Recharging the Batteries

I am still running on 'island time' so please forgive the late post.  

On Saturday we returned from 10 days in Heaven, otherwise known as Ratua Private Island in Vanuatu.  If you haven't heard of it then you MUST check out their website here.  

In the meantime, I will leave you with some pics of ours of this magical and unique resort that is really like no other we have come across before, neither in our research nor our travels.  

Arriving by night by boat: The Welcome House

Beachside dining area by night

Lounge area

Dining area: there's the MOTH feeding Little Man his dinner, and just behind them is Big Man playing with the Nespresso Capsules lol

View of the Lounge Area on left, Bar in the back, dining deck and dining area on right (not in photo)

Beachside dining area by day

Our Tiger Villa

Kid's bed

Little Man's cute cot

Looking down the hall towards the parents' room from the kids' room

Mum & Dad's verandah for night time wine and kicking the MOTH's butt at Scrabble

Our room

Kids' verandah

Looking into the bathroom

The waiting bench outside the bathroom, lol

View from the bathroom - bananas!

Looking down to the water from our villa

The MOTH relaxing

View of the Day Spa from our own private beach

Looking back at our villa from our own private beach

Our own private beach and deck

This was a once-in-a-lifetime holiday for us and we are so glad we did it.  We were a little nervous at first about the whole private-island thing and no kids club, etc but our boys were amazing!  Our days were filled with swimming, eating, sleeping, collecting hermit crabs, riding around the island with locals, chatting to people, fishing in the evenings, riding bikes... 

It was only on Day 9 that Middle Man suddenly stopped what he was doing and asked more out of curiosity than anything, "Why don't they have TVs in Ratua?"  

Now THAT, my blogging friends, is a sign of a great holiday!

A new love of mine

A new love of mine is A True Love of Mine, a very cute blog about baking.  

I stumbled upon it today totally by chance whilst googling the history of Neapolitan ice cream (my all-time favourite 80s dessert).

Anyhow, I'd promised Katie I'd show her the Masterchef Black Forest cake I'd baked earlier this year.  I realise now that I didn't even blog about it at the time.  Probably out of sheer exhaustion at baking the stupid thing.  

NEVER AGAIN!

So here are the pics as promised.

Tah-dah!

Very pleased with how it turned out, but probably won't be attempting that again, lol.

In the Night Garden {1st Birthday Party}

As I'm sure everyone would understand, I'm positively exhausted after the weekend.  After an awesome birthday party for our Little Man on Saturday we spent all of Sunday in the emergency room with him.  He's on the mend now and wearing his "I'm 1" badge everywhere he goes. 

Here are the pics from his party.  Not bad for a first attempt at a dessert table.  I'm pretty pleased with myself.

The activities table

"In the Night Garden"

My first ever dessert table.

Iggle Piggle Gingerbread

Pinky Ponk Juice

Pontipine Fruit

Caramel Popcorn & Peaz

Hahoos' Choc Mint Cupcakes

Upsy Daisy's Vanilla Cupcakes

 Chocolate Cake

 

The Little Man requiring a bit of help from his older brother...

...but no help needed now!

Loads of fun In the Night Garden

Thank you to all those who have inspired me, but particularly:

Hayley Moss' awesome In The Night Garden cake

Caroline Shenouda for the gazillion daisies and flowers

Pauline for those awesome Hahoos cupcake toppers

Jennifer Graham for her amazing cupcake recipes that taste just as delicious when made dairy and egg free 

All other stationary/craft made by me using Cristina Re stationary

Gingerbread, birthday cake and dairy free & egg free cupcakes baked by me.

 Have a beautiful week everyone!