This might be the last year our big boy Sammy calls his father Dada. In September he will walk through the school gates and Dada will probably become a distant memory! So we made our own special present for his birthday. We adore this book my sister in law gave to the boys. Why I Love My Daddy. The idea is it's children in their own words. So we sat down, scrolled through our photo library and found some corkers. I had some sweet woodland paper and although I nearly threw the printer out of my office window at midnight and there are a couple of smudges, it turned out beautifully. Laminated and everything.

Why We Love Our Dada

Why We Love Our Dada

Why We Love Our Dada

Why We Love Our Dada

Why We Love Our Dada

Why We Love Our Dada

I bought him a new amp for his guitar so we went musical for the decorations this year! The boys helped stack the cake - it was awesome!

Dada's Birthday

I raided the local charity shop for sheet music to use as bunting (hand stamped by Sammy), wrapping paper and a pile of old records made a great gift tag, cake stand, door wreath and hanging decorations. I used some luggage tags and printed off some letters to make a manly garland for the lounge and adorned the fire place with his presents.

Record Cake Stand

Manly Bunting

Sheet Music Gift Wrap

Dada's Birthday

Dada Birthday Hamper

Dada's Birthday

Dada Birthday Gift - Record Tag

Manly Bunting

Dada's Birthday

Dada's Birthday

Dada's Birthday Record Door SIgn

And what did he play for the boys? Well he got the score to the Disney Cars soundtrack - Life is a Highway up on the iPad! They loved it!

I hope they have his musical abilities as it is such a skill to read music.

Dada's Birthday

Dada's Birthday

As you might have read, number 16 of my goals for 2013 is to bake a cake. Unfortunately this was not achieved in time for my husband's birthday yesterday!

Life is frantic at the moment so a cheats cake it had to be!

I jumped straight on the seriously photo friendly french macaroons bandwagon. They are so beautiful and delicate and much smaller than in photographs I have seen on Pinterest and in wedding magazines.

I used an old polystyrene false cake I used for a Halloween Lolly Tree, wrapped some tissue paper loosely around it and placed my macaroons carefully around the edge and on top.

Simple but so effective. I stacked two cake stands on top of each other and used an old record as a cake board for the top. Musical note confetti and some coloured mini pom poms completed the creation!

Plus they were seriously delicious! One bite wonders!

Happy birthday to my darling husband xx

ps. I did make all sorts for his birthday which I will post tomorrow!

pps. Happy Valentines to all my lovely readers. I have felt so much love this week so thank you!

This is what my Valentine will be opening later today.

I love receiving mail. Hand delivered by a man dressed in red. Today, 25 lovely ladies will be receiving a special package from Mum and me!

I have finally put together all the information and activities for my sister's Baby Shower!

There are three things to do and a prepaid envelope back to the Auntie to Bee - me!

Their packages include a blank triangle of white fabric cut from a remnant I bought from the local fabric shop £1.50 and a black pen. The idea is they all decorate a triangle and then I glue them to a lovely yellow polka dot ribbon I found at a flea market, to use as bee theme bunting around her house!

Simple but when pieced together, will look very effective. Plus you can't get much more personalised bunting than that can you?!

They also have a newborn nappy (I had completely forgotten how small they are - we use size 6+ at night for Sammy) which they can write a word or brief message on. Something to make them smile when they are changing the 10th nappy of the day!

I have asked for a photo from when they were little to make a 'Guess the Baby' competition and they have some bits to read including an idea to keep all the Daddies and children amused and out of the way!

Instead of everyone having to spend money on buying individual presents (which seems mad as I'm sure we will all want to buy something when the baby is actually born) I have suggested we all go in together and contribute a small amount to getting them what they really need - supplies! The good thing about being the younger sister is you get to borrow everything! So they are sorted for neutral clothes and baby equipment. In fact we have a mass sorting session booked in for this weekend. They will be going home to Bracknell with a car bursting with baby paraphernalia and our loft will be empty!

I have banned her from reading my blog, so I'm not spoiling any surprises!

You can keep up with my ideas by following my Pinterest board here. Everywhere I go I see black and yellow. I am secretly stashing things under my desk in my office!