3 photos 3 years

Yeah right I could pick 3 photos!! Little Miss got sick right after her birthday with an ear infection so I forgot to post her special 3 photos 3 years post!!

Born


Blessing Day


6 months
she still has a long tongue and can lick her nose - which she does frequently!

1 year
70% of her pictures involve a dirty face/food covered face

She loves swimming and asked for a pool party for her birthday this year... sorry winter baby... not happening :(

2 years


3 years
photo credit to Zanabelle Photography

Looking through all her photos she is defined by gorgeous big blue eyes, no hair, dirty face, cheeky smiles, DUMMIES! too many photos with dummies in them (pacifier for those not in the know) sneaking into food - milo, nutella, peanut butter, butter; no clothes and a very few cute well dressed shots... That would be Miss G in a nutshell

Play thing of the day

Playdough and an empty tic tac container - did you know you could make 'bricks' with both the lid and the container? Kept her busy for about 40 mins!

And I wanted to mention the Playsilks I finally finshed making


I was wrong about not doing ANY last minute birthday sewing!! I was going through my material scraps and found the half finished playsilks (intended Christmas Gift for Miss G) and decided to finish them up for her birthday (I was feeling the consumerist guilt of only having bought ONE present for her)

Playsilks are a gift where the child may look at you blankly and push to the side at first (hurting your sewing heart :) But they may become the most played with gift after the fact. And so far the older girls have played with them ALOT MORE than Miss G

so far they have been:

bandages
wrist, waist and ankle wear
capes
blindfolds

and the most bizarre - my 8 year old enjoys having a couple hang out the back of her shorts (looking like a painter or builder who has a rag/cloth hanging out) she even went grocery shopping like this with me asking why? she had no reason.. she just liked it... ummmmmm OK....

and I love this idea from Carli's Clan about putting them in a tissue box to be pulled out by little ones as a distraction toy.

Playsilks can be expensive to buy so I sewed my own out of the cheap material usually used for clothes lining? I don't know what its called but it was like $4 m and I only bought 1/2 m of each colour, so downside is that my playsilks are small and not silk... but still lots of fun

Name Pillow done, just waiting for a name

Remember These Name Pillows? Well I am so organised with this baby (cough cough) that today I finished her pillow - minus the name and birth date part :) Still working on the name part - have it down to 4 Possible Names with a last minute entry making it to the top of the list.

The fabric is tiny white flowers with pink centres on yellow.. an offcut from my first quilt I ever made .

It made me smile... won't be long now

Sabbath

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path ~ Psalms 119:105

The Birthday

Morning started with all the traditions - Birthday Letter, Balloons, Number Shirt, Candle Ring, Birthday Crown and a cupcake for her breakfast :)


She had a small party with friends from our Mothers Group. She wanted party hats, bubbles and facepainting - Done! As her older sisters are home on School Holidays I made them in charge of entertainment. They did great! Had the kids lined up for facepainting (some interesting designs came out) and made them sit and watch them pretend to be clowns! I might hire those entertainers again!!

The Cake

For weeks all Miss G has talked about is Cupcakes! So cupcakes she got. We even got a cupcake Tree from Grandma a week before!! Perfect timing!! And she didn't even know we would need one


Odd mix of Cookie Monster Cupcakes and Ladybug cupcakes but it was what she wanted!! I think though that she thinks the blue ones are Sully from Monsters Inc.. anyway she called them "Mot Mot" Cakes.



Cookie Monster Cupcake Idea from Cupcakes and All things Sweet Hers are more professional though!! I don't have any piping bag things, so I just ran a fork along the icing for a bit more of a 'fur' look. I also used Mint balls (kool mints) for the eyes, I wasn't rolling any icing ;)


Ladybug Cupcakes Idea came from Google Images - I copied These ones I will say though, I think the choc chips were too tempting for little kids. After the party I found about 5 or so cupcakes around the yard all missing their choc chips, but the rest of the cake not eaten. I don't think any kid that took a ladybug cake ate it - Just a note :)

If only I could channel 'Nesting Fever' into something productive

These are a sample of the party bags I made for Miss G's upcoming birthday.. I put in a juice popper, bubbles, balloon, dinosaur, whistle and a couple of lollies. I think I have everything ready except the cake :) The idea came from my friends Stampin Up Blog check hers out as they are much cuter (I don't own any cool stamps or ink pads)

Now if I could focus the baby nesting fever into actually being ready to have a baby come into this house in a month.. that would be a much better idea!! I am soooo NOT ready... LOL

Unplug Your Kids Challenge - Container

This weeks challenge at Unplug Your Kids was container

My first idea was this one (once again from filth wizardry) about making origami boxes. With the many asian students that have lived with us over the years, we are pretty good at origami, but the girls got frustrated that their boxes didnt turn out too well(it is very important in this one that the folds be perfect)so I made these boxes, and then the idea was shelved! The boxes are about 5cm square, perfect for little toys



So moving on.... what is better than containers for your feet?? Exactly!! I still did the folding, but the girls measured and put their feet in etc and decorated! Making Paper shoes is fun!! This Idea once again from Filth Wizardry - with instructions from Instructables

One Shoe waiting


Gorgeous Dahhhling!!


And this is a project we started today from a wax fruit box - an easy castle.. we might add to it... we might not.. but it's a container!!!


Next Weeks Challenge: FAST

Sabbath

Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus ~ Phillipians 4:6-7

Doh Doh and more Doh

First day of the holidays we made about 5 kg of playdough.. I was inspired by my new favourite mum/kid craft blog Filth Wizardry (I totally recommend you take half an hour and scroll through all her archives.. I did and have enough ideas to keep the kids busy all holidays :)

Dino Island

The much better one we copied from

So far we have made a Train World, Cupcake Cafe, Dino World.. am working on a castle them for later.


It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Bought 1 bag of flour, 1 bag salt and 2 containers of cream of tartar. I made three lots on the stove, the older girls mixed their's in a bowl with boiled water from a jug - the no cook recipe - The kitchen was covered in a lot of flour though!!

The best idea is to get them to create a world (grass, water, dirt etc) and add toys.... remind them not to mix the colours.. has worked so far :)

It has been ages since we have made playdough (big amounts of it - we have those tiny Playdoh shop bought ones) because our last house had cream carpet the whole way through.. even under the dining table.... is there some secret factory out there churning out cheap cream carpet making investors think it is a good idea for their rental?? So I stopped that sort of thing.. but we have been in our current house for years and there isnt ANY carpet in the whole house... so what was I waiting for??!!

Reverse Applique for a Birthday

Yes, this time I will be organised... no night before the birthday sewing action for me!



So you know the now famous number tshirts that are required for birthdays? Here, Here and Here

Well this time I decided on Reverse Applique.. It was easy and I love the result!!

Trace out number of choice on Tshirt

Turn Tshirt inside out and iron on a contrasting fabric (good side down) with Fusible webbing (I just used hemming tape) do not place webbing where the number is!

Turn Tshirt back out and Stitch around the number (I hand stitched for a thicker look, but you could machine stitch if you want)

When done (carefully!!) cut the number out (inside the stitching) but being careful enough NOT to cut through the new fabric underneath. I used tiny curved scissors for this

Enjoy your CUTE AS Tshirt

(You can do any design this way, not just numbers)

12 748 and counting - whats a few 1000 more?

That's about the number of baby names I have read through :)

One night I read until my eyes were blurry and I actually fell asleep (around letter G), but I was still thinking of names, so I thought I was still awake?? Well this baby wont be able to complain that I wasn't THOROUGH!!

Here I am all thoughtful like ;)

(and if you live in my area you MUST book
Zanabelle Photography for a session)

I have been online to Babynames.com, babynamesworld.com, uniquebabynames.org and I have 2 baby names books from the library

but alas so far not much is happening :( Why are there so many UGLY names out there!! and I have to sift through them

Most names on the last list have been scrapped for various reasons

I don't like it, he doesn't like it, I find it hard to use a name if someone else I know has that name (I definately have issues - like that is their identity), it doesnt suit our last name, too hard to prounouce, and of course "all the so and so(insert name here) named people I have met are crazy/trashy/weird etc".

Then there is the it must have a nice meaning behind the name. All the meanings of my girls names are very beautiful/nice. I read name meanings, it's important to me - Sorry but if Kamryn means 'crooked nose' I just can't do it... Portia? no sorry not if it means 'pig', Cecilia - blind, Brenda - fiery, Linda - serpent, Thera - wild, untamed one, Trista - melancholy (no offence intended to people with those names)

so I gave up and decided to focus on Middle names :)

Easy, as we have decided they will all have fairly regular middle names that come from Family History. Now I also have a rule on that too.. the girls arent named after any particular great grandmother or anything, because if you go back too far how am I to know that great great aunt so and so wasn't a crazy fruit cake??? and that I named my child after her!!

So in great wisdom we scour the family history records and looked for names we liked that appear more than once. Lucky for us on both sides is English ancestory so we have plenty of Elizabeth's, Sarah's, Anne's etc. Now if there happens to be atleast 10 or more Elizabeths atleast some of them had to have been lovely enough for my child to bear their name??? No?

So this baby will be an :

Eliza
Sarah
Alice
Mary

Oh but that is a new set of problems when the middle name doesnt match the first!! LOL Cant have Celeste Sarah - what if the kid has a lisp?? or an Elliana Eliza.. so the debates continue... and I am keeping secret on the so far winning middle name that the MR and I have decided upon.. you'll have to wait :)

Here is a new list of first names if anyone happens to be interested in my internal debate that I have about a month left to sort out :)

Aliza
Amara
Amaya
Amani (The MR says too pretentious cause of the brand)
Ariana

Cate/Katie
Charlotte

Eden
Eliana
Esther (pretty much scrapped, but I'll leave it for now)

Jemila (oh the nickname possiblities!! and it means beautiful)
Jorja

Kamilah
Kady/Cady
Kenzie (Perfect my name and the MR's combined ;)

Lakia
Laine

Nakita
Zahra



and it better not be a surprise BOY in there.... It will have to wait until I search all over again if it is !!

Unplug Your Kids Challenge - Tiny

We had so many ideas for this weeks Unplugged Project Tiny is a good theme!

We are still working on making some tiny things with some air drying clay we have. But this is what we did do

I got this idea from my new favourite Mum/kids craft blog Filth Wizardry check hers out as they did a ton more than we did.

Basically upend some boxes, and let the kids loose with nails and screws. Use screwdrivers and rocks instead of hammers


My two year old loved it and she was surprising good with our little hammer and didnt hurt herself at all. I gave her a piece of styrofoam to make it easier


Quotes from this activity

"oh oh... we got movement" (when the screws were screwing in)
"Its doing it, its doing it!!" (When I suggested they unscrew all daddys screws to put back in the jar - the excitedness of the screw 'reversing' was too much :)

My original idea for the tiny challenge was to make little dolls out of the many palm seeds scattered around our block, but the girls just couldn't get going on this one. So I did it myself!!

I am always interested in the little Waldorf Gnomes I see on the net and wanted to make something like those - See some Gorgeous ones here at Feeling Stitchy

Take Seeds and little pieces of felt - triangles and rectangles


I was mega lazy and just hot glue gunned it all together. Stuff under the body piece with cotton balls/wadding etc so they stand up. These took all of like two minutes each to make


Tell Gnome Stories in bed - Once made the girls loved these little things


They were biggest hit with my 2 year old, she played for hours with them - esp the tiny wrapped baby ones


This Weeks Challenge: Container

Sabbath

How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth ~ Psalms 119:103

Cafe Capers

Our End of Term visit to a cafe with hot chocolate and Chocolate Fudge Cake and even Grandma joined us!

We made a mess, we are still working on our Cafe Manners, we talked too loudly about all the exciting things they have done in the first half of school, we talked with our hands and got very animated, there was crying from the tired/overwrought 2 year old... I think we left just in time before we got kicked out :) But a deserved treat for the girls who aced their report cards!!







And somehow I ended up with the babychino (just the milk froth) and my passionfruit citris tart stolen... hmmmmm... my diet secret - have kids :)

Its the end of our world as we know it...

well not really.. but I can't get that song out of my head :)

Last month we thought we had our last student. Roani from Brazil.


the next day the girls (IE The MR) rearranged the bedrooms to make room for the baby (all 3 shared a room - and I will say Miss G was a bit sad that she now has her own room for a little while - that I almost want them all together again) House rearranging is so much fun

2 days later the international school rings asking me to please take an emergency student whose homestay family couldn't take her.... There were a few protests from the Girls (poor things) but after I gave them the guilt trip of: this girl has nowhere to go, no family to love her, shes all alone in a strange country and can't speak english... they all moved back to their old room and gave up their new room for her. What good girls

So now we are back to rearranging the rooms as we said Goodbye to our last student - Jinni

Me forcing Jinni to eat a Dagwood Dog - very Australian of me - hey I only eat these things once a year at THE EKKA - but since I will be giving birth that week, we splurged at a local fair - and I will say it was probably the best Dagwood Dog I have ever eaten!!

The last two days I have actually been counting the children, as I feel like someone is missing - It feels strange yet good, I feel liberated, yet that something is missing at the same time -

4 almost 5 years we have been fulltime Homestay family - with all the good and bad that comes with that. Mostly good .. but sometimes annoying..

So farewell to:
sharing my home.. (though I am sure one day we will go back to it.. I will miss the $425 I earn per fortnight without much effort - it might be sooner than later when I realise what living without that means :)
Girls living in a room wall to wall beds
gifts from overseas
The world views my children have learnt; their kindness to strangers; sitting and playing with someone who understands nothing they are saying and yet still the girls press on
How wonderful the world really is, and that most people are the same the world around
That our family is brave and strong enough to let virtual strangers live with us

But hello to:
running around in my underwear (I can join the girls :) LOL
Not expecting my front door to open any time of day or night
water free bathrooms
No constantly speaking in pidgin english (well I still have kids, so maybe)
Not having to cook wonderful meals each night.. the girls will be so happy to hear they can eat noodles, toast, boiled rice and other lazy dinners!!

Life ebbs and flows.. and for that I am grateful

Unplug Your Kids Challenge - Mechanical

so I dont technically think this is very 'mechanical' but real robots are mechanical aren't they? My girls usually lean towards making animals and family type things so this would be mechanical- ish for them :)

I have been collecting boxes for weeks - stuffing them in my laundry (we rarely do recycled arts, as I cant stand the boxes/junk sitting around :) Bad mummy me :) So I thought this weeks challenge at Unplug your Kids was the perfect time to get rid of them all.

Put boxes out everywhere and invite neighbour over


Some of the finished creations - hard to see the details but one even has a moustache


I noted if one wanted toilet rolls for legs all the girls copied each other... so a fight broke out over the toilet rolls, I save the day by finding plastic cups only for them all to copy eachother and use cups for legs and arms... annoyingly to me, I felt this stifled creativity.. but oh well.....

I was even ready to donate a roll of aluminium foil to this project and wanted the girls to cover up the boxes (I find the printing distracting) but none of them wanted to do that. I was pretty persistant that they stick foil or paper over the front boxes so we could draw faces, buttons, knobs etc to make them more roboty looking.... after a while my 8 year old got sick of me going on about it and said

"Mum.. It is more ARTISTIC this way - we want them not covered!"

"Its recyled art"

So I got told... no foil robots here sorry :)

*and a note of Thanks goes to Lucky Holly (sorry her blog is private or I would link it as it is awesome :) who kindly sent me a package of craft things for my kids after I lamented never having enough stuff on her blog (be careful what you say on others blogs!!) Her rolls of sticky tape came in handy for this one as they girls were very heavy handed with the tape to stick their creations together - Thanks Holly

This weeks Challenge: Tiny

If it's good enough for bakerella...

Its good enough for me!! LOL... most of her recipes are beyond my expertise.. but the Lemon bars were too easy not to try.. and you all know I love lemon recipes.. seen on this blog so far is lemon slice, lemonade, lemon delicious pudding..

I used her recipe found here at Bakerella

Lemon Bars

Crust:
1 cup butter
1 3/4 cup flour
2/3 cup confectioner's sugar (plus more for dusting)

Topping:
1 1/2 cup plain sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
4 eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 cup lemon juice


Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Grease and flour a 9 X 13 pan

To make crust:

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour and confectioner's sugar
Cut in butter until combined and crumbly.
Press mixture into bottom of pan.
Bake for 20 minutes or until golden.

To make topping:

While crust is baking, prepare topping.
In a larger bowl, add sugar, flour, and baking powder.
Then add slightly beaten eggs and lemon juice.
Mix well and pour on top of warm baked crust.
Bake for 20-25 minutes.
When cool, dust with confectioner's sugar and refrigerate.
Cut into bars and enjoy them cold!


and I am enjoying them with cream... YUM!

A Guess What

Its too easy really.. but hey just for fun :)

Unplug your kids - Slippery Challenge

It has been months since I participated in a Unplugged Challenge - Shame on me!! I think I forgot to check her blog. And it is all so smart of me to be getting back into the swing of things 6 weeks before I have another baby... bah ha hahah !! So we shall see how long this lasts ;)

This weeks challenge was Slippery

Ideas from the kids -

wet the wooden floors and slide around the house (been done before - they have mopped the house for me in socks and rags tied on their feet - but I deemed it too cold to do that - as they will end up entirely wet)

Homemade slippery dip off the couch or back varandah

Then the idea of course that I came up with that we did :)

I was thinking slime or some type of goo - so I googled goo recipes and found This website that has 4 pages of goo type recipes to choose from including Slime, Gak, Flubber, Gunk, Silly Putty, Ooblick

I chose the two easiest that I had the ingredients for in the cupboard ready to go - Goop and Goo!



Goop
1 cup corn starch
1/2 cup water (extra may be needed)
food coloring if desired

Mix one cup corn starch with one part water, mix together well, add water in small amounts until desired consistency is reached. If you wish to add color, use a small amount of food coloring. The mix will feel solid when touched hard and will slide through your fingers when handled

We marched animals across our 'slime' pond and the Goop is hard.. but if the animals were left to sit, they sink into the slime.


Then after school the older girls and the neighbour turned our slime pit.. into slime all over the house :)






Drizzle Goo
1 cup (250ml) flour
1/4 cup (50ml) salt
1/4 cup (50ml) sugar
3/4 cup (175ml) water

Mix together until there are no lumps, and pour into plastic bottles with squeeze tops (old mustard containers are fine)



Why non toxic is good when doing things with 2 year olds... she couldnt resist tasting it - maybe it was the sauce bottle it was in??? Anyway it didnt taste good as she had added extra salt!!


Next Weeks Challenge: Mechanical