It's Christmas Time...

{Reindeer Cookies}

I love this time of the year. Everything feels so magical and as a parent it is even more beautiful to watch children's joy.

Mr Lachlan has been coming home with a lot of christmas cards from his class mates and to accompany the cards is a candy cane, so many candy canes in this house right now.
This year I wanted to do something a bit different. So Lachlan and I (mostly me..Lachlan is feeling very unmotivated at the moment) set about making some cute little Reindeer Cookies.

Here is the end result. Lachlan was thrilled with them and couldn't wait to give them out to his class mates. I too was pleased because they didn't take too long at all !!!! (especially cause I had to make 30)

Colour My World

{Colour Explosion}


Well this project surely brought out the child in me. It was so much fun to do and super easy. Again it caught my eye on Pinterest with all the gorgeous colours. I did mine on a slightly smaller scale but still had the same colorful effect. I used 53 crayons all together but I did double up on my favorite colours. All you need is:

~ Canvas Boards
~ Hair Dryer
~ Enough crayons for your board
~ Hot Glue gun to glue yours crayons on
~ A hair dryer

Lachlan loved looking at all the colours too. Here are some pictures:

I needed an extra hand here..Thank you to my ever so patient husband (There is only so many crazy ideas he can handle)

 

*SQUEAL* I LOVE all these colours...

So this is proudly hanging on the wall like one of my children's artworks would haha.
Cant wait for my next project now xx

Bath Time Fun

{Shaving Cream~ Bath Tub Fun}

Again I was on "Pinterest" and I found this really cool idea. My boys have never had so much fun at bath time. Trust me this was a VERY messy occasion. But im sure these are the best times. Lachlan enjoyed painting pictures and mixing colours and Xavier enjoyed using the paint brush, painting his brother and sticking his hands into the shaving cream.

The Palette: I used a muffin tin with shaving cream squirted into it and a small amount of food colouring in it.

 Paint Brushes: The idea I saw on "Pinterest" was to use thick brushes. I didnt have any of these so I had to use thinner brushes.
 
The Easel: Our bath of course !!

Artists: My clever, artistic boys :)


(Excuse the quality of the photos they were taken on my phone..ALOT of supervision was needed for this task so I couldn't use my big camera)

Much more fun with my hands

My brother painted me instead of the bath

 

 

Lovely Lunch

{What's for lunch Mum}

Hello...


It's been a while since I last blogged but boy have things been busy around here. This is a brief look at what I have been up to in the last few weeks.

1. A poor little man with very sore gums

2. Planning a "Ninja Party" for a very special soon to be 6 year old

3. Designing my new business logo

4. Putting together "client welcome packs"...I have another wedding booked (YAY!!)

5. Catching up with friends and family

and most of all spending time with the most important people in my life...my boys 

Something else I have been working on is creating beautiful food for my boys and presenting in a fun way so they enjoy eating it, whilst still eating all the healthy stuff too.
I still vividly remember my school lunches. My mum put so much effort into it and it's not until I have had my own children that I realised how lucky I was, mind you at the time I thought I was deprived because i didn't get to have packets of chips or roll ups like the other kids.
I guess I knew I was on the right track with Lachlan when he said to me
"I have the BEST lunches ever"...
I also find the mornings can be a bit hectic for us so I try to have it organized the night before and I freeze his wraps/croissants/cheese and bacon rolls so I don't have to make them of a morning.


Here is a peak at what Mr L. has for his lunches.

Some how all of that is packed into his little top gear case and off he goes. At school they always have a separate piece of fruit and they have that for "fruit snack" at school at about 10am. He loves his tinned pears and mandarins at the moment.


Will be back later to show you all my new business logo.

My Yummy Fortune

{Fortune Cookies}



A while ago I purchased a box of fortune cookies. They were fun to eat and to open them up and see what the messages were. Lachlan really enjoyed them too. 
I found a recipes on one of my new favourite blogs : Our Best Bites
I set about making a batch with my own messages. Lachlan thought it was pretty special to have personalised messages in them.


Ingredients:


1/2 C flour- If you have bread flour, use it.
1/2 C sugar

1 tsp vanilla- or sometimes I use 1/2 almond 1/2 vanilla

2 egg whites

Method:

Preheat oven to 200°.

Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper*. Draw 3-4 (3-inch) circles on paper. Turn paper over. Spoon 1 teaspoon batter into center of each of the drawn circles; spread evenly to fill circle. Bake at 200° for 5-6 minutes or until the cookies are brown just around the edges and a little toward the centers. Remove from the oven. Let sit for a few seconds before removing from pan. Working quickly, loosen edges of cookies with a spatula, and turn over. Place fortune along the centre of 1 cookie. Fold cookie over so the edges meet ; press edges together. Gently pull the ends of the cookie down over the rim of a small bowl (or Jar); hold for a few seconds or until set. Repeat procedure with remaining cookies.
Makes about 24 cookie.

(Sorry the photos are a bit rough, i took them with my phone)

Write out little messages for your fortune cookies

Whisk all the ingredients and set in fridge for 1 hour

Working quickly (within seconds) flip the cookies over
and pop the message into the middle.
Fold the cookie over.

Bend them over the edge of a bowl or glass

Leave them to set for 15min

To finish of my cookies I dipped them into some melted chocolate and then into some sprinkles. These would make a beautiful little gift for someone with their own personal messages inside them. 

Icy Poles

{It's Too Cold..Brr}


My Mr Lachlan is in love with his Icy Poles. When he eats all of his dinner of a night time he gets his special icy pole. The other night he said to me " Mum wouldn't it be AWESOME if you could make your own icy poles"
It reminded me of when i was little and my mum used to make me icy poles, i too thought the concept was "AWESOME" when i was 5. I had a look through our Tupperware cupboard and found the very containers that i had when i was little.  So Lachlan and i set about making our own icy poles. I must say i like this option a whole lot better than the store ones. 
I use 100% fruit juice which is much healthier for my boy. 

Loopy Ties

{Fruit Loop Fun}


So it's school holiday time. I love having my boy home with me, but its surely a task to keep him occupied. 
For the school holidays we sit down together and plan out what we are going to do. We try and have an activity on everyday so we dont get the "I'm borrred Muuum" scenario.
This is just one of the little activities we did. Lachlan enjoyed doing this one, he particularly enjoyed eating the fruit loops that didn't have holes in the centre (especially because he has never had fruit loops before).
But most of all it kept him (us) occupied for a while.

Our special flower..

{Beautiful Flowers}

Xavie and i have gotten into a bit of a routine of late. We take Lachlan to school of a morning and on the way back to the car we stop and look at all the trees. There is this one tree though that Xavie just loves. His little eyes light up and he puts his hands out to touch it. Im not sure what sort of tree it is but it has some gorgeous orange flowers. So every morning we have to stop or he has a little grumble at me, I dont mind though sometimes its nice to just stop and take it all in. In this busy life we all live it really is nice to enjoy the smaller things...Even if it is just a flower :)

It's not what you say, it's what you hear?

{MAD GAB}

Ok so i think i'm a little bit too easily entertained. But seriously when i found this game i couldn't help but have a laugh. Im sure it's been around for a while but i have only just come across it.

What is it: The puzzles contain a set of unrelated words. When you read them aloud they sound like familiar phrases, names and places. On the website you can type in your answer and click submit.

Go to online game here: Mad Gab

Heres a few to keep you going:

1. Par Dummy

2. Leaf Meal Own

3. Poe Lease Deep Heart Mint

4. Muff Heater Gold

(answers below) 

And to keep me that little bit more entertained there is even a MadGab iphone app..

Can you come up with some of your own?

Answers:

1. Pardon Me

2. Leave me alone

3. Police department

4. My feet are cold

Right before our very eyes..

Im very behind on my blogs but i'm desperately trying to catch up so here we go..

Right before our very eyes our gorgeous Xavier turned 1. The time has flown so quickly, im really trying to make the most of every moment. I have absolutely loved being here with him all the time, i am very lucky to have been able to see all of his achievements. Xavier is a very easy baby and the journey has been smooth. He has achieved so many things this year, smiling, rolling, clapping, giggles, crawling, solids, chatting and climbing. But my favourites would have to be his developing personality, his beautiful smiles and the way he says "Dadda". He loves to watch Lachlan and follow him around and he loves standing at the door and talking to our puppies.

Now on to his PARTY...

SAFARI

I had been planning his party for quite some time. I knew i wanted bunting flags, candy jars, a wow factor cake (with the help of my bestie) and gloria jeans coffees (our family favourite). It took me many months to get it to all come together but in the end it did and i hope that one day we can look back on Xavier's first birthday party and go WOW.

I will leave you with some of the birthday boys pictures:

One on One

Since Lachlan has started school I have been feeling like we don't get enough time to just hang out together. I designated last weekend as our "one on one weekend" with both of the boys. 

On Saturday Graham spent some time with Lachlan and they went to see "Rango", Xavier and i...well we get to spend everyday together so i thought i would indulge in a little bit of shopping. 

On Sunday Graham took Xavie for a babychino and i took my big boy to the beach. It was so incredibly windy and normally i would have said "let's go somewhere out of this wind" but Lachlan had the biggest smile on his face, he was so happy standing in the wind looking out at the water, so i just went with it. We ran along the beach and tried not to get blown over, we did lots of exploring and we wrote in the sand together. 

Everywhere i go i take my trusty camera, i went to grab it before we left and Lachlan said "oh mum not the camera". I adore taking photos of the boys but i obviously needed a new angle with Lachlan now. Instead i grabbed the little point and shoot camera and told Lachlan that he was in charge of taking the photos today. He LOVED it and it was great for me to see the world through my 5 year olds eyes. 

We had a brilliant weekend and we are going to make our "one on one" times a monthly event. 

What's next? A "Can of Dates" of course :) 

I <3 this boy

Our Shadows <3

Memory Board

We have a special place for our keys to hang at home (yet i still manage to loose them on a daily basis). 

This spot was beginning to look a bit boring and i wanted to make it a bit more personal. I set about making a "Memory Board". 

I found lots of great tutorials on YouTube to help.

This is what I used:

1. A cork board

2. About 1.5 meters of material- Cut to size

3. Ribbon

4. Press pins

5. Staple Gun

6. Hooks