Breakfast with the birds

If there's anything more idyllic than a full buffet breakfast on a tropical island, it's being accompanied by tropical birds :). Actually, the birds were a little too much - we lost a quantity of breakfast to them, and dh ended up with a nasty nip after a rainbow lorikeet was offended by being offered a finger to perch on.

Still - they sounded and looked just gorgeous, and the girls loved it!

Tropical island, day one...

Here's Briar Rose learning how to snorkel within an hour of landing on the island, then a happy snap from our hotel room before she and DH went for a snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef!

Sadly, the rain means visibility was down to about 2m instead of 10m, but they still saw plenty of fish and even some sea turtles.

Brave kitten!

Paint and Play was not for the faint hearted today, at a chilly 7 degrees (about 44 degrees f) with a brisk breeze. I hadn't anticipated the freezing weather (it was warm in our centrally heated house!) so didn't dress Ginger Rose or myself appropriately - she didn't notice at all, but I was crossing my legs and trying to tuck my hands under my arms within minutes!

I thought this kitten's visit was worth recording. What self-respecting feline would actually cross a road and voluntarily walk through a fence into a children's playground *full* of children?! This young cat was happy to be admired and stroked by Ginger Rose and her friend, but did have a playful attack and scratch that startled the children.

There are often young cats around the playground, and this is not the first time they've come to Paint and Play - but it still strikes me as bizarre behaviour for animals that usually keep a safe distance from toddlers!

Injury time

Exhibit A: Briar Rose's now discarded tracksuit pants showing the marks where an errant firecracker blasted into her leg, leaving her with a small bruise, smaller burn mark, and lashings of sympathy from all and sundry.
Ouch - I think I fractured my toe a few days ago. It certainly felt like it. This is after some of the swelling and colour had retreated. It's not as bad as the toe on the other foot which was dislocated and fractured a few years ago, and I think I learnt some tips from that experience.

I made sure I stayed pottering around so nothing had a chance to stiffen up and swell too much, and I think it paid off - it's certainly healing faster than I thought it would.

Fireworks weekend

We've had a wonderfully full house for this year's fireworks long weekend. My brother and SIL brought the childrens' two cousins to stay, and we had two other families join us for Saturday night dinner and fireworks.

It was a little chaotic with 21 of us trying to eat in the dark, but the weather was perfect - cold but not too cold, a gentle breeze to lift the whirling firecrackers, and a lovely fire in a brazier to take the chill off the air and bake potatoes in.

We had our first firecracker accident when Briar Rose set off a firecracker upside down, sending balls of fire hurtling in a 360 degree range. One hit her on the ankle, burning through her tracksuit pants and leaving her with a very minor burn, slight bruise and very wounded sense of dignity! She spent the rest of the evening curled up on my bed reading pony books with her cousin and another friend.

Briar Rose's other ankle was jammed in a door during a fast and furious game of 44 home today at lunch. My great aunt and uncle were visiting, and it was the perfect opportunity for Briar Rose to snuggle and feel comforted by my great aunt. I think it was worth the injury to see them having such a close time on the couch.

I was quite relieved when Briar Rose dropped a glass bottle of soft drink in the kitchen at dinner time, as we can relax a little now her three accidents are out of the way!

Possum tries acupuncture...

We have a new acupuncturist working at the clinic, and let Possum try her out. We were hoping it would help him get some mental clarity, but it doesn't seem to be working! He received a diary warning for a playground dispute the very next day!

We also turned on the heating this week - Wednesday June 6th 2007. We would have left it off for longer because we were all enjoying the challenge (except Possum who was feeling the cold) but had guests coming for the weekend and felt a fridge-like environment might not be hospitable...

Guess where we went today?

One of the Ginger Ninja's homeschooling friends was given two Zoo Venture tickets, and very very kindly invited the Ginger Ninja to accompany her. Ginger Rose and I came along to see the sights available to the public.

We had a wonderful day watching the monkeys, bears, fish, leopards, but mostly liked the giraffes!

One wednesday...

Here's a little of what we did on Wednesday this week. Ginger Ninja, Ginger Rose and I walked Possum and Briar Rose to school, and dropped in at the school office to organise Ginger Rose's enrolment interview with the Head of Junior School. As they had a free appointment later that morning, we arranged to return.

We then walked up across the paddocks to the town shopping centre. As the Ginger Ninja was seeing a performance of Othello on Thursday, I tried to keep the conversation focused on literary and dramatic devices. As you can see, he and Ginger Rose tried to keep the conversation focused on topics appropriate for Dolly, seen holding both their hands as they head off on a tangent without me.

Ginger Rose met up with her best friend at the shops, so we stopped at a coffee shop for a quick refuel and play before continuing on for a quick blood test for me and a trip to the library for all of us.

We returned to school for a successful school interview, during which Ginger Rose nodded with her fingers in her mouth in response to questions such as "Do you like to play at the park?", before walking home for Ginger Rose's nap.

I returned to school to see Briar Rose's class presenting at the junior school assembly. She played piano very skilfully, presented a cereal she'd designed and explained that her class was experimenting to see how fast various things dissolved in Coke over a four week period.


I can't remember what we made for dinner that night, but here's a visual of the Thai chicken meatballs we made earlier in the week. They were such a quick winner that I'm definitely adding them to my "quick meals" list, though they're very rich so really need to be served with a good helping of rice and salad or vegies. I didn't have sweet chilli sauce (one of the perils of owning a teenage boy capable of finishing bottles of sauce and not informing stock control!) so served them with soy, but sweet chilli would've been much nice.

THAI CHICKEN BALLS

Serving size: Serves 4Cooking time: Less than 30 minutes

INGREDIENTS

500g chicken mince¼ cup (60ml) oyster sauce2 cloves garlic, crushed1 tablespoon self-raising flour1 tablespoon fish sauce½ cup finely chopped fresh coriander leaves2/3 cup (160ml) coconut milksoy sauce and sliced chillies or sweet chilli sauce, for serving
METHOD

Preheat the oven to moderately hot (200°C/180°C fan-forced). Grease two 12-hole mini muffin pans (1 tablespoon/20ml capacity).Combine chicken mince, oyster sauce, garlic, flour, fish sauce, coriander and coconut milk in a large bowl. Place rounded tablespoons of mixture into prepared pans. Bake in a moderately hot oven for about 15 minutes or until cooked through.Turn out and serve hot with combined soy sauce and chilli or sweet chilli sauce. Suitable to freeze.Not suitable to microwave.

Have you been introduced?

To Sebastian, our cat?

He's rather long suffering, and pretends to dislike the children, but strangely seems to prefer sleeping in the childrens' bedrooms. Here he is trying to blend in with the stuffed animals in Briar Rose's lower bunk.
And here's how the children are preparing for their new baby brother...

Ginger Rose enjoys autumn

We made the effort to leave the Ginger Ninja behind for Paint and Play this week, and Ginger Rose had a fantastic time playing with the other preschoolers. She's off to school for two days a week next year, so we're making a bigger effort to meet up with other children her age.

Autumn is great fun for little ones - Ginger Rose makes a bouquet of autumn leaves most days on our walks to and from school. Unfortunately, the leaves aren't allowed inside the house, which is terribly cruel of me, so the bouquets are left in piles on our back lawn.

Pasta sauce

And here are the final fruits of the summer garden - minus a few tomatoes and zuchinis that are still ripening, and the pumpkins that are still green.

I chopped them all up with a couple of onions, some garlic, grated carrot, mince, TVP and some extra tinned tomatoes and tossed them in the slow cooker to produce a pasta sauce.

Tonight, I served it layered with bechamel sauce in a lasagne. The TVP gives it a bland flavour, so it wasn't one of my favourites, and it's possible the celery was a little too strong.

I also had my first visit with the midwife from the birth centre. It's the same midwife who assisted at Jessica's birth, and very kindly did Jessica's check-up so I didn't need to see a GP or drive down to the birth centre. Unfortunately, the birth centre is no longer allowing home births so unless I can lobby hard and fast, she won't be able to attend me for the birth :(.

If you're that way inclined, please pray that our state health insurers decide that homebirthing is an acceptable insurance risk!

Can you identify this?

This came in a punnet of Chinese vegies, but now I can't remember what I was supposed to do with it! Do I use it in salads or as a vegetable? As you can see, it's rather prolific - probably because I've eaten everything else around it!

I'm planning on finishing with most of the summer garden today - I'm going to toss the celery, silverbeet, handful of cherry tomatoes into the slow cooker with some onions, ground beef, mixed herbs and a bottle of the ubiquitous pasta sauce.

Pancakes for breakfast

Possum woke bright and early yesterday and decided to make us all pancakes for breakfast - yum! Ginger Rose was there to help him.

Dh is away for a four day spell on the Gold Coast (work's tough for some, eh!), so the domestic goddess is also having a break - the children were amazed but rather pleased when I offered them cereal for dinner last night! And I did serve a salad and some plain pasta with tomato sauce.

I've given myself the challenge of making it to May without turning on the heating. The temperature in the house is dropping by about a degree a day, which means by Tuesday (H day!) we'll be down to 14c.

A new soup and choc-chip gluten-free muffins

I've been inspired by the 365 day bloggers, so will try to get into the daily blogging habit by sharing one domestic activity a day.

Today, Briar Rose, Ginger Rose and I made choc-chip gluten-free muffins out of a packet, cheesy scrolls using dough made in the breadmaker, and I made a brand new soup by mixing last night's leftover white beans in onion and garlic with yesterday lunch's leftover red lentil soup and a box of spinach.

Quarterly piano lessons

Briar Rose loves music, and her Grandma E can usually be prevailed upon for a piano lesson during visits. Sadly, Grandma wasn't well enough for her last scheduled visit to Canberra, but was still willing to give Briar Rose a lesson last weekend. I think they both enjoyed it.

While Ginger Ninja, Briar Rose and Ginger Rose had a wonderful time with Grandma, Dh and I went to a great workshop where I got to see Bruce Lipton speaking again. He was GREAT! Love the man. Love the book - Biology of Belief.

Balloon Fiesta

The alternate title for this post could be "What would make me leave the house before dawn in Autumn when it's cold and dark outside?"!

Fortunately, the weather was quite warm with none of the frost that made previous balloon fiestas so seriously cold.

We had a terrific time - Ginger Rose loved looking at all the "Biiiiiiiig balloons" and watching them inflate and deflate, and Briar Rose and Possum were able to hop into the basket of a balloon operated by a friend's sister then go for a ride on the "chariot" balloon.

If you look closely at the chariot, you may notice that the children sit on a gas tank, with a fire extinguisher strapped to the side! Confidence inspiring, I say!

At the park

Ginger Rose loves playing at the park near her father's work. We see magpies, galahs and the odd kookaburra, and have lots of fun on the various slides while waiting for Dh to be ready for us.

Last visit, she had insisted on wearing a dress and some of the climbing was a little tricky! And, of course, her white lace petticoat hem was filthy by the time we left. 

Easter camping...

Is not for the faint hearted! Our first trip camping since Ginger Rose joined us was a good reminder of why we prefer to stay off the beaten track, and refreshed my sympathy levels for those forced to live in tent cities.

We camped at Wombeyan Caves along with several hundred other campers, and while we very much enjoyed the opportunity to explore the caves (and Briar Rose had a wonderful time getting wet on the Mini-Adventurers cave tour) the cheek by jowl tent arrangements and toilet queues were just a little distasteful.

And, in the true tradition of Easter camping, it rained. Our tents proved to be mostly waterproof but as the children preferred playing outside in the rain to staying dry inside the tents... 

Briar Rose is 8!

Briar Rose celebrated her birthday with a small sleepover party. Here are the girls in the morning spraypainting with blow pens. 

Just two families...

I took this photo of our two families (I'm behind the camera) after we hiked down to the falls you can vaguely see in the background.

It was a gorgeous rainforest walk, but I was feeling a bit uncomfortable after a taipan slid away from the path *after* Briar Rose and Ginger Rose had been running ahead of us!

And we might look like a large group, but it's going to get larger (we hope) in September/October when our next bublet is scheduled for arrival!