In which there is lots of ice-cream and a last minute gift...

I've been taking a bit of a blog break to try and make the most of the summer weather with the kids.  We've had family and friends visiting and we've been swimming at the beach almost every day (sometimes twice a day).  

This weekend we've had a couple of birthday parties.  The first was a party for a little friend who turned one.  I have to admit to being completely disorganised coming up with a gift.  I ended up whipping up this little bird toy an hour before the party!  The pattern is from Fiona Dalton's book 'Hop Skip Jump'.  I used linen and some pretty Amy Butler fabric I had in my stash.  I popped a bell inside to make it into a rattle and I think the tail feathers will be perfect for a teething one-year-old to gnaw on!

Today we went to a fantastic family barbecue.  The kids spent the day jumping on the trampoline and hopping in and out of the inflatable paddling pool (repurposed birthing pool!!), while we enjoyed ourselves sipping fruit cocktails on the deck.  As my contribution to the festivities I made six different ice-creams and sorbets and set up a little ice-cream buffet.  The flavours were plum ice-cream (made with home grown blood plums), fleur de lait (a Parisian glace meaning 'flower of milk'), chocolate-coconut sorbet, chocolate-raspberry ice-cream, watermelon sorbetto (with chocolate chips instead of pips) and banana sorbet.  The 'fleur de lait' seemed to be the most popular flavour of the day.  I had so much fun putting it all together, I wish I had the capital to open my own little gelateria on the coast somewhere!  But in the mean time I might just have an ice-cream party for Minty's fourth birthday in a few weeks time!!