Monday, May 28, 2012

The Play Room

Recently we did a 'room swap'. We swapped our 'living area' with our lounge room. It has worked wonders for us as we have now made the lounge room a Play Room/Study area. Here is some pics!

3 x Flat packs! $59 each from The Warehouse.

Mums Swedish Meatballs!

My mum calls this recipe Swedish Meatballs. I don't know what make them Swedish, but its a cool name so I am going to stick with it :)

Ok so you need:
1 large carrot, grated
1kg Sausage Mince
About half cup breadcrums
1 egg
2 cans tomato soup
Anything extra you want to add, grated zucchini for example
Salt and Pepper - of course!

This is how you do it:

1 - Put your grated carrot in a bowl with your sausage mince bread crumbs egg and any extras. Season with salt and pepper.

2 - Squish it all together with your hands until its all combined. This is really fun, maybe a good one to get the kids to help with!

3 - Roll meat mixture into meatball sizes.

4 - Brown edges in a frying pan with a little bit of oil. Do this in batches so you don't over crowd your pan.

5 - Put all the meatballs back into the frying pan, and add 2 cans tomato soup to the pan.

6 - Bring to the boil, then allow to simmer until the meatballs are cooked through - about 30 minutes, depending on how big you make them.

7 - Serve with rice, mashed potato or whatever else you would like.

8 - Clean up - this is the bad part!

Note: I sometimes add some dried mixed herb if I have them and remember to the meatball mixture.













Cheese and Bacon Rolls

 My kids LOVE Cheese and Bacon Rolls, here is my recipe. I make double batches and freeze what I can salvage from when they were originally baked, Great for School Lunches.

CHEESE AND BACON ROLLS. (Single batch, works just as well if you double everything)




Thursday, May 24, 2012

Miss 8's Roller Blade Party - Part 2 - The Food

Ok so I sat down with my little Miss 8 and asked her what she wanted for food at her party. Keeping in mind it was 9am - 12pm so it was more of a morning tea then anything else.
We ended up deciding on:
- Rainbow Jelly Cups
- Cake Pops
- Fruit Platter (this was MY idea!)
- Coloured Popcorn
- Tea Cups Biscuit things.
- Chocolate Coated Strawberries (Miss 8's favourite thing in the world!)
- Chips

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Miss 8's Rollerblade Birthday Party! Part 1 - 'Lolly Bags'

 Recently, my 'little' girl turned 8. Yup E.I.G.H.T! Yikes! She was very much over kiddy parties and wanted to do something more grown up! So this is what we came up with. Roller blades. My first reaction muttered under my breathe.... S**T! LOL!

But it was actually a REALLY great party! They threw in a 1 hour long 'learn to skate' lesson before the party started so I got a little bonus of an extra hour free and all the kids knew the basics! The only problem was, this started at 9am! On a Saturday! 9! AM! I wouldn't usually have a problem with this, but I had one of Miss 8's friends sleep over the night before the party, so I had to get 5 kids ready instead of the usual 4, and make sure the guest had all their belongings with them the next morning. I went to bed early to get some rest, set the alarm clock. But you know how kids like to turn your alarm volume? Yeah mine does. And did the night before. So I woke up at 8 am! I think you can imagine the panic and rush since it took 25 minutes to get to the place of the party! AARRGGHH!

Despite all that, my daughter had a great time! I think I pulled it off quite well. And I even remembered how to roller blade from when I was a kid. One quote from a child attending the party was "I didn't know Mum's could Roller Blade!" HA-HA precious! But yes we can! And I did! (I didn't manage to get a photo of this as hubby took the boys off for a play, and it is kind of hard taking a photo of yourself roller blading LOL!)

Ok so here are the pictures!

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Turning 5!

 So my second born, Jakob, his birthday is December 31st. I can't believe he came on this day.I feel sorry for him having such a special day on such a special day. All his life he hasn't had a birthday party as it was NYE and since it is not long after Christmas, we are usually strapped for cash!





Sunday, May 13, 2012

Mother's day!


Well, firstly, I would like to wish all the beautiful mums, and VERY Happy Mother's Day! I hope everyone had a fantastic day full of relaxing and love.

I love mother's day.  I got woken up this morning to a lovely breakfast in bed with a much needed cup of tea. I also got a small glass with some hand picked flowers from our garden. All the kids came in and fought with each other to be the first to give me their presents!




To me mother's day isn't about presents or alone time (well a little bit of alone time doesn't hurt!) but it's about your family stopping to take time to show they love you and respect what you do, all day, every day, all year, for LIFE! (LOL) I love the handmade gift's the kids work SO hard on to give to me, because they think I am special. :) 

 




















My Mr5 made this for me at school                                 My Miss 8 made this for me at school

I think they are JUST gorgeous, and am looking for a place to hang them around my bedroom. :)


My Miss 8 always goes out of her way to show me her love. This kid, is one in a million! 


The front of my beautiful card :)




My gorgeous Chris took the kids shopping yesterday. (I was shopping for MY mum as well separately and happened to walk past a shop where MR 4 was covered by a poster he had pulled down from the window LOL) These were my gorgeous pressies. I am the luckiest mum on earth!


Of course,mother's day isn't always happy happy joy joy. My mother, as some of you already know, is quite ill, and this could very well be her last Mother's Day. My brother and I made sure we grabbed some things from the supermarket for lunch, and we headed over there with the kids to have lunch and spoil her. I love my mum, she is an angel on earth. I feel like I miss her already even though she is still with us. I just don't want her to have any more pain. Happy Mother's Day Mummy. I love you, to the moon and back! xxxxxx

My mummy with Mr 18months :D

Liam - Mr18 months

Me and my gorgeous man Chris - thank you for my day!

Miss almost 8 in her PJ's, because she was THAT excited LOL

My brother, his girlfriend and Mr4

Mr 5 - he gives the BEST hugs! xx

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY to all the deserving mums out there. Until next year xx



Thursday, May 10, 2012

School Uniforms R Us


With 2 kiddies at school this year, I realised it was going to get tough with the more kids that go to school in the years following. I was already sick of figuring out whose was whose (Miss almost 8, and Mr5 are the same size!) and I was sick of them saying "I have no shirts/pants/jumpers left" because I just couldn't keep track of what was in there draws all the time. So I came up with a different idea!



Pumpkin Soup!

INGREDIENTS
- 2 Tbsp oil - any will do (I used Canola.)
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 1/2 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp ground cumin (yum)
- 1kg Peeled Pumpkin (I like Butternut),  peeled, diced.
- 2 medium potatoes, peeled, diced
- 1L chicken or vegetable stock (I used Chicken)
- 1/2 Cup cream
- salt and pepper to taste








METHOD
- Heat pan then add the oil (heating the pan then adding the oil after if better as you don't use as much oil as the heat doesn't evaporate it before use) over low heat. Add Garlic and Spices and stir it around for about 30 seconds.
- Add Pumpkin and Potato and stock. Bring to the boil, and simmer on low, covered for 30 minutes, or until everything is soft.
- Take it off the heat and allow it to cool down a little bit. Then blend it up in batches (it makes a fair bit and I like to double it). 
- Return to the pan, stir through the cream, season with salt and pepper and gently re-heat it. 




This is soooo yummy. This was my first crack at making soup with this recipe, and its a hit at this house with some little oven baked dinner rolls, or toast, or any other crunchy bread and butter. 

Friday, May 4, 2012

Mother's Day!


Mother's Day. What on earth does this mean anyway? A day for Mothers, to be Mothers? HAHA my brother has once said to his wife "It's mothers day, you should be spending time with your children! After all it's all about being a mum, isn't it?". OOOH BOY did he get looks for this comment! Especially when he followed it up with 'So I was thinking about going fishing while you spent the day with your loving kids".



I think I almost wet myself from laughing so hard when I heard my Sister - In - Law retelling me this story. I cannot believe he thought that was going to happen.

I don't know about you, but I don't want presents for Mother's Day (although it would be nice!) You know what I would like? I want a sleep in. A cup of Tea and breakfast in bed. To wake up to a beautifully cleaned house and well behaved children. i would like nothing more, then to be bored. It is such a shame you can't wrap these things! What do you want for mothers day?

Oh and  by the way, if Marc Jacobs is reading this, I have ran out of Lola, wouldn't mind some more - just sayin' ....  LOL!

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Peace out! \/