Saturday, April 25, 2015

Baking with Eadie

Eadie loves to bake and help in the kitchen.  She is a little more confident than her ability, but I don't mind a helper every now and then.  She is good at measuring out the flour and mixing things together. I usually draw the line at eggs.  I will always do the eggs.

In this instance however, she assured me she had it.  She knew exactly how to crack the eggs and she wanted to give it a go.  I gave in and let her.

She was right, she knew exactly how to do it - she'd watched me many times.  She grabbed that egg, tapped it firmly on the bench and then stuck her fingers inside the shell to open it up.  PERFECT! I guess I had forgotten to explain what to do next though, because she opened it up onto the bench, and put the egg shell into our brownie mix! Too funny! We had a good laugh about it for days.


An Easter Tree

When we were in Prague we found some beautiful painted Easter eggs.  They look perfect on our Easter tree!


For our family home evening lesson last week, we cut pictures of the Saviour to hang on the tree also. It feels so lovely to be able to teach the girls the true meaning of Easter. The atonement, crucifixion and resurrection of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, make it possible for us to return to live in the presence of our Heavenly Father. Such a wonderful time of year to remember such great blessings.

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Must they keep growing?

I love watching these two play together...nicely!




They are such precious moments.  Why must they keep growing?  I know each new milestone is lovely, and sometimes a relief (as they outgrow continual night wakings, no longer need to be breastfed, can do things on their own etc), but I also find it sad.  Time is fleeting and as each day, week, month rolls by I wish that I could just bottle them up!   I joke that my big girl will be at Kindy next year and then ready to leave home but I feel like it's not that absurd.




Birthday treats

I really try to make each birthday special - make a cake, blow up balloons, have presents stacked in a corner for when they wake up, make a birthday shirt (for the children) etc.  When my birthday rolls around it's usually just another day.  BUT this year hubby surprised me and baked me a cake ALL BY HIMSELF! It was wonderful!




The girls behaved completely for the entire day, even napping at the same and letting me put my feet up.  BLISS!

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Birthday Celebrations

Miss E turned 3 in January.  Birthdays are easy and exciting at 3.  She knew after Christmas it would be her birthday so the countdown was on.


She was the proud recipient of a Spiderman scooter!  She rode it around the house all morning.


 We filled the day with shopping to spend birthday money ($5 from Grammy and Grandad and $5 from our neighbour); going on rides at the shopping centre and actually putting money in!!!; and birthday frozen yoghurt!  So simple and so fun :)


 She requested spaghetti for dinner (her favourite) and then it was time for cake!

Later in the week we had a birthday party at the local park.  She was so excited (after going to parties for lots of her friends she realised she could have one when it was her birthday, so I gave in).  Her only requests were sausages and cake though!  EASY!!

She chose this pig cake from the Woman's Weekly cookbook.  I think I actually did okay this time (on the oustide)  The cake itself was overcooked and dry.  The kids didn't care!







Happy 3rd birthday Miss E! 

Boxing Day with the Leicesters

It's always great to play with the cousins! Thanks Suzenanna and Grandy for putting in a swimming pool this year!








Delicious roast turkey, ham, lamb and salads with baked potato for lunch.  Fruit mince pies, pudding, custard and cream for dessert.










Have a Holly Jolly Christmas...

Christmas morning sounded like little feet pattering down the hall.  Instead of coming straight towards our bedroom, they detoured to the lounge where they promptly stopped.  Within seconds, the patter turned into fast thumping as the feet ran towards our bedroom and stopped at the side of the bed.  Whispering, "daddy...guess what!"  Miss E was SO EXCITED! Santa had been and she couldn't wait to open presents.


\Bleary eyed we enjoyed opening presents together.



We have created a little tradition of having some friends over for breakfast on Christmas morning,  It usually consists of sausages, bacon, hashbrowns, tomatoes, mushrooms, fruit, youghurt and sometimes pancakes! So good!




Off to mum's for lunch and then a nice relax by the pool and in front of the TV.  Perfect weather this year, and a perfect day.


Saturday, February 7, 2015

Christmas Eve!!!

As you get older, it seems that the excitement about Christmas changes.  It's all brought back though when you have kids around! and this year Miss E was old enough to be excited.  Miss F was just excited about the decorations.


In our efforts to make sure Miss E understood why we were celebrating Christmas (the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ) we realised we had not once mentioned Santa to her.  She knew who Santa was - had seen him in the shops and in her cartoons etc, but she didn't realise he brought PRESENTS!!! Nor did she realise he came on his magical REINDEER and snuck into the house! How could we have missed this!  We filled her in.

We managed to make our very first gingerbread house (from a kit, don't get too excited) on Christmas Eve. Miss E was very much into eating the lollies.



We started a tradition this year of Elves bringing some 'magic' pyjamas to help the girls sleep so Santa could come.  Miss E, like every other 2 year old, is smitten by Frozen, so naturally her pj's were of Elsa and Ana. Miss F couldn't care less, so she got whatever was on sale :)



A fun tradition we started a few years ago, was to buy take-away dinner on Christmas Eve.  This year we had a picnic in the living room! The simple things are often the best.



Santa loves fruit mince pies, and Miss E LOVED leaving them out for him!  Some special reindeer food was also sprinkled out on the driveway.


Off to bed for a 'deep' sleep so Santa could bring the presents!




Thursday, January 15, 2015

Christmas Traditions

Christmas came and went and I had big plans for so many fun traditions this year (well last year now). Maybe it was the freak storm at the end of November that threw me, but we were able to settle on a few traditions that we would like to continue as our family grows.

Putting up the Christmas Tree


The Tree goes up on December 1st, that's a given.  And lucky too, because the storm hit the week before (when I thought I might be nice to put the tree up) and smashed all of our front windows and blew the house into disarray!   So I think we'd better stick to December 1.



We usually have yummy drinks and snacks to help us along as we put the tree up.  This year our dear friend Brother Swaine was there to lend us a hand.  So we drank sparkling apple juice, ate chocolates and fruit mince pies as we listened to carols and decorated the tree.  The girl's loved it!



Cassata Ice-cream cake.


This is one we have been doing for a few years.  A good excuse to eat ice-cream and lollies! We make it early December and then EAT it throughout the month :)  In years past we have shared our first slice with these lovely people.  But this year they were overseas, so we sent them this picture instead.


Fruit Mince Pies


This has been a tradition in the Leicester family for decades, and one that will be passed down for sure! The famous Leicester Fruit Mince Pies.  They should be famous - they are DELICIOUS.  We take in turns making the fruit mince and sharing it amongst the family, then we're left with the task of baking at least 10 dozen throughout the Christmas season to use up all the mince.  The pastry frustrates me every year.  I've yet to get it right the first go, but they are definitely worth the effort.







Christmas Eve pyjamas.  


We thought we'd give this one a try this year.  The 'ELVES' left them during the afternoon on Christmas Eve.  E was excited to shower and put them on, especially because they were 'Frozen' pj's.  It didn't really encourage her to bed any earlier, but she also didn't really understand Christmas yet this year.  I think next year will be a lot different.


Nativity Scenes



We were so fortunate to be able to buy a number of beautiful nativities whilst we were in Prague earlier in the year.  These are the first 'decorations' we put up.  The Sunday before the tree is the day for Nativities and we explained to Eadie what Christmas was all about.  It's a lovely tradition we have started for our family.  And because we now have so many, and even one the girls can play with, they will always be constantly reminded of the true meaning of Christmas.


There are lots of little things I try to do during the lead up to Christmas that don't need to be traditions (because let's face it, that's a lot of pressure to keep up with each year!) So during December we try to: donate to the Kmart wishing tree; deliver goodies to the neighbours; go to carols at least once, somewhere...anywhere; do an advent calendar (very poorly this year) and enjoy the season!  If we get some of that done, I am happy!