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Raisie Bay

My Sunday Snapshot – A Special Birthday

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We’ve reached the last of the birthday’s this Summer, next one is mine and that’s not until the end of the year! This last summer birthday was a very special one as Star turned sixteen!

A special birthday banner with a big 16 on it and Happy Birthday, underneath is a row of birthday cards and an obtrusive PS5 games console

I tried to move the PS5 out of the photo, but the console is too heavy for me! The cards had to be squashed up the other side of the sideboard.

I had some lovely paper and matching banner from Dom and Geri, which I reviewed a few weeks ago. (definitely worth another mention as the card, paper and banner were really lovely items. Star’s presents looked so classy. Shame about my photography which is not so classy and I’ve missed off half of her presents!

The special birthday banner with 16 and Happy Birthday on it along with matching presents unwrapped.

Just in case you are wondering, yes, Star’s real name is Lucy and I have used it many times on Social Media and such, but here on Raisiebay she is always Star.

Special Birthday Cake

Star had a really special birthday with friends and animals and a BBQ. We also had cake! She made a carrot cake for her boyfriend which he loved but Star wasn’t so keen. I was happy with it though, it was very moist and tasted delicious. For Star I made the usual chocolate cake. My kids don’t like shop bought cakes because none of them like jam (weirdos!) I have made some really complicated cakes in the past but this year it’s been a case of bake cake, throw on a layer of icing and then write Happy birthday on it! With Boo’s cake I coloured the icing marble blue, with the Little Man’s cake he only had icing on the top and I pipe a pattern around the sides (and forgot to take a photo) and for Star I bought some little flowers to decorated it. I used a tube of piping icing and when I wrote on the cake it looked nice, but when I went back to it later the icing had kind of melted and it didn’t look so good. Star was happy with it though.

16th birthday cake with flowers and big blue 16 in the middle

I’ll leave you with a collage of just a few of the cakes I’ve decorated in the past.

A collage of birthday cakes, Raichu, Minecraft, a Drone, a dog, a Peppa Pig cake and Rainbow Dash from My Little Pony.
RachelSwirl

Word of the Week 35 – Overload

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Hello and welcome to the home of Word of the Week. A nice and simple weekly linky, with everyone welcome to pop by and share. The idea of the linky is to reflect back on your past week and share it with us. It’s great if you can sum it up in a word or phrase, hence giving us your Word of the Week. My word this week is ‘overload’ and you can read more about that below.

I’m not totally strict on using just a word or phrase. But please try to stick to the theme of summing up your week. There are not too many rules with this linky, just remember to read at least another couple of posts in the link up after adding your link. I will read and comment on all posts and tweet them out for you. I also have a Pinterest board devoted to Word of the Week and I will add posts to Mix Please add the badge below to your post so that others may find us and join in. If you comment or tweet then please use the hashtag #WotW

Word of the Week is open from 6am on Friday Morning to 12 noon on Monday. Plenty of time to join in!

If you are unfamiliar with the Word of the Week linky then please feel free to ask any questions. New linkers are always welcome, we love to hear what you have been up to in the past week.

MY WORD OF THE WEEK – Overload

OVERLOAD the word overlapped on a gradient background.

I definitely think that moving our holiday to the Spring half term next year is a good idea. We are suffering from a birthday and day out overload here. It may just be because we have barely been out of the house for so long, but we all seem to be struggling right now. Struggling with the effort to do anything more than lounge around in the house. But at the same time, I’m bored. I want to be doing things and going out. It’s so hard to get the balance right and prevent the overload.

Stars birthday went really well. I had a big party for my 16th but Star is not really a party person and would have hated that. She hasn’t had a birthday party since she was seven years old. We spent many happy years having a family meal at Pizza Hut and shopping in town. Covid stopped that last year. This year we decided to give her some independence and sent her off for the day with her friends and sister. She chose to go to the Wildlife Conservation Centre where we took the Little Man last week. Then when she got back we had a BBQ and she played video games with her friends and birthday cake. Then after her friends had gone she asked for a take out! We’ve all had a take out of our choice on our birthdays so I couldn’t refuse. But even though we didn’t order much I think it was definitely a food overload.

Since Star’s birthday everybody has been feeling grumpy, tired and fed up. We can’t seem to shake it off. Star has been poorly and keeping me awake at night. It’s all been a bit meh!

Next week we have one last day out planned and then the Little Man will be getting an induction to his new school. Boo goes back to school the following week and just like that, the Summer Holiday is over. It’s a shame we’ve not had an overload of sunshine.

I hope you’ve all had a good summer break, are you ready for going back to school?

Now it’s over to you, what word or phrase sums up your week this week?

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Sweet 16, Happy Birthday to Star!

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Today my little girl is 16 years old. I so remember that day cooking sausage sandwiches for the rest of the family while struggling with labour pains. I thought they were Braxton Hicks as my baby wasn’t due for another two weeks. But after a really difficult pregnancy I think my baby girl was ready to arrive and a Star was born! Happy Birthday Star,

Her name isn’t really Star, but when she was six years old I asked her what name I should for her on my blog and she chose Star. It turned out to be really appropriate because the next few years where extremely difficult for her, health wise, and she took everything in her stride, she was a real star.

Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while will know Star’s story, but in brief, she was diagnosed with Autism at six years old. Then at seven she had a poorly neck where it was bent in a cock robin position and she couldn’t move it. The hospital said it would correct itself in a couple of weeks, but it took nearly 18 months, five trips to the hospital theatre, and two halo braces before she was finally fixed with titanium screws.

She is has been through so much, but she’s done so well.

collage of photos of Star from 2 to 16 years.

Today my Little Girl who is becoming so grown up, is off out with her boyfriend and friends for a day doing what she like best. Looking at animals at the Wildlife Conservation Centre. Hopefully she will come home to a BBQ…we are hoping the weather stays good.

In September she is going to college to study animal welfare. She’ll be learning to look after exotic animals as well as doing her GCSEs. The last two years did not go very well education wise (Thanks to Covid) but she’s still really young and knows what path she wants to take, so we are happy with her choices.

She’s looking forward to meeting Bob!

A large snake

Happy Birthday my Sweet Star xx

Summer Days Out with the Little Man

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When we were on holiday a couple of weeks ago it became apparent that the girls were now too old to want to be seen out with their parents, yes, even on holiday. This meant that the Little Man was often feeling left out. After arriving home we decided to spend a couple of Summer days out with our Little Man to show that it can still be fun with just the three of us. Or even just me and him!

The girls won’t be missing out as they have some fun stuff planned too.

First of all we took the Little Man to the Wildlife Conservation Centre. This is close to our home and somewhere I have been visiting for many, many years. I can even remember going as a child, although it’s changed a lot since then. I took my older children there too, often before or after a trip to Cannon Hill Park.

The Little Man was excited to see the animals but he was most looking forward to seeing the snakes and lizards. The Komodo Dragon is quite spectacular, it certainly makes you grateful that he’s behind a cage or screen. I’ve decided to share my photos of him for this weeks Sunday Snapshot.

Other Animals.

Here are some of the other animals we saw on the day.

The Patagonian Mara

Patagonian Mara

Such a strange creature, kind of like a rabbit a dear and a wallaby all rolled into one. Very cute though.

The red pandas are very cute, you almost wish you could give them a big hug.

There are lots of different monkeys at the Centre and they are all entertaining. Whether they are climbing, rummaging around for bugs or just showing off. We could watch them for ages.

Finally, my favourite animal, my Little Man learning about Conservation.

The Littl Man looking at a board explaining about conservation.

We had a lovely day. It rained a couple of times but there were places to shelter. We also spent some time in the cafe and had hot dogs and chips for lunch.

The Picnic

On Thursday we were invited to a picnic with Birmingham SEND Socials. The area was enclosed and safe and included a big grassy area and lots of activity areas. There was also an indoor play area and a shed full of toys. When we arrived the rain came down and we sheltered outside. The rain passed soon and the children began to play. The Little Man had some fun with some Orbeez and talked to a couple of other children.

He enjoyed his picnic which he ate on a bench outside with me.

Little Man eating a cake

We had a lovely afternoon and I’m sorry now that I hadn’t put our name down for more activities. The Little Man needs to be around children even if he doesn’t interact like he used to. And a big thank you to the sun for making an appearance 🙂

We have more activities to look forward to before the return to school. We are determined to fit in as much as possible this year.

Have you enjoyed some Summer Days out this year?

Country Kids linky

My Sunday Snapshot, a Komodo Dragon

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This week we visited the Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Centre with the Little Man. One of the most impressive animals there is the Komodo Dragon. He truly is huge, and venomous and deadly.

A Komodo Dragon looking at us from behind a glass screen. He is crawling over a huge log and there are logs and rocks in the background.

We saw him inside behind glass, he seemed very interested for a while, but soon he went outside to see what was going on. There were a lot of people outside waiting to see him so he knows how to perform. I couldn’t get close enough, but Graham took this photo of him

A Komodo Dragon sitting on a rock outside looking down at a grassy area.

The Komodo Dragon is a huge lizard which can grow up to 70kg and a length of 3 metres. This fella was a little smaller at 50kg. They are predators and hunt vertebrates, birds and mammals and can even attack humans. It’s claimed they have a venomous bite. Scientifically the toxic proteins produced have been found to be a anticoagulant which thins the blood. (I’m thinking this makes the pray bleed quicker and makes them easier to catch and consume. .eek!) This is just my theory though. Feel free to tell me if you know more. Or maybe not, if it’s too gruesome.

Despite it being a dangerous animal, he was definitely entertaining and quite amazing to see. He had both inside and outside environments to explore and hide and I’m sure he is well looked after.

I like lizards, but I don’t think I’d have a Komodo Dragon around, I don’t think my cats would be too happy either!

Have you ever seen a Komodo Dragon?

RachelSwirl