Movies in the Park

Last week we had our first family outing to Movies in Parks. These run from February to March and are put on for free by the Auckland Council.

The movie was Toy Story 3 so you can just imagine the excitement in our house at the prospect of watching it outdoors on the big screen!

We trecked through the bush down to Little Shoal Bay and set up our picnic blanket and Rosie and Harry's camping chairs.

We managed to stay for about half of the movie before the kids got tired and we had to come home and put them to bed.

I must say that we did pay the price the next day with tired and slightly grumpy kids but it was worth it for the joy they had in trying something new!

Multi Purpose Rooms

I love multi purpose rooms and I think this one is particularly beautiful. It is an office, sewing room, music room and spare room, all rolled into one!

 

I love the efficient use of space and think it is very cleverly designed. It goes to show that you can do amazing things with a small space. :)

The Most Belated Birthday Party Ever!

Yep, I must win the worst mum award for this one. Harry turned 4 in December 2010 and I have finally organised his birthday party...in April 2011!

In the meantime, if you are looking for cute invitations like these ones, check out Poppy Seed. I highly recommend them for great friendly service and beautiful products. :)

Organising Duplo

Harry and I have been working on a new way to organise his Duplo. He LOVES building with Duplo and we needed an easier way for him to be able to do the clean up himself. :)

Virtually all the Duplo has been purchased second hand and came in a variety of these plastic containers. While these were great for storage, they were tricky for Harry to use as the lids would often pop up and he could never fit all the pieces back in each one.

Cue the Sterilite Baskets! These things are great and I use them all over the house for a variety of uses. They are readily available from places like Briscoes and The Warehouse and are much sturdier and better quality than baskets from the dollar chain stores.

Harry tipped all the Duplo into his two new baskets and together we found a new home for them underneath his bed. It is great having such a child friendly solution as now he can pull out the Duplo when he wants...and also easily clean it all up again!

It was also nice to have some Mummy and son bonding time. I hope he is just as enthusiastic about cleaning when he gets older! I'm not sure about that one. :)

Project Life Tuesday: Washing Days!

My Project Life snapshot for this week is my washing line. Not the most thrilling and exciting photo in the world but one which represents our busy family life as it is right now. Washing is a never ending job in any household with children so our clothesline often looks like this, several times a week.

Challenge for Project Lifers: Take a snapshot of your washing line or basket on a regular day. :)

Young House Love Blog

If you are looking for an uber cool blog to inspire you then go no further than Young House Love.

I stumbled upon this blog a few months ago and it has become a firm favourite ever since. The blog is run by John and Sherry, a young couple with truckloads of style and a highly entertaining way of expressing themselves.

They began their blog as a way of documenting the renovation of their home and it wasn't long before word spread. Their blog is now so successful that it has become a business!

I am in love with their style and am always so inspired by what they are able to achieve, often on a budget and in a short space of time.

These images are of their last house, which they have now sold. They have now bought a new place and continue to share their renovating journey with the world wide web.

Check out their Projects Page for some of their amazing work. This is definitely one to add to your blog favourites. :)

Happy Sunday Everyone

I hope everyone has a restful and uplifting Sunday.

Try to capture a special moment with your family...like these two snuggling together. :)

Happy Birthday Chelsea!

My baby sister turns 22 today.

Hope you have a fab day sis and so glad you get to spend a small part of it with us. :)

Scandi Kids Art

It is no secret that I love Scandi style so finding these cute plywood prints for Harry's room was perfect.

It is quite hard to find plain, unfussy art for children so I snapped these up from the Clearance Shed when I saw them.

There is something about owls and squirrels that is very nostalgic for me.

They are super cute and these prints will be right at home with my ply deer head. Best of all, they were a bargain! :)

Annabel Langbein

I love Annabel Langbein and Mum and I were big fans of her free range cook television series. I also love cookbooks so when my friend Sarah recommended The Best of Annabel Langbein: Great Food for Busy Lives, I knew I had to have it. It is fantastic!

There are more than 600 recipes and it is a joy to read, before you even get to cooking the recipes from it!

I have already tried out some of the recipes and everything is simple and delicious. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a cookbook which covers everything from everyday dinners to special occasion meals.

Thanks Sarah for the heads up on this one, it is my new favourite book. :)

Blogging with a Busy Schedule!

Well, most of the time I love blogging. I really enjoy writing my thoughts down and documenting our little projects around the home, but being a daily blogger can be hard to keep up at times! I work full time and we have a full, busy family life so blogging has to fit in around that. I use my blog like a journal so it isn't hard to write, but it does take time to upload photos and write posts, etc. I started daily blogging in the middle of last year and I used to write my daily post in the evenings and publish them straight away. This worked well for a few months but I must admit that it was hard to keep up, especially after a long day at work. In the last few weeks I have finally mastered the art of the 'scheduled post' and it has transformed blogging for me!

I now prepare my blog posts in advance and schedule them to go live each day at 3am. I usually try and have a rough idea of what I plan to blog, one week in advance. I then spend one or two evenings, often on the weekend, preparing my posts for the coming days. This includes uploading photos, checking out links and writing. I try and have one week's worth of posts loaded at a time so that I am running a week ahead of schedule. This allows me to make changes if something pops up and it takes all the pressure out of blogging for me. I am not sure if I will continue to blog daily, there may come a time when I need to cut back to once every second day, or once every few days but as long as I continue to enjoy it, I plan to keep going. :)

Project Life Tuesday: Hanging with Cousins

Lately we have had the chance to visit Hamilton a few times and Rosie and Harry have been loving hanging out with their cousin, Hunter. He is two and together they enjoy trips to the park with Papa and taking turns riding the bike up and down Nana's driveway. As a Project Life POTD I snapped a photo of them all lined up on the backseat of the car, ready for another fun outing.

Challenge for Project Lifers: Capture a photo of your children enjoying the company of their cousins. :)

Project Life Kit Two Arrives

Yay, my second Becky Higgins Project Life kit has arrived!

I am very excited about it as I have decided to retrospectively journal our 2010 year with the snapshots I have taken over the past year. I have all the photos stored on my hard drive and have been very behind in getting them organised and printed.

The Turquoise Edition of Project Life

I am hoping that this will be an efficient way of displaying our family photos and memories. I am LOVING our 2011 Project Life kit and I enjoy the flexibility this system provides.

For this new album I obviously won't be able to journal a picture a day so I am planning to organise my layouts by month. I am also hoping to incorporate some of Rosie and Harry's art and other memorabilia from 2010.

Stacks of journalling cards, ready to go! 

For this kit I chose the Turquoise Edition which Becky describes as 'graphic and linear'. It isn't as "pretty" as the Amber Edition I have for 2011 but I still love it! It took a while for it to arrive as it seems these kits are selling out faster than anyone expected. I think this current shipment was presold well before they arrived in NZ!

Excitement at the arrival of my new kit!

This is going to be quite a big ongoing project for me but I hope to share some of my progress with you over the next few months. :)

Happy Sunday Hut Building

Rosie and Harry are at the age where they LOVE to build huts out of anything and everything. They use their room as a base and pull out everything to create their secret hideaways.

One of their favourite Sunday activities is to build a hut and they can amuse themselves for hours in there. Yes, it is messy but well worth it for the creativity it inspires. From reading books to make believe, the good old fashioned hut is still as popular as it ever was. :)

Teddy Bears Picnic

A couple of weeks ago my sister and I took the kids to the annual Teddy Bears Picnic in Hamilton. It was a scorcher of a day but we had a great time and enjoyed some good old fashioned fun...

Meeting the police

Sitting in the back of the police car!

Joining the crowds on the jumping castle

Bouncing with the cousins

Queuing for candyfloss

Quick Dinner Recipe: Tasty Self-Crusting Quiche

We all know what it is like when we need a quick dinner idea fast and it is the day before grocery shopping. I was in exactly that situation a few days ago and I rediscovered my tasty self-crusting quiche recipe. It uses store cupboard ingredients, is very healthy and is super fast to put together. Just the ticket for a busy Friday night!

Tasty Self-Crusting Quiche

Ingredients

1 x can of whole kernel corn

4 spring onions (chopped)

1/2 cup self-raising flour

3/4 cup trim milk

2 eggs

1 cup grated cheese

2-3 firm tomatoes

black pepper

paprika (optional)

Method

Put drained corn into a 20-30cm dish and cover with spring onions. At this stage you can also add any other extras you like such as ham and other vegetables. Mix flour, milk, eggs, black pepper and half the cheese. Lightly beat with a fork and pour over the corn. Slice two tomatoes and place over the top of the quiche, sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Add another sliced tomato if you want and sprinkle with paprika if you have it.

Cook at 220 degrees for 20-30 minutes. The quiche is cooked when it is golden brown and the centre is firm. Enjoy!

Plywood Deer

Isn't he lovely?

I have been admiring these on the Artikel website for quite some time and finally, I found a second hand one and he arrived in bubble wrap a few days ago! I actually really like taxidermy as a "look" but I'm not sure I would be brave enough to bring a real stuffed animal head into my home.

This kitset seems far less fussy and I love, love, love it! Now, where to put him?

Organising Tips for After School Activities

Today I thought I would share some of the things I do to organise all the gear associated with after school activities. Each week Rosie and Harry have swimming lessons and Rosie also has dancing as well.

Swimming gear all ready to go into bags

They love these activities but they do have the potential to become overwhelming if you don't put steps in place to make it easier on yourself. :)

Swimming gear packed for the week

The way I manage them is to get a separate bag for each child and each activity. Yes, this can mean a lot of bags (in our case, we have three) but they are well worth it.

Rosie's dancing gear all set to go

On the weekend I pack each bag for the week and have them all ready to go. For Rosie this means her dance clothes, Jazz shoes and a packaged snack such as a muesli bar or rice crackers. Everything gets placed in the bag and put by the door on the day of the activity so we can grab it on our way out in the morning.

This Penny Scanlan strawberry bag is the perfect size for dancing gear

In their swimming bags I pack their towels, togs, goggles and pyjamas. Yes, pyjamas. They have a late swimming lesson which doesn't finish until 6.30pm so after they get out of the pool, Taff takes them to the showers and then they put on their PJ's to come home in. This means there is one less job to do when they get in the door and it works well for our family.

All the bags ready to go for the week

After they finish each activity I unload the bags in the evening and try to restock them with a fresh towel, togs, etc so that they are all ready to go for the following week. Usually on the weekend I will double check them to see if I need to add anything extra. I keep all of the packed bags in a plastic crate in the wardrobe and just grab the appropriate bags we need on the day. This simple system has made it a lot easier for us to manage extra after school activities in our family. :)

Project Life Tuesday: Inside Your Car

As a Mum with two littlies, I spend a lot of time in the car so I thought it might be nice to capture the view I see during the many hours I spend in there! :)

It is a good thing I didn't photograph the floor of the car as there would be a plethora of books, kids clothing and empty wrappers. I think I will photograph that next time as after all, this is Project Life and a messy car is part of that! :)

Challenge for Project Lifers: Take a snapshot inside your car, whether it be the view from your seat or your kiddies tucked safely in their carseats. :)