Blondie turns 9!

Birthdays in our house are a day for cakes - the first lot being cupcakes for school. These are basic vanilla cupcakes but I did a beautiful buttercream icing with real melted chocolate. And rainbow sprinkles, of course! I love my new cupcake carrier - 24 cupcakes with no smeared icing.

And the best bit? The kids get to lick out the piping tube and spoons. What better thing to have for breakfast than chocolate icing?!

Then for dessert, following the birthday person's choice of dinner (in this case, meat pies) we have the birthday cake. Blondie chose a really easy one - a rectangular chocolate cake (I used our old family recipe - so beautifully moist) with her favourite photo, framed by all her favourite lollies. Talk about a sugar overload!

Happy birthday Blondie!!

And one and a half puffs for the candles - all green of course - her favourite colour!!

Guest post from Miss 11

Hi! I am Miss 11. You may have heard Mum talking about me on some of her posts. She also mentioned that I am a year 6 trombone player, an advanced year 6 trombone player as I am classified!

When I first decided to be a trombone player, nobody said how much muscle power would go into playing and carrying the thing, I mean look the case! Believe it or not the case actually weighs about two thirds of the weight.

This is the instrument itself, the King, the Creator! Or just the trombone! Anyway, guess which is the heaviest bit. No it is not the bell, it is the mouthepiece! Yes really. I feel like I have been doing pushups after every practice.

See this? Good! This is the mouthpiece. It may look different to any other mothpieces you have seen before. That is because you don't just blow into it, you blow raspberries into it! This is how you make every single note. To go higher you tighten your lips (I don't go very high with a trombone because I play in the bass clef. Low notes!), to go low you release your lips, simple!

Plus there's this advantage. Look at my lips! I don't need to get botox injections because all those raspberries do it for me!

Miss 11 signing off.

The birthday boy and his cake...

FJ turned seven on Friday. For his birthday cake he requested a Jedi Temple from the movie below - the one where Jabba the Hut's son is being held after being kidnapped. Right.

INSPIRATION:CONCEPT SKETCH:

THE CAKE:

As you can see we used lots of Lego to achieve the desired result. The mountain is made of three 20cm butter cakes stacked on top of one another, the towers are jam rolls and rollettes with cupcakes on top.

RESULT: A very happy birthday boy. And a bonus? Mum discovered that butter cakes work just as well made in the food processor without all that time- consuming creaming of butter and sugar.

And he blew out all seven candles in one go.

Blondie cooks...

First things first - darling Auntie Lottie, we love the bread recipe!! I am now consigned to making all our bread, because the kids love it so much. The only thing I have found is that Perth flour must be much drier than New Zealand flour, because for the same quantity of flour I have to use nearly 4 1/2 cups of water! I also have been soaking cracked wheat and soy grits with the oats and it turns out beautifully.

Now, back to Blondie. Before the hockey incident she was cooking up a storm. She adores cooking, and is getting really good at following recipes. Below you can see what is left of her hedgehog slice. And it rivals what you can buy from the bakery...

And then she made cupcakes - they were delicious, vanilla and so light and fluffy. Made in the food processor, would you believe?!

Doesn't she look happy?

And this is the book she has been cooking from. We borrowed it from the library, but I am seriously thinking about buying a copy for us. It has some great basic recipes for kids - everything from meals to baking to dips such as hummus, and even pesto.

Next on the list is apple teacake - YUM!

Photos of FJ's birthday to follow when I can find the cord to download the photos from my camera. Now where did I hide it this time?

What happens if...?

What happens if you decide to take your hockey stick up to the park to do some hits with your brother and sister. Then you stand behind your sister's shoulder as she is taking a swing, and you are not wearing a mouthguard? You end up looking like this...
A rushed trip to the ER at Joondalup where they fast tracked us through, examined her, took x-rays, then sent us down to Princess Margaret Children's Hospital so a plastic surgeon could look at her. Five hours later and the verdict is a VERY swollen lip, a bruised nose, and a large cut running across her gum. They say it is a "degloving" injury where the gum has been pushed back up above the roots of the teeth. Luckily it is the top teeth and when the lip is down it holds it in place so no stitches necessary.

Food in small pieces, antiseptic toothpaste for a week, lots of painkillers, and lots of hugs. She won't forget to wear her mouthguard again!!

Tree planting in the rain...?

What does a family do on the coldest, wettest July day in seven years? Go tree planting, of course!! But before I tell you about our day I need to have a bit of a rant.

It makes me so angry when people and politicians go on and on about big mining companies and how bad they are, how much they take and never give back. Hubby has worked for both of the big two mining companies over the last ten years, and I can't say enough about them. As just one example (and believe me I could list many more), take this tree planting day. They gave up one day for all their Perth based employees to attend this day with their families and paid for everything. They recognise how important their people are and how important family relationships are. Volunteer work is always encouraged and supported.

Right, got that off my chest. Let's start again. On Friday we spent the day at the Cockburn Wetlands as volunteers in a joint project between BHP and Revive Our Wetlands, planting trees. A couple of hundred of us met down at the education centre attached to the wetlands, ready to get our hands dirty.

The education centre had been set up with all sorts of activities to keep the kids busy during the day. Below you can see the three kids scooping up creatures out of the lake water and examining them under microscopes.
Here is Daddy, all wrapped up ready to go...

And here is me - check out my snazzy new gumboots - I haven't owned any since I was about 12!!! Yes, they are leopard print.

A buffet lunch was provided to bolster us for the tree planting - beautiful barbecued meats and salad and lots of fresh fruits. Then the kids got a "train" ride down to planting site while the adults meandered down in their wake...

All the kids got involved - here's Blondie...

And Miss 11...

And Master FJ had great fun shaking the trees out of the pots...

All this was followed by ice-creams, beer and beautiful nibbles for everyone...

And they even brought down the "Beautiful Babes" petting zoo for the kids, to finish off the day...

And we all came home wet, muddy, exhausted and happy. And the grand total of trees planted yesterday? About 2000.

A W.I.P. Wednesday post - almost!!

I had this post all ready to go yesterday - and then we had no internet - "Your ISP is experiencing problems", SIGH! Admittedly it doesn't happen very often, so I shouldn't really complain. Anyway, here we go.

The return of school holidays has meant a sudden return in creativity - it had disappeared out of my life for quite a while. Master FJ below is incredibly happy beacause I finally made his "zoot suit" fit again. This suit used to belong to my youngest brother, made when he was 3 to keep out those chilly New Zealand mornings. He is now 14. It was passed down to my eldest, who passed it down to Blondie, who passed it down to FJ. In the past it has had the sleeve length increased, the legs lengthened, and this time we had to lengthen the body. It's too worn out to pass down again, so I didn't worry too much about what fleece I used - he doesn't care, it fits!!
NOTE TO SELF: All my kids can read, so don't write anything you don't want them to read. Master FJ is currently sitting behind me reading every word I type!!!!

Next photo is a snuggle quilt underway for my newest nephew. Flannelette with a wool batting. It's a pattern I've used lots - my kids all have them, so do some of my nephews, nieces and my godson and his brothers.

The angel Gabriel has joined our crib scene, the lace is left over from my mother-in-law's wedding dress, so very special.

And these piles are destined to become the three kings - the kids want to do the crowns!!

Today though, we are battening down the hatches in preparation for a couple of nasty weather fronts that are supposed to hit us over the next couple of days. They are meant to rival the weather that devastated Perth a couple of months ago. Wish us luck!!

The last few weeks...

Hello all!! I do apologise not posting over the last few weeks but we have been even busier than usual - plus I have been doing full-time relief at the school while someone is overseas. So I thought I'd give you a sampling of what we've been doing. The green waste collection by our council occured a couple of weekends ago. The whole family got in on the act. The kids cut branches into smaller pieces...
Dad used the big lopers...

And the final result was about 5 metres long, 1 metre wide and 1 1/2 metres tall!!!

Blondie stuffed a pillow up her pyjama top and pretended to be a very fat buddha...quite hard when you can't keep a straight face...

Both Blondie and Miss 11 were involved in the Children Sing Festival at the University of Western Australia this week. Below you can see Miss 11 in the senior choir uniform. Daddy got to go to both sessions and reports that both choirs sounded beautiful.

Miss 11 also was invited to a band ensemble workshop at a local college as she is classed as an advance Year Six in her trombone playing. Five new LONG pieces of music to learn in a week - four new notes, new key signatures, dynamic markings and rhythms. I couldn't take her but the mum who did reported that the final performance by everyone was amazing for 11 and 12 year olds. Well done, babe.

A gorgeous sunrise - pity about the street lights.

A show of shadow puppets - this was an eagle...

And this was a bunny...

And finally pet rocks. Remember these from when we were kids, girls? Well I still have the Painted Rock book. I took it into school on Friday as the pre-primary's were making pet rocks as a fun activity on the last day of term. These were my models and have quickly been claimed by my three. These were done with a permanent marker and textas on white rocks, they just need a coat of varnish.

And now it is school holidays - YAY!!!!!