Cookie Fest

I picked up an easter pack of M&Ms (like the Christmas ones) from Woolworths the other day.

I wasn't overly impressed by the colours. To me easter colours are pink, yellow and greens, but then maybe I've been brainwashed by the American commericalisation of Easter with those colours being spring colours. What do you think?

I also made cranberry and white chocolate cookies. Yum yum yum!

Now, to stop myself from eating them all!

Etch A Sketch Pictures

Linc's drawing have all of a sudden started to take on the actaul form of what he is drawing. He drew a house the other day and although wonky it had a roof and door.

His people are now the classic head with arms and legs coming out. To say I'm both excited and sad would be an understatement. My little boy is getting so big and clever!

This is Poppy. Eyes done with his circle stamper. Poppy even has eye brows.

 This is Baker Bob, complete with arms, legs, ears and hairy top lip.

Australia Day at an Australian Icon

For Australia Day the council organised a celebration at the local foreshore with a free sausage sizzle, jumping castle, live band and fireworks. (I love living within a municipal that holds heaps of free events!) I was asked to volunteer but I thought I'd take the VIPs to the event instead and declined. The event started at 6pm until dusk which was a bit later than the VIPs are used to being out but I thought that just this once it would be fine. They'd never seen fireworks afterall.

I wanted to get a good spot and enjoy the beach before it got too cool so we headed off after lunch.
We spent the day building sandcastles, playing in the water, chomping on scrummy lamingtons and slurping up melting ice cream. By the time 6pm arrived the VIPs were spent and ready for bed. I called it a day and missed the foreshore celebrations rather than push the day too far and deal with 3 VIPs having mental breakdowns.

They all fell asleep on the 10min car ride home and after a quick dinner and shower, slept until 7:30 the next morning. As Baker Bob said, there's something about the salt air that is just exhausting. For me, it was the sand clean up at the other end that did me in! I'd forgotten just how bad sand can be.

Dino - mite!

In this household we have a little paleontologist in the making. Eva L-O-V-E-loves dinosaurs. Scienceworks has a dinosaur exhibit on at the moment and I have been trying to take her to see it since November. Since it finishes on the 5th Feb I decided that this was the weekend for it and I packed a lunch and headed off to Spotswood, Wiggles blasting all the way. (I was so upset when I got there and released I'd forgotten my SD card for my new camera, so all shots are taken on a crappy phone camera.)

We walked in to the exhibit, the boys on foot, Deedee in the pram and the looks on their faces was GOLD! Mans ran straight over to the fence to get a better look, Linc hid behind the pram (he told me later that he thought the dinosaurs were going to eat him but they were actually nice) and Eva all but jumped out her skin trying to get my attention to unbuckle her out of the pram. Her hands were going and her little mouth couldn't keep up with her thought process. All she could utter were random sounds!

They had so much fun. That exhibit was especially great for their age group as the fencing is low, there are things they can reach to touch, a massive sand excavation pit and it was all very open, so when you have 3 running in different directions it's easy for you to keep track of them.

I must say they were all very well behaved today. The other areas they loved were Nitty Gritty Super City and running with Cathy Freeman, but they spent quite a bit of time in House Secrets as well.

I also must add the pricing at Scienceworks was pretty good. The Dinosaur exhibit is extra on top of the general entry but so, so worth it! The VIPs were still talking about it at bedtime.

Another Thing More Dangerous Than Lead

My attention was recently drawn to this link through a forum - Top 20 things that are more dangerous to children than lead paint in Mattel toys. I am constantly worrying about everything my VIPs come in contact with and battle a war everyday trying to balance my 'overbearingness' with letting them 'just be kids.' I make decisions everyday that may or may not impact them for the rest of their lives. It's frightening if you really sit down and analyse it.

So, I wanted to add my own to this list.
Mine is probably far more dangerous and life threatening than most of what is mentioned.

Mine contribution is Homemade Nemo recipe chocolate chip cookies.
They are THE best tasting chocolate chip cookies in the world!

I did use free range eggs but they came from a supermarket and weren't organic
Neither was the bucket load of sugar nor the pale, fine flour.
The slab of butter was greasy and yellow and NOT salt reduced.
I even throw in some extra salt just for good measure.
The choc chips are not even dark chocolate!!

I even made some with oreo centres, just to make sure they were jam packed with  dangerous goodness.

Do NOT let your VIPs anywhere near these. They may just poison them like lead paint!

If you'd like my secretly guarded recipe, shoot me any email. Death by chocolate chip cookies sounds like a good way to go!

An Introduction to Electronic Games

I'd hoped to prevent it for as long as possible. Then I discovered that Baker Bob has been playing bowling with them on his phone for a long while now. Drat!

Looks like they have fun though!

A Rained Out Robot Sausage Sizzle

In November I decided that the boys 3rd birthday should be a low-key event at the local Adventure park that they love so much.

Since its in the middle of summer I thought having the party time early in the day, rather than late, would be better as it would be cooler and so, thought a simple sausage sizzle and small amount of finger food would be enough for everyone for such an early party.

A Robot Sausage Sizzle it was. (Graphics from here)

I'd been checking the weather forecast for 10 days prior to their birthday and the closer and closer the date came the worse the weather forecast became until it was forecast that there would be thunderstorms the night before, but should have cleared by 9am.

We were at the park by 8am and as we reached the undercover shelter the skies opened up and let lose. As my hair dripped all over my face and the kids ran around jumping in the flash flooding of puddles pouring into the shelter, I raised the white flag. There was nothing for it but to call everyone, delay the party for a couple of hours and have it at home. Even if the rain cleared the playground would be wet and muddy, despite the towel I'd packed to dry the slides and swings.

 I raced home and I ran around doing dishes, throwing the toys in the toy room and vaccuming the floor before throwing up minimal decorations, the VIPs massive popup Cars tent and getting the food ready.

 

I did feel terrible though. I'd been telling the boys for weeks we were having a party at 'the big park' for their birthday and Mans in particular was quite upset about it. But as everyone started arriving and he finally believed me that he WAS still actually having a party, all was forgiven. All in all the day was still good and the boys ran around with all their mates, had free range on the party food, got very spoilt with presents and got to eat brightly coloured cupcakes.

I also managed to quickly print out a robot colouring in page to give them something to do!

A 3 year olds dream day really, minus the park.

3 Already

To my little men,
I have never meet two brothers that are so different.
You both amaze me, intrigue me and fill my heart with so much love. I remember the day you were born like it was yesterday but its 3 years later and I can't believe how blessed I've been.

Mans, you are such a caring, thoughtful little boy. You're sensitive to other peoples feeling and take it to heart when people are less than sensitive towards you. All your little sister has to do is stick her bottom lip out and you give her whatever she wants. You are eager to please and have the most dry, cheeky sense of humour that you make me laugh several times a day. And when you make me laugh, that sly smile spreads across your face and that shallow dimple appears on your cheek and you look up at me with a twinkle in your eye, like you have my measure.
You are sociable little boy and just about always take on the role of peace keeper. You are just as comfortable surrounded by yelling, running children as you are chilling on the couch with a book or lining up your matchbox cars in artfully designed patterns.
You are now toilet trained at home and can put together a simple puzzle. Your speech improves everyday and that helps you communicate to me exactly what you want. You love anything with wheels. Your favourite colour is orange. You love to play in the dirt but hate it when you have stuff on your hands. You like to build "castles". You are apparently going to be a "sandwich" when you grow up because "I'm going to eat it."

Linc, your zest for life is invigorating. You really like to take life by the scruff of the neck and do everything you can to achieve what you want. From dawn to dusk your energy never falters and some days I struggle to keep up. But I love it when you come to me, out of the blue, and ask for a hug. You love to play games with other kids and are very enthusiastic about making friends. In fact you are great mates with our doggie.You turn him into a puppy again, chasing a ball and running around like crazy.
You are so smart and really know how to problem solve. You see things differently and seem to be able to click things into place in your mind so things don't hold your attention for very long. You're super independent and often utter the words "I do it" despite the complexities.
You can get yourself dressed and undressed. You know your shapes and colours. You can count to 10. You love to build abstract block towers and puzzles. You love to run and would stay at the park all day if you could. The slide is your favourite. Your favourite colour is blue (but you have a soft spot for yellow too).  You want to "make water" when you grow up "for shaking".

You both love books and your favourite at the moment is Green Eggs and Ham. You are very protective of each other, and your sister. I often find myself having to divide and conquer. I miss the little babies that you were, but I'm enjoying watching you both grow into little people with individual personalities, wants and needs.

Thank-you for bringing me so much joy.
Mummy loves you so much!

Happy birthday!!

A New Toy - Part 1

This is my one of my new toys that I received for Christmas

Aren't I a lucky girl?

I haven't used an SLR since I was at high school (and won some awards too) and while my Fujifilm camera had adjust aperture setting it didn't have a chnagable lens, so it's been really fun discovering all the elements of the camera.

These are some favourites I've taken. (untouched)

Now if I can workout how to use Photoshop to it's full potential I'll be able to really explore my photo creativity!