This weeks Gallery prompt is 8pm. Generally I am a happier person at 8pm than I am at 8am (I am not a morning person) but it is still not the greatest time of the day. So what does 8pm mean in our house. Well if  the other half is away on business, it generally means I am trying to get all the kids to sleep, and most likely giggling a baby man on my knee whilst checking facebook or twitter. Sometimes I am at the gym, wishing that I was actually at home stuffing my face with a massive bar of chocolate. Some days I am filling/emptying the dishwasher/washing machine or preparing big man's packed lunch. The only day I like 8pm is a Friday. Because more often or not it means this:

The beauty of big man is his kind gentle nature. He looks after his brothers and is so thoughtful. He gave us all an imaginary kiss today to take home with us as we dropped him off at school.



The beauty of middle man is his cheekiness. He is at his most beautiful when he is covered in mud and loving nature. His beauty shines through his eyes.



The beauty of baby man is his development, every day learning something new and taking everything in with a beautiful smile.

These are my beautiful boys. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and on this post I may be slightly bias!

Today big man started big school - or infant school as most people call it. I am not sure where the last five years have gone! I was worried I would be in a pool of tears, but how can you cry when your little man is beaming from ear to ear and so proud that he is going to "big" school. As you can see his jumper now fits and he is striking a pose that is far too much like that of his father for my liking!

So on his first day at school, what words of advice can I pass onto him?

Firstly, I have told him to try and learn peoples names. He has never been very good at this and gets upset when other children don't respond to him when he is calling them by the wrong name!

Secondly, the teacher is always right - even when they are not. If he is getting told off for something that he perceives isn't his fault then he is probabley doing something wrong anyway and just do as the teacher says. He can always speak to the teacher later if he needs too.

And last but no means least be the happy gorgeous little boy that I know and love so much.
Good luck big man and I hope you are filled with smiles in a few hours time xx

Mellow Mummy is running a "I made this" meme competition. Obviously the best things I have ever made are my three gorgeous boys.

Before I had children I had spare time! I used to scrapbook and do crafty things. I have just about managed to finish middle mans first year scrapbook, but baby mans is so far empty. Looking after three little ones makes it hard to find time to make things - and entering the world of blogging also takes away some of that time too - although I see it as my online scrapbook. I do, however, enjoy making my children's birthday cakes. I don't know why but I feel that it is part of my role as a mother to do this, but I do. Don't get me wrong, if you go to the supermarket and buy a cake I don't look down at you at all. You are very sensible infact. It is generally a lot cheaper to but a cake than it is to make one yourself, and it must make the stress levels before a party much better. However, I have something in me that says I am a mum, I must bake a cake! Each time I make one, they get slightly better. The only problem is that my 4 year olds requirements get more complicated. So here are the Birthday cakes I have made for my boys in the last 5 years

Big man's first birthday cake was a bit of a cheat. I was working part time and I bought the cake itself and iced it. He liked dinosaurs, I liked sweets so both were incorporated. I was still working when he was 2 but I felt braver. His favourite book at the time was the tiger that came to tea, so I made a tiger's head. I do have photos of these but since Hubbie has backed up the computer I can't find them! So for now we will have to start from when big man turned 3.

For his third birthday he had become more demanding and had opinions. He wanted a crocodile cake with the crocodile swimming through a mud pond of fudge and jelly snakes!



Then came middle man's birthday. Middle man loves his food so it had to be a cookie monster cake.



Then came big man's fourth birthday - a red and green snake. I had to draw a picture for him so he could say if he liked the idea or not - luckily he did.



Then middle man was 2. He loved Fireman Sam so I had to make a fire engine cake. It was my first attempt at a 3D cake and it looked fine. (Well it did from a distance.....)


However, he had Octonauts toys for his birthday so I had to make some cupcakes too. These are by far my best creation, but I do feel that I have raised the bar too high. Middle man now thinks all cupcakes should be "octo-cakes" and I am not sure that I can do any better than this.


I would like to point out that I never intended on making Dashi, Shellington and Tweak. The orange for Kwaazi went wrong and I am not sure how I ended up with the green for Tweak. Any normal person would have stopped here and been pleased with these cupcakes. Unfortunately I am obsessive in nature so I had to bake some more cakes so that I wasn't missing Prof Inkling and Tunip. I don't know if the boys appreciated this extra effort but it enabled me to sleep at night!



Big man now wants a cherry almond smurf village for his 5th so keep posted to see if it all goes well or if it ends up being a blue mess disaster! With three children I have a lot of baking to do!


As it is a meme I am going to tag my friend Nikki who I know makes loads of lovely things and Jane who has just started a blog full of her lovely handmade children's clothes. Both of them should be proud of the things they have made.