Colourful Cupcakes

On the Snow Days off school last week we made cupcakes. B1 was at a friend's house to play for the afternoon so the girls and I baked and decorated a batch of cakes.

B3's cakes

They choose the icing colours and decorated the cakes themselves - sampling everything along the way, of course, just to be sure it tasted good!

B2's cakes

B2 had been asking me to do some baking with them for a few weeks, so she was very please when I suggested it. The crazy thing is that although B2 absolutely loves helping me bake she does not have a really sweet tooth and ended up giving away two of her four cakes; give her a jar of stuffed olives however and you would be lucky to get a look in!

Wicked Hot Chocolate

It has been so cold these last few weeks I decided a little delicious surprise was in order so I made everyone some hot chocolate.



Each of the Bumbe B'eers has their own special mug. B1 has a monkey.



B2 has a giraffe and B3 has an owl. I found them on Australian EBay a few years ago and as they were being sold as a set of three for the fabulous price of $11 AUD delivered I snapped them up.

I try to make things special for the kids and having something 'grown up' i.e. breakable/not melamine, like a stoneware mug all of their own adds to that. The mugs are similar enough not to cause fights about whose is bigger/better/ holds more hot chocolate, but different enough to make it something all of their own.

I remember going to visit my cousins in Cairns as a child and they each had their own special Bunnykins china breakfast bowl - how I loved those bowls. I believe happy memories created in childhood stay with us as adults and tend to make the seemingly ordinary, like an old mug, special and bring a smile when you think about them.

When I say this is 'wicked' hot chocolate I mean WICKED. It is a recipe of my own design...but I am willing to share.

Wicked Hot Chocolate

250g bar of dark chocolate

1 litre of 'Red' Guernsey Dairy milk; if you can't guess this, which most of you won't unless you live in Guernsey, extra creamy milk will serve the same purpose or normal milk but add a bit of cream (well I did say it was wicked, didn't I)

1 can of Whipped cream or whip your own

The all important sprinkles to top it off

Take one 250g bar of dark chocolate and melt in in a saucepan over a very gentle heat. Do not bother about a double boiler for this but DO NOT walk away from it either, keep stirring it lovingly to ensure it does not burn. Pour a small amount of milk in and whisk until smooth. Keep adding the milk a little at a time, whisking in between. Heat the mix until it is steaming hot but not a bubbling boil. Pour into mugs and top with whipped cream and sprinkles.

WARNING: Do not give this to small children after 2.00pm in the afternoon if you expect them to go to sleep at a reasonable hour that night!

The Bumble B'eers had three serves of the whipped cream before they got around to drinking the hot chocolate.


I was told it was 'The best Hot Chocolate ever!!' and B3 gave me a high-five and said 'Yum, good girl!' So I guess this means they liked it :)

Snow Day Hama Beading

We all sat down last week on one of the kid's Snow Days (without the snow) off school and spent a few hours doing Hama Beading.

They take a surprisingly long time to do, but I must say the time goes fairly quickly as everyone has a nice chat with the only squabbling being over who is hogging which colour bead. I got in big trouble for using up all the white! It is lovely to be able to talk together as a family without any distractions; I suppose it is a bit sad that we need an excuse to all sit in the one spot, but life always seems to get in the way - school, work, cooking, cleaning, DS, after school activities, friends, TV, ironing, washing, collapsing in the couch...

I made the hippo, B1 made the Alien and the square Heart, as a present for me :), B2 made the Snowman, of her own design, and B3 made the Rainbow Butterfly.

Who knew ironing bits of plastic could be so enjoyable ;P

Pay It Forward parcels have arrived

A big thankyou to Diane of Heart Shaped and Julie of KC's Court for participating in my 'Pay It Forward'. Both ladies have now received their parcels so I can now post about it without ruining the surprise.


I posted the parcels in the week before Christmas but unfortunately they did not arrive until after Christmas Day. I included a few little Christmas Teddies in Diane's parcel.


Julie received a few Santa's for her ever growing collection of the Fat Man in Red.


I wanted to send something from Guernsey so both ladies received some Guernsey Cream Toffees. I can personally voucher for these they are delicious :)

I am one of the sewing challenged but I am not too bad with paper so I made Christmas cards instead of wounding myself with a needle and thread.


I made two different cards. The first was this little, chubby Penguin. At least I can now see the point in 'cold' themed Christmas cards; when you are sending cards in Australia and they are covered in snowy scenes but the temperature outside is 37*C it seems a little ridiculous!

And the second was this Christmas Teddy. I sent a mixed pack of the two different cards, together with matching envelopes. I am so pleased that both the ladies liked the gifts and I hope they get use of the cards next Christmas.

I am still looking for one more participant in my Pay It Forward. The way it works is that I will send a hand made gift to a volunteer who will then send a hand made gift on to three more volunteers and it perpetuates from there.

If you would like to participate in this please leave a comment, stating that you want tp participate, on this post and I will send you an Easter themed parcel - so hop to it (sorry I couldn't resist!)

The Old Weather Knee Worked!

My friend M told me yesterday at school that Friday night would be the night for snow and looks like she was correct - that old weather knee of hers is worth its weight in gold. Perhaps she should freelance for the Met Office then they might get their weather predictions right more often!



The snow started to fall at Bumble Bee Cottage at about 6.30am and it has been snowing on and off all morning. These photos were taken at 8.30am.

It would have to snow for quite a few hours to get enough to make a snowman but we are hopeful :)

This is the most snow we have had all week. There have been flurries blowing on the wind off and on for the past few days but nothing constant like this. The Bumble B'eers ended up having two days off school and went back yesterday, much to their disgust. We had a note home yesterday asking parents to check Islands FM on Monday morning to see if the schools will be closed again. It is a very novel concept, schools closing because of the weather. In Australia the only reason schools might close because of the weather is a cyclone or possibly a Bush Fire, something not likely to occur in this part of the world.

People in the UK would find our smattering of snow a bit of a joke after the BIG FREEZE they have been enduring over the last week, with temperatures plummeting below -22*C. All the same we are very excited here in Bumble Bee Cottage.

Come on your Easterly French Wind blow some more snow our way :P

Did you hear the screaming?

7.43am The phone rings and it my friend M calling to tell me that all Island schools have been....

CLOSED!

The squealing of the Bumble B'eers did reverberate off the walls to say the least, only one day back at school after the Christmas break; you could probably hear the parents groaning mingled in there somewhere.

We had 2mm of snow yesterday and it nearly ground the Island to a halt. Journeys to work which normally took people 15 minutes took up to 2hours and 5 minutes (according to Islands FM).


All the photos in this post were taken at 9.35am yesterday, so the dusting of snow had started to melt and freeze into ice; just enough snow to make things dangerous but not enough to make them fun :(

Yesterday I kept a careful eye on both the 'BBC Guernsey' and the 'This is Guernsey' websites to see if we were expecting more snow. I went to the shops to stock up on milk, bread, meat, vegetables and butter and eggs (so the Bumble B'eers and I can make a few cakes as cakes cure all house bound boredom didn't you know!) 'just in case'.

Last night the Islands was put on ORANGE alert, which is the second highest alert, behind RED I suppose. So I sent Mr Bee out to buy and emergency bottle of wine, 'just in case' :P

They can not salt the roads in Guernsey, as they do in the UK, due to the problems of the salt getting into the water catchment area. They use grit instead but apparently it will only work once the snow has stopped falling and has been compacted, otherwise the grit just falls beneath the snow and is totally ineffective.

We were supposed to get snow last night but we woke up to only a few half melted patches this morning.

The weather person (we must be politically correct mustn't we?) has advised that we should expect more snow and THUNDER this afternoon. Most Australians would not find the presence of thunder a noteworthy weather event but in the two and a half years we have lived here I have only heard thunder in Guernsey three times, so in Guernsey it counts as unusual.

The Bumble B'eers are happily Hama Beading away and squabbling over who is using up all the white beads - a highly prized colour apparently! Mr Bee has gone to work on his bike as usual, ignoring my request that he work from home; there have been alot of Black Ice warnings on roads and footpaths. He has promised if snow starts to fall in earnest he will walk home rather than cycle. The Powers That Be have advised people not to drive unless they absolutely have to so we are staying put. I have never had a car accident and I would like to keep it that way.

The Bumble B'eers are dreaming of snowmen later in the day. I hope their wishes come true.......but only after Mr Bee is safely home.

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

It's been snowing!!!

This is quite an amazing event for our family. The prospect of a white Christmas at home is sending everyone into excitement overload - including myself and Mr Bee.

It has only been a few flakes, mind you, nothing like what they are getting in the UK but still it has made the build up to Christmas all the more exciting. Someone at school was telling me that the ground temperature need to get to 0*C before the snow will stick; come on you North Wind you little ripper!

I have just checked the current temperature in Brisbane, where we are originally from, and it is 25.2*C at 1.10am in the morning.

It snowed on me as I packed the groceries into the car at 11.47am and then it has snowed again just as we were leaving Crabby Jack's restaurant at 2.49pm.

I took the Bumble B'eers, together with a few friend's families from school, to a Crabby Jack's lunch to celebrate the end of the school term and to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

Maybe all our Christmas Cheer will make it snow tonight - fingers crossed!