Friday 27 April 2012

Girls Weekend ....

A friend and I are off to Wellington tonight for the weekend! That's right two whole days and two whole nights of doing exactly as we please. This will most likely include loads of shopping, coffee, yummy eats, more coffee, wine, dancing ....... So excited! Thank god for partners who can hold the fort. I felt pretty gratefull this morning,so got my lovely a few treats for over the weekend, see I'm not totally selfish!!

Wednesday 25 April 2012

Anzac Day ........



Today in New Zealand it is Anzac Day. A day where the nation remembers the New Zealand and Australian soldiers who fought during World War 1.
Our town as part of the 'lest we forget' commemorations, created a reenactment of the war. This was held in a heritage park on the edge of the city. The reenactment was made into a 20min film, then was opened to the public today.
We took the boys along and it was truly amazing, a real eye opener. The trenches were so real like with the soldiers moving around and the sound effects, that we had 3 little boys crying before we were halfway through the tour!



                             







Unfortunately I didn't get any good pics in the trenches, as I was too busy consoling crying children! The theatre company did an amazing job in portraying what it would have been like at the time. I think it was a great learning opportunity for the children as well, and helped them understand a bit more the meaning behind Anzac Day.

In other news, I finished my Milo yesterday! This was very exciting for me as its the first thing I have ever knitted apart from a wee hat that didn't work out! Sadly I have no pics, because I made it the wrong size! I didn't measure Archie before deciding what size to make and it has ended up too big! Nevermind lesson learnt, ill just have to knit another! Hope you all had a nice day xx

Monday 23 April 2012

Term two ......




School and kindy went back today in our neck of the woods. It was an odd day, almost like I had the  post holiday blues. I couldn't quite get it together, had all these things planned to do, but did nothing.... you get the drift!
 I really enjoy the slower pace of school holidays, hanging out at home, no time restraints etc. Don't get me wrong my kids drive me crazy from time to time, but in general they are great wee friends and I love watching them together, playing, interacting and creating. Its so nice for Archie as well to have his big brothers home to play with, I'm sure he gets lonely with just me! I guess what I'm trying to say, is it obviously takes me a while to get back into the swing, of school/kindy pickups, swimming lessons, school lunches and that I miss my little boys! I know It will only take a couple of days and we will be back on track! Anyone else feel a bit blah when the holidays end??

Thursday 19 April 2012

Sick .....

This morning we all piled in to the car at 8.20 am ready and rearing to go. This is very unusual for us, as we like to chill out in the morning and take it easy, especially during the school holidays! Today though, we were dropping Jack off too soccer camp, picking Nana up, and going out to see the hamster farm!! My littlies have been looking forward to this all week, I was looking forward to it as well as we were going to sneak in a coffee and a browse at one of the local winery's!


However half way there we had a glitch in the plan, Charlie was sick. Full on. Glassy eyes, high temp, sore tummy the lot. Now you might be wondering how I had not noticed that he was sick before then, this is why. Charlie is like the boy who cried wolf, he always has a sore tummy, or a headache, when its convenient for him (getting out of chores, not eating dinner etc..) So when he mentioned it this morning, I just brushed it off like any other day, bad mummy!

My new favourite winter sheets (managed to wash everyones sheets!)
Soooo, we dropped Nana off and headed home. Charlie was popped to bed, and promptly slept for 3 hours.
Now I had one small child who was very disappointed we didn't get to see any hamsters, so we did the next best thing in his eyes and baked! I had come across a recipe on line to make bulk biscuits. It only had 4 ingredients to make the basic dough, then you can add what you like. We quartered the dough, and added peanut butter to one lot, choc chips to the other, and put the other two in snap lock bags to freeze for another time. These turned out great, (I will write out the recipe at the end of the post), easy to work with dough, and nice and versatile. While they are certainly not some sort of culinary delight, I'm sure they will go down a treat in the lunch boxes.


 Next on the baking list was cupcakes, Archie loves making cupcakes, well actually the icing! Today was the first time he was able to use sprinkles,  (I'm a mean mummy who wont let her kids eat all that colour, plus its one of the things that makes jack go CRAZY!! ) finally I found at the super market, some sprinkles that used natural colours, hooray yep not deprived any more!

yay!

Cupcake ?
All in all, though we didn't have the fun excursion that was planned, while sicky slept, I was able to spend some nice one on one time with Archie, and I caught up on loads of house work!  There always is a silver lining, its taken me a long time to figure this out. I used to get so disappointed when things didn't go to plan,  rationally I knew that it was just life, but I used to dwell on the bad. Now the kids are older, this kind of thing doesn't happen so much which makes it easier I guess, and we can all go to the hamster farm as a family on the weekend xxx


Basic cookie dough

1cup sugar
500g marge (I used butter)
1 tin condensed milk
5 cups s/r flour
heat oven to 180, grease oven tray (I used baking paper instead)
cream butter & sugar. Mix in flour & cond. milk. Add any extras to mix - this is the fun part - we did a few different versions - added cocoa to some, choc chips to some, craisins to some, orange peel to some - the choices are endless, what ever you have on hand to biff in - do it! Place on baking tray in balls & press down with fork (we did slightly bigger than teaspoon sized balls)
Cook for 10-15 mins til golden brown.

Monday 16 April 2012

Uninterrupted .........





Uninterrupted sewing time........  AMAZING!! Thank you my lovely for taking days off in the school holidays xxxx

Sunday 15 April 2012

Sunday .....

Today I went to the market and had coffee with friends. It was sunny, the coffee was good and we gossipped for ages FAB!  I got 3 dresses, a really pretty floral one, a practical merino one, and one I will refashion into a tee. I got all 3 for $4, SCORE!!



Merino dress, nice and cosy!



 
We took the boys for a bike ride up the river, then an ice cream.
                              




Archie's Fav!

Off to the Trains, Archie's idea of paradise!!

Home we then went for dinner and whilst I was making dinner, decided to make a loaf to use up some of the mountain of feijoas we have at the moment. The boys wanted bikkies, so made some of them as well!


It was lovely to spend the day together as a family. We all seem to be so busy with our own activities, that we make it a priority to have family time on a Sunday. We don't do anything fancy, just hang out and enjoy each others company.


Jack took charge of the  bedtime story!
Tomorrow Andy has the day off, and he is taking all the kids out for the morning so I can have have some uninterrupted sewing time! I'm looking forward to completing some of the orders that I have mounting up, I might even be able to show you some pics!

Friday 13 April 2012

The Hunger Games ......

What can I say, join the revolution and read!! I havn't been able to put this book down, such an easy but fascinating read. Really looking forward to the movie, hopefully it's at least half as good as the book!


Thursday 12 April 2012

Sock Monkeys ...............


Faceless sock monkey!


A while ago I stumbled across this tutorial on how to make sock monkeys. I had a quick look at, thought cute i'll make these one day, and filed it away in to favourites.
Cue rainy day, school holidays, and a couple of little boys who wanted to do some craft, I decided it was a good time to give them a go.
So we gathered some socks and got started. The first part of the process where you cut out  the sock, sew the legs and stuff, is great for the kids. Charlie (5) managed to cut round the legs on his own, and they both stuffed stuffed stuffed! This part was fun, and the child participation rate was high!


                                                                                   




Whilst they were busy, I had a quick look at what we were doing next. This is where I realised there was a bit more to the project then I originally thought (pays to read the WHOLE tutorial first before starting).  So we sourced some more socks that were needed for arms, legs, tails, ears and a mouth, and started sewing. I was on the machine and the boys were still stuffing each individual item. This is where Archie started losing interest!!



Once this part was done, all the rest was hand sewing and up to me. The boys put a movie on, we all got comfy and I started sewing.Now I'm not the best at hand sewing, so this bit took me  quite a while. If you are used to it, it shouldn't take to long.


Now it was time for a face, apparently none of my buttons were suitable. So Charlie took his faceless monkey to Nana's , and it came back all pimped out!!! He also brought back some eyes for his brother, too kind.


The kids LOVE their monkeys, and have played with them heaps. Jack came home and decided he might even like to make one! All in all it was a fun thing to do, the kids were engaged and involved in quite a bit of it, and the final product wasn't too shabby!!

Monday 9 April 2012

Long Weekend ........

We are all shattered, have two boys in bed asleep. We have just had the best and busiest Easter weekend, full of Family, fun and chocolate!


We have a few traditions that we like to do over the Easter weekend, the first one being 'The grand annual Easter egg hunt'. The hunt is always held on the last day of school, and is such a fun way to kick off the school hols. Loads of family's from around the neighbourhood, head down to the queens gardens, where the hunt is held. Here the organisers, have hidden the eggs all ready for the children, such excitement!
                             




On good Friday we like to make Hot cross buns and invite the family around for afternoon tea. Uunfortunately I really suck at making them and they turned out like little brown rocks!! I think I'm going to blame it on the recipe, and search out a new one for next year!
This long weekend, we also had the added celebration of two birthdays, a 60th held on good Friday, and a  family 30th held the next day.
It was really great to have the whole family home on Saturday to share a meal. Its not often we are all together at the same place! The kids love being surrounded by their uncles and aunties, and got spoilt to death!

                  
                    

Sunday was egg day, and its seems its either feast or famine round here!! This year was feast, the kids got so many eggs it was not funny, considering they are not used to a huge amount of sugar it wasn't pretty either!! It was also the day everyone went home. We fare welled, my brother and his wife back to Blenheim, and my sister and her partner back up North. Its always so bitter sweet when they come to stay as we all get along really well, yet we cant seem to all live in the same place! I do so envy people who get to live in the same town as their family.

We are recuperating today, well meant to be. Andy took the kids to the skate park and ended up at A&E with Jack who split his chin open doing stunts! Luckily he narrowly missed out getting stitches and got glued up instead. He doesn't seem to bothered and we even managed a family bike ride up the river in the afternoon (and more Easter eggs)!!




We were blessed with beautiful weather all weekend, great company, and happy kids..... what more could one want! Hope you all had a lovely weekend xx

Wednesday 4 April 2012

Life .....

Well life has been very busy round here the last few days! My sister and her partner flew in on Saturday for the week, so there has been lots of coffee drinking and gossipping. Andy and the boys were lucky to be invited on a fishing trip out to Durville island, on Sunday. It was a very long day for them, especially wee Charlie who was car sick and sea sick!! They bought home loads of Blue Cod though, that we had for dinner two nights in a row YUM!!!
I have started knitting my very first 'Milo'. Ive been wanting to knit one of these for two years, after drooling over the ones that keep popping up over here! Hopefully I can get it done ready for this winter, I really am such an amateur knitter. Ive been really enjoying my market book 'Toast', will give you a wee review once I'm done.
Two more days of school till the holidays, I can not wait! I really love that time to re connect with the kids, and for everyone to recharge their batteries.
Off to the farmers market now, for lunch and the daily coffee with sister. Then home to make some Easter egg hunt bags!





(These pics have no relavence to the post, just thought id put them on because I hate a blogpost without photo's and because they are cute!)