Seren and Dylan's Big Cake Bake!!!

Seren's and Dylan's Big Cake Bake actually happened!!!

It was yesterday afternoon, in the function room of the local football club, and it was a great success! :o)

But first, going back to the second half of the mountain of planning required for such an event ...

Last Friday, a huge box from the CF Trust's Events Team arrived ...

Filled with all these goodies!!!

Collection buckets ...



Invitations to write ...



Cake price labels ...



Information leaflets ...



And some gorgeous brightly-coloured balloons ...



And a local sweet shop phoned me up on Friday too, to say that they would like to donate this ...

A ginormous jar of chocolate eclairs! Perfect for the 'Guess How Many Sweets In The Jar' game!

And last Saturday, we picked up these from Pizza Hut ...



And these from a local card shop ...



And when I did the weekly shop this week, on Monday, I picked up this little lot at the same time, ready for the big day ...

Fairy cakes and biscuits to decorate, piped icing, writing icing and a large variety of sprinkles, paper plates, napkins, tablecloths, etc.

And the same evening, we picked up these from the local Morrisons store, who gave me a £5 credit note to use to pick what I wanted ...

A coffee cake to sell, and some really pretty citronella candles

And my friend Rachel donated these to the event ...

An England football and mug for the raffle, and some cupcakes and fairy cakes to sell

On Tuesday, a friend from the autism support group convinced her husband, who works at 'Optics' to donate these fab sunglasses ...



And this lovely lot turned up in the post on Tuesday too, from Lorraine Barnes, fundraiser extraordinaire, who had some leftover raffle prizes from her recent events ...

Some childrens raffle prizes

And some fab adult prizes too

Thanks Lorraine!

I spent most of Wednesday playing phone tag, trying to chase up the businesses who had agreed to donate something, and had asked me to put a request in writing, but hadn't got back to me about actually donating. And thankfully most of them were still willing to donate, and so we arranged pick up times for the donations.

On Thursday, my friend Kirsty donated a pile of her handmade cards to sell at the event ...



And Friday was certainly a bumper crop day for collecting up raffle prizes!

A local corner shop donated six boxes of Thorntons chocolates ...



Greggs the bakers donated all these yummy-looking cupcakes ...



Boots donated a gift bag crammed full of goodies ...



A local department store donated this reed incense diffuser set ...



And a local bakery donated this beautiful Big Cake Bake cake!!!

LOVE it!!!

And then Friday night, the night before the big day was a huge rush. While I was at folk club, Adrian (with help from the kids!) made this fab treasure map for the 'Guess Where The Treasure Is Buried' game!



When I got back home from folk club, I saw the lovely England gingerbread men which Adrian had decorated, and we sorted through all the raffle prizes, finalising the plans for the games and the raffle.

And I went to bed very stressed! The weather forecast for yesterday was awful, rain, rain, and more rain; and I was so worried that either we'd have too few cakes and too many people to cope with, or too many cakes and hardly anyone turning up to visit the event.

Plus there was the added headache that the little cardboard treasure chests I'd ordered from Ebay to fill with sweets and use as the prizes for the treasure map game, hadn't arrived. I'd ordered them on Wednesday, and after talking to them on the phone that morning, the company promised me that they'd be sent out the same day by first class post.

By Friday, I still hadn't received them, and so I phoned them back and they assured me that they had posted them, but offered to send out replacements, guaranteed to arrive by 1 pm Saturday. But I was still nervous that they wouldn't turn up.

Sleep didn't come easy on Friday night!

On Saturday morning, the day of the Big Cake Bake, the weather was dull and grey, but not actually raining at the time.

No cardboard treasure chests turned up with our Saturday morning post, and so I phoned the Ebay company again to check whether they'd actually sent them. Apparently the woman who was dealing with my order had to rush home at short notice for a family emergency, and so they couldn't confirm whether or not my next day delivery order had gone through, but they would try and get back to me asap to let me know.

When I didn't hear back from them, I ended up having to send Adrian into town while I got the kids ready, to buy some little chocolate presents from Thorntons to use as treasure map game prizes.

But in the end, by midday, we were all ready to go to the football club and start setting up ...

I snapped this photo of my fundraising family before we left

When we got to the football club, the kids played with a spare balloon, while Adrian unloaded the car ...

My little lady in red, with the balloon (she insisted on wearing the red spotty dress, even though it's from Summer 2008 and is sized for a 6 year old; it still fit her perfectly, and was a great colour for a CF event, as the CF logo is red anyway)

My little man :o) who almost willingly agreed to leave his Spiderman costume at home and wear his CF t-shirt

And playing with that balloon didn't half help to keep the kids occupied while I was starting unpacking and setting up the things!

Having fun with the balloon

The room was pretty bare to start off with ...

The bar area, where they were going to be selling tea, coffee and soft drinks

The stage area

The dance floor area

The seating area

So once Adrian had unloaded the car and had helped me move the three big tables into position, he dashed off to go and collect the helium balloons (a local balloon company agreed to blow them up for me at half price, because it was for charity, and so we got 30 CF Trust balloons blown up for just £15, which I paid for myself), and pick up a cake and a donation cheque from his parents.

While he was away, the kids played in the hall and I blue-tacked the tablecloths to the tables, organised the smaller tables for the games, set up chairs around the tables, laid out all the many raffle prizes, and laid out the cakes we had already, which half-filled the table! I also laid out all the bits for decorating the cupcakes and biscuits, blue-tacked the treasure map to two smaller tables and set out the Thorntons chocolate prizes, and then ... the lovely Jenny B arrived and got straight to work laying out all the delicious-looking cakes she and her mother had baked for us.

Adrian arrived back with two giant bags of helium balloons, a cheque, and a yummy-looking fruit cake shortly afterwards, and so after introductions were made, we all got down to setting up the last few bits in the hour we had left before the event began.

And the kids got down to ... eating. Dylan bought one of the gingerbread men Adrian decorated, and Seren bought one of the cookies Jenny's mum donated. And she said they were the nicest cookies she'd ever tasted! She bought another one later on!

Dylan finishing the last of the gingerbread man (he's not pouting, his mouth is full!) and Seren with her delicious cookie

By around 1 pm, the room was taking shape, and looked like this ...

Banners behind the raffle table, tablecloths on, banners on the front of the raffle table, raffle prizes all laid out (with little signs saying who donated what) and there's Jenny setting up the cake stall. She took all the cakes out of their packagings, plated them up, wrote cards for each saying what they were, and priced them all up, either for the whole cake, or for slices of cake.

And then, when our prep time was running out, Ann, the face painting lady turned up and started setting up her stall. I know her through Church, but found her face painting business randomly in the phone book, and it was so nice of her to donate her services totally free for the afternoon!



I just had time to take a few quick photos before people started arriving (early!), which I was a bit disappointed about, because I was hoping to get a photo of me, Adrian and the kids together before the event started, and a photo of me and all my helpers together, like a team photo, and a close up shot of all the raffle prizes laid out, and of all the cakes together. But even though we got there two hours in advance to set up, it took all our time, and at the end, the last few minutes whizzed by and there just wasn't time.

But I did manage to grab these quick photos ...

This was where I spent most of the Cake Bake, running the 'Guess the Teddy's Birthday' game, and the 'Guess How Many Sweets In The Jar' game. I don't know if you can see it in this shot, but the dates for the teddy's birthday were printed out on card, in the shape of a teddy, by Tracy, who works with Adrian. And she designed and printed out all the posters for all the tables too! And she even donated the teddy for the prize! Thanks Tracy!

Juliet worked hard running the 'Guess Where The Treasure Is Buried' game (see the little boxes on the table? Those were the prizes Adrian bought, little boxes full of chocolates and sweets, to replace the treasure chests) and taking entries for the 'Best Dressed Cupcake and Biscuit' competition (see the prizes laid out on the table?)

Lola worked hard running the busy cupcake and biscuit decorating table

And Jenny was rushed off her feet manning the cake stall! The table was crammed full of cakes (and spilled over onto the little table we had to add on the end!) when we started, but within an hour, we'd sold out! People had just started to arrive as I took these photos, which is why I only just fitted them in, and couldn't take any of the other shots I wanted to get.

And Tracy was run off her feet manning the raffle table too! She sold nearly 500 tickets, and had to write names and numbers on the back of them all too, so she didn't stop for most of the event!

And here's all the lovely handmade cards laid out ready to sell

People came in in a pretty steady stream for the first hour, which was great, as it meant that we were always busy, but never horribly busy to the point where people were queuing for too long, so it was just right! People bought tons of raffle tickets, tons of cakes, and lots of kids took part in decorating cakes or biscuits.

The treasure map game did well and we chose the winning squares of map at random (I dropped four coins on the map and whatever squares they landed on, those were the winning ones), and they didn't get guessed too quickly, which meant that the game lasted for most of the two hours. And when all four squares had been guessed, Juliet had the brainwave of selling the sweets which I'd originally bought to fill the treasure chests with as well!

The Teddy game and the sweets in the jar game were also popular, and lots of people were guessing away, which was great. And the face painting table was pretty busy too! People seemed a bit shy at first, but once Dylan kicked everything off with having his face painted as a robot, everyone else joined in too.

Here are some of the shots Adrian (who was supervising Seren and Dylan, and doing little odd jobs here and there throughout the event) took for me ...

The raffle table, the cake stall, and the cupcake/biscuit decorating table

I love the way everything turned out, the room went from bare to looking very CF-themed, and I just love the balloons as the finishing touch!

Dylan having his face painted as a robot

Me running the Teddy game and sweets in the jar game, with my trusty notepad to keep track of everyone's guesses. (Can you see the teddy game board better in this one? I can't show you a proper photo of it, because we had to cut it up at the end and draw the birthday date out of a hat at the end, so that it was totally fair)

Dylan was chuffed with his robot face! (I've blanked out any childrens' faces for privacy)

Robot Dylsie!

Dylan decorating a gingerbread man

The b-e-a-yootiful cake donated by a local baker, having pride of place on the raffle table

Another crowd shot

Look how busy it is! There are loads of people sitting down, eating cakes, drinking tea, and chatting and having fun, kids running around playing with balloons, playing the games, and buying raffle tickets

Seren had her face painted as a butterfly, then got overtired and very grizzly, so Adrian had to snap this shot quickly before she cried all her butterfly off!

At around 3.30 pm, I shouted that I'd be closing the Sweets in the Jar game and Teddy game momentarily, so anyone still wishing to guess should get their skates on! I had a few more guesses, and then I had to hurry to cut out all the dates from the teddy game, put them in a box, and I got a random member of the crowd to draw out a date.

And he picked January 18th! My birthday! :o)

The teddy was won by a lovely little girl who had contributed a lot to the various games, and she was very pleased with her lovely teddy!

Adrian had counted the sweets in the jar beforehand, and so we knew that there were 344 sweets inside, and we had such random guesses ranging from just over 100 to 400-odd, and even one at around 800, but one lady guessed 345 sweets, and so she won the jar.

And then while I was finalising the raffle prizes, Tracy, Lola and Juliet got together to judge the 'Best Dressed Cupcake/Biscuit' competition ...



And this fabulous entry won first prize!

Katie decorated her biscuit with the CF Trust Big Cake Bake logo! Well done Katie! She got a '1st' winners medal, and a box of chocolates! 2nd prize got the same, and then 3rd and 4th prize got activity books and colouring pencils with their medals.

And then, at last, it was time to draw the raffle, which went well, and all the kids present loved helping to pick out the winning raffle tickets!

And then, slightly after 4 pm, the event was all over. I had lots of lovely people helping with the clean up operation, and so even though there was quite a bit to clean up, everyone mucked in and by 5 pm, the room was bare and spotless again, and everything was loaded back into the car. Wow!

We and Jenny were the last to leave, and so we decided that we didn't want to say goodbye just yet, and so we all drove to McDonalds for a drink.

Robot Dylsie boy was still buzzing after our busy afternoon. He actually coped REALLY well with the whole thing! He did get a bit stressed while we were still setting up, but once the event started, he just had a great time. He was slightly worked up again in McDonalds, but I was so so so proud of him for coping so well! It was actually Seren who found the event more stressful!

Hungry kids waiting for a snack before heading off to Nanny & Grandad's house for tea

Jenny!

After a lovely drink and a chat together, we bade goodbye to Jenny, and Adrian dropped me and the collection bucket off at home before taking the kids round to see his parents.

When I got in, I just couldn't wait to find out how much we'd raised during the day, so I cracked open the collection box ...

How much money do you think's in there??

And counted ...

And counted ...

And counted ....

















And found out that we raised a fantastic ....

£362.34 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was an absolutely fabulous afternoon, and I was overwhelmed by the support people showed. I got quite tearful last night when I was thinking about just how generous people have been, with their time, their energy and their money. My fantastic helpers donated their time out of the goodness of their hearts, and most of them have no links at all to CF, but just wanted to help because they are great people.

And I totally could NOT have done it without them. Adrian has been fantastic, helping me to organise the event and dashing round with me to pick stuff up, and doing the treasure map and the gingerbread men; Tracy did all the posters and printing, and donated delicious cupcakes and the teddy bear, and ran the raffle stall; Jenny drove up all the way from Essex with a carload of cakes and ran the cake stall fabulously well; Lola did a fantastic job of running the cake decorating table; Juliet did a great job of running the treasure map game and the best dressed cupcake/biscuit competition; and Ann donated her time absolutely free and painted lots of pretty faces.

I had a very selfish reason for wanting to support the CF Trust: It helps to keep my two precious children alive, and will hopefully be responsible for finding the cure and saving their lives. Jenny has lost family to CF in the past, and so you could say she has a reason to support the CF Trust (and if you click on her blog link further up the page, you can sponsor her to run the Brighton marathon for CF), but everyone else just wanted to help out because they are good people. Good friends.

Oooh, I'm going to start blubbing again in a minute at this rate.

Anyway.

The box of chocolates I gave to every helper wasn't enough to say how grateful I am to them for helping us out, helping our event to be such a success. So many people have said how much fun they had, how much fun their kids had, and how much they enjoyed themselves.

So thank you girls!