Jaden’s Birthday….the Birthday Month.

Last Saturday was Jaden’s second birthday,  and it is a family tradition to have cake.    I’m no cake boss, but I do have a fetish for decorating cakes, so as you can imagine Jaden’s birthday cake was not going to be two cakes slapped together with cream and jam – or sprinkled with icing sugar.   Not that there is anything wrong with such a cake!

Jaden loves dinosaurs so Bethy and I set out to come up with a simple concept for a little boy who loves dinosaurs.

Last Saturday we celebrated two birthdays – Jaden and Charlotte.  Charlotte is 8 days younger than Jaden.   Charlotte isn’t into dinosaurs so we decided to make a barbie cake for Charlotte.  Sadly it was incredibly hot and the icing kept melting, or should I say sliding down the cake!  There were freckles carefully placed around her dress, but they literally slid off the cake 🙁

January is an incredibly busy month for our family, so it makes sense to combine all the birthdays for the month together.    I worked out that there is at least 2 people from our family each month of the year.   The only month free of family birthdays is July – so combining the birthday parties together is a smart move.  It means that we get to catch up every month, which is great!    Next year we will have a party to celebrate three little January birthdays.  My younger brother and his wife have a little girl –  Dakota turns one this weekend – Charlotte and Dakota share the same birthday exactly one year apart.

With all the parties, cake and sweets, I bet your thinking that I have fallen off the wagon and have stopped my ‘get healthy campaign’.      I believe that birthdays need to be celebrated and enjoyed.  After all, life is a journey and celebrations are part of the highs in life.   If you are bound by the chains of not being able to take part, or enjoy celebrations – then life becomes dull and dominated by rules and regulations. I think this is why I have failed miserably in the past  – I hate feeling like I am bound by rules and regulations, and as soon as you tell me that I am not allowed to have something – I want it.  I want it more than I wanted it before  those nasty words of not being allowed to have it, were mentioned!

Over the holidays I have skim read a book about how French women keep their figures…and basically the secret is – you can eat anything you like….but the trick is – you only have one bite!   This way, you get the taste satisfaction, but you don’t end up with massive hips and a huge butt.    This is my brand new plan – the one bite method.  I can have my cake and eat it too, it seems – especially if exercise is added into the routine!!.  LOL