Launching the pirate ship

One of the things I've missed about London life as a Mum living in Thalwil is being able to watch Emily and Patrik get involved in school events, like those I enjoyed as a child.  There's the Christmas play, the Easter bonnet parade, school sports day, and the charity events and awareness days.  However it's not like there aren't any festivities here, they're just different and sometimes completely impromptu and sometimes that's just real fun.  The one thing they do really well here is include the families in the activities and the parents, especially us mums, are pretty much expected to bake or make whatever is needed.

Last week was pirate week at Emily's nursery and she got to dress up as a pirate, go on a pirate hunt, welcome another school into her schoolyard for more pirate play and as well as taking a pirate trip to the wildlife park, on the Friday they launched the pirate ship.

Unbelievably one of the new teachers has, over the course of the last week, built a wooden pirate ship.  It is truly impressive and cost just over 500CHF to build including screws and wood. I've seen it take shape each day as I pick up Emily.  So on Friday they had a pirate party, invited all the parents and used it as an excuse to launch the ship.

I'd promised to make some cupcakes the day prior and had my days schedule in my head figuring I'd get the baking done in the morning to do the icing in the afternoon.  However having got on the bus this morning, because we were running late, Patrik decided to throw a tantrum because he ... because he couldn't hold on to the back of the chair.  Don't ask.  So whilst I was trying to stop his roaring shouts that have everyone including the bus driver looking at me and giving me the 'You bad mother' stare, I'd forgotten to press the button and went sailing past the stop for Emily's nursery.  That meant taking Patrik first.  The downsides: Emily has to be in nursery 15 minutes earlier so she was going to be late, the food shops are near Patrik's nursery but with the need to take Emily straight to her nursery there was no chance, due to bus timetables there was a lot of walking to do.  Panic was setting in and I knew I couldn't let Emily down, nor her nursery.

Amazingly for the first time in a fortnight he didn't cling to me like a Koala bear and with his new found confidence left Emily and I able to run for the bus back toward her nursery.  We made it with two seconds to spare.  However that still meant I had to get home and having been to the physio the day prior, my leg was really in no fit state to walk the route back.  Amazingly having dropped Emily off I got to the bus stop with two minutes spare which meant I could head in to Thalwil's high street first and I needed caffeine.  I also needed to shop.  However after the breakfast where I used the time to write up some notes, I was in no mood to shop and headed home, still on course to get the baking done before the Skype chat.  However what I hadn't bargained for was that the box of eggs in the fridge was indeed empty.  So no cake baking.  Oh how I miss having convenient shops conveniently positioned within a minute from the front door.

But whilst I was having my Skype chat I was making up the pirate flags that I'd found from the website.  After all time was not on my side.  Simply Swanky is a great website and offers a whole heap of free downloadable things including these pirate flags.

Amazingly after my lunch I did the daily shop and headed home to bake the cakes.  For 12 cupcakes (and if you want 24 just double it - easy as that):

150g self raising flour
150g caster sugar
150g butter or margarine
3 eggs

Such an easy recipe and best of all there's no messing about and you literally throw all the ingredients in the bowl together.  Then whisk.  Easy as that.  A level tablespoon in each paper case will make medium sized cupcakes.  Pop them in the oven at 190c (180c fan) for 15 minutes.  As you've taken the tray out of the oven, take the cases out of the tray and place on a rack to cool.

As my first lot were cooling I had the second lot ready to pop in to the empty tray and in to the oven.

By the time the second lot were out I had my icing ready.  Easy icing is literally icing sugar and a bit of water.  Just dribble the water in slowly and stir using a spatula.  You'll know when it's the right consistency when it's not at all runny, and instead nice and think but not too thick that you can no longer stir the icing.

And here's the finished batch.

Not perfect but then considering I'd made and iced 24 in just under an hour I don't think they're at all bad. So that allowed me enough time to gather bits together and go get the twice hourly bus, walking so carefully as to not do a Bridget Jones trip.  Thankfully I didn't and within twenty minutes of arriving and laying out the cakes ...

Just four were left. Conclusion: my easy to bake cupcakes got the kids approval.

But on to the boat.  It was great.  The kids put on their painting jackets and all set to work at giving it some colour.  At this point the owner of the nursery, and leaseholder, was getting nervous about the colour concoction.  The kids thought it looked fine and anyhow they were having a great time.  But you know, these Swiss do like to look out of their window and complain about the slightest thing (not all of them) so I could understand her concern about the paint job.

Us parents all chatted together whilst the kids got themselves messy, the floor messy and the boat messy.  It only seemed appropriate when the builder of the boat ushered the kids away for a bit and climbed up on to the boat himself, complete with bottle.

Then after spraying the kids with champagne naming the ship 'Zelda' to which us parents were amused to hear the cries of 'yuck' (they'll be changing their tune in ten or so years) everybody got to enjoy the finished thing.

The contented smile on Emily's face says it all.

Yo-ho-ho ...