10/52 - Paper Planes

9/52 - I Made It

Lego castle of awesomeness

So...a little person turned one

Last week a special little person in our midst quietly and happily turned 1.
We opened presents, played, baked cupcakes and enjoyed eating them with family.
This little person is loved so much by everyone, we look forward to spending the next year with him growing, learning and loving.

A year ago we welcomed you with this song, and you are indeed my little potato...

LITTLE POTATO
Written by Malcolm Dalglish
Oolitic Music, BMI
Recorded on Metamora, Sugar Hill Records, SH-CD 1131

You're my little potato, you're my little potato,
You're my little potato, they dug you up,
You come from underground!

The world is big, so big, so very big!
To you, it's new, it's new to you!

You're my little potato, you're my little potato,
You're my little potato, they dug you up,
You come from underground!

Let's talk about root crops (they dug you up),
And lamb chops (they chew on you),
And things to eat...like apples
and cheese and 'nanas and cream,
Jellies and butter,
it's late at night, I hope this little bottle helps you go to sleep!

They must have grown you wild,
you make a grown man a child,
I’ll go and play in the mud
to be with you my spud (potato).
When you came out looking red as a beet,
You had wrinkles on the bottoms of your feet!

Oh, you are so sweet potato!
You're my sweet potato,
you're my sweet potato, dug you up!
You come from underground!

You smile, a smile, a little smile!
The world is small, so small, it's very small!

You're my little potato, you're my little potato,
you're my little potato, they dug you up,
You come from underground!

You're my little potato, you're my little potato,
you're my little potato!

 Getting to grips with how to open a present the fun way...rrrriiiiiiipppp!

 What am I suppose to do with these?

 Hanging out in the Bilibo

 Got some help with the baking

 Excited by the cake and candle

 Confused when mom blew the candle out

Happy birthday my blue eyed boy

8/52 - I Made It!

Ring by me

7/52 - I Made It!

My kids love science experiments and I've been eyeing out a few that I've come across online, especially one for making goo/slime using clear glue and liquid starch. 
I trawled the shops for liquid starch unsuccessfully and finally settled on some powdered starch to try. I mixed a pretty strong starch solution but unfortunately our goo wasn't gooey enough.  I nearly wrote it off as a disaster when I remembered I'd seen some recipes including borax, so we mixed some up quickly and added it and voila...goo!  Awesome, squishy, bouncy, sticky, stretchy, bendy goo which gave my usually touch sensitive child hours of fun.
He even got his feet stuck in and I have proof :)

I'll post the recipe we used at the end of the post for anyone interested!

So what we used:

• bowls
• 250ml liquid starch (I mixed about 1 tsp to a cup of water but like I said it didn't seem strong enough)
• 250ml clear glue
• food colouring
• 1 tsp borax mixed with 1 cup water.

Mix your starch & glue together and divide between as many bowls as you want to make colours.
Add your food colouring (a drop or two will do) and mix.
Realise your goo ain't so gooey.
Pour in a bit of borax and mix, add more borax until you reach a desired consistency*
Put your goo on a surface that won't stain from the food colouring and play to your hearts content!

*note - the goo does seem to get firmer as it is played with, next time I will make it less firm and more slimy, but for my touch sensitive kid the firmer consistency was a great introduction, I think he would have been more reluctant to try touching it if it was slimier.

So...the saddest ballerina

Our little ballerina is the latest person struck down in the ongoing saga of the never ending cough in our house.  My poor baby girl has also lost a ton of weight and coughs until she pukes, I feel so sad for her.  I took these photos of her just as she started feeling sorry for herself, my tired ballerina.

6/52 - I Made It!

 

This homemade muesli is a staple in our house.  Everyone enjoys it and it's nice and healthy, so I thought I'd share the recipe

Ingredients:
3 cups oats
1 cup wheatgerm
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup linseeds
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup ground almonds
Handful chopped walnuts *optional
1 Tbsp Barley Malt
1 Tbsp Black strap Molasses
1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil or Walnut Oil
1 tsp Natural Vanilla Extract
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 cup Coconut
2 Cups Raisins or Currants - or you can make a mix, I like currants, dried cranberries, goji berries & dried pomegranite arils

Method:
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius
- In a large mixing bowl combine the oats, wheatgerm, seeds and nuts.
- In a seperate bowl or measuring jug mix the barley malt and molasses in some warm water, then add oil, vanilla extract & cinnamon.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredient and mix thoroughly.
- Sread over a baking sheet or two (depending on size of your baking sheets) and bake until golden brown, stirring occasionally.  Should take 10-20 minutes
- Keep an eye on it to make sure the edges don't burn! 
- Remove from oven, and add your raisins and coconut and let cool.
- Store in the fridge unless you plow through it a few days like my family, in which case it will be fine in the cupboard :)

Let me know if you make this and enjoy it...or not!
And don't worry to much about following it exactly, you can add more or less of the various ingredients, you can add your own preferences, you can leave out or substitute if you're missing an ingredient, it's more of a guideline than an exact science ;)