A Birth day

Ruby listened to Angus as he explained how he delt with the food flinging of Abby. She looked to Caprice and noded making a note to do that next time she threw her food so she would know not to do it again. " I'll have to rember that" she said then chuckled at Sam's words about the fridge being skint. Hearing Angus say if they rote a list then they would order them. " we'll make sure of it , but please no junk food, or at least space it out with healthy foods too" she said taking Caprice from her high chair and setting her down on the floor on her play mat.

Angus looked at her blankly, completely surprised at her remark. Junk food? When had she ever seen him buy any, except perhaps for the occasional rare trip to Honeydukes?

"What?" he asked her. "When have I ever bought junk food?"

He cleared the table of the rest of the breakfast plates and put the leftovers away and then cleaned up Abbey's face and hands. Then he introduced Cris and Abbey to each other and had them help him get out all the ingredients for homemade marshmallows, and he had the kids measure out all the ingredients for three batches of marshmallows--one chocolate, one strawberry, and one vanilla. They were fascinated as they watched how a basic recipe of sugar and gelatin and a few other things could make light, fluffy homemade marshmallows. The kids had had a great time, and they didn't even give him any hassle about cleaning up the mess when they were finished.

"Okay, Ru, I'm done with the marshmallows. I'm going to go next door and see if Kate will let us take Abbey with us this afternoon and then perhaps get her swimsuit," Angus said. "They're ready to make those chocolate cookies with you. I'll be back in a few minutes."

Ruby chuckled "I mean the kids when they give you their list of things we need to order" she said with a chuckle to Angus " you never make junk food or if you do its healthy" she admited as she, Abby and Chris started the cookies hapily rolling out two balls of dough one pink and one chocolate and cutting them into diferent shapes.

Soon all the dough had been cut even a pink colored dough she'd made for Abby , she placed them on baking trays and placed them into the oven to cook while she cleaned up leaving a little peice of the dough for Chris and Abby to play withuntil they wanted to cook and eat it. She heard Angus and smiled "Okay, same here just waiting for the cookies to finish cooking and cool then we'll decorate them and put them in two boxes, one for Abby and one for Chris" she said with a smile to them both " I have to admit they both did very well in the kitchen."

"Well, two things about that. Just because they put it on their list doesn't mean I'll order it. And, second, they've always had their own money since they came to live with us, and now that the boys can apparate themselves and the girls, we can't be sure they won't buy it themselves and put it in the fridge. Frankly, the sooner they get it out of their systems, buy all the junk food they want and then see how lousy they feel after eating a bunch of it, the sooner, they'll learn how to eat it in moderation of they want to all be fighters. They've had pretty much just all healthy food since living with us, and their systems aren't accustomed to it. So if they go crazy on it, they're not going to feel well, none of them. And I'd rather them get that lesson while they're home with us rather than living out on their own and feeling really lousy at the outset of any skirmish. At least this way, if they aren't in their top form, we can help keep them covered if they get into any sort of fight."

Angus checked the pantry and the fridge, and he made a list and sent it off to the suppliers. He glanced outside and saw Nigel walking Robert outside to a chaise lounge by the pool. Robert was dressed in just simple khaki shorts and a plain tee shirt and wearing dark glasses. Angus knew the glasses were because his headache from his head injury was not going to let him deal with a lot of sunshine. Still the fresh air would be good for him, and he guessed the outside would be quieter than sometimes all the people in the main house were. He watched Michael bring out a couple cold drinks and sit down in the lounge beside him.

"Looks like Robert is on the mend enough to be able to be outside with Michael, so long as it stays quiet for him," Angus told her. "Clearly he's going to be on sick leave for a bit. I think the best the rest of us can do is to give him some space today." He watched them making their cookies, and he actually wasn't a bit surprised that they were good help. Abbey had always been a big help in the kitchen, and when Cris had helped him, Angus had found Cris did very well.

"I think he must have helped his mum or his gran, but Cris likes being in the kitchen," Angus said. "And Abbey is actually really good at helping."

Ruby listened to Angus and could not disagree with his thoughts, she found them to be right, it was something she would do as a young person after she left home. " I forgot they have their own money, and you are so right, they have to learn by making their own mistakes," she said smiling as Chris placed a cookie that looked like a dino on a plate ready to cool and decorate. Ruby saw out the window Robert and Nigel and smiled "Good to see him awake " she said and nodded as she mixed a bit of food colouring into some icing for Chris and Abby to spread on their cookies.

Listening to Angus talk about giving Robert some space she nodded "Agreed, he needs a few days to recover." she said now with six different small bowls of iceing in a rainbow of colours in front of her.

"Aggie," Abbey asked. "Can I has dippy icing?"

"Oh. Sure. I forgot to tell Ruby that works really well for you. Let me get a little saucer for you and for Cris," He said. He went to the cabinet and got out a stack of saucers and put them on the table and put some on some of the saucers. "Watch this," he told Ruby. Then he looked at Abbey. "Show her how its done, Abs." Abbey picked up a dino cookie and turned it upside down and dipped it into a saucer that had pink icing on it, and then she turned the cookie right side up with the top of it now nicely covered in pink icing, and she put it on the table.

"Aggie," she frowned. "He no gots no eyes. He gots to have eyes."

"I can manage that," he said. He put some black icing in a tiny piping bag and cut a teeny hole in the tip, and piped a little black dot on the cookie for an eye. "Better?" She nodded.

Cris, meanwhile, picked up a spoon, spooned green icing on the cookie and spread it on the cookie with the back of the spoon. It seemed to work pretty well for him.

"Well, they've both got different ways of doing it, but it seems to work for them. Alright, I'll be back. I still have to go see Kate or Robert and get a swimsuit for Abbey. I'll be back in a few minutes," he said, leaving to go to the main house.

Ruby looked puzzled at what Abby was saying but Angus seem to know and she stood watching her as he dipped the cookie "Wow that's neat" she said smiling " I've not seen that done before." she chuckled seeing Angus put two small black dots for eyes on.

It was now she watched Chris and nodded as he used the back of the spoon to spread it over the dino cookie. " very nice Chris" she said smiling "Abby and you can do the rest." she said with a smile "there both really good at this" Ruby said to Angu with a smile " I'm guessing that's your influence in regards Abby and yeah maybe he did help his mom or nan as he seems to enjoy it a lot."

He made a quick trip to the main house and returned with a tote bag of clothes and toys for Abbey.

"Kate was delighted that we wanted to take Abbey with us to the beach, so we packed a bag for her, but she says it's very possible that Abbey might not need that swimsuit since she usually turns into a labrador around water. If she gets stuck, we'll have Robert or Nigel turn her back when we get home," Angus told her.

"She was always in the kitchen with me from the day we brought her home from St. Mungo's," Angus said. he asked Cris where he learned his kitchen skills. Cris smiled and spoke to him for a moment.

"He says he spent a lot of time with his gran because his parents both worked. He says that of all the people he misses, he misses his gran most of all, and he thinks a lot about the fact that they didn't have a choice but to let her believe he was dead. He didn't want that sort of heartbreak for her, but it wasn't his choice. Angus laid his hand on Cris's shoulder and gave him a bit of reassurance.

"He said he learned it from his gran and says he spent most of his time with her because both his parents worked. He misses his gran most of all, especially since they've had to let her and all the rest of his family believe he's dead. I can't blame him. If I had had to somehow let Edward think I was dead? I don't know. I think that kind of grief would have been just horrendous."

Ruby chuckled at Angus's words about Abby turning into a labrador at the sight of water. " yeah but just in case she doesn't she has it " she said and smiled at Abby " I'm sure she'll stay as a little girl, for us" she added then heard him talk to Chris and translate his response " yeah that's not good for someone his age, but Im glad he can make happy memories of cooking with us." she said and moved to give him a gentle hug with a warm smile.

Jessie now appeared at the door with a tote bag with some things for Chris " theres a swim trunk in there for him and a towel both have dinos on them I saw them and knew he would love them" he said smiling as he placed it down beside Abbys bad. " wow did you ice thoughts, they look delishios." he said to Chris with a smile.

Cris was focused on his cookies, and as he was icing one, it broke into about three pieces. He offered Abbey half of the cookie, and then he ate the other two pieces that made up the other half. Abbey grinned, and it seemed to Angus that Abbey and Cris were going to get along just fine.

"Thanks, Jessie," Angus said.

It was then that Angus remembered something new he had bought awhile back and had never used. He went into the pantry and got out some artist brushes and a set of edible marker pens. He brought them back, found a cookie that had dried, opened up the markers and then drew some eyes and a smile on a cookie and explained to Abbey and to Cris that the markers had edible ink. The kids were elated. Cris took a dino cookie and, using the markers, he drew on the cookie to change the dino to a very detailed dragon. Abbey was fascinated, watching him draw on the cookie. Angus, meanwhile, had taken a kitty cookie that Abbey had painted orange, and he had used the brushes to add detail to the cookie to make it look like a ginger cat with stripes and gave it a red collar, green eyes, and whiskers. Abbey kept icing cookies so Angus and Cris would have cookies to add detail to.