Geekling's 3rd Birthday

We'd planned to have Geekling's 3rd birthday in a park nearby but the weather has been abysmal here in Brisbane.  It's been raining so long we're considering building an ark!  So we had the party at home.  After the party I remembered why I love birthdays in a park - 10 kids in a small house is soooo noisy!

The birthday boy requested a Thomas party as the blue tank engine is his favourite thing in the world right about now.  I grabbed a few cheap Thomas decorations and balloons from a nearby party shop and a nice blue tablecloth from Lifeline thrift shop.  My dear mother in law brought a fabulous fruit platter, we set out some chips and dips, vegie sticks, fairy bread and lollies, cheerio frankfurts and sausages in bread.

And of course the cake.  We'd decided on a cake in the shape of a 3, with train tracks and little train on it.  I made a 3 out of two round cakes (ALDI 75c vanilla cake mix is my go to cake 'recipe'), iced it in green icing followed by green tinted coconut.  Now what to use for the tracks?  I considered liqorice rope, but couldn't find any in any shop nearby.  I decided to pipe chocolate but burned both batches while I tried in vain to multi-task.  I finally did a last minute dash to the supermarket for black writing icing and it saved the day.  I used a train from Geekling's wooden train set and that was that.

Happy birthday, beautiful boy xxoo

Geekling's upcycled play kitchen

Firstly, apologies for the extended break.  I've got a mixture of excuses, most of which are pretty weak, and I won't bore you with them.

Those who follow me on Pinterest will see I've pinned a couple of TV-Cabinets turned into Play Kitchens, and I've been meaning to do it for Geekling for a while.  When I asked him what he'd like for his 3rd birthday he said "a green kitchen", so I knew it was time to get cracking!

Here's a before photo of the TV cabinet we picked up from Ebay for $10.  We've removed the glass cabinet door and cut the sink hole already.  Its less than glamourous surrounds is our storage/work area under the house.

We sanded, painted (with paint purchased from the tip recycling centre for $2), installed a new MDF 'fridge' door, installed an old metal bowl as a sink and old tap salvaged from my in laws shed, used paint and IKEA foam coasters for the hot plates.  We still need to put hotplate / oven knobs on but not sure how best to attach them.  We also plan to turn the cupboards below the sink into an oven and dishwasher down the track.

Here's the (mostly) finished product upstairs ready for use!

 

Geekling LOVES it.  His favourite thing to cook is "spicy chocolate balls" and cups of tea and coffee.  Its so sweet to watch him 'cooking'.  He stirs with a whisk or spoon then taps it on the side of the pot or bowl just like I tend to do and whispers to himself as he works.