Secret birthday business

Having just emerged from the post-celebration haze of DeepSpice's birthday week, I am now taking a moment recount the events of the past week...

DeepSpice celebrated his personal new year in early January. Typically, it is a very inconvenient time to have a birthday since:
a) I am always too exhausted after all the xmas shopping to be organised enough to get him a birthday present;
b) any plans of taking him out to a fancy restuarant are thwarted by the fact that just about everything is closed during early January; and
c) it is usually so bloody hot, all either of us can manage to do is lie around in front of a fan with a wet cloth on our foreheads, while eating mangoes.

But this year, several weeks before xmas, I had already acquired DeepSpice's birthday present (a scarf), arranged babysitting with Gran and GrandPaul for Saturday night and, as luck would have it, the weather turned out to be mild throughout the entire week surrounding DeepSpice's birthday.

Cheese!

So on the night of his actual birthday, I held a fondue party, straight out of the 1970s fondue pot that had belonged to my parents. (Highly appropriate since DeepSpice is a child of the 70s!)

DeepSpice demonstrates sword-swallowing during his Cheese-Fondue birthday dinner.

I consulted with VolubleK, conveniently now a fondue expert since her move to France, and on her advice selected a good white wine (since apparently red wine and cheese fondue are not a good mix):  a 2001 Rosevears Estate Sauvignon Blanc (which had matured nicely in our cellar since our trip to Tassie back in around 2002 or 2003). Fresh ciabatta from the Mediterranean Wholesalers and Gruyere cheese from the local deli, plus an assortment of other items to dip into melted cheese sauce rounded out the meal and we (DeepSpice, me, Gran, GrandPaul, BallFiend and Thumper) all ate ourselves to oblivion. The hardest part of the whole event was shopping for the supplies with two small children underfoot. As I commented on Facebook:

"The worst of it when I was at the deli, busy talking to the deli-girl about what I wanted to buy. BallFiend gave the trolley (which contained Thumper) a shove, straight towards the shelf stacked with eggs. The only thing between the trolley and a scrambled-egg disaster was a pensioner on a walking frame."

Trifle!

Then, instead of a birthday cake, DeepSpice got a trifle, partly because I know how much he loves them (whereas I can't stand them! Whoever thought of mixing jelly and custard? Urgh!) and partly because I had cake crumbs to use up (a result of my dropping a lemon sour cream cake I had made a few days earlier for the new year's eve party at RedJo's house). Unfortunately my first ever attempt at trifle-making did not equal my first-ever attempt at cheese fondue making. The cake was a bit dry, the jelly didn't quite set properly and the custard was too runny. But DeepSpice, Gran and GrandPaul were polite enough to eat a bit anyway.

Surprise!

On the weekend after DeepSpice's actual birthday, I successfully pulled off the big surprise (despite GrandPaul nearly giving too much away a few days before): a night away on Mt Dandenong at a Sassafrass B&B, with dinner at a local restaurant, most importantly, sans-kids! In the weeks leading up to his birthday, I had asked DeepSpice what he wanted to do and he had suggested a picnic at the Melbourne botanical gardens. So instead, I took him to William Ricketts Sanctuary and the Alfred Nicholas Memorial Gardens. I had plans to fit in at least one more garden, but a very rainy Sunday morning saw us stay in and enjoy a long and leisurely delicious breakfast instead.

Scones!

We finished off our weekend away with devonshire tea in Olinda (which was overpriced, and came with very average service, but the surroundings were lovely and peaceful) and returned home to collect our little darlings.

Sleep-over!


Thumper fared well on her first-ever night away from both DeepSpice and I. And of course BallFiend loved his 'holiday' with Gran and GrandPaul. Unfortunately, Gran and GrandPaul didn't fare so well, both having taken their child-caring responsibities extremely seriously meant they got very little sleep overnight. But they still functioned well enough to bake a chocolate cake, even with the help of two kids...!


Now that birthday celebrations are done with for this year, I will have to start planning for next year. And even more importantly for the big 4-0 in two years time, when DeepSpice and I will be visiting VolubleK and family in France, perhaps for an authentic French fondue. Yum!
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