In which Minty sews a Christmas skirt for her kris kringle...

Conversations with Minty and Turi...

On Star Wars...

Turi: Dark Maul is Dark Vader's father

Minty: what about Light Vader?

Mr: there isn't a Light Vader

Minty: I've heard people talking about it

Mr [confused pause]: oh… you mean light saber!

Minty: I like Princess Layla

Upon finding a spider...

Me: don't stress!  It's just a money spider.  They bring you good luck

Turi: so they poop money?

Turi: Mum you should write a letter to santa and just ask for money

Me: Santa doesn't give money

Turi: why?

Me: well you're not allowed to make money, that's called 'money laundering'.  Remember we went to the mint? That's the only place you're allowed to make money.  If someone else tries to make money they can go to prison

Minty: I've money laundered

Me: I suspect since your notes don't look very official you'll be ok

Turi: No one knows where santa is though

Me: so you think because he's well hidden he'll get away with it?

Turi: yeah

Today's photos by the Mr

Lobster Festival

One of the stranger things about the little strip of coast line we call home is the local lobster festival.  There's something gorgeously quaint and provincial about the whole thing.  It feels a bit like an Australian version of groundhog day, but instead of Punxsutawney Phil there's a man holding a lobster aloft to mark the summer season.  Happy Lobster Festival!

In which we get a chicken 'Dinner'...

Meet the newest addition to our family.  Minty has named her 'Dinah' after Alice's pet cat in Alice in Wonderland but there is some dispute over the pronunciation.  I am going with the traditional Die-na, while the kids are insisting on Dee-na and the Mr. in a state of confusion thought we had named her 'Dinner'.  She's a bantam leghorn and she lays the most delightful pure white little eggs.

On the way to pick up Dinah we visited the local markets in Jumbunna and Kongwak.  It was a gorgeous morning and we had some very yummy waffles with fresh berries.  I couldn't resist taking a photo of this epic colour blocked bookshelf.  It covers a massive wall but I didn't have a wide angle lens on my camera so you'll have to be content with this little blue corner!

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!

The christmas tree...

She still lets me light the stove...

In which Minty wants to be less 'Sonny' and more Cher...

Minty has developed a recent aversion to all pants and shorts.  This probably isn't helped by the odd stranger calling her 'Sonny' due to her pixie hair cut (this recently happened while she was wearing a dress and I wasn't sure whether to be excited by their liberal attitude that boys could wear dresses too, or horrified by the fact that they thought only boys could have short hair).  Anyway, I felt it would be largely impractical for Mint to wear dresses for sports lessons so I needed to come up with some kind of solution.  Rather than hunting around for child hair extensions I decided to sew a pair of 'feminine' yet practical shorts.  I opted for the Oliver +S puppet show pattern and Mint was very happy with them.

Before you all message me to let me know about the existence of 'skorts', I'm aware.  They just sort of freak me out, like a liger or a 'splade' or something and in any case, I've never had any success selling the idea to Mint either.

In which the children brawl over a magic mirror...

Life is fairly chaotic at the moment.  This morning we were running late for school and the kids were having an epic brawl in the back seat of the car.  I went to glance in the rear vision mirror to see what all the ruckus was about and then realised the mirror wasn't there.  So I glanced over my shoulder to find the two of them wrestling over the said mirror.  I don't even know how this is possible.

Turi (bless) doesn't know what to do with himself when his sister is at school.  When he isn't staging an epic tantrum to demand that his needs are immediately met, all he wants to do is veg out on the couch watching 'The Brave Little Toaster' until his sister returns.  I have to had to work very hard to divert his attention.  At one point he even watched half of 'Chicken Little' in Dutch because he was too scared to ask me to change the audio track to English in case I made him turn it of!!  Here he is, looking very innocent and playing with his 'box props'.  This brief contentment lasted all of ten minutes.  Thank god kinder goes back tomorrow.  I am exhausted.

DIY icy-pole moulds!

We're going through a bit of an icy-pole making obsession around these parts!  Since I don't have icy-pole moulds I've come up with my own DIY method. 

Basically I just blend up a combination of fruit, juice, yoghurt and/or milk.  I've also made some yummy ones with coconut milk (great for visitors with dairy intolerance!)  Here are some of the combinations I've made so far…

- Coconut and pineapple

- Watermelon, yoghurt and lime (Minty calls this one a 'Flamingo Fling'!)

- Peach and yoghurt (with a splash of maple syrup)

- Berry, banana and yoghurt

- Orange and raspberry

The mix then gets poured into plastic cups, freeze for about 45mins then add a popsicle stick (you can get big packs at the $2 shop) and freeze for about 6 hours.  To get them out just run the cup under the hot tap for a couple of seconds.  I then pop them into zip lock bags for storing in the freezer.  I wash out the bags and cups and reuse them to minimise waste.  This means I can make icy-poles in bulk and have lots of flavours on hand for hot days and after school snacks!

School girl...

Minty had her first day of school today.  You would never guess from these photos but she had a bout of school refusal this morning!  I thought my only worry would be what to put in her lunch box but instead I had to negotiate the mine field of her emotional freak out!  She woke up with a phantom 'sore neck' and announced that she was excited about school, but sadly she thought because of her neck she'd have to skip today… and tomorrow… and probably all the days after that!!  Eventually we talked her back from the ledge and loaded our little deer in the headlights off to school.  Hopefully tomorrow will go a bit more smoothly!

In case there are any other first time school mum's obsessing over lunch box food as the last opportunity for control, here is a recipe for a super easy healthy cake (dairy free, egg free, sugar free)….

500g mixed dried fruit

2 cups fruit juice (I used orange and lime juice but whatever you have is fine)

2 cups SR flour (or 2 cups plain + 4tsp baking powder)

Soak the fruit in the juice overnight.

Mix in the flour.

Pour into a lined tin and bake for 50mins at 180C.

Super easy and surprisingly yummy.  Thanks Manu for the recipe!