All Things Mum

We had the best day at the Better Homes and Gardens show. Just me and the girls. It was sprinkling outside and hubby dropped us off. We were a bit late for the Masterclass but when we got there it was so much fun. There were two spots in the second row that Fast Ed pointed out to us and so my eldest girl got to cook too. I spent some time helping her out while the youngest ate the chocolate on the table. It was a bit hard to whisk the icing and actually it didn't taste that great at the end but we're fussy like that. I prefer the ganache type. We even cooked our own little cakes in the small ovens they put on the tables. Here is my cake. I was rushed at the end because I was helping Miss 9 and when Fast Ed came around to check our cakes, he looked at her lop-sided, half crushed cake and said "...Wo-ow" with a big surprised smile on his face. I think we may just stick to my favourite cake mixes like the Betty Crocker Irresistables. Here is the love...

If you're ever around my house on a Friday evening, you'll catch the family watching Better Homes and Gardens for sure. We have been long time favourites of the show and I've got a great opportunity to share with you. The Better Homes and Gardens team have their annual Live show on 13-15 November 2015 at Sydney Olympic Park in the Showground and I've got 3 x Family Passes to giveaway! Yes, three!!! I love how Adam has joined the crew and Joanna has been part of the team for over 20years now! Adam will be at the DIY Building Stage showing you the process on how to make a toolbox, lolly jar dispenser and a cheeseboard to impress your guests. Wow. I've been to a show a few years back and I really enjoyed the day. My tip is to get there early (doors open at 10am and close at 5pm) because there is so much to see and do. I haven't tried the DIY so I think I'll book for that this year and take my daughter with me. I saw Fast Ed (with Jo) and his cooking s...

Braun TS745a texstyle 7 black with eloxal soleplate It seems to be that time again when some appliance of mine has broken down. At the beginning of the year it was my vacumn cleaner. It didn't really break down but we somehow lost the filter funnel in the barrell). This time around it's the iron (which it feels like I have only just purchased). I was doing a batch of school uniform ironing, turned it off and then tried to come back to it only to find that it was auto-shutting off and not heating up. So I found a scanned copy of my receipt and it was over a year ago when I bought it from Target. Hubby said to just get another one (this coming from a guy who wants to keep everything in case he can fix it!) I talked to my friends at work and we checked some models online. My friend said to go for Braun or Tefal and my other guy said don't buy Phillips. My last one (pictured left in the photo above) was the Tefal Azur GC4865. I wasn't really impressed when I took ...

The littlest was sick. He took a sip from his brother's cup last Friday and started to get sick by Saturday. By Sunday he was full blown into the virus with high temperatures and general un-wellness. He was sleeping and not eating a lot. So I had no other choice but to stay home. So I shook off the guilt and prepared myself for my home duties and mothering hat. Generally I only have one day free and that's Friday. Even then I have the little one with me and I have a bit of me time in the morning. But I digress, today I dropped off the other three and came straight back home. First off, I did the laundry (of course, a must first thing) and then had a bit of breakfast and he was asleep. I finished off the dishes from last night (Urghh, we actually normally have dishes in the sink). Anyway, I was pretty sure that mums make and bake things when they are at home and I've been dreaming of gozleme for a while so I prepped up the dough. Lucky it was nice and sunny outside a...

 I  couldn't think of anything exciting  for the blog post title so here it is... we painted.  I had this in mind for a long,  long  time. I purchased this cupboard a few years ago online. It's quite heavy so I didn't want to just throw it out.  It's still very good. The problem was is that it had marks on it that I couldn't get rid of so I really wanted to paint it.   So I went and bought paint and brushes and because it was warm outside on Saturday we dragged it out and I got my eldest to sand it down a bit.  Then the girls wanted to paint and I thought why not? And let them. The nine year old was good. I've been keen to get the kids more involved in jobs. I helped my five year old girl paint as she needed supervision.  She tipped the paint tin over and thankfully I decided to lay down an old cardboard box on the floor so it didn't end up on the floor.  Good decision by mum!    After a while though she w...

Well, I survived my trip and so did the kids. They didn't miss us one bit as they were having too much fun with their cousins and we Face-timed them every night anyway. I loved the trip. There were ups and downs but I'll talk about them later. I'm back in mummy mode now.  I made the kale salad a few days ago. The supermarket sells chopped kale now so for the time-poor mums out there, it's good to throw in every thing you've got in the fridge for this yummy salad and a quick tahini dressing. I was out doing a visit the other night and found these jasmine growing along a fence. I love, love, love the smell of this jasmine. Mum kept killing the plants I'd bring home and one day I'll grow my own at my own place. I've got this little jar sitting on the bathroom basin and I love the perfume. Oh it reminds me so much of spring. My eldest girl had her First Holy Communion a few weeks ago. I didn't even get a chance to organise things before we...

 I'm over in San Francisco! I can't believe it. I'm over here with only hubby and the kids are not really missing us. We'll,  the eldest daughter is missing her mummy.  Anyway,  the public transport is fantastic and cheap here. The cable car is more expensive though but fun. More about that later.  On Sunday we went to church at St Mary of the Assumption. It's a big and so beautiful inside. The deacon there sat and talked to us after mass. He was great. W have had nice food. It's a bit pricey though for freshly made good. I sure won't be doing this all the time. Shopping had been good. We bought some shoes from Nike Town and DSW. Westfield's is close by and so are many other stores. Next stop,  Vegas.

Seriously, what else is there in life which brings people together than having food around. Constantly. Well, school's back in and I am in the swing of things. Last night the kids made raspberry and coconut muffins. Thanks White Wings. It was truly awesome. Next time I'll buy both boxes (or more). They were meant to be for school but the kids left nothing behind and it was so easy for them to make. Yes, it is officially Winter down under. My gosh we've been so cold. It's gone down to zero degrees in the morning and it's pretty chilly outside but no snow where we live. These are my girls all rugged up. I think it was a church day. I found my eldest great pull up jeans from Pumpkin Patch. She never really liked the other zipper ones. The pull-up ones are so comfy!   I couldn't help myself and I made 3 ingredient Nutella brownies. They are delish but man, you need one cup of Nutella, two eggs and 3/4 cups of flour. I made this in two batches (so two...

                                           A few things happen all at once when we hit June. Elijah has his birthday and we took him bowling with a few young cousins. My manager at work lent me her silicon cupcake mould and I made him a big cupcake for his birthday. My go to cake mix is Betty Crockers Iressistables (sp?) Chocolate Mousse cake. Oh it's divine. The mousse cream is the best. There's a hole inside the cupcake on purpose just to fill with ice-cream or choc mousse. I think I put on an extra kilo that day ; ) The last minute birthday plan was bowling. It's the best place because the woodfire pizza is fantastic and overall it's a budget winner. One game was enough for the ten kids. The kids have a ball (except for Miss 8 who didn't enjoy it). He has this thing about lining up the empty pop tops and bowling them over with the basketball at home. Bowling is hi...

This is going to be a quick post as my eyes are about the roll into the back of my eyeballs. Dinner was really good at the start of May but did a slow downward drop as it came into June. I try to keep to meat and veg at least for family dinners. Sometimes, it's grilled drumsticks for the kids and I'll eat left overs. There seems to be an influx of dessert/snacking types of food and I am feeling it around my belly. Not good peoples. I'd be ok with it if I was making the time to go to the gym but my time is so limited these days. Does anyone else feel this way? I hope you're enjoying making healthy dinners anyway. This is Jacquie's 'Smiley face' plate. Rice, fish and greens. There's another photo where I put on corn cob hair but it was blurry so I'll spare you that. I am so boring on Fridays but the kids seem to enjoy fish every Friday even if it's soup. Oh soup. How simple and delicious!!! You know the kids will eat anything if they ...