Princess Cake - never again

Princess Cake - never again, originally uploaded by Racmol.

If you suspect (as most women do) that Barbie's legs are just a tad longer than is strictly necessary or realistic, try making a princess cake for a Barbie doll.

So, we have a glass bowl which is a good shape for a skirt but alas nowhere near tall enough unless you hack Barbie's legs off at the knees. Which I did consider as a viable option at one point.

So then I made a two-layer cake to go underneath the bowl-shaped cake. Which was all well and good except that by the time I'd hacked them all into shape and stuck them together with jam and cream my enthusiasm was flagging.

Somehow I thought it would be quicker just to dump all the icing sugar and butter in a bowl together and beat them for the buttercream icing, rather than creaming the butter and gradually adding icing sugar.

You may remember last year Ali came to the rescue with the castle cake? This year she arrived to find me enveloped in a cloud of icing sugar with the egg beaters making an odd groaning noise in a weird gloopy icing. (I panicked and added too much milk.) She calmly prescribed more icing sugar and the day was saved. Even if the decorating was a bit slap dash by then and (the shame of it all) you can still see the layers of cake through the skirt.

We quickly decamped upstairs to sing happy birthday to the birthday girl and cut some very long thin wedges of cake. Five minutes later I looked over and noticed that the entire top layer had fallen off and was lying upside down on the table. Definitely not one for the party - I wonder if I can talk her into a simple butterfly? Once I've bought the new electric beaters, that is...

More on Florida later.

Florida rundown - Part One

This is the scene we left behind us as we jetted out on Friday. Thursday night was a bit of an anxious one as the snow was already settling on the ground before we went to bed but luckily it didn't get much heavier and the roads were clear in the morning.

The kids slept through Friday night pretty well, although once they were up at 5, they were up. Luckily breakfast started at 7 am and the shuttle to the Disney parks arrived at 8.30. It's a bit more of a mission to get around than at Disneyland Paris - we had to take two monorails from where we got dropped off to get to the Magic Kingdom, or a bus when we went to Hollywood Studios and the Animal Kingdom. Everything is much more spread out, and Downtown Disney, which was near our hotel, is not in fact right outside the parks, which are not right next to each other anyway. Still there was plenty of variety transport-wise for the transport buffs in the family - monorail, ferry, bus, taxi, rental car...



The first two days we went to the Magic Kingdom - here are the odd couple in front of the fairytale castle on Sunday morning. That day there were severe weather warnings and discussions of frost destroying crops at breakfast time. It was about 10 degrees going across on the ferry (monorail having technical difficulties) and we were wearing every layer we could think of but it soon warmed up and apart from that it was in the 20s every day.


Willy got to meet the 'real' Buzz Lightyear the first day and we all enjoyed the Buzz Lightyear ride multiple times. You sit in little spaceships that you can swivel in all directions and shoot at things with your laser as you go past.

By Sunday Jules and I were about Buzz-ed out so we rode Space Mountain with the fastpass parent swap option. Sofia qualified to ride it too, just, heightwise, but we decided she would hate it as it was dark and you got flung about in your seat a far bit. We much preferred Expedition Everest and Aerosmith's Rock n Rollercoaster at Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios respectively. Sofia did ride the Tower of Terror with Jules at Hollywood Studios so she has something to show off about for Show and Tell on Monday.

I'll stop here as it's time for bed really but here is a charming shot at Kennedy Space Center to finish.







  

Willy turns 3

Ah...I'll just wait for the next one, thanks!

Willy the bus driver, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Fun day out in London today - London Transport Museum in the morning, and then across to the Christmas market on the south bank after lunch. Best part of the day: the fake horse poo under the early London omnibuses (according to Sofia).

Willy's first photo portrait

Willy's first photo portrait, originally uploaded by Racmol.

After many failed attempts, this is Willy's first successful photo. Only a little bit of thumb in the top left - a vast improvement on earlier efforts.

And perfectly focused to show off my 'putting flat on market' coldsores. These seem to be a variation of the holiday coldsore, and no less virulent.

Christmas lights

Christmas lights, originally uploaded by Racmol.

We rode the 98 bus into town on Sunday afternoon, so we could sit upstairs and look at the Christmas lights as we came along Oxford St.

Willy and Fia were less than keen. They really just wanted to stay at home and watch a movie, so the whole getting ready to go out process was long and drawn out and ended up with me bellowing: 'Look, it's going to be the most magical experience - GET YOUR COAT ON NOW!'

The bus took ages to get down Kilburn High Rd, but eventually, as we turned the corner onto Oxford St, it was very pretty - until one block later all the buses were diverted up the back streets and Sofia started saying 'We've been on this bus a very long time - when are we getting off?'

This photo is of Neal St, Covent Garden - the lights weren't all that spectacular but at least there were no cars and plenty of puddles for jumping in!

Social animals

Four in the bed, originally uploaded by Racmol.

This may be why Willy sneaks in with us while we're asleep.

It seems nobody in our house likes to sleep alone - although Fia asked to get back in her own bed last night as Willy's bed was too lumpy. Later, when he had a coughing fit and I went and sat with him, I had to concede she had a point - the best part of a tub of 48 small spiky dinosaurs were in there with him!

We survived half-term (a week of school holidays). Jules and I took one day off work each and then Maria came on Friday. I sent Willy to Hopscotch on my day off (I know, very mean and boy was he suspicious: 'What you and Fia doing, Mummy?') Then Fia and I took the train into town and went to the National Gallery to see the sunflowers from 'Camille and the Sunflowers' (picture book about Van Gogh). She quite liked it (mainly the gift shop though, where we bought some Christmas decorations) but I don't think Willy would have got much out of it. And then, to add insult to injury, we met Jules for lunch and Sofia had a haircut.

Jules took both kids to the Natural History Museum on Wednesday but they ended up seeing the insects rather than the dinosaurs due to the size of the queue for the dinoasaurs.

FInally we have worked out why Willy has been saying (for about 3 months) 'There are dinosaurs in New Zealand' and 'Maria took me to New Zealand - on the train'.Just a mispronunciation of museum!

The pink cast...as promised

Fia in pink, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Photos are up!

Photos from the half marathon can be found on www.marathon-photos.com, under Royal Parks Half Marathon. You can search by surname to find us. Not sure who looks worse, but there are definitely some shockers in there!