relaxation and decluttering - must be holiday time!

Little Possum spent all day in her jammies and the beanie I made her.

I found her playing with this road track. As soon as it became known that I am selling it on eBay it was immediately elevated to "Favourite toy in the whole world" ("how could you think of selling it?!").

It has seen more action today than in the last 2 years :) .

I'm still selling it....

summer.....sea, sand, sun.... Christmas

On my trips around BlogLand, I have wistfully read about first snowfalls and seen picture- postcard-beautiful photos of wintery landscapes and Aurora Borealis. Just by looking at the photos of fir trees, branches laden with snow I can feel the cold air and remember the sensation of the little hairs in my nostrils freezing and of the chill of snow falling down your neck from one of those branches. I have suffered snow envy.

But, then I remember that at the moment the grass is actually greener on this side of the fence, quite literally.... and then we have a day at the beach like yesterday, and I am happy to be walking around barefoot in summer clothes and not rugged up for a polar expedition!

Just in case

patterns in the rock

Life is good

by popular demand....... Witches Fingers recipe!

A little late for this year's Hallowe'en, but you should have lots of time to plan for next year... :)

WITCHES FINGERS

1 cup butter

1 cup icing sugar

1 egg

1 tsp almond essence (and remember.... you now have to be 18 to buy this here in Oz....)

1 tsp vanilla essence/concentrate

2 2/3 cups plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

3/4 cup whole almonds - blanched

red cake decorating gel/writing gel

Preheat oven to 160 C

Beat butter, sugar, egg, almond essence and vanilla until soft.

Gradually beat in flour, baking powder and salt until mixed.

Cover dough and refrigerate for 30 min - makes dough easier to work with.

Work with 1/4 of the dough at a time -

roll a tbsp worth of dough into a finger shape

press almond into one end for a nail

shape the knuckles - you could be really creative and score the knuckles slightly to make them look even more authentic.

Place on lightly greased baking sheet and bake for 20-25min or until a nice pale golden (shortbread sort of colour)

Cool cookies down for a few minutes, then pull the almond off gently, put some red gel on the nailbed and press the almond back down... the gel should ooze out around, making it look deliciously disgusting.

Eat....

trick or treat!

the food.......

the costumes......

the loot......

and the comments in the car on the way home from the Trunk or Treat activity:

"Mum, that was AWESOME!"

"This was the best day of my life!!"

holiday fun - tree climbing

I THINK that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the sweet earth's flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

- Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918)

perfect day

"Oh it's such a perfect day,

I'm glad I spent it with you.

Oh such a perfect day,

You just keep me hanging on,

You just keep me hanging on."

(- Lou Reed)

Blue sky,

sunshine,

lying on my back on the grass listening to the kids who are happily engaged in play

(in a mudhole surrounded by reeds, bamboo and fallen logs)

riding bikes on the BMX track,

picnic on the grass,

birds singing,

beautiful wattle trees, little golden puffs against the blue sky

(have you noticed how they look like they're tied on with little yellow ribbons?)

driving home in a car full of muddy, smelly, contented children

glorious

perfect, simply perfect!

(but sadly I had left the camera at home........ lesson learned!)

Holiday Fun - Playdough morning

LP's caterpillar - complete with bug-eyes
Turtle opted for some sort of mask/beard combo
And this is LP's model of me.... complete with bellybutton and a bust that defies gravity.

School holiday fun

This post has been a while coming, but during the school holiday I didn't seem to get my head around it. We had a great holiday. It was wonderful to have a rest from the schoolruns and sports training. We enjoyed long leisurely mornings when all the kids came in for a snuggle until the hungerpangs became too strong to ignore.

The cousins managed to get together - this only happens a couple of times of year, and so it's great when we can manage it. They are all very close in age and play beautifully together.

I am very happy for their fun relationship since I grew up without a single cousin. I am from a country with a birthrate of 1.4. (This made me 1 and my brother 0.4 I suppose...... :)

But, I digress..

The Powerhouse Museum was a big hit as well. We had lots of fun pushing buttons, pulling levers and seeing some fun exhibits. Afterwards LP declard that she wants to have 2 jobs when she grows up. She wants to be a teacher and a builder. Apparently the hardhat, wheelbarrows and crane in Zoe's playhouse inspired her.

The most favourite activity was the visits to the BMX track. The last time we went we had told LP she was not allowed on it until her training wheels were off. Since then we hadn't been there and then there was the broken elbow. But literally within hours of the cast coming off, the bikes were loaded into the car. (though I'm not sure that was what the orthopaedic surgeon had recommended for the recovery).

In the first shot, I thought Doodlebug was actually going to do a forward flip, but thankfully the rear wheel made contact with the ground again.

Jake also enjoyed running on the bumps.

end of the school holidays

School holidays this time coincided with the recordbreaking longest stretch of rainy days for 77 years. But we did have a few hours respite on most days where we could enjoy a break in the rain. Back in The Old Country the saying goes "there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing", weather is no hindrance to getting out to play. But we've gone soft since moving here.... I haven't bought wellies/gumboots for the kids for years because in times of drought and occasional downpours, there just hasn't been a need for them. I wish we had them these past couple of weeks, though!



But, enough about the weather..... here's a photo from the park. It was one of those precious times when all 3 children played together (usually there's one that wants to do his/her own thing so the other two pair off).

school holidays!

On this first day of the school holidays, it's a wettish, grey day outside. So we made a cubby in the playroom instead of our planned outdoor one. The finished result is not just your everyday ordinary sort of cubby, but a mansion with 4 little rooms and a waterfall outside (the blue sheet).

so much fun!

Jamberoo......

"Where queues you control the action"

We had promised the kids we would take them to Jamberoo for a day during the school holidays so we set off, with the esky loaded, swimmers and towels ready and a movie in the portable DVD player. After 2 hours of "are we there yet?" and then another 40 min of "you said it would only take 2 hours", we finally arrived. The park was fairly busy and queues long for the more popular rides, but everyone queued cheerfully and had a great time.

First up was The Rock which had two jump off points. All the boys had a go at that one:

The Gold Rush House was great fun - a play with water squirters, water sprays, water slides, buckets... all the ingredients that would make a child happy especially in these days of water restrictions! Here was the opportunity for waterfights, and pretty much anyone was a target!

And here comes MOTH with the Turtle... the facial expressions are wonderful, particularly the last shot when MOTH discovers how shallow the pool is as he hits the bottom.

And then there was the famous Taipan ride......

There were several other rides that I didn't take photos off - white rapids, surf slide (waterslide using a foam mat) bobsleigh, wave pool and more..... we spent a happy 5 hours here before the park closed and we had to leave.