Oh dear....!

My little girl has a new love - her dad's motorcycle. He has decided that she is old enough to go for rides with him. She was incredibly nervous when it was first suggested, so we decided that they would just go around the block first. This is them after going around the block...


She LOVED it. "Are you ready to go for a longer, faster ride?" "YEAH!!!!" So the went to the motorbike store - as you do - and she came back looking like this...



Doesn't she look cool in her new jacket? Lucky I've got two kids that will be able to wear it after her!! Blondie, however, is extremely grumpy, because Daddy has said she can't go on it till she is 11.

Recipes

Please excuse the spacing in this post - Blogger seems to be having problems with the spacing!!

Okay - first things first - the muesli bar recipe. The original recipe is called Rough Track Oat Bars, and comes from "The Holiday Activity Book" by Jane Bull. I love her books - Blondie owns two of them...



We have also borrowed another one "Make It" from the library, all about making things from recycled stuff from around the house - fantastic.

The original recipe just uses oats and is delicious, but we decided to try it with Daddy's homemade muesli and it's even better.

MUESLI BARS

100 g soft brown sugar

4 tbsp soft brown sugar

150 g butter

400-500g muesli (this depends on how well it is sticking together).

Heat oven to 190 degrees C (our oven 150 - I have burnt so many things!!). Put the sugar, syrup and butter into a suacepan and stir over heat until butter melts. Remove from heat and stir in muesli. Press the mixture out into a baking pan, about 20 x 30 cm. Bake for 20 mins or until butter mixture caramalises but doesn't burn. Cut the bars while still slightly warm. Remove from pan when cool.

This particular muesli of Daddy's had oats, linseed meal, dried fruit (pawpaw, sultanas, dried banana), pepitos, sunflower seeds, peanuts and almonds. It varies ecsh time he makes it depending on what's available, and he makes enough to fill an 8.5 litre container.

Now on a slightly different topic...For Christmas, Miss 11 was given a recipe book that looks like a very much slimmer version of this one...

Hers contains only a few recipes so far - but they are tried, tested and well loved. Mine, however, contains so many reciped that it has got the ridiculous stage. So I have decided to try them one by one in order to give them a prune. This is the first one, and, according to the children - a keeper. I think it originally came from a magazine about herbs.

QUICK HERBAL BEER BREAD

3 cups self-raising flour (I used wholemeal)

2 tbsp sugar

A can or bottle (stubby) of beer

1/4 cup melted butter

1 tbsp of your favourite herbs (I used oregano and mixed herbs)

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

about 1/4 cup estra melted butter for brushing top.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Mix all ingredients, pour into well greased loaf pan and bake for 45 minutes. Melt additional butter and pour over bread, then bake for another 15 minutes.

Great with vegemite!!

A Day of Achievement's

Today was a day of achievement's. The kids all ate large bunches of our own home grown grapes...no idea what variety, but very yummy. They are ripening from the western most vine first, so it looks like we'll have a couple of months supply...


One school diary finished and another one on the way. My hope is that since they are personalised with their own photos and all the extraneous material taken out, they might actually use them this year...



A new batch of beer (a Mexican Cerveza this time) is happily bubbling away in the store room. Yes, that beer box behind it contains EMPTY bottles, kindly donated by my neighbour, ready for bottling...

A new batch of soap (tightly wrapped in the towel) cooling on the bench ready to be cut up tomorrow...

Oh, and yes, we do need to put up some new kitchen tiles!! I also started on the school baking, ready for the children to go back on Monday. This is home made muesli bars - using Daddy's home-made muesli (SSHH - don't tell!!). Now, where to hide them so they last till school...?

All this strenuous activity resulted in a rather impressive pile of dishes (done) and a kitchen that is in dire need of a good clean...maybe tomorrow?

Oh, and I changed the water in the fish tank, cleaned up the dog poo, made a spinach and rice pie for dinner AND wrote a blog post...can I go to bed now?!!

Aunty Cat - this one's for you!!

Aunty Cat - check out this butt crack!! Ah - but whose is it? Take a closer look at the face...



My two monkey children, Blondie and FJ, decided to try and trick their mother this morning. Blondie walked into the bedroom first, while I was getting dressed, and I did the classic double take - I could have sworn it was her brother. They even wore each other's underwear!!!

My twins - two years apart!!

What - no air conditioning?!!

This week in Perth has been the one week a year that we wish we had air conditioning. Sunday - 41 degrees during the day, did not get below 30 that night. Monday 42 degrees with a lovely (not!!) humid change in the afternoon, 27 over night. Today 37 and MUGGY!!!

Needless to say the pool has been getting a workout...


The kids have just had their Aunty Steph staying over for a week, and after this photo was taken they declared war on her with the squish balls.

The photo that should have followed this one - of a very sodden Aunty Steph was deleted from my camera when I wasn't looking!!

This afternoon was spent first at the lovely air conditioned local library - very popular today for some reason!! Then even Mum got in the pool - a very unusual occurrence.

Now as to this last photo - I know it's very dark - but Ms Lottie, Becca and CatJB do you recognise what the girls are balancing on? It now has no tail, chew marks on it's behind (thanks to a certain Weimaraner), and very little mane. Methinks another renovation project in the offing...?

The cousins last days in Queensland

Hi all! As this my first ever blog post, please excuse any stuff ups. My three beautiful children and I have just returned home after spending Christmas and New Year with the grandparents on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland. As the children's cousins left for home a few days before we did I thought you might like to see how we spent our last days...

We visited Australia Zoo...

The day was hot, the crowds were huge, the Crocoseum was full to bursting, and Bindi, Robert and Terri were leading the shows. We did not see everything we wanted to as there were just too many people and Blondie had had enough - "I want to go home!" Miss 11 insisted that we stop at the Opal Shop on the way home, where she purchased fer first opal (her birthstone) - of which she is very proud.

We went boating on the Maroochy River with Grandpa and Uncle J...

Miss 11 and FJ had a wonderful time out on the water - "Can we get a boat please Mum?", but as you can see, Blondie was not in a very good mood!!

However, once we got out on the water, then turned around into the wind so that it was a lot more bumpy, my little adrenaline junkie cheered up immensely. This is the child who loves a rough landing at Wellington Airport, so a smooth boat ride is awfully boring!

Then Grandma got out the hair dye...

Yes, those are fir engine red streaks - thank goodness the pool washes them out after about a week. We are now at the light pink stage, so by the time school goes back she should be back to normal.

After four applications of bleach (her hair hair seems remarkably resistant to peroxide), Miss 11 now has a very carroty red streak down one side.

And of course we couldn't leave out FJ who is now sporting blonde streaks, the red that you can see having all washed out. He is proud as punch that he looks like his Uncle J with his cool hair. I'm just waiting till he want a rats tail to match Uncle J...