Ooh there has been a lot going on this week…. and a lot of ups and downs to be honest! There has been a lot of cake eaten too… let me explain… and I apologise if this is a long waffly post!

It started off pretty well, with us celebrating our gorgeous girl’s first birthday. Sadly she had a rotten cold but nonetheless very much enjoyed her party with the family on Saturday. I made a Mickey cake (more Monkey’s request than hers really) and it was very lovely celebrating her birthday and the passing of that first tricky year. The family were all round and it was just very lovely and relaxed really.. with lots of yummy cake eaten.

Saturday night I went out with a really good friend of mine and had such a lovely catch up with her over a meal and a good few glasses of wine. One of my very best friends she moved to London a few years ago and while we try and catch up as often as we can it isn’t always easy with family commitments. She was home for the weekend though and we had such a nice time and was so lovely to reconnect.

That night the clocks changed and of course our children woke very early. LM at 5am (not good when I only got in at midnight!) so we knew we had a long day ahead of us, especially after my late night. So I may have eaten a rather large slice of birthday cake at about 8am… just to keep me going of course!! It was our first properly free weekend day in ages so we did what we always do, and instead of having a relaxed day, decided to do something and made ourselves busy. So we headed to Ikea to try and get some bits we needed. We had a really good day but are daft and managed to forget a couple of things we wanted to get (d’oh!). As it is about an hour away and we went in 2 cars specifically so we could bring everything home…. so it was really irritating!

Monday we woke to hear that Hubs’ Grandpa was in hospital. He is 93 and sadly reaching the end of his life so my Mother in law had bless her been woken at 3.30 to tell her he is in hospital and was awake ever since talking to the hospital and his care home. Hubs agreed to take her to the hosiptal the following day to see him after convincing her she needed to rest and there was nothing she could do today as they were waiting to take some tests.

That morning the kids and I met some friends at a lovely soft play centre. We stayed all morning and had lunch there (which yep, included some cake!), but being half term it started to get very busy. With the weather looking beautiful outside we then headed to a nearby park for the kids to have a good run around before heading home.

That night Hubs was out for a meal with work and that’s where things started to go a bit downhill. I decided to read a book and head to bed fairly early. Hubs got in around midnight… then at 1230 we heard some horrible noises from LM. She had been so much better all day but suddenly she was coughing horribly and having heard it with Monkey, we knew what the seal bark like cough meant. Croup. We tried to settle her but she really sounded like she was struggling to breathe. Our general rule is that you don’t mess around when it comes to breathing, so for the 2nd time in our lives (the first being when Monkey had croup and was turning blue) we called 999.

The paramedics arrived and though she had settled a bit by then and her sats weren’t too bad (unlike when Monkey had it thankfully) they wanted her to see a peadiatrician. So around 1am I was headed to the hospital in the ambulance with LM while Hubs called my parents and arranged for Mum to come and sleep at ours with Monkey so he could join us. Thankfully she didn’t need any oxygen but they gave her a dose of steroids which definitely perked her up, and she was charming everyone in the A&E, including other patients! She crashed and fell asleep around 3am and we were thankfully able to go home at around 330am.

Monkey then woke up at 5.50am and we brought him to bed with us but he just wanted to chat and play, and then LM woke up at 6.20! No rest for us! As I had at least had some sleep earlier in the evening I let hubs catch up a bit then headed downstairs with the kids. Hubs had taken that morning off work so he could take his Mum to visit his Grandpa at the hospital. It is all a bit sad but basically it is a waiting game now and he will go back to the home until it is time. The chat with the Dr and talking about it all really helped my Mother in Law come to terms with some of it which is a really good thing.

That day was supposed to be LM’s sort of party with my friends and their children, however obviously I wasn’t sure what to do as coup is contagious. I was especially worried for my friend with a 4 mth old and was gutted but relieved when she said she would stay away. I had been so looking forward to seeing her but just not worth risking her little one catching it. My other friends who slightly older kids decided to risk it, especially as LM was much better and the steroids had obviously worked as the croup cough had now gone.

We had a lovely day and the kids had a whale of a time which was really good. I was obviously exhausted but the company was lovely and they really helped with cleaning and entertaining the kids so it was great actually! I had planned on baking cakes that morning for the kids to decorate as something fun to do but did not have the time in the end so hubs bought some cheap cupcakes while he was out and the kids loved decorating the cakes.. though I think more time was spent eating the chocolate decorations and licking the icing haha but still kept them entertained for ages and we all went out to the garden afterwards to burn off the sugar high!

That night Hubs and I were completely exhausted and in bed straight after the kids went down at 730! Poor hubs though had a flare up of IBS in the middle of the night (not surprising with all the stresses of the week) so the early night didn’t do him much good sadly. I woke at 5am to the sound of Monkey heading downstairs cheeky thing! I persuaded him back to bed but with his chatting to himself LM then woke up within about half an hour… so began the start of another long day which again led me to eating a slice of cake at around 8am!

It was a very wet day but thankfully Nanny spent some time with kiddies in the morning while I popped out to get the ingredients to make hubs’ birthday cake (yep another cake). We then had a play in the rain before visiting Granny & Grandaddy for a bit in the afternoon.

When LM had her nap Monkey and I got stuck in to making the Red Velvet cake Hubs had requested. He always enjoys jelping me bake so we did that in the afternoon and then I frosted it in the evning. Not my best red velvet as I couldn’t get the proper red food colouring, and I think it was slightly over-baked but never mind… it was also very wonky!

Thursday was hubs’ birthday and we popped out for lunch as a family and with his parents to a little town not too far away which has lots of antique shops.

That evening they came round for a little chinese and to eat some yummy red velvet cake.

So there we have it. A seriously busy week full of ups and downs and lots and lots of cake!!

Hoping next week is calmer… and containing less cake as my waistline is very much expanding these days 🙂