Backyard Business

Over the holidays we had some backyard business going on.  We all got stuck in and renovated (ok bit of an exaggeration it basically needed a rake, sand turned over and the broken toys sorted and the rest stored somewhere easy or to be played with) the sandpit and resurrected our water wall.  Mmmmm another Ok, so actually we all started doing it together, but the minute the sandpit was half decent the three were overtaken by the sandpit creator inside each of them! Which meant I was left to peacefully go about getting finished what I wanted to.  And bonus I got the vegie garden done to as the sandpit creators stayed at work for a long time!

I actually enjoy doing outside work with the three kids as often they will get stuck into some fun thing and be lost for ages.  We raked all the leaves and sticks from the sand and turned all the sand over.  We made a big pile of broken toys and then I found some old baskets for no.1 Dad to stick on the fence to store toys.  We sorted the sand kitchen, our old sink from when we renovated the kitchen, and even killed the cockroaches we found in our cupboard.

It wasn't long before water was asked to be added to the mix.  My kids love sand and water, even at home which is a little funny considering we live 400m from lots and lots of sand and water, the beach, a place we more than utilise but at home it is still often our play of choice.  So with that in mind I set to work on the water wall.

We made our water wall about three years ago.  It is pretty simple recycled plastic bottles, pipe, zip ties and tape.  They are simply screwed into the fence.  Add water and you have at least an hours entertainment........Oh and yes it was holidays so we were having a pj day or in Miss Two's case a totally free day!

Left To Their Own Devices

When left to their own devices my children are quote creative.  Yesterday they filled their gumboots with water and laughed historically as water flew everywhere when they ran.

Mothers Day

 This Mothers Day I am looking forward to taking my gorgeous Mum and wonderful neighbour to the movies.  We live two states away from Mum so it is not often I get to do this.  We don't do a big celebration for the day but I do love how excited my kids get over buying something at the Mother's Day stall at school, especially our Mr 5 as it was his first year.  And I was very proud this year that as Nana was up they decided to buy something for her and it was all their idea.  The day of the stall all they did that arvo was talk about it and hide pressies and show me nana's. 

I am a big sucker for my kids and yep I do love the class made gifts even if they clutter my house.  I think what I love is their excitement when they give it to me and the look on their face.  And I must admit I loved my sleep in..................................or should I say may lay in, as my very noisy children were downstairs being very noisy. Miss Two was watching Peppa Pig one day this week and watched an episode about "The Noisy Family".............what can I say except it reminds me of us.  But it is nice to lay there all warm and snug and just listen without having to do anything. 

So here's to Mother's Day.  To the noise, the smiling faces, the funny little pressies, the snug lay ins.
To another year of fun, smiles, tears, hugs, trampoline tricks, books, frustrations, colds, accomplishments, terrible jokes that only they laugh at, sport, school, school lunches, lost library books, friends, whinny voices, going to the beach, holidays and all the little things that make our family ours.

Printer Mechanics

Our printer died and sadly these days it is much cheaper to buy a new one than it is to fix one.  So a few weeks after the death of our printer we finally bought a new one......................................and yes it totally amazes me that the ink costs more than a printer these days!  So our dead printer moved out to the front verandah to await for a trip to the tip and the new one went on the shelf.

After a few days of our dead printer going from collecting dust on the shelf to collecting dust outside the boys piped up and said can we take it apart.  So after school that day I pulled out a mat, placed the printer on it, gave them all the screw drivers I could find and a box to put the parts in.


And off they went.  They screwed and cut and talked to each other about what they thought bits were and who could do what next.  And they did it all on their on without me involved.  I probably could have sat with them got highly involved and we could have tried to nut out many things about how a printer works but I would like to think they learnt just as much from doing without me..........................just different stuff like exploring, negotiating, working together, sharing and I did her many creative ideas about what different parts do! Go my little printer mechanics!

13 Years

Yep last week we made it to 13 years.  Hard to believe 13 years has gone so quick, especially the last 7.......mmmmmmm maybe that has something to do with with little people entering our lives!

So to keep to our budget we decided to celebrate by having dinner at home..................yep we are party animals.  We always eat dinner with our kids so the whole idea was that we would cook the kids an easy meal and then we would have a celebratory dinner once they were in bed.

We made ourselves a Paella and then I created this dessert which I have to say I was pretty impressed with and was very easy.  I am call it Ice Cream ANZAC Sandwich.

Since making ANZAC biscuits on ANZAC Day, I have been stashing them in the freezer, this is one biscuit that all my kids actually eat.  So I defrosted 4 made them into an ice cream sandwhich and them I made this super quick chocolate sauce from Jamie Oliver's 30 minute meals cookbook.  If any of you have the book it is on page 270 - Fondue.  This is how I made it.

Ingredients

1 * 100g good dark chocolate (we used milk chocolate)
1 teaspoon vanilla paste or extract
100ml milk
pinch salt

• Break up bar of chocolate
• Add vanilla, milk and salt
• Microwave on high for 1 1/2 minutes
• Stir then microwave for another minute

Got to say easy and delish!

Oh and number 1 Dad did bring home these gorgeous flowers!

And this is the ANZAC recipe we are making at the moment.

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/32957/anzac+biscuits

Magic Potion Making

We have a long history of magic potion making in our house.  When I think about it we have not done any brewing in a long time but Mr 5 came to me over the holidays with one of his massive smiles and asked "can we make magic potions?"

Of course the answer was yes.  So they set up stirring benches, collected pots of the sandpit and containers and we filled a bucket of water for them all to share.  Then they raided the pantry.  The only rule I have is that when they choose what they want to add they have to ask if they can use it.  This allows me to monitor how much I have of certain ingredients left in my pantry.

The picked ingredients from the pantry
Collected ingrediants from the garden
Stirred and brewed for at least 45mins

And in case you are wondering I politely declined being the taste tester!

Outdoor Wood Chimes

I was looking for something simple to do with Miss 2 who wanted to paint.  We had a pile of sticks outside so I grabbed some sticks, some paint, some glitter and away we went.

We painted the sticks, sprinkled glitter on them while the paint was wet.  The paint acts like glue for the glitter.  Then we let them dry.

Once they were dry we hammered a nail in one end and another nail into a beam of our cubby.  We tied string on the end of the nail and then to the nails in the cubby.

Presto homemade wood chimes.