Lemon Frosted Easter Cupcakes

We have been baking some Easter cakes today and they turned out brilliantly! Calleigh really enjoyed mixing and then decorating the cakes. It's a serious business though and took lots of concentration- hence the look in most of the photos! 

She totally looks the part in her Harrods apron. 

The recipe for the cupcakes you can find here

The Chair Trick

Calleigh has learnt that by moving her chair around the house and climbing on it she can now reach everything, I mean EVERYTHING.
We would put things we didn't want her to have and things she really shouldn't play with on high shelves or in high cupboards thinking they would be safe there. And they were for a while, but alas, Calleigh has yet again found a way around it!

I now have to constantly keep my eye on her to make sure she's not climbing up something or onto somewhere. I have found the chair in some of the strangest places around the house.

It's not all bad though, some good has come of this new trick. The other day I was washing up and had to run to the loo. When I came back I found Calleigh standing on her chair in front of the sink and just as I was about to tell her to get down I noticed that she was actually washing her bowl! I was amazed. She had even thrown away the food left over beforehand.

Now that's one clever little girl! 

Calleigh's Bedtime Routine

Calleigh has never really had a bedtime routine as such. She slept pretty well since her very first night, much to our surprise and delight!  

As I had a Cesarean we spent the first two nights in hospital and as I could barely move I preferred to keep her on my chest. That way I could easily give her whatever she needed in the night and didn't have to try to get out of bed first. When we got back home she was still sleeping well and not much changed, she stayed with Daddy for a few nights whilst I recovered and from then on spent her nights co-sleeping in bed with us.

At about four months old she somehow managed to get over Paul and fell out of bed. She didn't cry, didn't hurt herself but instead just stayed fast asleep. It was pretty scary for us so at that point we decided it would be a good idea to move her into her Moses Basket. She slept in there for a couple of nights but never really settled well so we moved her straight into her cot instead. She took to hr cot really well and slept through the night most nights. By 6 months old she would usual wake about 9 or 10pm for a feed and then go back down until the morning. I couldn't really have asked for a better sleeper, she was perfect.

As she got older we went through a few changes, we stayed a Mee-Maws house a lot whilst Paul was away with work and then we moved her halfway across the world into a completely different timezone. We now had to get her used to a different house, bed and bedtime.

At first it was a little difficult to maintain a routine as it was all new to us as well. It didn't help that our bedroom was downstairs (and still is). Nevertheless after a couple of weeks my little sleeper was back. Although we did find that bedtime kept getting later and later each night. What started of as going to bed at 7:30 somehow made it's way to 9:30! 

Now we have a toddler on our hands and we have just introduced a toddler bed (no more bars to keep her in!) things have become a bit more of a challenge. It's not so much a challenge to get her to sleep but more to get her to actually stay in bed! All she wants to do is to play with her toys, read a zillion books and run around! Also she only wants Daddy to take her to bed (I think she knows he will play around with her more where as I wont). Once he does finally manage to get her to stay in bed she is asleep pretty quickly and usually sleeps through the night. Although there have been occasions where she has woken up crying.
It's a work in progress!

Easter Cookies

These possibly have to be some of the best cookies I have ever tasted. Mainly because it combines two of my favourite things- Cookie and Cadbury Mini Eggs! I have already gone through three bags of them and have just discovered the white chocolate ones- amazing!

This was also the first time I have made cookies completely from scratch, to save time I usually just buy a pre-packaged cookie mixture. Anyway on to the recipe, If you would like to make these for yourself.

You will need:

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• a good amount of Cadbury Mini Eggs

Method:

1. Combine flour baking soda and salt in a small bowl and set aside. 
2. beat butter, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in a large bowl (or mixer if you have one) until creamy. 
3. Add eggs, beating well after adding each one. 
4. Gradually beat in the flour mixture a bit at a time.
5. Add the Mini Eggs to the mixture.
6. Spoon, using a tablespoon, onto a cookie sheet and bake for 9-11 minutes or until golden brown. 
7. Remove cookies and place on wire rack to cool.
8. Enjoy! 

I managed to make about 15 cookies using the mixture. The large size of the Mini Eggs decreases the amount you could make if just using regular chocolate chips. 

Hello Play-Doh

Last time we went to Toy R Us I decided to buy Calleigh some Play-Doh to see what she thinks of it. I have never been a fan of it to be honest. From the short time I spent working at a nursery I came to only two conclusions when it comes to play-doh.

1. It gets everywhere you don't want it to! 

and

2. For some reason children just want to eat it- all the time!

However, they always loved to play with it and got really excited when it was brought out and I couldn't take that pleasure away from Calleigh just because I dislike the stuff. 

I picked up a little Minnie's Boutique set which came with two tubs of play-doh and some Minnie and bow cutters.

The first time Calleigh saw it all laid out on her table her eyes lit up! She loves to play with new things. This was also the first time Daddy had experienced play-doh too so he was more than excited to try it out!

She had so much fun and kept shouting "Calleigh make bows!" it was so cute! Although it did get everywhere as I thought it would do and of course she had the obligatory taste test, luckily she didn't quite fancy the taste of it and hasn't tried again since.