Sunday, October 31, 2010

Halloween







A few quick pictures of the kids dressing up for Halloween in their witch hats and skull wrist bands which they loved. What would we do without the $2 shops!!! After our little photo shoot we visited a "Haunted House" which was fun for the kids so more of those photos tomorrow.

Sunday morning breakfast



Fresh eggs for breakfast...there's only one thing to do and that is to get Bill Granger's recipe book out and make scrambled eggs...this recipe uses cream and makes the eggs so light and fluffy.

Coco has just laid her 4th egg and Sienna is patiently waiting for Fluffy to start laying. There's not a lot you can do with 4 eggs over 5 days but once we start getting 2 eggs a day it will be great.

I watched Annabel Langbein's "Free Range Cook" show last night which is on ABC at 6pm and she bought herself a couple of chickens for fresh eggs and also made a meringue dessert which has coconut in it and fresh fruit. Apparently you have to use eggs that are 7 days old so once we get 2 eggs a day I'll save some and try her recipe.

Friday, October 29, 2010

Nesting - they've worked it out


Today Coco (we think) worked out that upstairs in the chicken coop was the best place to lay her egg. The funny thing was the kids let the chickens out before breakfast and Coco kept running past James, onto our pavers and behind the outdoor fridge. James put her on the grass and before he turned around Coco ran back to the same spot. This happened about 5 times and in the end I told James to just put them back in the coop. Coco and fluffy immediately went upstairs and starting scratching around and we looked inside and worked out Coco was the one making all the noise. About 10 mins later James went back and opened the door and he found the egg.

We were just as excited and jumping for joy about our 2nd egg as we were about the first. Just have to wait until Fluffy lays an egg and then we'll have 2 eggs a day. So far James wanted the first egg, Sienna wants the 2nd egg so I'm hopeful I might get to try one of these tomorrow. We are having such fun with the chickens.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Home Baking


I baked these yummy biscuits today for the kids. The good thing is they can get stored in the freezer and come out each day for afternoon tea. Out of sight, out of mind (for me anyway).

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Our very first EGG






This afternoon after school the kids and I went to the chicken coop to fix up the drink dispenser that had fallen down and low and behold James found an egg in the bottom of the coop. We were very excited and the kids each had a turn holding it for the photo. I wonder what surprizes there will be tomorrow in the coop. Coco and Fluffy have been allowed to roam around the yard for quite a few hours while I've been at home but the last few days they got into my veggie patch and dug up my need seedlings so they have been confined to the coop until the kids come home from school today. James wants me to boil the egg for an egg sandwich for school tomorrow however I would love to have it on toast for breakfast myself. Maybe I'll give it to him and I can have the next one...oh what a good mother I am...... the sacrifices one makes for your kids!!!! Hopefully there will be plenty more eggs where that one came from.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Santa was here




On Christmas morning last year Santa had left an A4 size photo of himself delivering the presents. James was the first to spot the picture and called over Sienna to have a look and they were both very excited about it. James said to me that the elves probably took the photo because Santa was in the picture which I agreed with. Santa only decided to do this about 3pm on Christmas Eve so was very busy trying to organize it all and I know Santa enjoyed getting his picture taken. It's fun to be a kid at Christmas (or adult) as the case may be!!!

Thursday, October 21, 2010

9 weeks until Christmas






I can't believe there's only 9 weeks until Christmas, where did the year go. It's only 5 1/2 weeks until the start of the December Daily which Ali Edwards designed and I have just bought some digital embellishments from Designer Digitals ready for the start of documenting the 25 days leading up to Christmas. It is such an exciting time when you have small kids and I love seeing their faces light up when we go to visit the Christmas Lights at people's places. Last year we went to a house that had a fake snow machine and the kids just loved it. Here's a few photos that I took and I love seeing the look on their faces of how much they were enjoying themselves. I'm hoping this house will be open again this year so we can go again because it was a lot of fun as you can tell from my pictures.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Learning about India at kindy



This week at Sienna's kindy they are learning all about India, eating Indian foods and trying an Indian type of milkshake which Sienna said she didn't like. Today the kids were dressing up in costume and some fabric came home last night and today was the dress up day. Sienna was very excited about it and proud to wear her costume.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Poppa Waz



I'm am thrilled that the kids have fantastic grandparents and in particular a grandfather as I didn't really grow up with any as they passed away when I was very small. I love the fact that the kids have a grandfather and James loves to play games or cards with Pop Waz.

Monday, October 18, 2010

A quiet day at home




Yesterday we had a day at home and normally I get the "what can I do mum" from James and I make at least 3 suggestions and none of them seem to interest him. I went out into the back yard and found that James had made a special "high jump" set up with his trusty assistant Sienna. It involved the outdoor broom, a kids table, his push bike and his sister. I was amazed and pleased he came up with a fun game and was doing high jumps.

After the high jumps were over Sienna decided she wanted her face painted so I did that for her. As you can tell I am a much better photographer than I am face painter but in the eyes of my 4 year old daughter she was pretty happy about the whole thing. We topped it off with a purple wig and she had fun.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Kitchen Craft




I have admired the lovely tags that Sarah from A Beach Cottage made recently which she attached to her breakfast cereal jar and wanted to give them a go myself.

I bought some "sculpey" bake in the oven clay from Spotlight yesterday and while my Anzac Biscuits were cooking I rolled out some of the clay, cut the tags out with a scalloped cookie cutter and pierced a hole in them ready for baking. They went in the oven for 15 minutes and after they had cooled down I stamped them with black "StazOn" ink and attached them to the jars with some recycled string I had.

The jars are from Ikea and only cost about $3 or so and I think they look great in the kitchen. I might need to buy another jar as the decorating rule is "odd numbers" are more pleasing to the eye. I had fun being a little crafty yesterday and love the results. I found the clay very firm and it wasn't the easiest thing to use but when you are on a mission to have cute tags, you just keep at it.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

So cute






Every night before I go to bed myself I check on the kids, kiss them on the forehead and say "I love you" to them. The other night when I went into check on James this is what I found. Scooby Doo is the "in thing" at the moment and James takes him to bed every night. During the night as he tossed and turned Scooby Doo ended up being caught underneath James so he was sitting upright with his paws and tongue sticking out. It just looked so cute I had to go downstairs get the camera and take a few pictures. Scooby looked like a guard dog minding James. These are the everyday moments that I treasure.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

December Daily Project




Ali Edwards has posted her notes on her December Daily Album for 2010. This is a project she designed a few years ago to record all those Christmas activities from the 1st December through to the 25th December. Last year I attempted my first one and sad to say I have only half completed it. My main problem was I was trying to reinvent the wheel everyday with a new design which doesn't work given that December is the busiest time of the year.

This year I'm doing something more streamlined and simple like what Jody did last year. If you look on her posts in December 2009/January 2010 she shows you her lovely album. The format is photos on the left in a collage, and on the right there will be journalling, the date and a strip of paper on the right. It will all go into my 8x8 album.

The pictures above are the date emblishments that I'm using which is also a little envelope so I can get James to write something on a strip of paper and put it in there. Something in the eyes of a 7 year old but short and sweet. I have also cut my cardstock today so it's ready for printing and have put a green line around as a border. I will be ready to do journalling on the day, stick on the envelope and a bit of paper at the bottom and the right page is done. It will just be a matter of the photos on a small collage for the left hand side.

Friday, October 1, 2010

Baby Carrotts & Aunty Lisa meets fluffy & coco





My sister came over to meet the chickens and had a little hold. The kids were thrilled to bits to show off their new pets to their Aunty Lisa. Also I need to thin out our carrotts as too many were planted and the kids pulled them out and they are starting to look like real carrotts. We are feeding the green leaves to the chickens which they are enjoying.