Mothers Day Eve

Although it took a little convincing, I managed to get the kids to agree that travelling from one end of Sydney to the other to watch Mummy set up a Wedding Cake at the Quarantine Station was an awesome way to spend Mothers Day Eve!!!

Im not entirely sure that I looked my most professional, turning up wearing Ugg Boots and with a car load of kids that looked and sounded like they had just been let out of their cages but that's how it happened. With the Autumn sun streaming through the windows, lighting up the empty hall, the kids strutted their stuff on the dance floor while I set up one of the prettiest cakes I have made all year. I finished off the cake with a last minute bow tied with a spare ribbon I found floating and some rose petals pinched from the tables. I loaded up my tools and my kids, piled into the Landcruiser and waved to the unsuspecting Bride as we drove out of the Quarantine Station.  



the people empty hall



Ben & Jerry's @ Manly



North Head National Park



 A quick visit and some sightseeing at North Head National Park and then a stop off in Manly for some much deserved Ice cream from Ben Jerry's would have been the perfect way to finish off our busy day. Amsuing the Irish Boy who served us by telling him my loud and over enthusiastic children were "a bunch of fat bastards" and then sitting back and watching them entertain passers by as they excitedly lined up over and over again to ride down the handrails and then drop to the sand below, was a pleasure that only the mother of four loud, over enthusiastic, fat bastards can enjoy......

Oh. I forgot to mention that our perfect day ended with an $88 FINE for forgetting to pay for parking :(



                    

OOPS!!!! 

Note to self: do NOT text and pour! 

I slept for 9 hours last night!!!! Was put to bed by midnight and slept till 9!! 
After about 12 hours sleep in 3 days, 9 hours in a row feels like a week ........ And I loved every minute of it! My week ended with an elegant 3 tiered Mad Hatter style cake with handmade sugar tulips and a crazy scientist cake with "chemical spills".... I hope they both went down well! 
I'm tired just thinking about this weekend coming ..... A christening cake, wedding cake and 3 kids birthday cakes for the Good Food and wine show!!! 
Wish me luck
X Nadia

SCHOOL HOLIDAYS

Normally one for loving any school holidays and all that it entails - this one is killing me slowly.......

I love having all my children at home with me and that is when I feel the most at ease (in a strange sense of the word) when they are all around me. I love all the extra children that find their way to this house too...... the comings and goings and all the noise BUT for some reason this week has been driving me mental. You would think the older and more independant they got, the easier it would be for me.  Less services that I would need to provide to keep them all happy....it just doesn't seem to be turning out that way. Instead I find the mess that is created by their independance and the different activities they are now interested in requires many more services than those needed in previous school holidays. Not only am I the cook, cleaner, nurse, taxi driver, art and craft teacher and entertainment, I have become so much more....... the bank, computer technician, negotiator between the two groups of children and their widening age gap, counsellor, Video rating mediator and dog walker (as he has now learnt how to get his lead down from its hook and throw it repeatedly at my feet until I give in)....... The grass is always greener as they say........and I think back to the days when they were all just pottering around the house playing with thier Barbies and happy with the Wiggles on the TV.  But on this side of the fence the kids can make me a cuppa, pack the diswasher and walk up to the shops by themselves.
Perhaps I should stop complaining............. "can someone buy me a cappacino on the way back from the Video shop please!!"

The Sydney Royal Easter Show

Off to the Show tomorrow with the Hubby and 4 kids in tow.......and yes they will be dragged around and made to look at every single decorated cake in every finger smudged, face smeared glass cabinet!!!! Hope to have my socks knocked right off at the brilliance of some of our Cake decoraters.
Will let you know.
X Nadia

Is this working?

Hey there!!

Just wanted to see if this is going to end up on my facebook page.

Is it..... is it??

Holidays

Its 12:30 am and I'm writing this as I sit in my bunk bed in a room small enough to be a bathroom. I am sitting on about 10,000 grains of sand and am literally surrounded by my children. At least its quiet.........our 14 children can make quite a noise, when they are pumped on sun, surf, sand and sugar!!! Add this level of excitement and the noise it creates to the other 13 kids (toddlers) my Mothers Group and I are sharing this South Coast bunkhouse with and you have my summer holiday!
The closest I have come to cake in the last week is my bright white, sand encrusted cake of soap. Embedded with finely crushed shell-like sand, it rips shreds from your sunburned limbs and guarantees to make a mess of your softer bits!
I have a week and half until school resumes and all four kids head off to school. For the first time in 12 years, I should be able to get my work done in normal peoples, daylight-working-week-hours. I am looking forward to getting organised and focused and planing some amazing cakes for 2012. I am so excited about having the time to write in my blog everyweek and am generally pumped about having a lot of fun with Cakes by Nadia.
See you in a few weeks at the Sydney Entertainment Centre for the ABS Bridal Fair.
X Nadia