay, so it's been a while! We've been busy! Despite the busy-ness I have very few photo's of the past week or so. This time of year is always hectic but this year it seems to have gotten worse - I'm sure I say that every year!

Anyway, here's some of what we've been doing.

Last Friday Abigail had her first cake sale and so we were destined to spend Thursday night baking! Thursday day was a really busy one and add to that car trouble and there was no way the baking was going to get done before supper time. (bearing in mind that I was stranded at Renault until 5:30!)
I wanted to make "window biscuits" which I saw on another blog (they are little gingerbread man shaped biscuits with a hole in the tummy and a boiled sweet in the hole to make a stained glass window) and "spiral biscuits". Basically it was a disaster!! Lesson 1: never bake something for the first time that needs to be sold or consumed by anyone other than immediate family.


So we mixed a batch of dough that ended up being too crumbly and frustrating to work with. The idea was for Abigail to be part of the making and baking. The cherry on the cake (biscuit!) was when I added brandy essence instead of red colouring to the dough for the spiral biscuits!!! It was REALLY potent!! SO, that was when we abandoned ship and opted for Chocolate Squares which were quick and easy - if a little difficult to cut into squares the next morning!!

Here she is creaming the butter and sugar of the first attempt.

And here she is mixing the chocolatey mixture of the second attempt!

It all turned out well in the end but it wasn't my most enjoyable baking experience.

This week (and last) has been 1 thing after the other for Abigail. Fun gala, sports day, beach outing, end of year parties for all sorts of extra murals, concert... and the week is not over yet!

Tonight was the Foundation phase (grades 1-3) Christmas Concert.

It was very sweet and the kids seemed to really enjoy themselves. Unfortunately (but not unusually!) my camera's batteries went flat during the first song so all I've got is the pre-concert pics!!

Here are the Jingle Bell Rock girls!

The concert was followed by a picnic in the gardens. It was bit windy but not too bad, we had quite a sheltered spot. Niave ran around and played so much that she hardly ate anything except for the obligatory melon - a firm favourite with her. On the drive home (when I thought she'd be asleep before we got to the first corner) she was asking "what we having for supper?"! We still managed to get a second bath in because they were so sweaty and itchy, and she had a whole bowl of noodles - another firm favourite. She only got into bed at 8:45pm! For not having slept today that was pretty good going. Needless to say when her head hit the pillow she was a goner!