I can't believe the little Roo is three!

I was going to come up with some kind of snazzy title for this post but I am still so blown away by the simple fact that somehow Marty is now three that I just can't get past that. Or maybe it is because I am absolutely and totally exhausted after being chewed up, slowly digested and finally passing the sphincter of three year old birthday hell that I don't have the energy left to be clever. (I even spelled it cleaver - sigh)

The birthday boy - and yes he is entirely responsible for choosing both the dragon outfit and the retro party hat!

I won't go into too many details but Marty had an awesome week - and is some ways it is still going (still a few pressies tucked away to be opened over the coming days). Thank you so much to everyone who posted  exciting packages, cards, emails or who dropped in, kept me steady during party insanity, or simply kept us in your thoughts! So many wonderful people out there... he's one darn lucky kid ;)

We had a couple of parties so we didn't entirely overwhelm the poor tike with hoards of friends but while that seemed like a great idea at the time, I later realised that meant multiple cakes! What was I thinking?! Those who know me know I'm no baker. I have one cake recipe that I use for everything because it always works (and it is about 50% butter which seems like the right ratio to me). Thems who know me also know that I tend towards the slightly exuberant when it comes to creativity. Not classy, not skilful, just hair-brain ideas and enthusiasm.

One of Marty's current obsessions is with crabs. Hermit crabs in particular. So of course I got the hair-brained notion that I'd whip up a batch of hermit crab cupcakes. Yeah, try googling that for ideas :/ I sent the beloved off with the horrid job of hunting and gathering with the expectation that she would be able to mind-read exactly what kind of sweets I'd need! Lucky for me she delivered :) The next four hours were spent in kitchen hell while I work out exactly how difficult it is to turn small cupcakes and a handful of sweets into %$#& hermit crabs - especially when the most technical piece of baking equipment we own is a scone cutter...

Kitchen chaos and proto-crab...

In then end, after much muttering, layers of quince jelly and a belly full of reject sweets I ended up with a small plate of somewhat recognisable hermit crab cupcakes. The only downside was expending reserves I should have kept for the party the next morning! Live and learn...

The final hermit crab cupcakes!

Cake number two wasn't really my idea. A while back I asked Marty who he would like to invite to his birthday party and he said "Ah, the rainbow lorikeets I think". Sigh. We see them fairly often at our place, especially cleaning up the last of the apples on the trees, but I really wasn't sure we were going to get lucky on the day.

Two of the wee beasties just outside our kitchen window.

The other deciding factor was that the beloved was set on a tree cake. Tree for three, get it? Kind of like last year's 'too cake. So in terms of concept I was sorted, right? A tree and some lorikeets... Sure thing. Early planning stages involved much 3D nonsense and even hand crafted freaking icing birds - however the lethargy of the day before kicked off my innate laziness and instead I came up with an entirely more simple and even easy to cut cake with a tree and three rainbow lorikeets. Cheating perhaps but meh.

Ta da! And no, the birds aren't edible but the buttercream icing is mighty fine and I have been attempting to resist eating the remaining chunk that's in the fridge (and losing...badly)

Marty loved the cake and that's all that matters to this tired Pogga! 

To balance out the buttercream (even though I was the only one eating that by the spoonful) we even had some reasonably non-toxic party food - which was a huge hit when we moved it down to the kid's table and let them have at it!

Here are a few more pics from birthday week. Thank goodness we have a whole year to get ready for the next one!

He was a scooter boy... Nevermind, Advril reference. But Marty did finally get a scooter after asking (politely but persistently) for a whole year. He worked out how to ride it terrifyingly fast...

He also got a hermit crab (not a real one, a kelpie is quite enough at this point thanks!) and an octopus to satisfy some of his rockpool re-enactments.


And speaking of the kelpie, Kenzie did an awesome job to make it through several days of chaos in our house! More updates on him soon but at the end of the party he looked just the way I felt...

Kenzie and newest cousin Annabelle.