Boy the Barber

Apparently the boy's friend Reece (his Bamboletta doll) needed a hair cut today....

Not with real scissors of course!

Fireman Boy

On Family Day this past week, we went to an event at our local museum and as part of the day, there was a police car and fire truck there along with the officers and fire fighters to let kids see everything, and sit in the car and the truck. The boy could take or leave the police car, the only thing he liked about it was the computer in it. The fire truck though, oh boy, what a different story!

He's always been interested in fire trucks - we have a play tent one, and he quite often drives it around the basement. But the minute he saw all the tools that the fire fighters get to use, he was sold, and since then he's been a fire fighter almost every day. We had to bring his tent up to the main floor so he could have it out more often, and all of the 'tools' that the fire truck had on it have become part of his play. He now uses an axe to break down the doors, he has a special saw to help people out of cars, and an extension for his hose that makes bubbles to cover gas up. 

It's amazing to me how much information he retains when he's interested in a topic. We must have spoken to the firemen for all of 2 or 3 minutes, and yet he took it all in, and now my house is constantly on fire so that he can put it out. He's also decided that I can be his helper, so I have to carry his 'equipment' around for him. Since it's raining/snowing/sleeting outside today, it's a great way to keep him busy and active inside. Although, for my part, maybe I need to encourage a hobby that would have us pretending to sit on a beach somewhere, rather than running around the house!

Hopefully it's not dinner that's burning!

A sign of Spring

There's snow on the ground right now, but the boy & I brought a little spring into our house the other day. We were at the grocery store and they had a beautiful display of primulas. The colours were so bright and vibrant, perfect for a dull February day.

I really like having primulas around here, because they are pretty close to perfect flowers. Fantastic to have inside while it's still cold outside, then you can plant them outside when it gets a bit warmer, and you've got a splash of colour in your yard, along with beautiful green foliage, for years to come. Plus they're really easy to care for, they just like a bit of sun, and some water every few days.

The boy decided that having one primula in the house wasn't enough and he really needed one of his own. We made a deal that he could have his own, but that he needed to look after it by himself.  He was thrilled. He's got it in his room and it's doing fairly well. We've had a few times where it's not been watered enough, but so far it's come back to life each time. 

He's also looking forward to when it will finally be warm enough outside so that he can pick a spot in the garden to plant it. It's been a good way to help teach him responsibility of sorts, and for a very low price, and probably very few tears if he does kill it off!

His primula - still alive & flowering (for now)

Last Minute Valentine's Craft

Hubby & I have never really celebrated Valentine's Day. Back in the day, I was always away on a business trip when Valentine's Day came around, so we figured it was easier to skip it altogether (we're romantic like that). Fast forward to now, and we still don't celebrate it for each other, but having the boy means having to remember it's coming up and doing something fun for him.

Planning ahead doesn't always happen though with little ones around, so here's the fun last-minute craft we made at our house. 

All you need to do is get some paint and paint the outside of  both of their hands (where the pinky finger is) have them make a fist and then stamp it onto some paper. We had to make the peak of the hear a little bit with a paint brush, but other than that, it's a heart made out of the boy's hand print - how cute?

Perfect heart shape

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Cupcakes

The boy & I decided to make some cupcakes for Valentine's Day (any reason really to have cupcakes!). So we used a great white cake recipe that the boy has made in his cooking class, added some raspberries and proceeded to make heart shaped cupcakes.

All you need to do to make the heart shape is to drop a marble in the pan to push in the top of your cupcake liner. My helper (a.k.a the boy) loved doing this. He kept saying we were having marble cupcakes! The bigger the marble, the bigger the 'dent' in the heart

Marble cupcakes

The thing I forgot when making these is that you don't want to fill your liners too much. You can see from the picture above that they're about 2/3 full, and I probably should have put less in, as you end up losing a bit of the heart shape when they bake.

Fairly heart shaped

We iced them with the world's best buttercream icing (it truly is the best I have ever tasted) and topped them off with a raspberry. I say 'we' iced them, but really it was the boy, with me helping to hold the icing bag.

The boy's artistic icing

It doesn't matter how they look, because they taste fantastic! Hubby will be getting one in his lunch tomorrow and then they will be our special dessert after dinner for Valentine's Day. The secret ingredient really is love!