BlogtoberREST = LifeFEST

Wow, where has October gone!  My baby is nearly 6 weeks old, I now live with a 3 year old and there has been much thinking about projects (and reading crafty-type books whilst breastfeeding) - if only I didn't waste so much time waiting for the baby to wake up!!

Some photos from our October...

A family of five (sans the dog).

And a pirate family (sans the baby)

Ahoy-me-hearties - it's Pirate Liam!

The pirate galleon cake (thanks to the new Woman's Weekly Birthday Cake Book)

And Liam at one month (we did this with Kelvin too, here he is at the same age)

The first Irish Dancing competition!

I've also managed to squeeze in some sewing.  Another pencil roll for a birthday gift.  Some toy sacks to tidy the lego and baby toys (and one for another birthday gift).

I also made some pirate pants for Kelvin's pirate party (as well as a pirate sash).  I used the Sewing for Boys Kickin' Back Sweats pattern.  It's a fabulous pattern since it only has two pieces!!  I must admit, that I wasn't that enamoured with this book when it arrived but I have changed my mind since and have cut out several more pairs of pants to sew for Kelvin!

I have been knitting too and once I've finished my Common Ground Cardi I have grand plans to knit myself a Coastal Hoodie using this...

Bendigo Woollen Mills, Classic 5 ply

It's going to be a hard slog swapping from 12 ply knitting to 5 ply!

Sunshiny Day

After feeling a bit down about being the size of a house and people only being interested in talking about the impending arrival of our new baby the spring sunshine over Hobart proved to be the perfect antidote.  We jumped into the car and went to Richmond (for ice cream) via Sorell (for lunch at a cafe - we missed the market!!).

Fortunately we didn't take bread with us to feed the Richmond ducks because there were great slabs of bread floating in the river where the ducks had rejected the offerings!

It was a perfect spring day for eating ice cream, doing rollipollies down the hill...

...and making daisy chains.

I also couldn't resist snapping this picture.  Do you think he might have the skill set to become a plumber one day?!?

Unplanned School Holiday Adventures!

Well, today could have been a disaster.  My car wouldn't start this morning - the battery was flat.  So instead of worrying about it we walked the few hundred metres down the hill to the local shops for Matilda to get her haircut ready for a new school term.  We were 5 minutes late but they weren't busy and Matilda was happy with her haircut, braid, sparkly hairspray and a couple of chocolate freckles.

Then we went down to the local bakery for a babycino/latte and a little sweet sustainance for our journey home.  But while we were sitting there we decided we didn't fancy the walk back up the hill and caught a bus instead.

Although we could see our house from the bus stop, there is no direct bus home so our trip took an hour and involved two different buses - one of which didn't go the way we thought it would which always adds to the joys of using public transport!

So we then rang the battery man who came and started the car for us and then we had to go for an extra long drive to recharge the battery.  While we were waiting for the battery man Matilda did attempt to find an appropriate sized battery from the stash - that's when I showed her under the bonnet of the car!  And it was lunchtime so we decided on chips from a remote McDonalds (because we could do drive-thru and wouldn't risk the car not starting again).

A trip to Bunnings for some more storage boxes to tidy up the sewing/guest room (as well as something for Trev's upcoming birthday) and a bit of a play on the playgym.  Fortunately the car started again when we got back to it - and if it didn't, I'd have bought myself some jumper leads and begged for a jumpstart from a passing friendly stranger!!

We then dropped off three bags of stuff to the nearby Vinnies.  Matilda had her first real experiance of wandering in the treasure trove that an op-shop can be (I usually go in my lunch hour at work rather than dragging kids around) and we found some amazing stuff.  I convinced her we didn't need the big plastic dolls house but we did find a Barbie motor scooter and two Barbie pushbikes (as well as some great fabric for me).

Altered yellow trousers were dropped off for the skinny cousin/nephew and I managed to score a cuppa and homemade brownies before heading home.

Coles delivered my groceries for the second time today.  I somehow managed to place two online orders for delivery today (I blame placenta brain but it's more likely dyslexia in reading 12pm as midnight not midday but don't tell anyone).   Fortunately we didn't really double up on anything so all is good.  And the big order arrived in plenty of time for me to use it to cook dinner.  In nearly a year of doing my groceries online this is the first time I've stuffed up and I can't recommend it enough - much more pleasant having my groceries delivered to my kitchen bench than dragging kids around the supermarket or having to go out once they are in bed!

All in all, a pretty good day! Just finishing off now with a banana split (thanks to the extra bananas we ended up with) and an evening cuppa.

Spontaneous Sunday Snow Trip

One of the good things about living in Hobart in the winter is you can take a spontaneous trip to the snow.

Within 30 minutes of leaving the house we were trudging about on the top of Mt Wellington!

We timed our arrival perfectly - no queues up the mountain, no waiting for parking, not too many people at the top, space to enjoy the snow and the views.  I think it was partly because we left home reasonably early and because it was the second weekend with snow on the mountain so the hoards had visited last weekend!

Trev had the forethought to throw the boogie board into the car before heading off and the kids enjoyed scooting around with their dad.

There has also been a lot of bike riding this weekend after finding training wheels and properly fitting helmets for both the kids.  Needless to say there have been early nights and sound sleep from our little ones this weekend!

She's older than yesterday!

Happy 5th Birthday Matilda-girl!

We were really, really, really fortunate to have the most magnificently sunny winters morning to have Matilda's birthday party (with a ridiculous number of kids - note to self, just because her birthday is in the school holidays and on a public holiday does not mean you need to over-invite - I forget that families with 5 year olds don't really go away!!).  Anyway, 20+ kids descended on the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens for a Carousel Party to celebrate my daughter safely surviving (and in fact thriving) the last 5 years.

And now that I have completed my study I seem to have a bit more time to go over the top with party planning!  Apart from the obligatory cheesels and chips we made most of the other party food including the incredibly easy, ridiculously popular but stupidly time-consuming rainbow jelly cups.

I also attempted my own transportable version of a carousel cake using a cake stand (rather than trying to balance a massive cake on a cardboard tube on my knees in the car as suggested by the WW Kids Cake Book) surrounded by some cupcakes with cut-out carousel horses (yes, I was cutting those out at 11pm last night).  I think it needed the party-goers to use their imagination a little bit - but that's meant to be good for kinder kids isn't it?  The cake is a fail-safe boiled chocolate cake that can be easily adapted to be dairy-free (and works well with egg-replacer too).  I'll post the recipe sometime!

We played pass the parcel and managed to wrangle the kids up to the carousel using a photo treasure hunt around the Gardens (to run off all that jelly and cake)!

 

And the big hit for the party was a ride on The Gallopers Carousel.  I can't rave about Judy and Mark enough (they're the restorers/owners/operators of the carousel) - they were so helpful in accommodating a large group and Judy is always lovely to anyone on the ride (her day job is in childcare).

And (because this blog is all about me!!) the piece-de-resistance were the party bags which contained colouring books (thanks to the plethora of freebies images available on the internet - happy to share the pdf, just ask!!) and little boxes of pencils (thanks to Bunnings, but disguised with more carousel horses - although Trev did say the dads would have been impressed if I'd just left them as-is), and a restrained amount of lollies (I think).

Thanks to all our little friends and family for coming along and making Matilda's day so special.  I think my gorgeous girl has had a lovely day and we look forward to another year of fun together!!

Oh, and the invitations we made for the party are over here!!

Kids in the Kitchen for Easter

I saw this post the other day and knowing the forecast for today was intermitent rain decided to stock up on supplies.

We had friends join us and we got cooking which involved spreading some jam...

...and squishing marshmallows...

...and decorating with melted chocolate and copious amounts of 100's & 1000's...

...and then the all important testing!

I can highly recommend these yummy and easy Easter Wagon Wheels for cooking with your kiddos (and I think the kids would recommend it too!).

Perhaps if your kids are over 5 they may look more like easter eggs than ours do!!

We might give these another go next year - they would make a great alternative to chocolate eggs for extended family and friends and teachers and anyone else you may include on your easter list!!

Wishing you all a Happy Easter and I hope you get to enjoy some time with your families and friends.

Friday Amusements

Friday's round out a busy week for us.  We have swimming lessons in the morning and both kids are pretty exhausted after lunch after 1.5 hours swimming at the pool.  Matilda has gone from a gremlin (scared of getting her head wet) to a real mermaid and is loving duck diving for things off the bottom of the pool and swimming without floaties, or a board or a mum or a dad!  Kelvin has always loved the water but today he had a go at swimming in our 'playtime' between lessons.  He was popping his face in the water, kicking his feet up and gliding to me.

So after lunch, we tend to have some quiet time (and I often find myself asleep on the couch whilst the kids watch Playschool - but that's another story).  However, today they haven't really wanted the TV on (which is a welcome relief from the guilt of too much TV, but also, when am I going to sneak in my afternoon snooze?).  Kelvin has discovered scissors and can keep himself entertained for the best part of an hour!

He cuts the heads off paper dolls...

...makes 'feathers'...

...and a lot of mess!!

Matilda has also been loving learning her letters at school. She wrote herself a book today, about Clever Cat (the letter 'c') and another book about someone asleep (which includes some funny images of people waking up surprised and yawning)!

I'm So Excited.... And I Just Can't Hide It....

This was Matilda this morning!  She started school today.  She's in kindergarten, two days a week, at the local primary school.

She wanted plaits in her hair.

I need more practice - that back-parting is atrocious!

Matilda insisted that her uniform include a dress.  And that's what she wore today.

We took some pictures in the driveway...

...before walking up to the school.

There were no tears from her.  There were no tears from me.

It's going to be good!