Saturday 25 January 2014

4/52



"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week for 2014"

 Chloe: This girl loves getting her craft on!

Eva: Freshly picked tomatoes from our garden.



Again linking up with Jodi

Saturday 18 January 2014

3/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week for 2014"
 Chloe: Library Day! This girl is getting so good at her reading! Again with the tiger ears :)

Eva: Looking for "treasure".We've been doing some geocaching close to home.

Again linking up with Jodi.

Wednesday 15 January 2014

What Vegetarian Eat- Mexicanish Bits and Bobs on Bread

This was SO good, I've actually started making the refried beans in a big batch to always have in the fridge! It was a grab what you want and put it on bread inspired by ohdeardrea, seriously go check her out, heaps of vege inspiration!
Top left: Green bean salad, steamed green beans, chopped onion, salt, pepper, vinegar and olive oil.
Top right: Avocado.
Bottom right: Cream cheese, pickled beetroot and grated carrot.
Middle: Re-fried beans. I fried some onion, garlic and cumin, added a tin of cannelini beans and a little stock and cooked until it was mushy. I then mashed it a bit with a fork too.
Top right: Lentil salad. I cooked off a tin of lentils with garlic, balsamic vinegar, olive oil and cherry tomatoes.

My kids love these sort of meals where you help yourself. They will at least try a little of everything and then if they like it they can go back for more!

Monday 13 January 2014

Quick fun.

Just a little quickie idea for the kids these holidays.
Not from any particular tutorial, I've seen a few around on Pinterest. For mine I used a little pot trivet from Ikea and some push pins I've had forever. Kept Eva busy for a good hour!

Hope you're all keeping cool (or warm) wherever you are =)

We need to be Bored!

Has anyone found lately that their kids need constant stimulation? There's this constant need to do this or that or have this or go there or make this draw that. I think I need to let my kids become bored.
I mean my eldest LOVES drawing and wants to draw all the time. I'm not saying I want to stop her from doing something she loves, it's just sometimes I think she, and her sister, need to not be doing anything. Sure they will go outside and dig in the dirt and discover bugs and what not. Those are the times when they are occupied for hours on end. When I set up some craft or we watch an episode or two of Charlie and Lola or we go to the park or some other more structured activity, that's when they want more, and more, and more.
Maybe it's just been the craziness and business of Christmas. There's constantly something to do or get done because you have that Christmas deadline. I don't know, but I think for the rest of this week I'm going to try doing less. Let them get bored and leave them to their own (supervised) devices. I think the guilt will be hard to battle for me. I feel like a bad mother if I'm not taking them to the park or baking or cooking or crafting or something with them. But if they don't learn to use their ingenuity and to occupy themselves sometimes, well that is a skill a want them to have. I know they have fantastic imaginations, I just need to allow them time to use them.

2/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week for 2014"
Chloe: Taking the train up to the city to see a stage play about "Awful Egyptians". The tiger ears were, apparently necessary.



 Eva: After a very meh day, This little poppet comes in saying "which flower do you want mummy?" My first thought is to tell her neither and to leave me be. But I turn to her and see this beautiful face,dirty little hands and tiny flowers clutched in her hands. Instantly my bad day is gone.  I'm so thankful I was blessed to be her mother.

Again linking up with Jodi.

Friday 10 January 2014

What Vegetarians Eat- Healthy Nachos!

This was the only pic I got of this meal! And I was lucky to get this, because it disappeared REALLY quick!
This one is a perfect "Oh crap what am I going to make for dinner, it's too bloody hot!' meal. Quick, easy, tasty and healthy!

Make some pita chips by cutting pita bread into triangles and popping them in the oven until they become hard and crisp.
Sprinkle cheese over the top and put back in the oven to melt the cheese.
Layer chopped tomato, chopped green capsicum, avocado, yoghurt and kidney bean salsa (kidney beans with lemon juice, seasoning and cumin mixed together and left to sit for about an hour).
DONE!
Sean and I also added chopped lettuce and sweet chilli sauce to ours. This is very quickly becoming my go to meal lately! In fact I may do this one tonight! 44C means no cooking!

Monday 6 January 2014

Christmas Day, Our Way =)

 Just thought I'd put up a few pics from our Christmas day, even if it was a while ago now!

 Christmas PJ's the girls got the night before =)
 Handing out the presents...
 Yoghurt parfaits have become our Christmas morning tradition...
 Having a play with the new toys...
Obligatory Christmas tree photo...
 Lebkuchen, a traditional German spiced biscuit...

 Christmas table at my mum's...
 The kids all waiting patiently for their gifts...
 And ripping into them!
Can you see her "lisstick"?? (p.s. why do they colour kids lip gloss??? Just an uncoloured lip balm for kids would be great!)
 Stollen, another traditional German treat...
 No words for this one...
 Playing with bubbles, nothing beats bubbles!



I hope you all had an awesome Christmas! Even if it was awhile ago now...

Saturday 4 January 2014

1/52

I've decided to try and document my girls in a more meaningful way this year. Instead of the usual take 1000's of photos and never look at them again I'm scrapbooking a photo a day of each of my kids.
I will also be documenting on here:
"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014."
 Chloe- Climbing, always climbing.

Eva- Following her big sister around, this girl idolizes her big sister.

I will be joining in with Jodi for the rest of the year.

Crystal Science

The other day the girls and I made an overnight crystal garden (link here). It only has 3 ingredients, 2 if you don't colour it and was super easy.

Pouring the Epsom salts.
 Stirring the mix. (please don't look a the dirty dishes on the bench :/)

 Next morning Eva's...
 and next morning Chloe's =).
 We grabbed some tweezers, plates, spoons, magnifying glasses and camera and had a little explore of the crystal.

Eva just made hers mainly into a salty mush, but she had fun doing it!

Simple idea for the school holidays! Especially those days where it's just too hot to go outside (38C predicted tomorrow here...ugh).

What activities do you have planned with the kids these holidays?