Taa Daa

I am so knackered, but it doesn't look too bad.

Sherbet Cones

I have them!!

Words cannot describe my delight.

F*ckity F*ckity F*ck

Slight chocolate bat making disaster

So now we are just having two bats AND

A halloween sperm.

Is it just me or can you smell burning cake too?

Sigh.

Everything is different and yet still the same

It wasn't until I got to my twenty year reunion yesterday and saw the photo on my name-badge, that I realised that I have the exact same haircut as when I was 17.

Its probably a good thing I'm not one of those people who are all caught up in leaving the "old me" behind, as clearly the old me is following me around and influencing my hairdressing decisions. sigh.

I do vividly recall having that Year 12 photo taken, mostly because I had pimples on my forehead in the shape of the southern cross - the stars on the Australian flag. Sadly you can't see them in that photo which is taken from our yearbook.  You can see them in the original, but it is locked away and is unlikely to see the light of day unless hell happens to freeze over in the near future.

The reunion was a lot of fun. Made some wonderful connections with old classmates, swapped stories of life, careers and children, and managed to get all pissed up on two bacardi & cokes, one glass of champagne and two glasses of wine over a five hour period. I rarely drink these days, but even so, I'm totally impressed with my own complete lightweightedness.

It was a good night - despite being haunted by the awkward ghost of my adolescent self.  There was a good will and camaraderie between everyone that I shall value for a long time to come.

:)

Next up is the Halloween party.  Brace for photos of half cooked food - yes, the oven is still borked but Ian the oven man has promised to come on Monday - and much swearing about why the f*ck I do this to myself.  Ah, its going to be an amusing week.

sigh.

Halloween Invitations

My hand hurts and I've got a splitting headache, I'm developing RSI, I've got bruises at the base of my thumb and even the beginning of a blister.

What have I been doing?  Making party invitations, that's what.

Here is what I have cut out today (yes a list).

1. 20 witches hats
2. 20 bats
3. 20 spiders
4. 40 gold stars
5. 40 silver stars
6. 20 purple notes
7. And curled 10m of ribbon

I think they've come out okay though, and the kids are so excited :)

Now I just have to figure out who to give them to.  Coaxing names out of a 3.5year old is not easy. So far we have Alex the boy, Alex the girl and the other Alex.

Marvellous.

Halloween Cookies

Its three weeks until Halloween (and ten weeks five days until Christmas - just sayin).   Miss 3.5 - the lesser of the two screamies - was born on 31 December. As anyone with a birthday around then will know, trying to organise parties is a bit of a nightmare at that time of year, so I have moved Miss 3.5's birthday party to 31 October.  Two reasons for this (and yes a list because I LIKE them)...

1. 31 October (or thereabouts) is the ancient Celtic New Year's Eve - ancient being pre-Roman - and is where Halloween originated.  Miss 3.5's birthday is modern New Year's Eve, and I liked the synchronicity.
2. Its well before the pre-Christmas insanity of late November/Early October

This afternoon we had a trial run of the Halloween biscuits we'll be making for the party.  Mostly because I couldn't wait to play with our new biscuit cutters.

All went as smoothly as any cooking project does when assisted by a 5 year old and a 3.5 year old, until we came to ice the cookies. After clearing up a small misunderstanding regarding ice the frozen stuff and icing the stuff you put on cakes - I poured my icing onto the cooled biscuits as per the cook book instructions.

Ruh-roh - as Scooby Doo used to say.

Through trial and error I discovered I needed a lot more water in the mix and it had to be hot enough to really hurt when I poured it onto my hand by accident.  Oh, and I added some food colouring.

Hmm, think I'll be having another stab at it before the big day.

I also discovered that putting tasteless orange food colouring (and by that I mean the food colouring has no discernible taste and not that it is not stylish, I mean orange is the very definition of style is it not?) into vanilla flavoured biscuits magically makes them taste of orange.

Miraculous.