Advent Blog Along #12,13,14 & 15

What I am doing:
Hello! I'm hooooome! We had a lovely time chilling at a beach-side location. I coped very well with the gorgeous weather and playing with the kids. We arrived yesterday afternoon and since then I have been doing washing and unpacking.  My brother popped in with his girls for lunch which was lovely. I did manage to squeeze in some time to do an Advent Activity with the kids today.

Why is it so hard to catch all three with their eyes open and looking at me?? *sigh*

Rocky road with a twist... this has mars bar in it! YUMM!

And of course baking with kids is not complete until they are licking the bowls and spoons.

One of the finished products of today's efforts. Cranberry and white chocolate short bread.

What I am creating:
Today has been so flat out I haven't had a chance to do much creative, apart from playing with lettering on my envelopes.

What I am listening to:

So much colour!

I spent the day just marveling at the colour around me as I pottered about doing stuff.

I whipped up a block for my Granny Sampler.... getting so close to finishing now!

Picked up oranges from our markets for 47 cents a kilo....

... so I made orange and lemon (from our tree) cordial

I baked triple choc-muffins.

It's been just a beautiful day.

So what have you been up to?

I have been slogging away on my uni work, but every now and then I do a flash of something else. Like....

Trying to make headway on my daughter's scarf for school. ....

Baked muffins for Mother's Day afternoon tea with my Mum.....

Participated in a Happy Mail swap with another Planner crazy lady. This is what I received and I was pretty happy! I've already started using some of the bits and pieces I've been sent.

This week I hope to nail a major paper and finish Milly's scarf in the evenings in front of Masterchef.

Not long and it will all be over! 

Brunch muffins

We invited our new Pastor and his family over for brunch. I love brunch, don't you? I made these: Spinach and Feta Muffins. Om nom! They were pretty tasty! The recipe had tomato on top, but I omitted that mainly because hubby doesn't really like tomato.

I got the recipe from Pinterest and you can find it HERE

What Christmas Eve looks like 2014 (Advent Blog along #24)

It's the final day of Advent Blog Along and I'm feeling a bit sad. I didn't get to blog as much as I would have liked due to being insanely busy with wedding stuff and travelling and the like. Next year hopefully will be better.
So to wrap up my most favorite time of the year I'm going to show and tell what Christmas Eve looks like in 2014.

1. Breakfast for the kids - leftover Malteser and Raspberry Icecream cake (I had fruit toast)

2. Final House clean for house sitters/going away

3. Preparing my 2015 diary by putting in new routines, my 2015 goals and a few special dates.
(I've ordered some pretties to use in my diary next year - why not make my to-do list look awesome? I have a new storage box which I plan to fill up with diary embellishments) I'm hoping this will help me keep track of stuff for project life as well.

4. Opening stockings/ Santa Sack

Every year since Mop was a little tacker, we have made it a family tradition to open Christmas stockings on Christmas Eve. We found that Mop would become so overwhelmed with everything being given to her all at once and would just open it and then set it aside without looking at it. Now we try and spread out opening presents. Christmas Eve morning the children get their stockings, in the evening Grandma and Grandpa give their gifts. Christmas Day they get their presents from under the tree. This way they can take in what their gifts are and appreciate them because they aren't being rushed to open the next gift.

5. Last  minute baking
Christmas isn't Christmas without my usual fare - fruit mince slice. I whipped a batch up today while the kids were off in various corners of the house playing with their stocking loot, quietly.

6. Secret Squirrel building

Daz did some sneaky work building the trampoline which is a gift from us and Daz's parents (the kid's grandparents) and had it ready in time to gift it to them and they could spend some time playing on it.

(sneaking a photo through the blinds without the kids seeing)

(the kiddies shaking down their Christmas dinner)

7. Cooking a Christmas dinner 

Daz's parents came for dinner and we ate yummy food and swapped Christmas presents. I was excited to receive a Spotlight gift voucher (which will help my zero spend plans). Grandpa brought sparklers for the kids to use before bed which always goes down a treat!

(the table before dinner)

(Mop giving Rudolph a run for his money)

You may think "Wow! Full day!" but it isn't over yet. It's 9:30pm and it's now time to pack up our gear ready for our 10 days away. 

So I will be saying goodbye to you for now and I will be back next year ready and raring to get my creative on. I want to take this moment to wish you a very Merry Christmas and I hope the big day is as wonderful as can be.

Love from Skipper

Christmas isn't Christmas without our rocky road (Advent Blog Along day #22)

I've been making rocky road since Mop was a baby, and every year I make it the exact same way. When Mop was a baby she was allergic to nuts, and I hate glace cherries, so I made my own kind of nut-free/glace fruit free rocky road. 

Mop thankfully outgrew her nut allergy when she was six so I could theoretically put nuts in... but I never do. 

Each and every year the kids help me make it, get covered in chocolate and love it! Usually I do a fair bit of the preparation, but this year I noticed that my kids are growing up and I barely did anything! EJ took over the chopping with the knife, Milly cut the marshmallows with scissors and Mop melted the chocolate. All I did was pour it into the pan to set!

I hope when I am grey haired old lady that on Rocky Road making day, the family will crowd into the kitchen and help me - even with all the extras - sons and daughter in law and grandchildren. I hope they treasure this precious time together when they grow up and leave home.

Frozen Party? Sure... why not?

My littlest is among the millions of Frozen fans out there. She LOVES it. This year she asked for a Frozen themed birthday party. Sure.. why not?

The morning of the party arrived... and it was storming! It was supposed to be an outside party!! Common storm! Pass already! But as the morning progressed, more and more storms developed. Then we had a doozy of a storm and the call was made to move it inside.

I made up cute little party bags

The birthday girl

Anna & Elsa's Chocolate fountain was VERY popular!

We had Frozen/Snow themed food. This was just one of them.

My A-MAZE-ING husband made a snowflake shape with cupcakes. (Baked & decorated by him - I suck at baking!)

We made snowflakes out of paddle pop sticks and decorated them with glitter and gems.

We played pin the nose on Olaf. 

We also played Blindfolded Snow Shoveling - which is a hilarious game!

Here are the party girls all having a wonderful time!

My beautiful Milly with her gorgeous cake.

And this? Biggest mistake I have ever made in parties - but it was the most fun for the girls. We made snow. They played with it for ages, but it made them and all the floors in my house messy because it was tracked EVERYWHERE!!

We did other stuff, but I don't want to have a mega load of photos and bore you to tears with it. My darling girl ended the day happily and as I was tucking her in that night she sleepily said "Mum, that was the best party EVER! In the whole wide world!" That made my tired feet and crazy week worth it. I also overheard the girls tell Milly "This is the best party EVER!!!" Yep... my head is swollen. :)

Lemon Brownies

For a little while I have been pinning recipes that I can use lemons in them to make use of the gorgeous lemons on my tree. This lemon brownie recipe was pinned because it looked just divine! 

Not only did it LOOK divine, but it tasted divine! It was so easy and the kids were able to help me with juicing and mixing. 

Will I make it again? You just try stop and me!

Coffee Shortbread {Advent Blog-Along # 23}

Smashed up toe and fractures? Need to get baking done? No worries!! I have an incredible 10 year old who is so independent and clever that all I have to do is instruct from my chair and she whips stuff up. Yummy stuff like Coffee Shortbread.  NOM NOM!!!

Hopefully tomorrow I will have something to show that I have made while I have been reclining like a lady of luxury!

Master Chef {Advent Blog-Along #19}

An Advent Activity that the kids enjoyed today was baking some cookies. White chocolate and cranberry shortbread to be precise. So I sat on a stool at the breakfast bar - got out my phone for photo taking and then let them loose.

The did an amazing job with very little adult aid. They just did it. So proud of my little Master Chefs. 

Rocky Road Recipe {Advent Blog-Along # 18}

STEP 1: take your assistant for the day and make sure they are at a height to help easily.

STEP 2: Give them 2 blocks of chocolate to eat break up into a heat proof bowl.

STEP 3: Put chocolate into microwave to melt. While that is melting give the assistant some kitchen scissors and cut up some marshmallows and raspberry jelly lollies.

STEP 4: Get assistant to do some quality control, just in case the marshmallows and raspberries are an inferior product.

STEP 5: Pour in the melted chocolate while the assistant attempts to scoop some out with the spoon. It will not taste quite right unless the spoon is a big one and a big mouthful is tasted.

STEP 6: Give assistant bowls to clean while you put the rocky road in the fridge to set.