lady lunch

Had a tasty lunch this week at my friend Laura's beautiful home, and caught up with friends and babies and home made whoopie pies from heaven (THREE, I ate three...) We even had a glass of prosecco, then about thirteen coffees. The babes had a lovely time exploring and it's crazy how fast they are all growing. Special honorary male guest was teeny tiny Tor Albion who stole everyone's hearts...

Indy mostly got her kicks by trying to tumble down stairs. Luckily she was thwarted. 

note the enormo-me reflected in the toaster, pre-whoopie-binge...

2013

New Year's Eve is one of the first casualties of parenthood. I am pretty sure that I was asleep on the sofa in front of Jools Holland by 11pm last year. My own sofa. Nobody wants to babysit, nobody wants to imagine a way home across town at whatever-o-clock when the cabs are scarce and pricey . From about October I start to have little fantasies about countryside new years eves, snug and up to our eyeballs in wine and food with friends whilst the squids snooze upstairs. It's not quite raving but it's as close as I can hope for. WELL...The most magical invitation sailed our way this year - welcoming 2013 in Cornwall, staying with my awesome schoolfriend and king of comedy Felix in the most beautiful giant house with views of the sea. By the second day Pablo was trying to haggle for extra nights:
"How many more sleeps can we stay?"
"Three more."
"How about Five?"
He was in heaven with daily walks to see fairy toadstools and hunt out crabs, spot pirate ships on the horizon, play pinball, swim or watch Avengers on the giant television screen with our adoring fellow guests, who doted on him and fed him Haribo endlessly. What a treat.  

New Year's Eve we did feasted on chilli and Katie D's perfect pavlova with cherries, plus my first ever (and definitely delicious) chocolate mousse. Pablo (aka Spiderman) was allowed up late to wander down to the local pub to see the pirate fancy dress competition and midnight fireworks. New Years day was pancakes, leftover puddings, swimming and a Dark Knight marathon. Nothing could be finer. 

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sunday sunday

Growing up (in the US), buttermilk pancakes for breakfast was a weekend ritual. With obscene amounts of bacon and buckets of filter coffee and probably a few stray teenagers crashed out from the night before. Brunch was a once in a while mega-feast, usually at a restaurant with whole cake bars and omelet chefs and buffets of tiny bagels, sausages, immense waffles and rainbows of melon. These days Pablo demands pancakes or waffles at least once a week, but having people over for brunch is a bit more exciting. Brunch is perfect because it gives you an excuse to eat two meals-worth in one, and to basically get a bit merry at breakfast-ish-time (bucks fizz! bloody marys! yay!). It's also not too much of an undertaking to whip up brunch for friends, and when you're up with the cubs from something painful like 6:30am it's nice to have people over for a meal around midday and then have the last couple of hours before bedtime free for a family movie, rather than spending all morning and early afternoon cooking and then sitting around in the dark eating a roast exhausted... 

Kristyn, James and very pregnant Laura came round and we feasted on papaya, mango and blueberries, stacks of waffles with cream and syrup and some pretty impressive Eggs Benedict with home made hollandaise (thanks, Kristyn!). Then Indiana helpfully had a mega nap so we could weep with laughter playing Cards Against Humanity and slurping grapefruit juice mimosas...

Indy mostly continued her standing up all over the place

After a 4pm dusky stroll in the park, everyone headed home and we curled up for Pablo's first taste of Home Alone. I nearly cried watching him laugh so hard.

october-fest

Why is everyone born in October? The obvious answer is because we are all AWESOME, but either way I am struggling to cope with the amount of celebrating going on. It's just not possible to ever catch up on the sleep lost to a night of excessive prosecco and destroying Heart songs at Karaoke, all for the worthy cause of a birthday or ten. And then there are the cakes to be baked, decorations to do, gifts to forget, heart-to-hearts to cringe over the next day... My super soul sister Antonia's big fat 30th was particularly unmissable and especially messy. The theme was Brazil & samba and gorgeous Chris turned up topless and painted gold, there were lots of feathered headdresses and tons of lovely, loved up friends who are more like family. I made a giant red velvet two tier megacake topped with a feathered Carnivalesque Ryan Gosling (obvs), and many, many tassels and banners and sparkly things! This one was just about worth the suffering...