Cup Cakes

One of my neighbours this year is a highly talented Cake Decorator.  She is so talented that she won three first prizes (as well as assorted other prizes) in the cake decorating section at the Easter show this year.  She has a blog that showcases many of her wonderful creations called The Cupcake Gallery. 

She runs cupcake workshops to teach others how to make beautiful cakes also.  Today Abby and I had the opportunity to attend one of her workshops.  We had a ball learning how to decorate Christmas cupcakes.  There were six designs and we had to make one of each them.

Abby's final achievement

My final achievement

Abby was the youngest person Jo has ever had in a workshop, but she did exceptionally well.  The cakes were easier to make than I thought they would be, and at the end we felt as though we had done an excellent and somewhat professional job.  Jo is a fantastic teacher, patient, encouraging and great at explaining fiddly bits.

New School Uniform

I have been part of a committee to upgrade the school uniform at the Primary School my children attend.  When we first looked at moving to Sydney, several of my children begged me to choose a different school because this one had such an ugly uniform.  To refresh your memory, here are my children at the start of this year.  Only Ben likes it because it is 'Hawthorn' colours (the AFL team he barracks for).

  The Uniform committee has worked long and hard to come up with a new uniform, and it has begun the process of being introduced at school.  Yesterday was the first day it was permitted to be worn to school.  There is a two year change over period, where people can wear either the old uniform or the new (not a mixture of the two).  Today my children all wore the new uniform.  They were all up, dressed and sitting quietly on the couch listening to Abby read them a story before my alarm even went off at 6:30 this morning.  A new uniform is obviously a very exciting event.  Here they are, ready for school, looking (in my opinion) a million times better than they did in the yellow and brown.

Technically the hats and jackets are not official uniform as there has been a hold up with supply of these items and these are some I have substituted from local shops, but it is basically the same as the official items, just without the school logo.

The only disappointment was that the kids in Abby's class (who have worn the old uniform for 5-6 years already) are very loyal to the brown and gold and were calling her a traitor and telling her she looked stupid.  Heartbreaking to have happen when she was so excited before school, but if she chooses to go back to the old uniform most of the time, that's okay.  One girl was even hitting her (not hard fortunately) but sad all the same.