Stalk my Weekend: Birthday, Paris, Sausages

So guess what! D has turned 4. What the heck BBQ! Where did that time go and I'm examining my face for minor wrinkle lines. This is how bad we are as parents. We did not anticipate that kids we invited will do a no show for D's birthday party. Mick said invite only a few.. so we only did 3 kids. How the heck would we know that nobody will come? So this was me on Wed/Thurs... SMSing out "I know it's late notice buttttt.. " And on Friday I rang around trying to get a Spider-Man cake for him from Woolies. I rang Coles by mistake and I was told erm.. have you tried Woolworths very softly on the phone. Ooopss.. Problem solved and a 1.8kg cake procured.

This is us going to go pickup said 1.8kg cake. Pickles is featured in double denim. Woolies lady said that she defrosted the cake at 6.30am. Thanks! That's what I really wanna hear when I buy a cake ya know. LOL I probably shouldn't have told my guests that either but anyway...

1.8kg of 110% sugar cake

That's what a Spider-Man cake looks like people! Run to Woolies and get one if you want a bucket of sugar.

That's the boys playing with D's new Lego sets in their party clothes. LOL D said he wanted the blue party shirt. Yeap.. he normally has pink ones. We had a marinated lamb leg BBQ for lunch with salad. Knowing that we had lamb leg, this only means a bit of leftovers for the night and the next day. To break up the lamb leg BBQ overload. We went sausage sizzle for lunch the next day. 

Sausage sizzle!

Roza's Sauces makes really yummy stuff, you need to check it out. If you sign up to their newsletter you will get a discount code. I learnt about that after placing my order. DOH! I bought remoulade, pesto and chutney this time. I have to confess we ate almost half a jar of remoulade with fish and chips for one dinner. Oopss... no low fat here!

Also in the picture was the Scanpan IQ Grill Pan that was sent to me by the folks at Kitchenware Direct. Can I start off by saying I had meant to get a grill pan for ages. I just never got around to it but check out the other Grill pans they have in stock. The reason why I had been wanting one for ages? I am not usually a big steak eater but once in a while, I just really want a steak. And you know those lovely chargrilled marks you get on the lovely hunk of meat? Psychologically I think it makes the food taste better. We Mick has used the grill pan for cooking steak and I think it gets hotter an a normal frying pan and holds the heat better too so he has not figured out the right timing for his steaks yet. It also drains any fat as you can see from the sausages above so your food is not sitting in fat.

This is Paris

Also on Sunday, D was given this chocolate biscuit as a snack after swimming. I was stunned because he said oh.. look, this is Paris. Mick and I had our huh face on because I never thought he knew about Paris, much less there is a tower like that there. Proud... 

And everyone's favourite section as I had been very skincare and makeup focused lately. This is what I wore on Sunday. My hair was straightened -> WOOHOO! Some of you will say OMG Ling your hair is already straight! 

My top was from Ralph Lauren many moons ago. The necklace is called Midsummer Night's from Popbasic. Eyeshadow was Tom Ford not that you can see it and lipstick was Chanel Coco Shine Rebelle. You will have to put up with my bad posing in the future too.

Stalk my Weekend: Le Petit Gateau Cafe Vue Aldi

Le Petit Gateau window display

What a great weekend! I went to Le Petit Gateau and bought their signature Brownie Passionfruit Gateau. It was recommended by @DaisyNTSFM Let me just state it for the record that when it comes to birthdays and cakes. You need to consult Twitter food bloggers! How good does this window display look? I bought some horse head pops too as they were out of teddy bear pops. I guess I gotta go back!

Random Score: Pizza Slice

I must have had some good karma. I got off at a train station that I do not normally jump off. I was walking down the steep slope of Heidelberg train station when Domino's staff were yelling out.. "Free Pizza". Free? Random Score plus Stalk my Weekend, how good is that? I should have ran with the story that I bought Mick a pizza slice for his birthday when he said I didn't know Domino's sold pizza by the slice. Nope, I said the truth. Dammit.

Omg there's cake joy joy!

I am starting to believe that these two boys are going to have sophisticated taste buds. I can tell you that there was dancing and eating at the same time. D said it was very yummy and asked for the cake again in the morning. It was adorable watching their faces filled with joy for getting treats. Luke got too excited and climbed on the coffee table when Mick was cutting it. At one point I thought the cake would have a sock shoved in it.

D with funky sunnies on dentist chair

Lukey getting the sunnies on

I had been very nervous about this dental visit for them to be honest. I have a fear of dentists (no offence to Ling) and I did not want my boys to suffer. So people had been saying that we should be taking them to the dentist once they have teeth. Well it's been 2 years too late then! I pace up and down and was crabby in the morning. But check them out! They look absolutely happy to be there. We visited Ling from The Best Beauty Blog for their checkup, who is excellent with kids by the way! Huge sigh of relief as she said that they were in good shape. Phew. They got used to sitting in the chair and having the lights shine on them. I was surprised that she even managed to get Pickles looked at.

White Aldi Kid's Bench

I am sure that everyone knows I love Aldi (just cannot do another frozen meal for awhile). Now my junk mail guy must have slacked off or something. I do not seem to get the catalogues or maybe I no longer notice them. But I saw their special catalogue as they had a link to a egg hanging chair. So we decided to get them this white kids bench for $50. So cute!!! Mick and D put it together. Not bad for $50... although I questioned Mick on why the slats were not flat and whether it was poor flat pack assembling workmanship. LOL he is not happy.

Yummy Cafe Vue Wagyu burger pack

I leave you with Cafe Vue's Wagyu Burger takeaway pack which I bought as a treat for myself for trooping up to get the cake. It was so amazing, I thought that I could cry! Mick pretty much cried as he was missing out. The patty was juicy and soooo tasty, melted cheese, bacon and a great soft bun. It was only made better with those cut fries. Bliss.

Birthday Outfit & Lots of Spoils

Target Birdy Top

Oh hai.. if you follow me on Instagram and Twitter get ready to snooze. As you know I am usually 1 week behind in posts in relation to events. This was from last Thursday. But anywayz, bear with me while I give you the run down as promised. This top was from Target. Yes Target, I now buy more of my work clothing from them. Asos is too hit and miss and their cotton dresses a little too thin and short.

G2000 Skirt excuse the yellow tinge

There is a big story with this skirt. I bought it in 2008 in June. It was from G2000 in Singapore and I was on my lunch break when I bought a few pieces from there. There are usually affiliations with credit cards for stores in Singapore. I think I used my Amex card for 15% off. The thing is, you usually get penalised in Australia if you use your Amex not get a discount! I had not worn this skirt for more than a year. Why? Because I had to hem by hand as the stitching had totally fallen out. It went into the I cannot be bothered pile and when I did, it took hours because I had so many pieces to hand stitch.

Hurro surprise Anniversary Present

The mail man from work walked enthusiastically to my desk with the Roses Only box. I think he secretly love doing this... why would he not? Anyway, all the ladies at work went Oooohhhhh and everyone looked up. When we decided to get married on my birthday, Mick promised that he would not get me one gift and use that as a gift for both events. But I was still shocked when I saw them. Yes I was that woman on the train carrying a big machine gun hiding box of roses.

And the boys gave me this necklace in the morning. I sort of steered them towards this direction at Georg Jensen. It was between this or the Rose Gold pearl Sphere collection. I am also hoping that nobody thinks I am flaunting. We had a few hard years financially, I'm not even sure why I did not return to full time work earlier. But anyway, I do not think that we bought each other presents for the last 3 anniversaries or birthdays due to different things being required first. This is what having kids is like people and nobody really tells you these truths on their blog right? Well I might spill one day.  

My big boy is 18months old ..

Wow I truly win worst mother award. On Thursday, someone in my mothers' group asked if Pork Chop was 18months. I said no not yet.. I thought he would be 18months in December. MY BAD!!! It was the 4th this month, which was Thursday when they asked me.

This means -> weigh in for big D so I finally get to find out how much this boy weighs! I don't know where he shoves and keeps all his food. This coming Thursday, I have to take both boys to the child health centre. This should be scary and interesting as most people would know I seldom go out with both boys. Only in dire situations where I had to take both of them to the GP with me for Pickle's 6 week checkup.

By staying home for a few months with Pork Chops and Pickles, Porky has somehow got closer to me. We have our own games that he only plays with me. Poor Mick is really upset that he doesn't get to play what we call Where's Daniel. He will run away from me and I call out.. Where's D? Where's DD? And he turns around looks at me with the biggest smile and I yell out. THERE YOU ARE!! There's DD. And he runs towards me and hugs me. It is the sweetest thing.

There are days when I think what on earth am I doing with 2 kids and the oldest is only 1.5years old. Now that the return to work date is so close. I am starting to feel sad. My boys need me. Pork chop used to not play with me before this. Now we have secret things that I do to make him laugh. And Pickles is still going really really well with his breastfeeds. I thought by now he would be on formula. The guilt is getting to me. I am bordering on PND being at home and most days I do not go anywhere. Little wonder why I am vitamin deficient. But my boys are so adorable that I just really wished that I could be a stay at home mum and be happy being one.

Anyway, enough of the sappy sad stuff. Happy 18mths to Pork Chop. My little gorgeous boy!

So I'm one year oldahhh!

So I am one year oldahhhh.. Denial denial.

Anyway, we went to Ink Bar in Fitzroy North.. it was an interesting experience. And once again, we were the only ones at the restaurant the entire time. It was both weird but niceee....
I must have driven past this place at least 200 times but I have never noticed it.
The seafood platter was divine, you know when you get a seafood platter and it is one big deep fried golden basket? Not this one. It was fresh and oh so good. Oyster shooters, Scallop mornay, salt and pepper calamari, marinated octopus and cured salmon. That's only the 1st course by the way. Leave room for the 2nd course as it was BIG. Butter Barramundi, Morton Bay Bugs, crabs, tiger prawns, coconut rice, big thick cut chips, salad (who would eat the salad?!), crab croquettes... It was sacrilege I left prawns behind!

This was my birthday outfit. I have to say that this skirt is circa 2003! I managed to pull off crazy lady Alannah Hill.


The little boys were left at home and I had my baby free time with Mick. It was weird to say the least. But perhaps we require a few more outings like this to get myself used to it!