Happy Birthday Tabitha!

Tabitha turned three on Sunday.  She is a Really Big Girl now.  We had a fairy party with all of her little friends and their parents - from her ballet class, ABA, mothers group, my little sister, and a few other friends.  In total, 20 toddlers and around 30 or so parents.

Because The Daddy has been overseas for a few weeks, and only got home a few days before the party, I kept things pretty simple.  I have a new philosophy for children's party food - work out how much food you need, then halve it.  This actually worked brilliantly for this party, we had just about the right amount, with a few cupcakes and sausage rolls leftover for munching on the next day.

On the menu were:

Homemade sausage rolls with lots of grated veggies
Poached chicken and chive sandwiches
Vanilla cupcakes with buttercream
Mini raspberry pavlovas
Fairy bread
Fruit salad
Honey joys
'Fairy and toadstool meringues'

We also had lots of mini San Pellegrino flavoured mineral waters in a large champagne bucket of ice for the adults, which made it easy for people to grab their own drinks, and raspberry cordial in bottles for the kids. 

We had a few of these tiered plates.  I have a few sets of them, they are terribly useful for parties!

We sent each fairy home with a toffee apple.  I made them with Granny Smith apples and green toffee - I like the contrast of the very sharp flavoured, and crunchy Granny Smith with the sweet toffee.  Toffee apples are outrageously easy to make if you have a candy thermometer (or a brilliant Thermapen).

Prepare your apples by washing and rubbing dry 10 medium sized apples, then spearing each apple with a thick skewer or paddle pop stick (available from craft shops).

In a heavy-based, large saucepan, combine 6 cups of sugar, 1.5 cups of water, 150g glucose syrup and 1.5 teaspoons of green food colouring (or red, if you prefer, though use red apples in that case).  Heat over medium heat, stirring without boiling, until the sugar is dissolved.  Then bring to a boil, without stirring, and allow to boil, undisturbed, until the toffee reaches 155 degrees celsius (or the 'hard crack' stage, where a small amount of mixture poured into a glass of cold water makes a sharp cracking noise, and forms a solid ball of toffee which crunches when bitten into).

Remove the saucepan from the heat, and into a baking dish filled with warm water.  Leave for a minute, until the bubbles subside, then tip the saucepan to the side, pooling the toffee, and dip each apple, twirling as you remove it, over the pan, allowing any excess toffee to drip off, then place each apple down onto a baking tray lined with baking paper, leaving to cool.

Toffee apples are best made within two days of serving, and should be stored at cool room temperature in an airtight container or wrapped in cellophane, away from heat or sunlight.

For decor, I made a 'curtain' of pink and green ribbons, hanging along the window behind the food table:

I also made 20 tissue paper pom poms, hung from the ceiling:

We also had some nice pink baby roses around the house in vases, some pink and green vintage floral bunting, and a little pink 'fairy door' attached to the front door, for the 'real fairies' to come into the party.

Sorry, too busy chatting to snap many photos of the decor!

We bought Tabitha a balance bike for her birthday, with a cute heart-print helmet from Nutcase.  I also bought a cute icy pole playfood set from Le Toy Van, which she loves.

For breakfast on her birthday, I made a strawberry jelly mould.  She found it inconceivably thrilling ("This is the best birthday I've ever seen!"), and it was actually a fairly healthy treat.  I simply packed a small jelly mould (this glass Tala one) full of sliced strawberries, then made up some jelly mixture with flavourless jelly crystals and juice, and poured it into the mould.  So it was roughly 3/4 chopped fruit, 1/4 fruit juice jelly.  Not bad!  I think this will become a regular birthday breakfast in this house.

For the cake, I baked a 4-layer chocolate cake using THIS recipe, doubled (the same one I have used for every one of Tabitha's birthday cakes so far, it is her favourite cake), covered in chocolate buttercream with pistachio and rose macarons to decorate.  I bought these from La Belle Miette - no time to bake macarons, and besides, theirs are far superior to anything I could produce.

I found a tiny pair of blue and silver fairy wings, meant for a doll, and attached longer blue elastic to turn them into baby fairy wings for Zachary.  He made the most adorable baby fairy!

  
Tabitha wore a pale yellow tutu from Tutu Du Monde - this one, Giselle - with gold fairy wings, a matching wand, and a delicate headband featuring small pearls and diamontes.  Bare feet - Tabitha says that fairies don't wear shoes.

Zachary used his puppy-dog eyes to beg for a taste of the birthday cake.  I let him have a little nibble.  He wasn't that sold on the taste, actually!

After the party, one of Tabitha's little fairy friends stayed behind, and they flopped onto the couch to watch Alice in Wonderland.  Note the two pairs of discarded fairy wings on the back of the couch!  They also shared out the remaining honey joys between themselves:

By late afternoon, all of the beautiful gifts were unwrapped and put away, the house was cleaned and mopped, and I was able to put my feet up with a cup of tea and some leftover sweet bits:

A Tale of Two Highchairs

We have two of the most popular high chairs in this house - the Stokke Trip Trapp, and the Ikea Antilop.  Tabitha still uses her Stokke (sometimes - though mostly she sits at a 'grown up' chair), and Zach is currently loving his Ikea chair.

Top two are Tabitha in the Stokke, bottom three are Zach in the Ikea.  Hard to get a photo of Zach smiling in his chair - he has only been eating food for a couple of weeks, and he takes this eating business Very Seriously!

Stokke Trip Trapp.  Sleek lines, lifetime-or-longer durability and style.  Perfectly designed to offer the perfect seating and dining positions for babies and toddlers.  Design that enhances the decor, rather than cries "colourful baby product".  More than $300.

Ikea Antilop.  Sleek lines, understated, incredibly durable.  Easy to store, relatively portable.  Easiest possible chair to clean - take it outside and hose it down, put the tray on the top shelf in the dishwasher.  Quite pretty in a modern way with a fabric cushion.  Less than $30.

Both highchairs have pros and cons.  But each has a long list of pros, and only a couple of cons.

What is fantastic about the Stokke Trip Trapp?  Obviously, it's great looking.  It's sturdy enough to withstand years of use, even from multiple children.  It can even handle adult weight - I've used it as a stepladder in a pinch many times!  It comes in a range of colours, from bright pop colours to a range of neutral wood tones to match existing furniture (we have walnut).  You can adjust the seat height as the child ages, ensuring a perfect height for eating from the main dining table (elbows to the tabletop is the correct height), and you can also separately adjust the footrest to make sure the child has the perfect 90 degree knee bend, again for ultimate comfort and posture.  The smooth finish, and lack of buckles, sliding parts or built-in cushions mean it is a breeze to clean (I just use an Enjo glove and hot water, or sometimes some water/vinegar mixture).  You can get an add-on baby seat, which you need to start with (we removed ours quite early, a little over 14 months, because T was climbing out over the baby seat, so it ended up safer to remove it and she could just climb on and off as she wished).  You can also use webbed straps to keep your child in place - however I don't love the design of them.  They join low on the back, so always slipped off the shoulders.  The main feature of the Stokke that people seem to love is that the child sits right up at the table with the family, eating alongside everyone, without the physical and mental separation of a big tray.  I absolutely agree that this was brilliant, however for the early days of baby-led weaning, when life is very messy, I don't mind a bit of a tray, which you can remove and wash properly.  Even with the small tray of the Ikea chair, Zach is only half a foot back from the table - he certainly feels like part of things!  We sit him at the head of the table, so he has an excellent view of everyone eating.

What is bad about the Stokke Trip Trapp?  The cost is high - prohibitively high for some.  Its solid structure (which is great in most ways) means that it is far from portable.  You wouldn't want to take it to a friend's place for dinner.  The design means your baby or toddler eats right at the table with the family - not on a separate tray - however this means that your table generally becomes thoroughly coated in food.  This isn't always a problem (nothing a sponge won't fix, right?) however our table is made of reclaimed timber sleepers and has lots of uneven gaps, textures etc which makes it a bit of a nightmare to constantly goopy, hardened clean food off.  Aesthetically, while the Stokke is quite lovely, it is incredibly bulky, and visually 'heavy', particularly in the darker colours.  It takes up a lot of visual space.

What is fantastic about the Ikea Antilop?  Less than $30.  For that sort of money, it's worth grabbing one even just to give it a try!  If it's not exactly what you want, pass it on to someone else.  It is also incredibly minimalist in the design, so even though it's moulded plastic and plain metal, it isn't exactly unattractive.  Ikea sells cushions for it, but I wasn't fond of their range.  We bought a gorgeous cushion from Galoomp, and if you can sew (or know someone who does), there are loads of tutorials for fantastic cushions online, including ones which pad the bottom area, ones with a pocket at the back for storing bibs and cloths etc.  Actually, I tend to use the cushion as a decorative touch, and rarely leave it in place while Zach is eating, since it gets dirty, and I honestly don't think it needs a cushion.  The chair seat is very comfortable, with a nice high back, smooth lines, a deep seat and a low, practical lap-sash belt.  It is pretty tricky to climb out of one of these chairs - and I've seen many babies try!  The legs are nicely wide-set, which makes tipping very unlikely.  The sleek lines and design - like the Stokke - make cleaning an absolute breeze, with the added advantage of being able to easily remove the tray, and you can put it through the dishwasher!  Just sit it over the cups on the top rack.  You can even take the whole thing outside and hose it down.  The legs click off really easily, making storage a breeze.  It's also so light - easy to move upstairs, from room to room, or take to a friend's place when visiting for dinner.  You'll probably also find - at least in Australia - that 9 out of 10 cafes and restaurants have these as their highchair.  So your child will be familiar with it, if you use one when out to dinner.

What is bad about the Ikea Antilop?  It's not particularly pretty - though I personally do not find it unattractive, particularly with the addition of a nice cushion.  Lacking a footrest, it is not as comfortable for a baby, as they tend to slump forward in it, and I think that this discomfort can mean babies get fed up with sitting down to eat quicker - Tabitha, aged 6 months, would happily sit for 20 minutes in her Stokke, but would get upset after 10 minutes or so in the Ikea.  The fixed height of the chair means that it cannot be used 'pulled up' to all dining tables.  It is a little too short to use against our table.  This means it either needs to be used with its tray (which is small, so the baby is still almost up at the table) or can be sat up on something secure (probably not recommended from a safety point of view!)

Ultimately, I think the Ikea is fairly useless as an everyday, comfortable highchair beyond the first 10 or so months. Once a child is sitting down to reasonably long meals, I think they really feel much happier in something with a footrest.  It is also fairly small, and wouldn't hold a larger toddler.  Sure, we've popped Tabitha in one out at a restaurant when she was 2, but it's not the chair I would choose for home at that age.

Basically, if you were only going to buy one highchair, to get you through the first food days, through to the toddler years and even beyond, the Stokke Trip Trapp is certainly my recommendation.  But if you are going to shell out $300 or so, I'd really recommend grabbing an Ikea Antilop as well.  For the same price as a cheerful bottle of wine, it will be a useful piece of equipment for the first months of baby led weaning.  After it's past its most useful period, simply pop off its legs, and stow it in a cupboard or set it up at the grandparents' house!

NOTE - the Ikea Antilop costs less than the baby chair attachment for the Stokke.  So I think it's completely justifiable to use the Ikea one for the first 6 months or so, then move onto the Stokke, if that appeals to you.

But, what about all the other high chairs?  Yeah, there are lots.  Some are expensive to the point of absurdity (though of course, if you love it, can afford it, and it meets your needs, knock yourself out!).  Some are so padded and tricked-out that they give me eye twitches when I think about cleaning them.  Some are so unattractive that I would feel sad having them in my house for two or more years.  Some are just plain badly designed, with backs that cannot sit completely upright, or other such flaws.

There are some other great ones out there too!  But based on my experience, and that of my many mummy friends, these are the two main contenders.  If you don't want to buy a Stokke (and consider them second hand - they hold their value well, but you can still pick up a bargain), then grab an Ikea chair and then a booster seat later on when your child outgrows it.  Will still set you back far less than $80 in total.

Are there any other baby products you would like a review of?

Sponge Drops and Winter Garden

Sponge Drops.  Somewhere between a scone and a sponge cake.  A sort of cupcake-sized sponge cake arrangement.  As easy as anything, and a perfectly delicious sweet treat on a dreary Winter day, with a cup of tea.  Tabitha calls them 'dot cakes', and can eat a vast quantity in once sitting.

Sponge Drops

From How to be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson

2 large eggs

75g caster sugar (I use my vanilla-infused)

50g self raising flour

25g cornflour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

150ml thickened cream whipped

Excellent jam

Berries, optional

Lightly whisk the eggs, then add sugar and whisk until pale and voluminous - thick ribbon stage.  Sieve in the combined flours and baking powder, then fold through with a large metal spoon.

Drop scant dessertspoonfuls of mixture onto baking sheets lined with baking paper, allowing room for spreading.

Bake at 200 degrees for 5 minutes, then remove them onto a wire rack to cool.  Sometimes, it's easier to yank the piece of baking paper, puffs and all, off the hot tray and onto the wire rack, then to gently peel them off the paper once they are cool.

To serve, sandwich with plenty of cream, some jam, and crushed berries if you have them to hand.  Nigella recommends blackberry jam with crushed blackberries and this is an absolute winner.  But today, raspberry jam!

Apart from sitting eating sponge drops and drinking tea, I have also been getting out in the garden.  Each season seems to bring its own special mood to the garden, and I appreciate them all.

The Spring garden is moist and pretty, colourful and sweet-smelling, with mild blue skies and bulbs competing for space.  The Summer garden is relentlessly hot, carrying the smell of tomatoes and basil, crunchy mulch helpfully blanketing the cool, moist soil from the harsh sun.  The Autumn garden is my least favourite - leggy, overgrown relics of Summer begging to be tidied up, cool-weather plants in but not yet growing.

But Winter, what a glorious garden you bring.  Everything covered in delicate dew drops, green bulb tips poking through the soil already, and beautifully rich green plants growing robustly.  Plenty of colour thanks to marigolds and potted plants, and the pea straw keeps bring up self-seeded, pretty purple pea shoots and flowers in forgotten corners.

In the mornings, the sun comes up over the gum trees that fill the park behind our house.  Here is a hanging basket of dward sweetpeas.  I planted them months ago, and they did absolutely nothing - I thought they'd died - but have suddenly sprung to life.  The cooler weather seems to agree with them.

So many self-seeded peas from the pea straw.  I pull out most of the shoots (and toss them to the grateful, clucking chooks), but I provided a climbing frame for a few that grew next to the decking.

Love the flowers.  So chic.

Tabitha's little fairy garden sits nestled in between spring onions and carrots.  We actually had some real mushrooms spring up amongst these ones, the other morning - perhaps some fairy magic?

We have a couple of small pots of flowers, different colours of pansies, which keep things looking cheerful at this time of year.  They seem to thrive as long as they get lots of sunshine.

The Daddy build large cages over the raised veggie beds, to keep the chooks out.  They are cheeky ladies, and will devour entire plants in minutes if given the opportunity.  The cages are not particularly glamorous, but they are incredibly effective.  The sides come off for access.  At the moment, in the caged beds, we have Brussels sprouts, bok choi, carrots, lettuce, coriander, leeks, rainbow chard, chilies, and some nasturtiums, sweet alyssum and marigolds.

Garlic cloves - from my aunt's beautiful biodynamic hobby farm in Tasmania - were flung out on a chair, and promptly forgotten about.  They sent out green shoots to remind me they needed planting.  So I've popped them in.  Never grown garlic, fingers crossed!

Truly, there is something magical about the tiny beads of dew that cover the garden in the mornings.  Even the neighbours' ancient Hills Hoist looks gorgeous, like a gigantic dew-covered spiders web.