Wow, what a day... BUSY!

Today was a massively full day.  The kids had a Bunnings (think Home depot type place) do it yourself kids workshop at 1130.  Kylie at LHEN  has set these up monthly and they are always good fun.  We haven't made it any in a LONG time due to my bubonic plague, but we'll try to get to more next year as the boys totally loved this one... despite a few glitches hehe.

Here are my two intrepid builders all geared up in their official bunnings work aprons, inspecting the tools of the trade and impatiently waiting to get started!

FINALLY!  They were doing a dry run to make sure all the parts were cut right and to see how the project went together.   The general idea was that we hold the pieces together, and the kids hammer nails in.  Several flaws in this plan were noted almost immediately lol.  One, it's very hard to hammer nails into two peices of thin wood held at a 90degree angle to each other *without* anything to support the free edge ;)   Two, the wood was so thin that the nails kept poking out the sides.  SO, we improvised by procuring a couple of hot glue guns and gluing the box together to start.  THEN the kids could nail into a nice sturdy box to help it stay together a bit better.  

Here are the boys working on their treasure boxes.  We discovered it was much easier to hammer on a hard concrete floor than on a table that just bounces!  Sam was very helpful and grabbed the pliers to hold the Nails for Frodo to hammer into his box.  What a sweet boy, when he wants to be ;)

And below is the finished product,  well mostly it's just my boys acting nutty lol, but their boxes ARE in the photo as well ;)   (note Frodo making a 'mouth' with his box hehehe)

Today was also supposed to contain a bit of math, some language lessons and a little History reading... But as I have just arrived home at 230pm, I somehow don't see that happening.  As a matter of fact I think I'll just open up my handy 'Homeschool Tracker' progam and do a speedy rescheduling of those to spread them over the week!   Mum is just BEAT.. dad is gone to get Merry from kindy.  I have also proclaimed it fish n chips night for dinner .. tofu stir fy shall live to be eaten another day!

The boys are thinking these boxes need some paint.  So I think that may be the order of business for the afternoon... Hmmmm... I think I might have some piratey stencils around here somewhere!  

Over -n- out maties!

Veggie goodness

Geez, nothing outta me for a week nearly then two posts in a few hours lol.   Feast or famine I guess? :)  If you had a read of my previous post this morning, you saw that I grow silverbeet in my little potted veggie garden.  I'm just in love with silverbeet lately, and pretty much any other leafy green goodness... but the same old steamed with a bit of butter & salt just gets boring after a while.  SO....I just had to share a recipe I found over at Disposable Aardvarks blog.  I found her blog because someone posted about her very cool bento lunches for her kiddo.. I think bento style lunches are just about the cutest damn things ever and have been experimenting with psuedo bentos with the boys lately.  

Anyway this post is not about bentos,  it's about her AWESOME recipes!!  Pop on over and have a look down the right side of her blog... that is the mother lode of tastiness I tell you.     Only there was one recipe, which was of course the one I was DYING to try, that had no link!  

So, unable to live without this recipe, I commented begging for alink hehehe.  The dutiful, and very nice, blog owner quickly fixed it up for me!  Baked Cheesy Chard is the recipe in question. (scroll down a bit at that link for the low down)  I baked this last night and it was a HUGE hit with the hubby.  THe kids?  not so much lol although Sam did at least taste it.  =)  I admit to being a slacker and forgetting to take a photo though.  Can't believe I did that because it looked very much as yummy as it tasted!   

The recipe itself is vegan, which we are not, so I used regular skim milk and colby cheese instead and it worked out fine :D  the seasoned buttery breadcrumb topping was just the icing on the cake...err.. the crumble on the casserole? lol   

Randomness of the weekend...

In the few days since I posted last, there have been lots of goings on.  We has amazing thunderstorms for several days.   I really wish I had one of those fancy many thousand dollar cameras, then I'd have photos of lightning flashing almost 180degrees on the horizon before it engulfed us.  Mother Nature put on a helluva show, several times :)    Our yard became Lake Hobbit.. luckily before the real storms hit I was able to rescue all my potted veggies onto the veranda.  Good thing too, because I've FINALLY got something that's growing worth a damn ;)   Tomatoes are lush and green, silverbeet is getting tall, squash has babies on it!  

 

 See, aren't they gorgeous?  Those were taken just on Halloween, give or take  a day, so about 10days ago.  That tomato plant is 6inches taller, and just lush.. and the tiny silverbeet to the right side are about 8inches tall now.. in just TEN DAYS!  The boys delight in coming in to tell me what's new in the garden after they inspect the plants :)   And Sam is still our daily water-er. Obviously he's doing a better job than *I* did, as the tomatoes leaves are not curling up from too much water!  That boy is going to be my vegetarian, sport playing gardener it seems lol.

The boys had their weekly swim lesson on Sunday, which Nana met us at and told us to get lost! lol  She was already watching the boys so we could go do a bit of Yuletide shopping, so we took advantage of the extra time to go have some lunch.  We found the most amazing little sushi place (it's in the middle of a major mall, so it's not like it's hidden lol) that was making the rolls fresh as we waited.  Then we wandered down to our favourite coffee shop and had a posh Iced Coffee before descending upon the  Early Learning Centre.   This is our favorite kids shop ever.  

They specialize in fun toys, lots of which have educational value ;), that are also ecologically friendly in their production.  (ie, the woods are rain forest friendly, usually farmed rubberwood)  Some ARE made in China, but I've done the dance with them and have been assured that their plant in China is above board in regards to child safety with the materials they use.   I don't LIKE that they are made in China, but our budget doesn't allow for buying fancy wooden toys from Europe that cost a fortune.  So I feel like I have done the best I can to satisfy both my need for my boys to have high quality toys, my need for those toys to be SAFE for them, and my conscience regarding their production.   Sometimes all we can do, is the best we can right? :)

Ok... *steps off soapbox* lol.. all in all we scored some great deals for the holidays, not that they are cheap.  I was sorta planning to keep it small, but a few things that were just irresistible were on too good a bargain NOT to get *hides face*  Ah well, they're only young once right?