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