Soccer Playing Peg Dolls

One thing I was never enjoyed at school was poetry and unfortunately it seems to have rubbed off on Mr C. Earlier this term he had to write a Limerick about himself and something he loved. SOCCER was his topic choice but he struggled to come up with a Limerick within the week he'd being given. Mr Opoes and I read over what he had, it was then that Mr Opoes suggested we all sit down and have a brain storming session and this seemed to help Master C write a better limerick. 

                                  I'm a local lad who's called ocker,

                                  I love to play me some soccer.

                                  I wear the green and gold,

                                  But my team always fold,

                                  'cause I'm shocking as a blocker.

Life went on and I completely forgot about his little Limerick until two Monday's ago when he came home wanting an adult sized shoe box for Technology to make a 'Diorama'. Now A diorama is a way to build an exciting scene in a small space and this is why we needed a shoe box. We ended up getting a box and two wooden pegs from Grandma to create his diorama.

After doing a bit of research Mr C knew what teams he wanted his players to represent, the colours of their uniforms and the general layout he wanted to create. I helped him get the things he'd need from my craft store stash and he set about creating his diorama. I helped him create the background of his diorama and I made sure everything got glued into the box so that it wouldn't fall out BUT he made the Soccer Peg Doll players himself.

To think that with a little thought, paint, glue, cardboard and a black pen you can transform a peg into your favourite soccer player. I hope that he hasn't offended Lionel Messi with his Peg Doll figurine. What do you think? I'm thinking that it's a pretty good resemblance. 

I'm so proud of Mr C and I never knew how crafty he was. I've always known that he's loved doing Art at school but with nothing coming home from school it's difficult to gauge his ability. I helped guide him with the hair on both his players and I wrote the number and name on the back of the shirt as Mr C's writing is a little big. I'm so glad I got to watch him today and I'm so proud of the effort and attention to detail he's put into each doll.

I'm hoping that when Christmas comes around I'll have made a few of these peg dolls with outfits so that I can give them to the girls as presents. I like my chances of gluing fabric onto a peg instead of painting the peg to create my dolls. The other lesson learnt would be to put the facial details a little lower especially when having to paint or glue hair onto the peg.

Have you ever painted a peg person before or do you know of someone who has. If you have I'd love to see some examples of what you've made. Here's hoping Mr C's teacher loves his peg people as much as I do. 

Megan

Stress Free Lunch Box Planning

Last week I dropped three of my four children off to start of the new school year. To say that I have to be better organised this year than I was last year is an understatement. Each one of them has sports, library, music and swimming on different days so keeping on top of their timetables is essential for a stress free morning. Now knowing who's doing what each day has helped but organising their lunches everyday is time consuming and somewhat difficult at times. My younger sister told me about a great Lunch Box Planner that she had being using and she'd found it saved her time and stress in the morning getting ready.

While she explained the concept to me I realised that she was using a 'menu plan' which is a concept the two of us have been using for years. As of yet I haven't had the time to organise myself but starting Monday I plan on having a very similar set up so that our mornings are less stressful, better organised and this should then allow me to eat my breakfast at the table instead of on the way to the car.

The first thing she did was purchase a PDF file from The Organised Housewife and she then got it printed. To save time on printing it out each week my sister put it inside a picture frame and this allows her to write on the glass using a fine non permanent white board marker, once the week is over she wipes it off with a tissue and then starts again. It's that easy and the best part is that when she bakes she know how many muffins, biscuits etc she needs to make and it saves her time as these items can be frozen to allow them to be fresh when the kids eat them.

Pictures provided to me for use in this post

Now according to my sister, her children are going to have Mini Hot Dogs and a peach for lunch tomorrow at school. The best thing about her plan is that she can make her own bread rolls the day before so that they're fresh for the children. The planner allows my sister to cater to her children's eating requirements (also great for children with allergies). If she gets sick, her husband can see what the kids are having for the day and the planner also allows her to have everything on hand when she needs it.

Pictures provided to me for use in this post

The PDF file also provides other templates that you can choose from. There's one that has the fruit up before the morning tea picture and this plan would help me plan out the fruit that the kids would take to school each day. That PDF file would come in handy for me as two of my children have fruit snacks at the beginning of the day and I know that taking an apple everyday becomes boring after a while.

So this weekend I plan on sitting down and planning out what we're all eating for the week and what the children will be taking to school. I'll also know what biscuits I need to make and I can have these frozen ahead of time. The other great thing about doing this all together is if I'm doing sandwiches I'll be able to prepare them over the weekend, freeze them and pull them out on the morning they're needed.

Now I'm off to get new lunch box idea's from Pinterest, no one is going to want to have sandwiches 5 days a week like we've been doing. So do you plan what your kids are eating for the week or do you just wing it? I know that this is going to save me money when it comes to planning my grocery list for the week and it'll allow me to get into the kitchen some more instead of buying packet biscuits.

Megan

Cooking with Kids

A tradition I'm trying to encourage at the moment is having a special family breakfast every Sunday morning. I'm not wanting to do it every weekend but I'm hoping that this time in the morning will allow me to teach the children so cooking skills. At the moment my son and two daughters aged 9, 6 and 4 really want to help me when I'm cooking. Unfortunately this is normal at night when I'm at my most busiest with the evening routine. So I decided that last weekend I'd make something yummy and talk to them about taking turns to cook with me.

On Saturday after a visit to the local library my 4 year old borrowed a cookbook and when we got home she ran through all the things she wanted to cook then and there. I promised her that she could try something out the following morning and that I'd help her make it. The recipe was something that I didn't need a cookbook for but as she's starting school next year I knew using the cookbook would be a great teaching tool. I had enough eggs to make breakfast for just the kids as I'd forgotten to buy more when I'd done the weekly grocery shop. She was more interested in making breakfast just for herself but I was able to talk her into making a bit more.

So for our first cooking experience together we made Eggs and Ham from the cookbook which is a basic scrambled eggs with ham mixed through it. Although the entire cooking experience was less than 10 minutes she was able to see results quickly and this kept her engaged in the experience. I've included the recipe and a picture of the finished product. She was really happy with the outcome and she's looking forward to cooking with me again.

Eggs and Ham (Scrambled eggs with Ham) Serves 1

Ingredients 

small knob of butter

1 large egg

1 tablespoon milk

30 grams (1 oz) chopped ham, chopped

pinch of salt and pepper

1 piece of buttered toast

Method

1. In a small bowl, using a fork whisk together the egg and milk. Season with salt and pepper.

2. Chop the ham into small pieces. If doing this with your child make sure you help them when using a knife.

3. Place the toast in the toaster and toast until brown. Once toasted spread butter over warm toast.

4. Melt butter in the pan, over medium heat. Add the egg mixture. Using a wooden spoon, stir continuously until the eggs are just set and still creamy. Depending on the child's age you might need to assist with this step.

5. Mix the chopped ham through the egg. Serve on top of your buttered toast.

I'm about to start negotiations with my six year old as she's desperate to make everyone 'stripey ice lollies' (they're frozen fruit blocks) for breakfast. I'm thinking that we could make these on Saturday for Sunday's afternoon tea. I know that the kids will love to have fruit ice blocks especially after they've been running around all morning. So tell me do you make your own ice blocks or do you just buy them from the shops?

Megan

Banana Pancakes

In my family my sister is known for her love of sharing recipes on Facebook. My brother thinks its strange but as a male who's in his twenty's he doesn't have the desire to create quick, simple and delicious things. I'm always guaranteed that my sister will share something that the kids will want to eat of that Mr Opoes will spot and start drawling over for awhile. So when she shared these Banana Pancakes on Friday night I knew straight away we'd be having them for breakfast sometime during the long weekend. 

As Monday was a public holiday for the Queens Birthday (we changed the date so we celebrate it after her actual birthday) and I knew the kids would love having something special I wiped up these pancake in a matter of minutes thanks to my Thermomix, however you can still make them without one. I've included both the recipes because sometimes it makes for difficult reading.

Banana Pancake

Ingredients:

1 egg

1 Banana, mashed up

1 cup Milk

1 cup Self Raising Flour

Method:

1. Sift flour and add a pitch of salt. Add the egg.

2. Beat gradually while adding the milk and mix until its thick and smooth.

3. Add banana and mix through.

4. Heat non-stick frying, pour desired quantity into frying pan. Cook until bubbling on top and then flip.

5. Serve with maple syrup and sliced banana.

Banana Pancake (Thermomix)

Ingredients:

1 egg

1 Banana, mashed up

1 cup Milk

1 cup Gluten free Self Raising Flour

Method:

1. Add banana and egg speed 7 for 5 seconds or longer if you want your banana to be smoother. Scrap down the side of the bowl.

2. Add milk, salt and flour on speed 8 for 15 seconds until its smooth.

3. Heat non-stick frying, pour desired quantity into frying pan. Cook until bubbling on top and then flip.

4. Serve with maple syrup and sliced banana.

Tip: you can use any types of milk it's up to you. You can also use any type of flour be it gluten free or wholemeal but you need to remember to use 175 grams of flour whenever you make this recipe.

I really like how versatile this recipe is. As it's Winter here in Australia I really liked how basic this pancake recipe was. Next time I make this for the children I going to put warm caramelised bananas on top. If you're enjoying the lovely Summer weather at the moment you could add fresh berries or a tropical fruit salad on top to accompany your pancakes.

The kids really enjoyed these pancakes and I was able to get my four year old to eat these. She isn't a huge fan of pancakes but when she eats three of them for breakfast and asks you for more you know you're on a winner.

Megan

Costco will it work for us!

A week ago Costco opened in Brisbane, Australia and the number of people who visit the store is amazing. People camped out overnight just to be the first in line, some of them even missed watching 'The State of Origin' (big football match here in Australia) and others spent ages in line waiting for the large cues to shuffle through the doors. Since it's opening last Thursday our major media outlets have done there best to either sell Costco as a great thing for people OR they've fallen over themselves to give you all the negatives.

I've seen a few media reports on the television about Costco and I must admit they're trying really hard to sell the other three major (Woolworths, Coles and Aldi) grocery stores as been better value for money. I tend to shop at all three for different things but the majority of my shopping is done at Aldi and that's because I can get better value for money. The only things I buy in bulk is toilet paper, nappies and rice so having an issue with storage isn't a big deal. Now with our family of six I tend to spend around the $200 mark for a weeks worth of groceries and that covers everything. There are weeks when I spend more, especially if I don't FAIL to draw up a Menu Plan.

So when a girlfriend offered to take me to Costco for a look see I was really excited to say the least. The car park was nearly full by the time we arrived arrived. I took my youngest two children with me and when I told them what we were doing they jumped up and down. Their reaction was priceless and I was lucky enough to get a picture of them.

I spent about 90 minutes walking around the store and honestly I have to say that I probably only saw about forty percent of the store. In part this was because my little boy was tried and I straggled to keep him in the trolley. He was happy when various Costco ladies offered him food samples, which he took, ate and said thank you for. Although he was in a bad mood I was pleased that he did remember to say Thank You.

I did make a purchase from the bakery section so that the kids could taste something yummy after school. However, what Viveca and Quinlan enjoyed the most was the Hot Dogs after we'd paid for our purchases. My girlfriend contacted me later in the day, letting me know she'd returned to purchase the strawberries and blueberries we'd spoken about as we walked around the store.

I haven't made up my mind yet as I'd like for Mr Opoes to take a look before we sign up to becoming members of Costco. So far I'm happy with what I saw especially as Costco has more health food items than my local supermarket does. One thing I'm thinking of doing is doing up a price comparison per 100 grams to see if Costco offers me value for money. I read an article today from Christina, Plain and Simple and she raises a few points relating to the true value of Costco and other Wholesale group.

I have decided that I'm going to wait a few more weeks before deciding to sign up or not as I'd like to take a better look inside and preferably without the children in tow. I would have to say that I am very interested in the store especially if I'm able to make some savings with our food budget. I'd love to know if you're a Costco customer and how long you've been shopping there.

Megan

Our Willy Wonker and his Chocolate Factory

As the shortest month of the year you'd think that time wouldn't whiz by at double the speed it usually does. I'd like to know where February has gone? It seems like only yesterday that we were finishing up with January and now we're about to wave goodbye to February. This month we've celebrated four birthdays, had a big party for my mother's sixtieth, driven long distances for events, started dance lessons for a four week trail period while still going about our day to day lives.

The temperatures here in my part of Australia have been hot, humid and really uncomfortable especially when you don't own an air-conditioner, but we've managed to work through them. I've worked on a few little things this month that were food related which I planned to share with you but unfortunately with the heat I've forgotten to take pictures or save leftovers so all my great blog ideas have literally been eaten up. However, I've managed to try a few new recipes which have been well received by four of the five food critics I have living with me. As always I'm yet to receive a perfect score with my dishes but I'm still trying because one day soon my two year old will love what I've made at the same time as the other children. It'll happen and when it does I'll have the camera ready.

School is in full swing at the moment, the eldest two are adjusting to the change in routine and they've also embraced the changes made to the homework program. We're loving the fact that we can do a small amount of homework over the weekend which frees up time during the week to play in the afternoon. Mackenna is enjoying having her violin and she practises every night plucking the strings, however ask me in a months time what I think especially when she starts using the bow. Caelan's teacher is lovely and I think she'll encourage him to focus more this year which should help him in the coming years.

One of the activities he could do from his homework sheet this past fortnight was to create a chocolate bar anyway he wanted. As this activity requires some adult supervision I had the pleasure of helping him create a chocolate that he'd share with his class. Initially many of the ideas he had were already available and with the majority of his classmates also doing this project he was running out of ideas. While walking through the lolly isle at the supermarket he choose two different chocolate bars that he was going to mix together with the melted chocolate in the hopes of creating something edible.

After a bit of brainstorming and guidance I helped him create a cute little chocolate that he took to school to test out on his class mates. Later in the term he'll work on branding, a logo and an entire marketing campaign for the chocolate bar he's created. At the moment he's named it 'Crunchy Heart Bar' but once he's been given more direction and an overview of the assignment I'm sure his little chocolate bar will get a new name, packaging and a cute little logo.

So what do you think of his little chocolates? I love how he's used white and milk chocolate while also incorporating little candies I had in the pantry, when you bit into them its nice to see tiny little pieces of colour. I'm very proud of his efforts, who knows maybe I'll talk him into making chocolates for Easter instead of going with the traditional Easter Egg thing. I'd love to here if you've ever made chocolates before.

Megan

A Crafty Christmas - Christmas Tree

I'm participating in a fun crafty challenge with Emily from Nap-Time Creations today. She's hosting different bloggers who are sharing things that they've crafted, sewn or cooked to help celebrate the meaning of Christmas. I signed up for Decorations from the recipe category. If you've visited here before you'll know I ENJOY cooking so I thought I'd challenge myself by making a decoration.

I can't believe it'll be Christmas soon and I've still got a heap of work to get done before the big day. This year I was planning on spending the day at home celebrating with the children instead of cooking up a family treat to drive for over an hour to meet up with our extended family. Now don't get me wrong I love that the kids get to see their grandparents and cousins but with the amount of traffic and the fact I don't get time to relax. So this year when I found out my parents were travelling to visit my sister and her family I knew that staying home would work perfectly for us, that was until this morning.

My youngest sister is moving out of home just before Christmas so I invited her over for lunch, easy right. I'd planned a simple menu of fruit, turkey, salad followed by Pavlova and maybe a drink especially if it was an extremely hot day. Well I'm now having to change my plans up a bit because my sister has told me that she's asked my brother and his girlfriend to come too. Now don't get my wrong, I'm not upset I have just realised that I'm going to have to be more organised as he's having to travel back home to his girlfriends place that afternoon for her families celebration. So I'm now thinking a light lunch with cold turkey and salad followed by a Shortbread Christmas Tree which will also be a table decoration. Thank you Pinterest.

To make the shortbread biscuits I used the same recipe from here but you could also use this recipe that I made last Christmas. Now to make it a little bit more special I added about a quarter cup of crushed candy canes which were leftover from the Candy Cane Bark earlier this month. So after making the shortbread dough I rolled it out and I shaped into star's. Now because I'm creating a tree I used three different sized cookie cutters to get the three star shapes.

Construction

There are few things that you can do with your shortbread biscuits to make them stick together but I wanted the bits of candy cane to be visible so I went with a minimal approach in order for the little bits of red to stand out. you could use a simple cake icing and spread it over each biscuit, place on top of each other and press down so they glue together. The method I used was to melt a small amount of white chocolate, place a small amount on your largest star, place another large star on top and press down gently so that it sticks. Keep building with the various sized stars.

When it's the way you want it place it somewhere safe so that the chocolate can harden completely. I made this while the kids were at home and I found it somewhat difficult because they stood on top of me so close that it was squashy. When I put the tree together, I had four sets of eyes watching closely this also caused a few issues when taking photographs but I finally bribed them with leftover shortbread and I got a few good pictures.

As you can see from the looks on their faces they really like the look of the table decoration so I'm sure that when I make these again on Christmas Eve the children will probably eat these first before they eat the food from their plates. My two year old loves shortbread so much that he asks for more every time I give them some for morning tea. Now that I'm having nine people for Christmas lunch I'm thinking I'll make two tree's and make them the centre pieces on Christmas Day. So do you use food to decorate your table or do you use a beautiful tablecloth and other traditional items to decorate your table?

Megan

Organisation Diet

One of the things I love about blogging is that numerous blogs host weekly link parties. So as a reader I have the opportunity to sometimes view hundreds of craft, cooking, organising, decorating, personal etc posts and I love seeing what other people have come up with. So the other day I was checking out one of the many link parties I like when I found Jenn's blog Clean & Scentsible and she has put together a year long project that she's called 'The Household Organisation Diet to get (and stay) organised! Now I'll be honest with you I'm not the best at following rules or timetables as things happen and I never get to start with the rest of the group. I did try to participate in a 20 day challenge last year BUT I didn't get past Day One so I'm hoping that this diet will be the kick start I need.

I'm liking the planning of Jenn's Household Diet as she has suggested that if you're able to spend 30 minutes a day you'll be able to tick all the jobs off the to-do list. I chose to write out my to-do list just because there were a couple of jobs listed that I didn't have to do as my kitchen is set up is differently. I'm going to take a few before pictures and then I'll do an after photo shot so that I can share my progress. Jenn is also thinking of having a monthly link party so that we can all share our progress. Who knows if I get the kitchen area completely done I might be able to add my images to the link party.

 

End of my bench.

 

So fingers crossed I'm able to complete everything on this diet. Maybe just maybe I'll be able to lose some clutter, create a better organisation system and eat work my way to a slimmer body house. One thing I'm looking forward to doing is cleaning the stuff off our island bench and put it all away. Although there's heaps of available space in my cupboards due to never getting around to putting everything away when we moved in, EVERYONE dumps stuff on top of the bench and this makes it really difficult to find things.

 

My entire bench top.

 

As you can see I need to start Jenn's Organisation Diet otherwise my little house maybe gaining a few additional pounds and before you know it I won't be able to close the doors. I'm really excited, with Jenn's plan as it means I can still work on organising the kitchen while also spending time looking after the children. With previous plans I've basically had to fit the children into the cleaning process and this often makes it difficult to complete the daily tasks.

So I'm hoping that within the next month I'll have my kitchen up and runny. As my mother use to tell me 'everything in it's place and a place for everything' so now All I need to do is get my skates on and start organising, decluttering and putting away. Then I too shall have a beautiful home that will be easier to maintain. Enjoy your weekend, I'm hoping to have some fun with the kids and to catch up on a bit of grocery shopping. Who knows I might even get so DIY done and maybe make some biscuits for the school lunches.

 

Megan



Try Something New Tuesday # 7

 

Christmas Balls

 

Welcome to another instalment of Try Something New Tuesday. Last Friday I started my 12 days of Christmas series and because I didn't want you guys to miss out I've decided to share a Christmas classic with you. So today's recipe is a variation on one of my all time favourite Christmas foods Rum Balls. Now the variations I made are - I didn't use rum, no condensed milk and instead of using only coconut I also used Christmas sprinkles. The best thing about this is that you can give these away as gifts and you can also taste them as you make them. Whats even better you can always do a double batch, pop them in a air tight container and put them in your freezer to use when unexpected guests drop by.

 

 

Christmas Balls

Ingredients:

450g of Madeira cake

1 cup soft icing sugar, sifted

½ cup cocoa

orange juice - enough to make a moist mixture (can use rum)

coconut, sprinkles etc to coat

 

Directions:

1. Slice of the brown edges of your cake and then crumble the entire cake into a large bowl. You can let the kids eat the brown bits if they are hanging around.

2. Sift in cocoa and icing sugar, stirring well so that its evenly distributed. Break up any piece of cake that maybe too large. 

3. Pour in the orange juice until you have the right consistency and your mixture is coming together. Mix well.

4. Roll tablespoon full of mixture into balls and coat in your desired covering. Don't worry if you can see little bits of cake as it all comes together and they turn chocolately over time.

5. Keep them in an air tight container and freeze. You could also place them in a decorative jar and keep in the refrigerator until needed.

6. Enjoy.

 

The other great thing about this recipe is that with a couple of simple changes you can make them gluten free (just use a gluten free butter cake) or you could add honey comb, chocolate bar or crushed up candy canes to introduce a little surprise that the recipient won't be expecting. I hope that you enjoy them as much as my kids do.



Gluten Free Christmas Balls just for Mummy.

So with 14 sleeps left until Christmas these simply Christmas Balls are quick, tasty and really yummy to eat. See you back here tomorrow for day four of our 12 Days of Christmas series. I'm going to be sharing another Christmas ornament that you could incorporate into your Christmas Décor. Thanks for stopping by, I hope that you have an enjoyable day.

 

Megan

Charity starts at home... teaching your children to give.

 

 

 

With only 15 sleeps until Christmas Day I am spending time with the children trying to get them to see past the monetary and commercial aspects of Christmas Day and instead look more at the CHARITABLE side of Christmas. This year I'm going to have the children help me with my annual charitable event and maybe as the kids get older they will want to make this their 'family tradition'. For the last 18 years I have been participating in the Kmart Wishing Tree Appeal and this year The Salvation Army and Kmart are celebrating their 25 year anniversary.

 

 

I started my 'tradition of giving' the year after I'd finished high school way back in December 1994, I was working casually that a supermarket and I knew as soon as I saw the tree that I wanted to be part of The Salvation Army's event. Every year I've participated I have looked at what I can afford and I've bought gifts according to my budget. It's amazing the feelings that you experience during the whole process of looking for a present, wrapping the gift, placing your tag on the gift and then putting it under the Christmas Tree at your local store.

 

So this year I am taking the children to the shops, they will have a $15 budget and we are going to buy a gift for a child or adult of their choosing. As the shopping centres are busy and school officially finishes on Friday I am aiming to take Caelan and Viveca to the shops for a few hours on Friday while Mackenna finishes Kindy. Then on Saturday I will take Mackenna and Quinlan to our local shopping centre so that they can pick their gifts.

 

This then allows me the weekend to wrap the presents before sending them off with daddy on Monday so that he can place the presents under the Wishing Tree at Chermside. I have talked to the children about why we are doing this, explaining to them that there are people who are less fortunate than ourselves and I've answered their questions. I'm pretty sure that Caelan and Mackenna understand what we are doing and why BUT I'm sure that Viveca may protest somewhat when she realises that the pretty doll she has just paid for isn't for her.

 

So do you do anything charitable at Christmas? Do you do other things during the year? Leave a comment and share with me the things you and your family do to help others at Christmas time. I'll be back tomorrow with more Christmas cheer and a great recipe!

 

 

Megan

 

 



De-Cluttering, Young House Love, Sickness and Another Failed Project.

Well I've been away for two weeks and I've really missed you guys. We've had a few things going on during these two weeks so I thought I'd share with you what we've been doing. I spent an entire week DE-CLUTTERING sections of our house so that I could create more room in our house. One thing I discovered during this time was that I have held onto so many things that I've wanted to use later but I don't think I'll ever find the time to get around to doing every project I've thought of. I set myself a goal for the week, I wanted to get the car into the garage so that we'd be protected when it rained. I didn't achieve my goal but I did get rid of quite a bit of stuff, I was able to set up a store area for school bags etc and I got Mackenna's bedroom furniture into her room. However, I still have a heap of things to get rid of and with the wild weather we've experienced in the last two days I really need to pull my finger out.

 

 

My book 'Young House Love: 243 ways to paint, craft, update and show your home some love' by Sherry and John Petersik arrived on Wednesday at my doorstep. I was so excited that I sat right down to have a quick read. The first project was something that I'd been thinking about for ages so I was really excited to get my remaining supplies so that I could finish off the project. I found wrapping paper that fitted with what I wanted and I also grabbed some more double sided tape so that I could stick everything down. Well after spending 6 hours trying to stick wrapping paper directly to the back of a billy bookcase I gave up. I was so frustrated that I ripped the wrapping paper off and this lead to removing some of the colour of the backing board. So now I'm going to try following John and Sherry's advice and I'll stick the wrapping paper to bits of cardboard or foam core. I was going to share picture BUT when the project doesn't work I'm going to keep it secret until I finally get this little project off the ground.

 

Now we have all been ill with the flu around hear and as usual I'm the last one to catch it. A mother's life is so exciting especially when you know that 5 other sick people will eventually make you sick. I will be returning later in the week due to the fact that I'm going through the worst of this dreaded flu and this phase lasts a few days. When I return I will share with you the Christmas ornament I made as part of the Christmas Ornament Exchange program I've signed up for.

 

 

So I am off to look after the kids while also trying not to spread my germs around again. Thanks for stopping by and I can't wait to show you what I've been up to while I've been sick.

 

 

Megan

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

   

 

With it been 52 sleeps until Christmas Day I've decided that this year I'm going to include a mixture of store bought and handmade Christmas ornaments. After a lengthy discussion with my girls we decided on having a purple and silver decorated Christmas Tree. Mackenna and Viveca are both excited especially as this is the first time they would have had the tree up with Christmas presents under it. Now Quinlan will be 14 months old at Christmas time so we are going to have to put the play pen around the tree and all the presents but I think it will be well worth it.

 

Here are my top 6 decorations that I'm planning on making and if there is enough time I'm going to try and make a number of each of them. I also thought that I'd include white into the colour scheme, this will allow me to use the decorations over and over again and we won't be limited to having the same colour scheme every year.

 

5 Christmas Ornaments in 5 minutes from Tip Junkie



I love the button and flower bauble.

 

Becky refers to this creation as Ribbon Candy but I think you could also make it look like a Christmas tree.
 



Simple Star decorations made by Jolene from MadeStuff

 

You could make these with the kids.

 

 Toilet Paper Glitter Star Ornaments

Simple and inexpensive Christmas decorations that can be made quickly.

 

 Modern Paper Ornaments from Design Sponge

You could hang these throughout your house to add Christmas cheer to a room.

Last week I signed up to Amy's One Artsy Mama's First Annual Ornament Exchange so I'm hoping that I'll be able to make an ornament for someone and that it'll survive the trip in the mailbox. So if you want to join Amy's Exchange you have until Friday 8th November to sign up. Click on the above link to sign up for the exchange, support Amy and make someone happy this Christmas with a brand new Christmas Ornament.

 



I can't wait to see who I'll get and of course I'll show you what I've made and how I went about it. I'm hoping that I'll be able to make all the ornaments for our family and that I'll also be able to make something to exchange for someone else. I can't wait to get the kid's involved in making some decorations to dress up the house and to help create our very first magically Christmas in our new house. 

 

Megan

Happy 1st Birthday Quinlan

Dear Quinlan,



Today you turn one years old, I can't believe how this time has speed by. It only seems like yesterday that we were meeting you first time. Having you in our lives has been the most wonderful experience and we are very thankful that God sent you to us.

 

Quinlan just prior to his first birthday.

 

Quinlan, I thought I'd write down a few things so that in the future you might learn a few things about yourself and because your mummy' memory isn't what it use to be.

 

1. You say 'Dada', 'Muma' and 'Baba'.

2. When someone says 'bye' or 'goodbye' you wave goodbye without looking in their direction.

3. Your favourite food is weet-bix and biscuits.

4. If Caelan, Mackenna and Viveca are eating you also have to eat otherwise you get upset.

5. You give me this beautiful kiss every day. You open your mouth, cover my lips and then press against me. I get covered in drool but your face lights up and you laugh. I LOVE IT.

6. Every time I put you to bed, I stand at the bedroom door looking through the cots slates and tell you that I LOVE YOU and I pretend to close the door. You giggle and then I open the door again which again makes you giggle.

7. Your crawl is whatever you feel like doing when you're on the floor, the worm, army crawl or the conventional crawl.

8. You pull yourself up, let go of the wall and then sit back down again.

9. You pull the girls hair whenever they annoy you and Viveca is getting her hair pulled all the time.

10. You love been carried around by your siblings especially if they start playing chasey.

11. You are so happy.

12. You like to eat a lot and you hate me wiping food off your face.

13. When you've eaten enough you will pick the food up and then throw it on the floor.

15. You sometimes shake your head 'no' but never when Viveca is near you.

16. You put things in your mouth e.g. Lego but you don't swallow them.

17. You just started climbing up Grandma's steps which scared her.

18. You love having a bath with your sister's and if you slip over you just reposition yourself.
19. You are a dream baby. You go to sleep without complaining, you're always happy and I think you're a cutie.

20. Go just go with the flow, never crying to loudly or for too long.

21. You'll play in your cot if mummy get's busy and can't get you straight away.

22. We all love blowing on your tummy to make fart noises.

23. When you fall asleep in the car, daddy is the only one who can transfer you into your cot. He holds you close and you cuddle into him.

24. You smile when mummy is telling you 'no'.

25. You're not scared to eat raw potato or sweet potato right out of the vegetable basket.

26. You have brought such joy, love and happiness to our family we are so lucky to call you our son.

 

 

 

 

 

We are so blessed to have you in our lives and I thank God every day for giving you to us. I cherish the relationship I have with my boys it's so easy, fun and I love that both you and your brother don't mind it when I pinch your bottoms. I love how the girls will let me tickle them and they will laugh so hard and long even after you have finished tickling them. People have asked me if our family is finished and I think it is because I already have the most fabulous children and they bring such joy, happiness and delight into our lives.

 

So Quinlan I hope you enjoy your 1st birthday with us and that you get to eat heaps of cake. I'm looking forward to spending some mummy and Quinlan time with you on Sunday and fingers crossed you enjoy the birthday cake you'll get to eat for breakfast.

 

Lots of hugs and kisses to you my beautiful boy from your brother, sisters, daddy and mummy we hope you have another great day with us.

 

Love Mummy xxx

Time for me...........

So my baby is about to TURN ONE in a weeks time and as a family we are about to head into the next phase of parenting. In a way I'm really excited to see how Quinlan grows, how his personality will develop and more importantly how he'll interact with his brother and sister's. However, the one thing that I've been thinking about during these last few weeks is that it's about time I lose all the extra weight I've gained.

 

You see I've punished my body, I haven't looked after it and I've just taken it for granted. I had three pregnancies in 38 months and that takes a toll on you, your relationships and your emotional well being. Being a mum is the best thing I've ever done, I love staying at home with the kids and just watching them, listening to Mackenna sing her beautiful songs, watching Viveca follow Mackenna around the place trying very hard to be like her big sister, Caelan trying to show everyone how independent, big and grown up he is and then Quinlan moving around at lightening spreed getting into everything BUT always watching and learning. Being a parent is one of the few things I've stuck at. I am known for starting things but never finishing them. I have a brand new house to prove it, after four months of living here I still haven't unpacked everything and the car isn't even close of getting into the garage.

 

During the recent school holiday's I spent and entire day at home all by myself trying to work through some of the boxes that still needed unpacking. During this very quiet time I got to thinking about how I was going to start looking after myself so that I could be a fitter, a happier mother and to work towards improving my diabetic control so that it's back to were it was prior to falling pregnant with Quinlan.

 

February 2013 will be my time to celebrate 20 years of being a type one diabetic, since my diagnosis things have changed greatly but I'm still not in the drivers seat when it comes to knowing and doing everything correctly. So long story short I have decided to lose some weight, how much I'm not sure as I haven't weighted myself and frankly I'm too scared to. What I have decided to do is to see if I can drop a dress size once I've achieved this then I might think about getting on those scales.

 

Today is the first day of my weight lose journey. I have decided to use a food plan that takes all the guess work out of it for me. I'm starting off having 5 days worth of food delivered which will total 1200 calories a day. After doing this for a while I'll try to incorporate some exercise into my routine and then from there I should be able to improve and change things as the weight drops off.

 

So far I have eaten strawberry yoghurt and muesli for breakfast which is a world first. Although I've never had strawberry yoghurt before I was 110% sure I'd hate it and I didn't. Lunch was a turkey salad, fruit and a cup of tea which was also really good. What I like most so far is I'm still getting to choose what I want an I'm not been forced into having to eat what's written down for the day.

 

So fingers crossed I have some success doing this because my poor neglected body needs it and so do my kids. I want to be able to run around and play with them especially Quinlan because he has so much energy. I'm also thinking that maybe I should change my hair style BUT I might wait a while to do that to.

 

We'll see how the diet goes first.

 

Megan

Leasing a KIA Grand Carnival

This is not a sponsored post, I was not contacted by the mentioned car companies nor was I paid any for any of my opinions or thoughts.

 

Close to four years ago Mr Opoes and I made the decision to upgrade our car as we were expecting our third child and we thought that the car we had just wouldn't cope with our growing family. So a long story short our car is just not working for us as a family with young children any more. We have issues getting the pram, groceries and one child into the boot most weeks. The other major issues we have with the car is that if someone comes for a visit I have to climb into the boot so that we can go out and our petrol bill is a huge problem, it keeps growing every time you visit the petrol station.

 

So while I was pregnant with Quinlan Mr Opoes thought that maybe we should novated lease a car through his work. I've left all the research up to Mr Opoes as he's really good with that plus when it comes to cars I really have no idea what I'd be reading. So after much research, late night discussions and looking at various cars while driving to my various destinations we narrowed it down to two vehicles.

 

The first was the Honda Odyssey and the second is the Kia Grand Carnival. I won't go into all the details about the good things about these cars except that the Honda is a 7 seater and the Kia is an 8 seater. So over the weekend we all went off to the car yard to check out both cars and to take them for a test drive to see which car we liked best.

 

Off we went to Honda to look at the Odyssey, after looking through the car we came to realisation that i'ts very similar to what we have at the moment. The older children will still have to climb over their seats to sit in the boot, access to the seat belts was an issue especially when doing them up and Caelan wanted to know if the air-con would reach him in the boot. We looked at the car for ages and if anyone knows us as a family we are never quiet, so after waiting 15 minutes without been approached by a sales person we left.

 

Mr Opoes and I realised while driving to the other car yard that the Odyssey just wouldn't work for us. Its a nice looking car but we both felt that it was great for a family of 5 who would have the occasional visitor and then you would have a boot that was only used to store the groceries. So off to Kia we went. Now one blog that I like to visit regularly is Retro Mummy. At the beginning of September she was given a Kia Grand Carnival to test drive for a week. Now she is a busy mother of 5 young children who are very similar in age to my children, so it was good to read her review but to also watch a video of the family using the car.

 

This is the look we want.

 

So with this information I was looking forward to looking at the Grand Carnival especially as I've seen hundreds of them during the last week while I've been doing the school run. Mr Opoes and I both wanted to test drive the diesel Si but they didn't have one on the lot so we got an upgrade to the diesel SLi which had beautiful leather seats but they aren't very practical for this family. We loved the Kia, so did the kids and now we have to talk things over with the leasing company.

 

Happy little passengers.

 

I'm looking forward to leasing this car because it's something that we've never done before. I'll end up saving us a bit of money in the end but the best part will be that we'll have a car that's better suited to our family's growing needs.

 

Megan

I want my DADDY.............

So work has sent Mr Opoes off interstate for the week and that means I'm looking after things all on my own at home. I know each child is different, their personalities change and they will all react in different ways. We said goodnight to daddy last night as he was staying close to the airport and it would have been a very early morning for Mr Opoes this morning. So I drove home with two children who were asleep and had missed saying goodbye to daddy. The two eldest children were still awake when we got home so I had them go straight to bed.

 

Viveca woke up moments after arriving home and as soon as she realised that daddy wasn't there she started crying and calling out for him. I tried putting her into our bed so that she could sleep on his pillow but the noise kept on going. I tried sitting on the bed and cuddling her. While I was walking around the front of the house trying to calm her I got a telephone call, it was daddy and he was coming home. Why could he here her or did he just know that she needed him. Neither, he'd left his mobile charger and ties at home so he was coming back to pick them up.

 

I took Viveca to the television room and we sat down to wait for daddy to say goodnight. Daddy got home at 10.30pm and Viveca had fallen asleep while I was letting him in the door. We only just managed to wake her up, he gave her a kiss and then I put her into our bed. All was right with the world. She moved around our bed like no ones business, climbed out of bed to sleep on the floor and even lay across my face. So I picked her up and put her into her own bed, so much better I could now get some sleep.

 

In the morning she asked me a few hundred times were daddy was but after her morning sleep she seemed to have gotten past it. Well that was until daddy rang for a quick talk between meetings after lunch. She had a little talk to daddy about her baby picture, gave the telephone to her big brother and then the crying started. Well I've calmed her down and told her daddy will be back in three sleeps time. She isn't happy. She is putting food aside for daddy and I've had to promise to keep a few biscuits for daddy as we don't want him to starve. I can't wait for tonight when daddy rings again as I have a feeling both the girls are going to have issues with daddy not been home.

 

So if you read this daddy, we are missing you and we have a few biscuits for you. I'm also going to miss daddy because there won't be anyone to talk to about the silly programs that on television tonight. Wish me luck and I hope the neighbours don't mind a bit of noise..

 

 

 Megan