Sunday 26 February 2017

All seasons for the Otter Party

Well, it is Scotland.

I think we can all conjure to mind at least some version of that classical postcard that shows that as a country, its always raining, or snowing, and that all four seasons in one day is not uncommon. Well, this week started with the promise of spring:


The snow drops are out and the crocus flowers are coming up in swarms. That promises good weather, right?


No. 

Forget Winter is Coming, it just wont go away!

These photos were legitimately taken 2 days apart. Whilst unwelcome to myself, the snow proved to be a great hit with my 3 year old niece who, living on the opposite side of the border, very rarely gets anything that amounts to actual legitimate snow. Whilst she had fun, I think she was rather surprised at the fact that we have many kinds of snow, including, unfortunately, the horrid, driving, soggy stuff that met us on our first outing out! Our second outing was more successful, as it had frozen a bit and wasn't driving down as hard.

With a baby on the way, this visit is the last one we're expecting from my sister before she pops in June time. To make a fuss and celebrate for the sake of having a nice time, I organised an "Otter Cuddle Party" - the idea of course belongs to my niece (I got her the Finding Dory pyjamas with the cuddling otters and a cuddly otter toy for Christmas, which she has now decided is the best thing ever). I don't think my sister expected me to actually go ahead and have one, but we did and it went down brilliantly.

To start the day we got all the cousins together (meaning a 3, 7 and 12 years old respectively) and took them swimming at the local pool which is really a glorified water park. Otters like swimming, right? And I wanted to get those kids tired out!
Next we had an otter magic show which my hubby had organised - as the wizard of the clan, we felt he should do something fun and silly and we picked a trick specifically for each child. The classic egg bag was for the 12 year old, we had some magic appearing (and replicating!) pikachus for the 7 year old and finally the 3 year old got to help make an otter magically appear in the special box (after some difficulties with a floppy wand)!
By which point it was time to eat. I had previously asked my youngest niece what kind of cakes otters like, to which she replied kelp cakes, like the ones in Octonauts. 
My sister sent me this as reference:


And I pulled off:



I will admit to a certain smugness about those otter cakes. The squids were slightly more splats, but you cant win everything. And all the biscuits were rolled, cut and decorated by my niece, and she was very pleased with them. 
After the food it was time for everyone to leave and go on and do other things. There was lots of washing up to do, but it was worth it!

Till next time!

Monday 6 February 2017

Adopt-iversary

Well, I'd hoped to get posting sooner, but nonetheless, better late than never!

Yesterday marked three years since we got Missy and she has gone from this nervous and unsure little thing:

To this completely spoiled rotten little thing!:



I'm not normally a fan of these mashed-up expressions, but I do like adoptiversary. As Missy was a stray, we'll never know her birthday or even an exact age (her estimate was 11 months to a year when we got her, so for documents we just use the first of March, meaning next month she will be approximately 4 years old), so its nice to have a day that's for her. We took her for some of her favourite local walks and I made her some cookies.


I found this recipe and it ticked all of Missys favourites: peanut butter, banana (I opted for 1 banana instead of the apple sauce) and chicken stock. Cant say they appeal to me, but she loves them! Whilst Eating Bird Food doesn't have much in the way of dog recipes, after the success of these, I have earmarked their pumpkin and peanut butter cookies for Halloween!

In other news, I've been sewing away quite the thing. I made myself a SpiderGwen costume and the hubby an Agent Venom one for a 30th party we had been invited to (I'm waiting on the photos from the official photographer before posting any) and its now time to get started on all the baby quilts for my soon-to-be niece and nephew.

My step sister (who is about to have a girl) lives over in the states, so us 'Scottish Aunts' are putting together a care package (the quilt being my contribution). I'm also tempted to put in some Irn Bru and other Scottish goodies for the mother to be!


What do you guys think? I imagine it'll go down well!