School's out for summer...

Last day of school today!  Minty made these necklaces for her teachers using felt and wooden beads.  I love her colour combinations!

After school we headed to the beach with friends for fish and chips.  There was plenty of seagull chasing, crab catching and general hilarity.  We even got to watch a pelican being released back into the wild.  A great start to the holidays!

What You Will... Twelfth Night celebrations

I just had to sneak in some quick photos of twelfth night.  Whenever I tell people we celebrate twelfth night they look at me blankly, as if we're celebrating some completely arbitrary day of the year… about as arbitrary as celebrating the 25th or 31st day of December, I say.  Twelfth night has been celebrated for centuries and what other holiday can boast a Shakespeare play written to be performed as part of the festivities?  (Incidentally, wouldn't Minty make a perfect Viola with her pixie hair cut?)

What I love most about twelfth night is the cake, with little treasures hidden inside to give you luck and decide your role for the day.  I made a traditional English style twelfth night cake this year.  Hidden inside the cake there was a...

-dried pea (or chickpea as was the case this year) = King

-dried bortolli bean = Queen

-dried cannelloni bean = Princess (a second 'princess' bean isn't really traditional but I wanted to increase the odds of finding something!)

-clove = villain

-twig = fool  (I used a twig from a rosemary plant so it wouldn't be too scary!)

-rag = the tart

Minty desperately wanted to be the fool this year and Turi wanted to be the villain, which I found amusing since I had always considered these to be the booby prizes! Alas it wasn't to be, the Mr. was this year's villain and our neighbour won the fool.  Minty scored the pea and was crowned King.  Poor little Turi found nothing so we had to tell him the borage flowers on top were good luck when eaten!!

Here is my twelfth night cake recipe.  I've changed the recipe pretty substantially from it's original source so I won't include it here (note the strange use of creme de cacao in lieu of brandy because we'd run out - it actually tasted pretty good!)…

227g caster sugar

227g butter (room temperature)

4 eggs

1/4 cup creme de cacao

220g plain flour

3/4 tspn all spice

100g glace cherries chopped

120g sultanas

3/4 cup blanched almonds chopped

1/4 cup chopped mixed peal

Preheat oven to 150C.  Line 8inch tin with baking paper.  Cream the butter and sugar.  Mix in lightly beaten eggs and creme de cacao.  Sift flour and spices together, then mix into the wet ingredients.  Fold through the fruit and nuts along with dried pea, bean etc for luck.  Pour into tin and bake for 2 hours, 45 mins, covering with foil after the first hour.

You can read about our cakes from previous years here (2012), and here (2011)

A very happy Halloween!

I wasn't really planning on celebrating halloween this year, but yesterday morning I was feeling festive so I threw together some last minute costumes for the kids and decorated the house.  I asked Minty what she would like to dress up as and she told me she'd like to be a vampire.

"Do you even know what a vampire is?" I asked.

"Well… I think it's just like a killing machine in a cape." She replied.  Great.  I'm glad she learnt something at pre-prep, thanks to the endless monster high dolls paraded at show and tell!

Minty was very enamoured with the idea of trick-or-treating.  I wasn't entirely sure whether it would be well received by our neighbours since halloween isn't really a bit deal here in Australia.  I tried to explain to Minty that many of the houses might not have a treat to give her so she decided she could give out treats to our neighbours instead.  I thought this was a great idea and much more neighbourly, so we baked some halloween cupcakes to give out.  Minty piped the icing herself.  She's getting pretty handy with a piping bag for a five year old!

Minty emerged from the first house wide eyed and said, "Something strange happened,  It was almost like they knew we were trick-or-treaters and they gave us a treat straight away!"  Their haul included some biscuits in a paper patty case from a tinned assortment, a home brand muesli bar ("I think these might have come from a shop!" Minty told me in wonderment as she proudly showed me this treat) and a $5 note.  Not bad really.

At bedtime Minty whispered to me, "Thanks for letting me trick-or-treat.  Tonight was the best night of my life."

Happy St Patrick's Day!

We've been making shamrock headbands and straws, drinking green milk and enjoying a rainbow bubble bath complete with leprechaun treasure! (Bath inspired by this one).  

Hope your St Patrick's day was full of fun!

In which there are pansies and random links...

 

I actually managed to pick up the camera a few times today, which for some unknown reason appears to be a rare event this summer.  So here is a peek at our day…

We've been making lots of icy poles with our zoku.  These ones are freshly squeezed orange juice layered with strawberry yoghurt.

 

Vanilla rice porridge with caramel bananas for breakfast.  We're all feeling a bit sick of our usual porridge or wheatbix so this week we've been mixing things up with some different recipes.

 

Yesterday Minty planted some seeds so this morning she made some labels for the pots.  Then I helped her put together a little chart so she can keep track of their progress.  She wrote all the numbers in the boxes and I put in the text (although I probably could have helped her labour over the text herself, I like to keep the momentum and her enthusiasm up when we're doing projects like this so she doesn't loose interest!).

And while I'm making this rare blogging appearance I thought I'd share a few links I'm currently loving…

This new photo blog is really inspiring… makes me want to forget all my hang ups about violent toys and buy Minty an archery set so she can channel her inner Katniss Everdeen… that and make an effort to photograph the kids more often!!

I'm loving listening to all these great and varied voices reading Moby Dick.  I feel like a kid again, being read a bedtime story!

Speaking of reading, I'm currently attempting to read from this list of '1000 novels everyone must read'.  Since this is an extensive list I'm conservatively aiming to finish 30 of the novels that I haven't already read by the end of 2013.

Weekend away...

 

We spent this weekend camping at a friend's walnut farm.  It was so good to get away and relax with friends in such a beautiful spot.  The kids had an amazing time having tractor rides, swimming in the river and canoeing.