A Birth day

Ruby ndded to Angus and finshed cleaning up before walking over and picking up Caprice who bearly woke as she was lifted into her arms making Ruby chuckle. She saw Angus move to check the doors and windows while she carried Caprice up to her room then changed her into her sleep suit and place her in her cot to sleep. Leaving the door slightly open so Finn could leave the room if he wanted from under the cot she headed to their room.

Inside she listens to Angus talk about the servival week end and chuckled as she changed into her pj's " I spent time out doors while with the ministry , and when homeless" she said as she folded and placed her clothes on a chair closer to the bed. " I do agree its been a while and that Im sure the younger ones learnd a valued lesson from Robert." she moved and slipped into bed next to Angus " ether way it will be intresting to se how they cope." she said with a soft yawn and chukle as she cuddled against him slowly falling asleep with her head resting gently on his chest.

When Angus woke, Ruby looked to him like she was still asleep. He got up and checked on the baby and saw she was still asleep as well. He showered, shaved and changed and went downstairs and made coffee and a batch of cherry scones with a light glaze of icing across the top, wanting the kids to have some sort of breakfast before they went to work. He let Finn out and fed him and then poured himself a mug of coffee.

He heard the boys get up, none too happily, and they dragged themselves downstairs sleepily. Angus poured them coffee, and they sat down at the table, yawning. The girls came upstairs a couple minutes later, looking fresh and crisp and wide awake.

"You two have to do better than that," Anise told them, pouring coffee for herself and Ginger. "You look pitiful."

"I don't care how pitiful they look. They aren't getting out of mucking all those stalls today," Ginger replied. "A bet is a bet, and they lost."

"What bet was that?"

"We bet them that we could get our chores done more efficiently than they did," Ginger said. "Not fastest, just with fewer mistakes. We won by a mile. They were done in record time but they had to redo half of it. So, they have to muck out all the stalls for the rest of the week."

"And they already have kennel duty," Anise laughed. "They're scheduled to clean all the kennels for the smaller magical creatures."

"So they're going to be up to their necks in animal waste today," Angus said.

"Yup," Anise laughed.

"I feel for you, Boys," Angus said, determined not to laugh at their misfortune, even though he was sorely tempted.

Ruby woke to find Angus already up and she smiled as she slipped from the bed showered and dressed before going to fetch Caprice who was laid in her crib plaging with a stuffed teddy. " come here you, time to get dressed and have some of daddys breakfast" she said smiling a she changed her diper then her into a trouser suit and matching booties before she picked her up and carried her down to the living room " morning" she said and then looked at the boys " wow why the long face , you lose a bet or something" she sid then glanced at Angus and chuckled seeing his face she knew she was right.

Placing Caprice in her high chair she walked over to get her food and small spoon to feed her. " Morning love" she said and kissed Angus's cheek gently " I 'm guessing it was a bad bet the boys lost?" she asked softly a she warmed the jar for Caprice before placing the contents into a small plastic bow so she could feed her.

"Morning," he said. "They lost a bet about whether they or the girls would get their chores done with fewer errors, and they lost to the girls. So now, they're apparently going to be mucking stalls and cleaning kennels for a few days. And that could take them quite awhile to do every day, particularly if they don't get it done to Jack's satisfaction, and actually, Jack is easy to please compared to Robert and Kate, so they probably will need to slow down and get it right. Get yourselves at least a scone, Guys. You're going to need a bit of food before you face all that shoveling."

The kids each had a scone and some fresh fruit and then hurriedly packed their lunches and headed out the door, and as they left, Edward and Simone arrived.

"We're ready whenever you are," Edward said.

"I'm ready whenever Ruby is," Angus said.

Ruby listened to Angusand burst out laughing but soon calmed down " oh boy thats some bet they lost" she said and chuckled as he moved to give Caprice her first spoon just as Edward and Simone walked in " morning guys let me just give Caprice her breakfast first " she said and looked at Simone " if I don't shes cranky all day." she said and chuckled but paused as Simone walked over and took the spoon .

Moving to transphigure her clothing she looked at Angus and Edwrd " all right guess Im ready" she said with a smile.

"You know, I think she'll be far less cranky if we just take some food for her with us and feed her at the restaurant. Otherwise, she'll be bored and then she'll really be cranky," Simone said. She got two fresh jars of baby food, cleaned up Caprice and picked her up while Edward picked up the baby bag.

"Let's go," Edward said. He apparated them all to Sparks, and when they went in, the server was kind enough to seat them at a table by the window so they could look out over Diagon Alley. The server brought a high chair, and Simone settled Caprice into it.

As they were looking over the breakfast menu, Angus ordered a carafe of coffee for the table, and the server brought an enchanted pitcher of coffee, enchanted to stay hot, and some mugs, and Simone got out what looked to Angus like a pacifier.

"Is that some sort of new pacifier?

"Actually, no," she said. "It's called a mesh feeder. Look here. See this attachment where the nipple should be? Look here." She took that piece off, and put some of Caprice's applesauce in it, attached it back to the pacifier and gave it to her. It took Caprice a moment to get the hang of it, but she soon figured out that if she chewed on the pacifier, she got applesauce. It seemed to make her quite happy.

"it'll take her a little bit to get that bit of applesauce out of there. When that's gone, I'll add some more," Simone smiled. "It feeds her and gives her something new to do at the same time."

"Genius," Angus smiled. "Well done. So what's everyone having for breakfast?"

"I think I'm having the fresh strawberry pancakes," Simone said.

"And I think I'm having the ham and cheese eggy bread sandwich," Edward said.

"I'm going for the Eggs Benedict," Angus said. "Ru, what are you having?"

Ruby chuckled a nodded " I never thought of that" she said and chuckled as she picked up Caprice and together they aperated to Sparks. Placing Caprice in the high chair she watched Simone with the mesh feeder and how Caprice took to it so easily " I agree with Angus that's genius" She watched as Caprice enjoyed the pacifier.

Now with her busy Ruby checked the menu and sighed " I don't know, it all looks good, I think I'll go with what Angus is having." she said smiling at him as she set down the menu.

Lizzie herself brought breakfast to the table and served them.

"When they said you were here, I got so excited. I had to come see you," she said. "It's so good to see you all. Could I send a taster's box with you this morning? I was going to drop it off at your place later this morning, but since you're here, I might send it with you. Summer breakfast pastries, cookies for a summer tea menu and also some summer desserts."

"That sounds great," Angus said. "And with four teenagers in the house, I'm sure I won't have a single crumb go to waste."

"And this is Caprice already? Oh my word. How she's grown! I almost don't recognize her from when you were first in here when she was a newborn," Lizzie said. "Hey, I'm working on making some fresh peach filling for some pasties, and some of it at the bottom of the skillet got very soft. It's really quite lovely, but I can't use it in the pasties. I could send some out for the baby since it is so soft.

"Do me a favor, would you? Send some extra and some toasted crumpets," Angus said. "Maybe some clotted cream."

"Sure," she said. "I'll get it myself, and I'll be straight back." She left and came back with a platter of fresh, toasted crumpets, some clotted cream and a dish of the hot, soft peaches from the batch of pasty filling. Simone fed Caprice a bite of the peaches, and Caprice got excited, squealing and bouncing in her chair. Angus took a couple crumpets, spooned on a generous dollop of the peaches, along with some of the clotted cream, cut each one in half and handed a half to Ruby, a half to Simone, and a half to Edward. Simone took a bite of hers and smiled.

"Oh my goodness. If that was whipped cream instead of clotted cream, you might have yourself a breakfast dessert of sorts," she said. "That is absolutely lovely."

Ruby smiled seeing Lizzie walk into the room "Hey, yeah she has grown some" she said as she heard her mention boxes " That would be wonderful" she added then let Angus talk to Lizzie who left them and returned with what Angus asked for as she took the scone with peach and clotted cream she hummed at the taste " I have to agree with Simone this is heavenly" she said then looked at Caprice who was slapping up the soft peach compote " I think it got the caprice seal of approval too" she said with a chuckle.

" We should have this often," she said looking at Lizzy " please put this on the menu, Im sure you'll sell loads," she added as she took another bite of her scone.

"Really?" Lizzie asked.

"Taste," Angus said, fixing a half a crumpet for Lizzie to taste. She bit into it.

"Oh my goodness," she said. "And maybe with a few slivered almonds for some crunch. What should we call it, though?"

"Put it on some little mini waffles and just call them what they are. Mini waffles with Baked Cinnamon Peaches," Angus said.

"I might go make some and served them to some of the folks here and ask their opinions," Lizzie said. She hurried back to the kitchen, and Angus laughed.

"I think we're good to tuck into our own breakfasts now," he said. Angus kept his eyes open, and it wasn't more than a few minutes before the servers were taking out little plates with mini waffles, the baked peaches and whipped cream for customers to try, and right from the start, people were raving about them.

"Looks like we've come up with a new breakfast special," Edward laughed. "You think you can recreate that at home?"

"Oh, I'm sure I can," Angus said.