Optimus Prime Party

Sprat turned 7 over the school holidays.  His party theme of choice was Optimus Prime.  We had a fantastic few hours playing games, shouting very loudly for no reason, racing around the house at top speed, eating as much food colouring as we could and generally just hanging about with his besties.

Boys of this age amuse me no end.  Fart noises, crazy dancing, rude words, gross smells.  It all induces majorly loud laughing fits.  They are such strange creatures.

Sprats party was a great send out to the end of the school holidays.  Back to the grind tomorrow, and a certain Danger Mouse who starts his school visits this week.  A new chapter is almost beginning.

Easter Bunny Tails

Afternoon tea for us today, Good Friday, has been Easter Bunny Tails and fresh out of the oven Hot Cross Buns.  Easter weekend is usually a time where we go away, but we've opted to stay home this year, which has allowed me to go a bit crazy on the Easter crafts and baking.

These Bunny Tails are quick to make.  Simply dip marshallows into melted white chocolate, and then into thread coconut and allow to dry before eating.

Bliss.  Enjoy your family time this Easter where ever you are.  Happy Easter all.

Easter Egg Tree

Decorating for Easter is not what we do in our house but an abundance of plastic Easter eggs has had us dabbling in a bit of Easter decorating cheer.  

With a bit of help from me, the kids decorated this Easter Egg 'Tree' and it is proudly on show as our table centre place.  I have to say the idea of decorating in bright spring pastel colours is appealing more to me as the days get darker and colder.  

Our tree was simple to make.  The kids gathered branches from the half dead shrubs outside our house and arranged them in a mason jar.  They needed help with the strings on the eggs, but did all the arranging themselves.

I am thinking of maybe filling them for Easter morning with Chocolate Raisins as an extra Easter Bunny surprise.

 

Easter Cornflake Nests

These are dangerously delicious.  Shhhh, I didn't stop at just one.... but don't tell my children that. It wasn't me hiding in the Harry Potter cupboard under our stairs eating a sneaky second one.  Nope.  No way.

These are so quick and easy to put together.  In fact, apart from some assistance to melt the chocolate, you could let the kids do the whole thing themselves.

300 grams milk chocolate melts
135 grams cornflakes
Packet of Cadbury Mini Eggs (or similar)

Melt the chocolate melts following the instructions on the packet.  Allow chocolate to cool slightly and then mix the cornflakes through until they are evenly coated.

Spoon mixture into 12 muffin cases and decorate with Mini Eggs.  Allow to set before eating (I just left mine on the bench for half an hour).

Yum!

What We Are Reading

We love books.  There are books in every room, overflowing from wardrobes, down the sides of beds and spilling out of library bags.

There is always a certain few books though that the children like to read and read again.  And as the kids get obsessed with certain books I thought that I would share them - others may be missing out you know!

Currently one of those is Poo Bum by Stephanie Blake.  Its the top favourite in the house.  A completely pointless story as far as I am concerned, but hilariously funny as the kids anticipate getting to scream "Poo Bum" as loud as possible.  The pictures are bright and its a really easy read.

Not sure how long the obsession with this book will last, and how long I have to endure hearing "Poo Bum" to every question I ask them, but it makes us laugh and we love that.

I also read a few chapters from a 'big kid' book every night after our picture books.  I am pretty passionate about reading to my children - here I am ranting about the delights of reading literature to the kids. I found The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo at the op shop (of course).  Filled with beautiful illustrations, we are finding it totally captivating.

Edward is a china rabbit, who one day is lost from his owner.  The story follows his journey, and I guess (as we haven't finished the book yet) he eventually ends back up with his old owner.

Its had me sobbing while reading it, while Sprat clutched my hand in sadness.  Its a beautiful story about learning to love and losing love.  We anticipate every night being able to sit down, all of us snuggled up on the couch, and disappearing into the pages of a book.  And admittingly Edward Tulane is more up my ally than Captain Underpants...

Op Shopping - Puzzle Time

Puzzles.  The kids love them and we spend huge amounts of time puzzling together.  I recently gave a heap of our puzzles back to the op shop to make way for some fresh new ones.  I've had a couple of op shop trips to re-stock our puzzle supply.  

Today was Habitat For Humanity, and for $20.50 I got everything below, including some great puzzles.  Definitely not as cheap as things used to be, but for the Libby Weaver book alone it was worth it!

I actually squealed when I saw this.  Excited much?

Strawberry Shortcake puzzles.  I am sure I had one of these when I was little, they brought such a rush of nostalgia back when I saw them.

Fairy puzzles for The Girl

A Melissa and Doug Puzzle and a 100 piece for Sprat.  The Melissa and Doug puzzle is awesome!

A two handled mug for The Girl.  She loves to have 'cups of tea' (milkshakes or hot chocolate) with me, so now she has her own special mug to use.

Golden Circle books we don't have yet for our collection, and Elmo.  We all love Elmo. 

Of course I can NEVER go home without books for myself.

Now to just find some room for my new books....

Exterior Blackboard

The hubby made an Exterior Blackboard for the kids over the weekend.  I showed him a picture on Facebook on Sunday morning, and within the hour we were at Mitre 10 buying supplies.

It was so simple to make.  Says she who watched.

A big piece of hardboard.  A coat of Resene Sureseal.  Two coats of Resene Exterior Blackboard paint.  And a blackboard was born.

I am looking forward to the ever changing artwork that will live on my fence.  And somewhere to write up my WOD's ...