Saturday, July 31, 2010

I can't wait for summer





Do you think my kids enjoy the pool....... take a look at these pic's of them in January this year jumping in together. They love making a big splash in the water! Double click on each picture to see their facial expressions...classic.

Friday, July 30, 2010

Where does the time go?




Everyone tells you your kids grow up before your very eyes and whilst we all enjoy our kids reaching new milestones it's amazing how in just 6 years they can go from babies to interesting, semi-independant children. Here are a couple of pictures of James asleep a few years apart!!!

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

I want to make some of these!!!



Oh my God, it seems everyone's blogs are in over drive at the moment after Tracey posted her stunning white Christmas in July dessert table. If you haven't stumbled across Tracey's blog pop right on over there. She is a mother of 5 (yes 5 kids) and manages to host the most stunning birthday parties that Amy Atlas would be proud of. Tracey made the chocolate mousse in tiny shot glasses for her 40th birthday party.....simply stunning and I want to try them out. Check out her blog for more pictures.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Mud, glorious mud!!!






All kids need to get down and dirty and my kids are no exception. To start with I was "don't get your clothes dirty", don't dig up the lawn but then I remembered as a kid we used to make mud pies and have a ball. After all what are washing machines all about anyway unless they have dirty clothes in them. The kids have been enjoying the dirt in the backyard and generally getting very messy and they are having the time of their lives. Sienna entertains herself for hours with some dirt, a bit of water and her tea set.

The other day she poured me a "hot chocolate" which she scooped up a teaspoon of mud, put it in a cup and then got the teapot which was full of water and filled up the cup and then mixed it around. I was laughing because she used to make me milkshakes but now the hot chocolate seemed more appropriate and it was just so cute. James on the other hand was very interested in making mud shapes to put on the table but I love it when my kids are outdoors being kids.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Mock Magazine Cover (Photoshop)


A couple of years ago when I was starting out in photoshop one of the photoshop magazines had an article in it with a suggested exercise to do a "mock up" cover of a magazine cover to practise your photoshop skills. So last week when James wanted to take some pictures to school of our veggie garden I did one up for him to take along with some other pictures of our garden along with some tomatoes and capsicum. I showed him the real gardening magazine and explained to him that this was a "pretend magazine cover" for a bit of fun and to explain that to his teacher. Anyway the next day I asked his teacher did she like the photos she told me that she thought it was a real magazine cover and had to take a double take on it. You can see that James and Sienna's names are in the bottom left hand corner of the cover (double click on picture to make it bigger) but it's just a little bit of fun. (small things amuse small minds they say)

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Old Family Slides



Back when I was young, slides were a big part of family life and we always looked forward to the slide projector coming out for those family nights of viewing with it being perched on top of the ironing board with a couple of encyclopedia's to prop it up at the front. I can even hear the whirring noise of the projector just thinking about it. Last year I bought a slide converter and gave it to my mum to convert some of our old slides at her leisure. She's converted a few and my sisters and I love looking at them (and laughing) at how we were back then and remembering those moments. Here's 2 slides of me which have been converted to digital format however, I'm yet to fix them up in photoshop to get rid of the dust/dirt marks as these slides are over 40 years old but you get the idea of this cute little kid (ha....no really it's me).

The first slide is of me sitting in front of our garden on the footpath. My mum loves gardening and back then all the mums in the neighbourhood had beautiful flower beds. The second picture is of me at Bribie Island with a plastic poodle which I don't remember but I think the photo is very cute. It's fun to travel back in time and look at my childhood. Our kids are going to have oodles of pictures to look back on complete with those stories which have been journalled.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Sienna's kindy drawing of her holiday






I just had to post this picture that Sienna did at kindy last week as it only came home today. They had to draw something they did on holidays and as you know she had heaps of things to pick from but she drew this picture of James (on the left) and herself at Rainbow Bay. She said that she was carrying the surfboard in her hand (double click on the picture and I think that will make the picture larger to view. We don't have a surboard but we do have a boogie board and that is what she's referring to).

These moments make me stop for a minute and truly appreciate this gift of my little kids and how they view life. Whilst we all know how much time it takes to raise them (24/7) I really had to just stop and stare at this little picture for about 5 mins to take it all in and what that meant to Sienna. The clouds, the rocks, the sky and the fact that she had also drawn the surfboard is what life is all about. In it's simplicity and it's these things that make me truely treasure being her mother.

Rainbow Bay is such a beautiful place all year round and we are lucky enough to have a wonderful friend who loves to share her beach with us.

I've also included some pictures of the rocks she is referring to that the kids love to walk on. They love looking for crabs and shells and just pottering in the sunshine.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Tonight's side dish



It doesn't get much better than this. Picking veggies, plating them up and sharing them with your family. I'm taking this side dish to my Mum's place and even though it's winter just those fresh colours just makes you want to try some. Sunday night roast at my mum's place is a tradition of my family for over 20 years. Most people are home on Sunday evenings so my mum made it "roast night" and we all catch up every week. The kids are in their pj's and usually watch a dvd and catch up with their Brisbane cousins.

I know my little veggie plot would be considered small by any standards (2 x 1.2x1.2 boxes) but I'm loving it. Today I planted some more butterhead lettuce, dill and coriander.

Sharon, Di and Amy...all I can tell you is it's in the nozzle and the wrist action and just practise. It is not easy to start with but if you use the "buttercream recipe" (just search on google) because it doesn't need to go into the fridge so you can ice them the night before and they will look beautiful the next day. (I have to work out how to reply on my comments, Sharon help!!) The options are a bit confusing and I'll have to look into that.

If you want to see some lovely cupcakes go to Leanne's blog where she did the most inspiring lego cupcakes for her son's birthday last year (posted 15th June, 2009). And her gift wrapping of those individual cakes is something that should be in a magazine.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Cupcakes




After being inspired by lots of people's cupcakes I talked my sister into coming along with me to learn how to make and ice beautiful cupcakes. We did a course with Sharnel last year which was great because gave me the confidence to tackle the job. I had always wanted to send along to kindy or school a beautiful batch of cakes. For James 4th birthday at kindy I sent along cakes that 4 year old kids would eat but I was dismally disappointed with my efforts. It had a lot to do with the icing and my theme was red and blue for spiderman which (so I'm told after the fact) when you use the red food colouring in those little boxes of colouring it actually comes out pink and the more you put in the worse it gets. Anyway I swore after those cakes that I would learn how to make a beautiful batch of cupcakes for his 5th birthday. I can honestly say I was very proud of these cakes and they were 1000% improvement on the ones I did the year before. Let me know what you think of these little cakes and I can't show the lovely cakes off without including a picture of a very excited 6 year old on the morning of his birthday.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Southbank




After our little trip to the Science Centre we had some lunch at Southbank Parklands and then walked back to the carpark along the riverside walk which was lovely. We stopped and took these couple of pics on our overcast day in Brisbane.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Dutch Pancakes - Poffertjes




I first experienced poffertjes at the Red Hill Markets which is about one and a half hours out of Melbourne some years ago. I thought they were delicious and a real treat. For my birthday one year I was given the cast iron pan and every time I make the them it reminds me of going to the markets which is a lovely memory for me.
Last week on holidays I decided this would be one of our activities after reading Nicole's post on waffles so I decided that we would make the poffertjes. I hope these pictures don't make you too hungry. I made about 10 batches of these plates and they were quickly eaten by the kids and their friends. My friend and I saved the last batch for ourselves afterall we deserved some too. SO DELICIOUS!!!

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Veggie Garden


Here's what I picked from our veggie garden today.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Home made bread


Only 2 more days of holidays for Sienna and 3 more for James. I've had a wonderful time with the kids and today's activities was making some home made bread in the bread maker. We put it on in the morning and then went to visit Granny and when we arrived home the house smelled of freshly made bread...yum. Also picked some tomatoes from the garden for our sandwiches which is still a real buzz for me.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

10 Pin Bowling







I took the kids 10 Pin Bowling this week. Sienna calls it "Ben 10 Bowling" because that's all she hears which is cute. Anyway....we had a ball (ha ha). The kids loved it, I loved it as I haven't played in years and it was a great activity for a raining overcast day at the beach. Half way through the game they turned on the disco lights and the kids thought that was pretty exciting. Here's some pic's of our bowling afternoon.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Farmers Markets and our Veggie Garden




The kids and I went to the local Farmers Market this morning to get some organic eggs, strawberries, Stanthorpe apples and some nuts. We had our traditional dutch poffertjes which are delicious. James and I convinced Sienna to try them this time however that meant that we had to share them between 3 people instead of just 2 people this time so it was only fitting to get 2 plates of this yummy stuff afterall we are on holidays.

When James was born we lived in Melbourne and every Saturday we would go out for breakfast and then go to the markets for fresh fruit and veggies which I just loved. When we moved back to Brisbane they didn't really have anything like that here however, 6 years later there are Farmers Markets all across the city which is fantastic. Good for the farmer and good for us and the atmosphere is always great out in the fresh air. I've done another little 5x7 collage (CZ design) for our morning at the markets which is going to go in a "holiday album" and also I've done one on our home grown veggies. It's good to see a little collection of how our garden is growing.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Science Centre







Yesterday we met some friends and went to the Science Centre which is great for little kids as they can feel and touch everything in sight. I thought one of the funny things was the "head on a platter"....do you ever feel like that as a Mum, wanting your kids head on a platter..... well at the Science Centre you can do just that. The table and chairs James is sitting on is built extra LARGE so that when normal people get on them they look really tiny which is why James looks like one of the small toys in toy story. It's a great place to keep the kids occupied and happy.