Going to the Wild

That is what Hamish gleaned from being told we were visiting the Wildlife park...and then on departure he wondered where the park was? Poor kid, only got taken to see many different animals including a private koala experience but he wondered where the good old slippery dip was?

We last visited this particular wildlife park when Hamish was just on 3 and Angus was 3 weeks old <3 What a lot of growing happens in 22 months.

Here is Mister Mighty watching the sheep shearing show.

Hamish getting to feed a lamb that was only 6 weeks old, it took forever to feed <3

No words, just heart melting.

And all of us visiting the koalas

Click

That's what that movie is called isn't it?! Where Adam Sandler has the remote and can see his life as if they were just sections on a DVD.
I wish I could put all my memories onto a device like the one in the movie and relive them when I wanted to. I find myself agreeing to read 1 more book to the boys, falling at each hurdle they throw me just so I can live in that moment just a second longer. Don't get me wrong, the kids have the ability to send me from 0 to 100 on the angry/frustrated scale within a matter of seconds BUT the feeling of completion they give me - that completion that I never knew I had been missing, the happiness I feel in our family unit soars far higher than the angry scale could ever go. Moving away from everything we have ever known has been the hardest and most rewarding thing our little unit could ever have done. And its not just the boys I count in that feeling, its the 4 of us. I'm not one of those people to publicly ooze an abundant amount of soppy affection about my life so I'll stop these there. I'm tired, hubby is away and I'm missing him. So I'm sitting here trying to get myself to a sleepy state, so really I could go on for ever. But I won't. My family is ultimately what I feel anyway, I couldn't possibly relate it all to somebody else.

So what I originally came in to blog about was language. Its the theme of the day here with master 4 at speech therapy to try fix his pronunciation habits that can affect his ability to communicate some messages. Like anything, when you start working on it you notice it more so every element of Master 4s language has been the focus of much of my attention.

We are really enjoying in the thick of the fournager years here and getting served a true variety of language in all its flavour. Comments like 'I want you to go and die' really do leave you with a feeling of warmth and love deep inside don't they!?
On the weekend I headed to the shops and on departure I asked Master 4 if he needed anything, his response was Yes, intrigued I asked him what he needed and his response was 'Um, something we don't have'. Clearly he got his shopping tendencies from his mother AND has outsourced the buying part, smart lad.
I wish I had a mental memo board to take note of all the funny things he has said, its all a vague distant memory.

We are thoroughly enjoying the other end of the spectrum as well, Master 1 just finding his voice and saying single words, 'UCK' is often yelled in the car when he sees a truck bus/train/large utility vehicle, we also have Car, duck, mum, dad, Santa which is adorably pronounced SAAAANTAAA. He also tries other words, IF he feels like it when asked. But generally he is a quiet kid preferring to use gestures to communicate. Which works fine, for now.

x

Christmas time

It seems the lead up to Christmas drags on for months but the day itself, gone in an instant. A blurry memory of torn wrapping paper, many laughs, some tears and much love.

This year marked our first Christmas in our new home. I've been so busy with sorting out the house and doing all my 'holiday activities' that I didn't feel too anxious about the upcoming day. Christmas means a lot to me, being a foodie I love the food preparation and the eating, I love the planning, I love preparing the gifts for people, thinking about what they would like and seeing them open their gifts. I love being with other people and relaxing for the day. Obviously I wasn't sure what to make of this year being so far away and missing out on those usual activities in the comfort of our family homes.

The lead up to Christmas was wonderful, we found ourself unleashing the 'kids must be in bed at their 7pm bedtime' rules to, 'lets leave to see the christmas lights at 7.20pm'. The freedom that came with our more relaxed holiday attitude was wonderful. We got to enjoy the innocent wonder of the Christmas lights through the eyes of our sweet boys. What miracles children are! Mere days before Christmas a friend lost her baby girl to a rare genetic disorder, so many times during these holidays I looked at my boys and couldn't stop thinking of baby S. I am just so lucky to have my boys, every single day that I get to cuddle them, that I get to tell them I love them and even when I get to experience the joy of having them fight is a wonderful day because it means I have them.

We are so fortunate to have a wonderful village of support over here, I guess you lean on these people more when you are away from your family and older friends. As a result Christmas day did not go by with my sitting and tearing up at the thought of the events we were missing back at home, I did at various points in time think with fondness back to what we would be doing had we been back home. But we had such a lovely time with new friends and adopted family that I cannot say I felt sadness at what we were missing, just nostalgic.

I've managed, you see, to get myself into a good headspace! It is a nice place where I don't yearn for things I cannot have, I live here, not there. I CANNOT simply have the life we live here AND the life we left behind. THIS is our journey for now, and I'm going to enjoy it and not wrap myself up in what we miss and what we cannot do. We take the opportunities here as we can and continue to grow into a stronger family unit as a result of living in isolation to those family ties.

Christmas has come and gone and we prepare ourself for another New Year, what a great year 2012 will be. I am sure.

Fresh summer coolness

With hot days upon (most of) us I've turned to looking for cool treats that are egg and dairy free so our littlest man can enjoy them with us. You don't need an ice cream making you just need to get clever.

I made banana sorbet last week and it turned out really well, and is so so easy. Using just 1 cup caster sugar and 1 cup of water along with 1 cup of mashed banana follow this method


Preparation method
Prep: 10 minutes | Cook: 4 hours
1. In a small saucepan, stir together sugar and water. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat and allow to cool.
2. When the sugar syrup is cool, stir in bananas. Pour into a freezer - safe baking dish. Freeze for 3 to 4 hours, until set at the edges.
3. Remove from the freezer and transfer to a mixing bowl. Use an electric mixer to beat until smooth. Return to the freezer until gently set, at least 2 hours.
(source: http://allrecipes.com.au/recipe/10658/banana-sorbet.aspx).

The result is a smooth and tasty sorbet that is not too sweet and the perfect accompaniment to a summer fruit salad. I'll come and add a photo later...but mine looked pretty much the same as the one from the link!

Gingerbread Men in a Jar

Thanks to a gorgeous book 'Kids in the Holiday Kitchen' that I purchased from Pottery Barn last year I found the perfect teacher gift for this year. They are biscuits in a jar. Basically you layer the dry ingredients in a jar and then attach a gift tag with the recipe. The recipient just adds the required additional ingredients like butter and eggs to then make their biscuits. I purchased jars from Ikea, gingerbread cookie cutters from Big W, cardboard and ribbon from Spotlight and with just a little patience whilst putting them together we have beautiful personalised gifts for teachers and daycare workers.

This is the recipe that I used and this is the text I put on a card attached to the jars.

Gingerbread Men in a Jar

For scrumptious holiday cookies preheat oven to 180^oC. Beat together 1 egg yolk with 125ml golden syrup and 125gm room temp butter. Add dry ingredients of jar, mix till well combined. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Press dough into a disc. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes. Place dough between 2 sheets of baking paper and roll out until 4mm thick. Use gingerbread man cutter to cut out shapes. Place on prepared trays 3 cm apart. Bake in oven for 10 mins or until brown. Push smarties into warm cookies to decorate.

And this is the completed products at less than $10 a gift.

Dry Erase Calendar

I'm going to completely ignore the fact that I've been MIA in a big way. I have all the best excuses though with the Uni semester finishing, an interstate trip and the general busyness of our family. But I'm going to try post lots in the coming weeks as I am on holidays and keen to enjoy them by letting my inner creative crafty self come out.

This week I completed the first of a long list of things I want to create. It is a dry erase calendar. My plan was to use colours to intergrate with the feature wall and splashback in the same living space. The completed product has definitely done this.

I started with an Ikea frame

Next up was the collection of paint swatches

I then painted the back board that came in the photo frame, I had some white/cream paint in the shed so I used this to create a nice background for the calendar. Using an old calendar lying around I cut the shapes out of the swatches for each day of the month, a year and month slot. I used a measuring tape to accurately place each square on the board...and this is what I created.

I have to say I'm biting at the bit to write things on to the calendar. It's so easy to write on and will be easy to wipe off at the end of the month too. Our house desperately needed a central point to put our whereabouts so I'm thrilled we can now do this so easily.

I've been MIA

It's been a crazy few months and I've been MIA - a terrible blogger!

I've started uni, we've travelled back to the East coast for a visit and we've had the usual at home with the kids, dog, house etc etc. I know its all very unique to us and not what anybody else goes through. (ha).

In amongst all the usual I have done lots of baking, so I'll get recipes up soon - as usual dairy and egg free for the little lad but very tasty too!

Be back soon...really soon!!!