Blerg...

So if it isn't immediately obvious from that post title...I am sick.

It started yesterday and has gotten progressively worse, I am not ridiculously unwell but I am feeling craptacular. It is just a common cold but it is made worse by the fact that I am unable to 'rest' when I have two kids to look after. I miss being sick pre-kids where you can lie on the couch all day napping intermittently. I wish there was such a thing as 'sick days' as a mum, unfortunately as most of you will know...we just have to solider on. Another kick in the teeth is not being able to take anything because I am breastfeeding, just have to ride it out.

I swear it feels like my son is being extra trying just because I feel like crap. More than likely he is being his usual toddler self but it is getting to me that much more because I just don't want to deal with it feeling as I do. It also feels like what little housework I am managing is null and void and everything is multiplying and mess abounds. If I try and clean up his toys, no sooner does he spread them out and throw them around everywhere...I seriously wonder why I bother sometimes. I think it is more so because I couldn't stand the mess that it would be were I to just let it fester and not do anything.

Some of you may recall that we planted a little herb garden and some plants when we moved in to this place, about 2.5 months ago. Our flowers are starting to come back in bloom so I have taken some photos to show the progress and gaze in amazement at how they are thriving, I can't believe they are still alive.

My carnations (these were inspired by my mum, her favourite flower)

Roses, this photo doesn't do the colour justice.

This is the herb garden, the roma tomatoes are going nuts (no tomatoes yet)

There is also, coriander, basil and mint.

Lovely lavender.

Chrysanthemums

Chillies, getting there.

I need to get up and make a start on dinner but am struggling to do so, I really can't be bothered...especially as I know that it doesn't matter what I make...my son will more likely than not, refuse to try it. Sigh

Till next time xo

Is it just me or is this year flying by?

I cannot believe it is almost August already, I swear it only feels like yesterday that I had a newborn baby. It's strange to think that we are creeping ever closer to her first birthday, my little baby is not so little any more. I have to say though, that I am looking forward to when she is of an age where she can communicate with us, I love having conversations with my son. It really is fascinating how their little minds work, so innocent and full of wonder.

Speaking of first birthdays, I put of a lot of time and effort in to my son's first birthday and I feel like it is only fair that I should do the same for my daughter. It was exhausting (lots of baking leading up to the day) and I was too busy playing host on the day that I didn't have as much time to just chill and appreciate it all. I will try and learn from that this time round but I still think it's only fair to make a fuss of her...you only turn one once! I'm not going crazy over the top (I didn't for him either really) but I will still invite lots of friends and family to help celebrate it (and hence cater for all those people). I think I will start getting organised after our Melbourne trip, so probably put bits and pieces away starting in September.

I'm really excited for our Melbourne trip, our first family holiday with the 4 of us. This will be my son's second time in Melbourne and on a plane, I wonder how excited he will be this time around now that he's a bit older. We are hoping to take him to see the old trains while we are down there as well, unfortunately we aren't there at a time that they have the Thomas the Tank Engine train running, he would have loved that. It's funny how your priorities change when you go away now, it's about making things fun for the kids and doing things that they will enjoy.

We are also planning a family overnight trip to the Sunshine Coast in September, my husband is doing the Stampede (kind of like Tough Mudder but not as long). So we decided to make a small trip of it and get an apartment for the night and all go to Australia Zoo for the first time the day after. I can't wait to take my son there, I think he will have a great time.

I look forward to making these sort of family memories together, I never really went on holidays as a kid so it means a lot to me to be able to do this kind of stuff for my own kids. We hope to one day (when they are both old enough to appreciate it) take them to Disneyland, that was my dream as a kid...it seems so magical. I have to say that after going there in my late twenties before starting our family, I can't wait to be able to take my kids there. Overseas travel as a family seems daunting, not to mention ridiculously expensive...but we hope to make it happen. We both love to travel after living in London and I don't think that should all end once you have a family, we will just have to be that much more organised...and it will take that much longer to save for it.

If anyone has any tried and tested ways to keep toddlers entertained on a flight and in the car, feel free to share.

Till next time xo

Seriously lacking in motivation...

Ugh...lately I am doing only the bare minimum, I just don't have the motivation to do everything that needs to be done. I need some motivation fairies to sprinkle some dust on me so I can do a big clean, I am looking over at Mt. Washmore that needs folding as I type this...Blerg.

So I took my son for a haircut on Wednesday, what an ordeal that turned out to be. The amount of carry on was mortifying, I was so embarrassed by his behaviour...that poor woman did not have it easy. I felt so bad that I tipped her $5 for her troubles (not that it is a lot but I wouldn't normally tip a hairdresser). I don't know what it is about getting a haircut that instantly makes him look older, such a big boy.

Yesterday I went and got myself the new Samsung Galaxy 4 phone, that's right...I have converted from an iphone lover to android. The straw that broke the camel's back was the crap quality photo's my iphone took at the Pink concert in relation to my niece's photo's on her Samsung, so much better. I have been playing with it since yesterday afternoon, still getting familiar with it but I really like it so far.

I wish I has something interesting or witty to regale you with today, unfortunately I am coming up blank...nothing to see here. Sorry for being so boring ;)

Till next time xo

Rainbow Sprinkle Cookies

Today being the first kindy day of the week, I decided to go ahead and try out one of my pinterest pins.
I am going to say that these were inspired by a pin as they were meant to be pinwheel rainbow cookies and look like this -

http://www.soudersstudios.com/recipes/rainbow-pinwheel-cookies.php

However I couldn't get the pinwheel shape to look like it was supposed to, hence my creation are just rainbow sprinkle cookies.

You will need the following ingredients:

250g unsalted butter
1 cup of caster sugar
1 egg
1 tsp of vanilla extract
2 tsps baking powder
2 3/4 plain flour
100's & 1000's sprinkles

You will need the following utensils:

Mixing Bowls
Wooden Spoon
Measuring Cups
Measuring Spoons
Electric Mixer
Sifter
Oven Tray
Baking Paper

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees celsius.

Add the butter and sugar together and use the electric mixer to cream, be mindful not to over beat it.

Add the egg and vanilla essence to the creamed butter mixture and mix through.

Add the baking powder to the flour and sift in to the mixture parts at a time.

Once all of the ingredients are combined, separate mixture into 4 different bowls (or however many colours you want to create). Add anywhere from 5-10 drops of food colouring (depending on how dark a colour you are wanting to achieve) to each bowl and mix through.

Take a small amount from each colour and roll in to little individuals balls (about the size of a grape), then add all of the balls together and roll in to a ball.

Then flatten out slightly and coat the edges in sprinkles.

Line your oven tray with baking paper and put the cookies on your oven tray, leave space for spreading. Pop in to the oven for approximately 10-12 mins.

Allow to cool afterwards for the cookie to harden before removing from the oven tray.

There you have it, a cute looking treat for the kids.

My girlfriend has a fairy party for her daughter this weekend that we are attending so I might see if she would like me to bring them along, better then having them sitting in my pantry tempting me.

Fair warning though, if you are going to make these...it's a little time consuming, if I were going to make them again it would be for a special occasion/birthday party etc. They are pretty tasty though, of course I had to taste test them for you guys first :)

So what do you think, would you count that as a pinterest fail? Ha

Till next time xo

Totally worth it...

Pink, of course. As always the lady put on a hell of a show, I defy anyone to go to one of her concerts and not have a kick ass time. I have seen her previous two tours and I swear she just gets better and better each time. I promise not to rave on and on about it and I won't go in to detail as I don't want to spoil it for those yet to see her. I have chosen just a few pics to share as I don't want to give anything away. I was lucky enough to be right up near the stage, I am cursing my iphones capabilities as a camera though...piece of shite. If I had a decent camera/phone with me, I would have had the opportunity to get some amazing shots.

Needless to say, it was an amazing night. Apart from the fact that my boobs were rock hard and rather painful by the end, oh and not getting home till 1am...all totally worth it. I have been tired today but seem to have managed ok. In other good news, the kids were well behaved for daddy last night...phew. I thought for sure our daughter would do her best to send him loopy, ha ha. I was pleasantly surprised this morning when he told me how smoothly it had gone, I was a tad anxious.

It almost fills me with a sense of freedom, huzzah she will take some formula...I'm free (ish). It's nice to know that next time I go for dinner or a movie with girlfriends I don't have to hurry back.

Alright it is well and truly past my bedtime now, especially after my super late night last night (it is not lost on me how old I now am that I consider 1am to be super late, my how times have changed). I hope everyone had a good weekend.

Till next time xo

2 More Sleeps!

Till what, I hear you ask. PINK!!!

It all happened unexpectedly a couple of days ago. You see, my sister & I tried so hard during all the pre-sales and general sales to get tickets to her concert and it was like getting blood from a stone. The woman is just so god-damn popular (understandably). Needless to say we were rather bummed at missing out.

Skip ahead to a couple of weeks ago when my sister calls me to tell me that SHE is going to pink. What the?! It turns out my other sisters husband had managed to buy two tickets off a lady at cost price and the two of them would be going together. Cue sad face and jealousy from me, I wanted to go the concert...woe is me.

I looked online to check out ticket availability and saw that there was still some tickets available. I asked my sister if my niece would want to come with me. They came over a couple of days ago and my sister suggested I look to see if there were tickets available to the same show as them (this Saturday). I thought there would be no way there would be tickets, considering how hard we tried to get them initially to no avail. You can imagine my surprise that there were general admission tickets right up the front, sweet!

That is why I am now going to Pink this Saturday night with my two sisters and my niece (they are in a different GA section to us but we are all going to hang out beforehand and drive together). I am super excited.

I am also a little hesitant, they want to leave early to make sure we don't get lost. Plus have a look around and grab something to eat and then line up. This means I will probably be gone for about 12 hours. This is obviously the longest time I have ever left my daughter, the same daughter that is not a fan of formula. I have borrowed a girlfriends breast pump (because I find the pressure/suction on my tommee tippee one I brought pathetic), I doubt I will be able to pump enough for that whole time. Hubby will have to try formula and solids in a combined effort to fill her up and keep her happy. I don't envy him as I know what she can be like and it's enough to do your head in when she really lets loose. I am both grateful to him for doing it and feeling guilty for putting him in that position. I am crossing fingers that she goes easy on him...

I am currently munching down a a warmed slice of banana loaf with some warm vanilla custard, a stroke of genius on my part...it's delicious. Maybe that will entice you to make your own ;)

I also came up with an idea for myself/the blog during the week. How many of you lovely ladies are familiar with pinterest? For those not in the know, pinterest is a virtual pin board of sorts where if you saw something that you liked on the internet (over a variety of categories, you would make pin boards for each) you would then 'pin' it to your subsequent board. It is highly addictive and I love it, I am always pinning things to my boards and think...one day I will go back and actually attempt to cook/make that etc.

This has inspired me to set myself a challenge. I am going to attempt to cook one of my pinned recipes once a week and try and do a crafty type challenge every other week and report back how I go. I am terrible at sticking to things (I suck at those photo a day challenges) so I am not sure how I will go trying to do it all the time but I will certainly try. I hope not to end up on one of those pinterest fail memes. Hopefully along the way I will find something really great that I will recommend to you guys and you can try it for yourself.

Till next time xo

Easy Peasy Banana Loaf

As promised (better late than never), here is my post sharing the deliciousness that is

Easy Peasy Banana Loaf

First of all you will need the following ingredients -

3-4 Ripe Bananas (it really depends how big they are as to how many you need)
1/3 cup of melted butter (or 100g)
1 cup of caster sugar (or white sugar works if you don't have caster)
1 egg (slightly beaten, with a fork)
1 tsp of vanilla essence
1 tsp of baking soda
pinch of salt (I only put a small pinch as I swear you can taste the salt if you do a decent pinch)
1 1/2 cups of plain flour

You will need the following supplies -

Mixing Bowl
Measuring Cups
Measuring Spoons
Wooden Spoon
Sifter
Loaf Tin
Fork

Pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees. 

Mash the banana with a fork until a fairly mushy consistency, I don't like it too lumpy so I give it a good mashing. 

Add the sugar, melted butter, vanilla essence and pinch of salt and mix together with the banana.

Sift in flour to the banana mixture, I add the flour gradually and mix as I go. It is fairly runny prior to adding the flour but thickens nicely once the flour is added, see above pic.

Once all ingredients are mixed together, pour in to a buttered loaf tin and pop in to the oven. I cooked mine for 45 mins (everyone's ovens are different so it is best to keep an eye on things from around the 30 min mark). Use a skewer (or in my case, a pointy chopstick...ha) to check if it is cooked, if the skewer comes out clean then it is ready to come out of the oven.

Leave it in the tin for around 5-10 mins to allow it to cool down before attempting to remove it. Once removed, place on to cooling rack to cool further (or on to a plate). I am too lazy to bother making icing most of the time but for those of you that prefer to add icing, here is a link to a delicious lemon cream cheese icing recipe.

http://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipe/cream-cheese-icing-L9478.html

Voilà! There you have it, I like to have mine with butter when it is still nice and warm...goes great with a cuppa. It is delicious toasted as well! Hopefully you have found this easy enough to follow and will go on to make your own, I hope you enjoy it. 

Please excuse the changes

To those of you that follow along on a regular basis you will have noticed that I have been fiddling around with the look of the blog.

I apologise if this is annoying, I am still trying to play around with how I want it to look. I am learning as I go along and trying to work out pieces bit by bit. It still has a ways to go compared to the ideas I have in my head, I just don't have the know how to make it happen. So I ask you guys to bare with me as I fumble along and make little changes along the way.

I would love to hear any feedback from regular readers about what you would like to see, what you do and don't like. I am open to suggestions.

I wish I could spend a little more time on it, but it can be a struggle finding the time with the kids keeping me busy. Or sometimes it is just old fashioned 'writer's block', not that I consider myself a writer but I sometimes can't think of anything to write about that would be interesting enough. I often wonder whether what I write about would be interesting to anyone anyways, I don't find myself to be terribly exciting. But I guess that is also the appeal, I am just a regular joe going about my business doing the same sort of things that other mums are doing. I don't lead a glamorous life, just a regular one.

Thanks for putting up with me.

Till next time xo

Ahh crap

My son has Hand Foot & Mouth, he has never had it before and I'm thinking he must have picked it up from kindy on Thursday. The blisters appeared yesterday, apart from that he is his usual frantic self. I rang the kindy this morning to see what the protocol is, I have to keep him home until the blisters dry up as the fluid in them is contagious. I just have to cross fingers that he doesn't pass it on to his sister.

Is it bad that a little part of me is bummed that I have to keep him home as I won't get my 'break'. Of course I love him to bits but I have come to look forward to those kindy days, not that I have them to myself. Plus it's annoying that you still have to pay for the days they don't go...I understand why but it's still a little frustrating. Thankfully I didn't have anything planned so will likely just have a low key week at home. I don't think he could pass it on if we were to go out and about, you have to be in pretty close contact to potentially get it...still probably best we keep to ourselves.

Also I haven't forgotten about doing a blog post on banana loaf, I keep buying a bunch expecting to have a few left at the end of the week (like usual) but they keep getting eaten! I guess that is a good thing but I really wanted to get it done by now. Hopefully the end of this week (I might just buy more than usual in the hopes that there will be left overs).

Just want to take a moment as well to say that I am grateful that all my child has is HFM, found out yesterday that a little boy not much older than my son lost his battle with cancer. He was a brave and smiley little soul who fought hard and it is just so incredibly sad when things like this happen to good people. Life can be cruel and unfair sometimes and it really rams it home that we all need to appreciate our lot in life and be happy for all that we have and try not to think about what we don't have. I am guilty of this sometimes, I need to stop and take a moment and realise how incredibly lucky I am. I love my little family, hug your kids extra tight tonight. x

Till next time xo

Why hello there sunshine

Today has been a gorgeous winter's day, the sun has been shining and it wasn't cold...glorious. Plus you know you're a mum when one of your first thoughts when the sun comes out is 'now I can catch up on some washing'...god knows it's never ending. The more kids you have, the bigger the piles get. It must become quite the operation when you have a big family, there must be a system of sorts in place for dealing with it.

Today is day two of solo parenting (although hubby's home tomorrow so really not that hard to manage), we have had a good day today. I had a girlfriend come over for a catch up this morning (baked some choc chip cookies for the occasion). Then we went to lunch with my sisters and two of my kids cousins, followed by a play in the park for awhile. Good times, it also helps being busy as it makes the day go quicker.

I managed to get to the shops on Thursday and put a toy lay-by for Christmas on, I was really surprised that it wasn't busy at all. I will have to go back again and do another lay-by as there wasn't as much when I was walking around that I had thought I'd seen when I'd gone through the catalogue and I was second guessing my initial ideas...so indecisive.

Also in other news I think it is safe to say that my son has now officially dropped his day sleeps. He will still have one on the odd occasion but for the most part he is like the energiser bunny that keeps on going. Even when he has been up all day he still doesn't want to go to bed and is sometimes taking till 8-8.30pm to go to sleep. I don't know where he gets his energy from but I wish he'd let me in on his secret.

Something else that is getting on my nerves of late (and I am partly to blame), my go to word that I use now (instead of swearing) when I am frustrated or annoyed is stupid. Hence for the last couple of weeks my son has started saying it...A LOT! It drives me bonkers, he will say stupid mummy if I tell him off for something. I have been telling him not to say it, that it's not nice and it's naughty. I am starting to suspect that if anything, my telling him off has encouraged him to say it even more. I am going to try my best from now on to ignore it, it's hard though as I really don't like it when he says it. I guess I should be grateful that it is this word and not the f-bomb.

I hope everyone has an awesome weekend, and to anyone from the states a belated Happy 4th of July :)

Till next time xo

Baby it's cold outside...

We are having some very miserable and wintry weather here on the GC, it's currently raining/overcast and freakin' cold outside. The perfect day for snuggling up on the couch and watching a movie, not that there is a chance in hell that I will actually be able to do that.

I can't believe it's the first of a month and a Monday, that is the holy grail of fresh starts and clean slates as far as being good. The only problem is I have a fridge full of leftovers from a BBQ we hosted yesterday (including delicious potato bake) that I am more pained to throw out rather than just not eat it. Am I the only one that likes to start 'being good' on a Monday? It is even better if it is the start of a month, not that it ever lasts. I haven't been all that motivated of late and have been having lots of naughty treats (tsk tsk), I just don't care at the moment. I am fairly happy with the way I look and sure it could be better but I'm doing ok. I think we are all our own worst critics and sometimes we need to just give ourselves a break.

Is it just me or is this year just flying by? My daughter is almost 7 months, it feels like in a blink of an eye she will be 1. I'm sure it wasn't all that long ago that she was born, I'm feeling a bit guilty that time is racing by and I don't feel like I have really stopped and taken the time to appreciate it and take it all in. It is so much harder with number two to dedicate as much time and attention as you did your first. I love them both to bits but there are days when the two of them combined take turns in sending me loopy. I wouldn't change it for the world though, the love you have for your children is unlike anything else.

Only a couple of months till our Melbourne trip, it's slowing getting closer...so excited. Hubby is actually in Melbourne for work later this week, Thursday to Saturday morning. I think I can manage a couple of nights on my own (hats off to the mothers who's partners are away for long periods of time, I don't know how you do it. I am even more awe filled by the single mother's out there...you ladies rock). We will miss him though...

Unfortunately there are dishes calling me...boo hiss.

Till next time xo