The crazy and wonderful week that was

I mentioned in my last post that I would give an update of Jett's first birthday and our trip to Hamilton Island... so here we go.

There was a bit of madness in our household in the days leading up to the party on Sunday the 30th - lots of cleaning, trips to the lolly shop, trips to Big W for party supplies, trips to Dan Murphey's for booze, trips to the market for food, etc etc etc! All of this for a little man who was turning one and really wouldn't have much of a clue what all the fuss was about anyway :P But we did it. And it was fun. And I'm glad we have a whole another year until the next one!

There were party bags to be made for the kids who were coming (making sure each had girl or boy stickers and weren't filled entirely of lollies!), pass the parcel to be organised - not to mention the look of EXTREME disappointment from my nephew when he unwrapped a lollypop instead of a chocolate frog - only for it to happen again when he unwrapped for the second time! Very funny for us adults, but not funny for a gorgeous little boy who doesn't really like eating any lollies except chocolate. He was probably the only one being the eldest who really got into pass the parcel so he was even more frustrated!! Sorry Mr Lee... I promise next year I will be more organised and write down what's been wrapped in each layer :P

I tried to make the cake the day before. Tried. I was organised. I had everything. I baked the cake during the day and was going to decorate it when Jett went to bed. It was all going to plan. The butter icing was too morish and the time came to cut the cake down the middle and assemble it into a Pirate Ship. It looked cool - I was in the middle of icing it when Kym's mother pointed out I had two bow's - shit, I cut both ends to a point! Crap crap crap! I tried to stick them back on at one end but to no avail. I'm beginning to panic and could see myself heading to Cold Rock in the morning for an ice-cream cake... I was trying to make it 'stick back on' with loads of icing but it wasn't working. All I kept thinking was oh shit, I still have to make the mini-quiche's and crumb the chicken and it was already 10pm - when will I sleep??? I sent Kym a message saying I had ruined it (OK the message I sent may have said I did something else to it starting with 'F') and he called to let me know if he couldn't fix it he was on cake duty in the morning - he assured me that he's turned around cakes from start to finish in less time. So I felt better. I popped it in the fridge (some great advice from Marilyn as I think the more I tried to fix it the worse it got) and forgot about it. And true to his word, Kym started on it in the morning and it was 'fixable' - it took a little while but I think it turned out pretty well - what you think??? It certainly passed the 'happy to pick at it kid test' on the day...We made Jett's favourite foods - mini quiche's, sausage rolls (OK... these were Mrs Quick's but I did take them out of the packet and bake them in the oven!), Jatz bikkies with hommus, different olives, southern-style crumbed chicken, organic free-range lamb chops (which were yummy - thanks Kym!), and so many other tasty morsels brought from fabulous family members.

So anyway, the party was a success and although it was busy busy with nearly 20 adults and about 8 kids running about, it was fun. And somehow Jett seemed to understand it was all about him!

The day after his birthday we flew out to Hamilton Island and had a fab time. The weather was better than perfect and Jett did really well being babysat by a complete stranger two nights in a row (in fact he did way better than me who spent most of the time worrying about him!). The photoshoot for Vogue E&T ended up starting two hours late and we had to leave a bit before the end to relieve their Editor who was the designated babysitter while the shoot was on - poor thing, she probably thought it would be for less than an hour and it ended up being over two...! So it will be in the next issue apparently if you want a squizz at us attending a mock cocktail party :P (hmm, in case it's a crap photo of me or we don't make the cut maybe I should say nothing...)

They put us on the top floor at the Reef View and we were thinking it was fabulous until we went to Qualia that night for the dinner and saw what we missed out on - the rooms they were in weren't $1300 a night - they were about $2500...No Champagne on arrival or bottle of Champagne in our room like the others got :( Oh well, the 'kid-friendly place' we were at was still awesome - check out the view from our balcony!
So the real fun started once Kym was no longer required to work and we could explore the island in our golf buggy, eat terribly crap and overpriced food (at least the view was amazing!), drink cocktails in the pool and enjoy that long romantic walk on the beach (sure... I had a little boy strapped to me asleep but it was still pure bliss).

But I'm back to reality and getting back into the swing of things. I even got to sew another bag yesterday which felt good. It had been at least two weeks and I was missing it. Oh and those coffee bags are now in the shop too if you haven't seen them or read about them on Bec's blog.

OK, I am starting to feel a little more up-to-date now!