Birthday sleepover

Louka has wanted a sleepover for a long time, but she still sleeps in our bedroom and we were concerned that she wouldn't be able to sleep without us. Still, she's been sleeping pretty well and has decided that when she turns ten she will sleep in her own room, so we let her have her sleepover.

She wanted to invite four friends, which was one more than I thought could fit in her room, but again we let her have her way, and the four friends were all able to come. I spread out a single bed mattress, a queen bed mattress and a pile of yoga mats on the floor. It was nearly covered.

We found instructions on how to make cupcakes with wolf claw scratches on them, so I made some cupcakes from a Woolworths magazine and iced them with fondant icing and red-dyed glucose syrup. They looked pretty cool, but they were a bit dry and not very tasty.

I also made a mountain birthday cake using a dolly varden cake tin, my regular chocolate cake recipe, whipped cream and cream cheese icing, sparkly blue sprinkles and tiny pine trees. It looked cool and also tasted good.

Louka remembered the paddling pool and water slide from her sixth birthday party and requested to have them again. That turned out to be the best idea of all, as they kept the girls entertained for a long time.

I dragged them away from water play for a treasure hunt and a pinata (a moon one I'd made myself, like last year's), then Graham got back from the fish-and-chip shop with dinner. They dug in, then announced themselves full, so we had pass the parcel before dessert.

The cakes got oohs and aahs, we sang Happy Birthday, Louka blew out the candles and cut the cake and we all had a slice. Then it was time for a movie – of course about a wolf – Balto: Wolf Quest. By the time the movie ended it was quite dark and Louka made everyone run through the trees to the brick retaining wall in the park. One girl was quite reluctant to go out in the dark, but when the others set off she didn't want to stay behind, so they all went together. 

I hoped they would be ready for bed then (though I didn't expect it) but they weren't, so they played with the Littlest Pet Shop aeroplane that was one of Louka's presents. At 10 o'clock I told them it was time to brush their teeth, after which they retired to the bedroom. Not that this meant they were going to sleep, and they shouted about polka-dot hamburgers for quite a while. I think they finally got to sleep a bit after midnight. 

At 7 o'clock in the morning they were all awake again. I made them search for the pancakes and maple syrup I'd hidden in the living room, then they returned to the water slide and paddling pool, which kept them busy till their mums arrived to take them home at 9 o'clock.

A Summer morning's walk

Last weekend we tried to walk from St Ives to the Sphinx Memorial in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. However, we found ourselves on a path that was hard to follow, splitting off in all directions till we weren't sure we were still on it, so we made our way back to the car.

This weekend we decided to start from the Sphinx and make our way to last week's starting point. It was predicted to reach 31° so we set off fairly early with a bottle of water and some snacks.

The Sphinx Memorial was the work of a returned WW1 soldier who had spent time in Egypt. It's pretty impressive so I was surprised I'd never heard of it before.

From there a track led down to a tiny creek and then to the river. It was downhill all the way, and our knees were feeling the brunt of it. When we reached the junction with the Warrimoo track we were going to head for St Ives when some other walkers asked us if we were trying to get to the place with all the boats, so we decided to walk to Bobbin Head instead.

The river at the junction was very shallow and we could see plenty of fish. The track followed the river pretty closely. There were shady gullies where little creeks joined the river, where it would have been pleasant to linger, but we soldiered on to Bobbin Head. There we found a marina with a café so we sat in the shade with cold drinks. The café also sold fish food, and two little girls were feeding the fish so the water was full of fish. We sat and watched them for a while then decided to head back.

Not far from Bobbin Head we came across a large goanna lying sunbathing across our path. It seemed unconcerned about us, but we were a bit concerned about it. I'd heard of goannas mistaking people for trees and running up them. Eventually we tried to edge past it on the far side of the path, and it decided to move out of our way. We saw another, slightly smaller, in the undergrowth a little further on. (We'd also seen a small one on a rock on the way to Bobbin Head.)

By now it was getting pretty hot and the uphill walk to the Sphinx was grueling. Louka began to complain and stop and sit down from time to time, though she also ran up steps to get to the end quicker. Eventually we got to the top and had a long drink from a bubbler. When we got in the car the thermometer read 39°, though it settled down to 36° as we drove away. Then I felt something crawling on my leg: it felt like a big fly. I looked down and there was a leech - ewwww! Quickly I plucked it from my leg and threw it out the window. After that Graham felt a bit twitchy but Louka had fallen asleep in her seat, which she hasn't done for years.

It was an interesting and attractive walk, but I think next time we'll do it in cooler weather.

How to make a fairy house

We'd made a fairy well, now we needed a house for the fairies who will use it.

Materials:

Plastic bowl, cardboard, clear plastic, paint, PVA glue, pine needles, bark.

Method:
Mix orange and black paint and some PVA glue and paint the bowl brown.

Cut a strip of cardboard as wide as the height of the fairy house and long enough to go round the bowl with a bit of overlap. Cut out door and windows. Cut window shapes from clear plastic and tape to the inside of the cardboard.

Paint the outside of the cardboard a nice dark green.

Cut a circle of cardboard for the floor. Paint it with plenty of glue mixed into the paint.

Tape the cardboard into a cylinder and tape on the floor.

Glue pieces of bark to cover the wall. We started with PVA glue but we found the bark curled when wet, so we ended up using Selleys All Fix which was much easier to use, though unfortunately it dries white instead of clear.

Glue lengths of Norfolk Island pine dinosaur tails to the bowl to make a conical roof.

To make more of a thatched roof, add pine needles or casuarina needles. We used PVA glue for these as we didn't want white glue showing, and tied some thread loosely around to hold them in place while the glue dried.