Noodles, Cupcakes and Mondays

God bless the Queen. Thanks to her celebrating her birthday, we had a public holiday yesterday, so instead of the usual dreary Monday laundry chores, we had the family over for lunch - so much more interesting.

We had met up with our son, daughter-in-law and three grandchildren a few days earlier, when Cathryn had her first ultrasound. We stayed in the waiting room in case we were needed to mind the children. They played so patiently while their mother was going through the process, except for 21 month old Gabrielle, who was very anxious and kept asking where Mummy was. At last they were given the word and they trouped off with their father to take a look at the new baby. Within a few minutes they burst out of the room and announced to all and sundry, "It's a girl!" Oh no - I didn't want to know - I love the surprise element when it comes to births. At least we know the baby is healthy and I can plan on girlie things to make. All very exciting.

Our grandson is a very fussy eater, so I took the opportunity of asking what he would like for lunch on Monday and the instant response was, "Noodles!" Of the Two Minute variety. Oh dear. So noodles it was. We bought a leg of lamb for the rest of us - I couldn't visualise us all sitting down to a pile of noodles somehow. However, keeping the Stephen Friendly Meal theme going, I made cup cakes for dessert. I had bought a packet of pink and white M & Ms from a friend who was selling them as a breast cancer fund raiser and after making pink icing (the first lot ended up down the drain when the pink colouring did a merry dance out of my hands and into the icing mixture) I popped one on top of each cake.



Stephen wanted a white one.






















It all went down a treat - nothing left but empty plates.




















I took the opportunity to persuade The Princess to model one of my latest dresses.





After that we played indoor games, as it was a little damp and the trip to the beautiful park next door had to be abandoned. The room was tidy and ready for play, but this didn't last for very long.





Why is it that I always end up with the slowest rocket ship and am shot down in flames? It's just not fair.

And now it's back to the sewing machine. I foolishly opted to join in a challenge to make items of one particular colour each week and this week it's blue. Should be an interesting experiment.