Desperate times..........

of course desperate times require desperate measures!

Well as of yesterday I am sick. Yuck! Sore throat, sore ears, sweats , blah blah blah.  So what does a childminder do when she is not sick enough to cancel , but too sick to do a lot of activities with the kids??

Well of course she sets the pre schoolers up with lots of different sized bowls, tubs some with lids, some without, spoons, and lots of uncooked rice. I think it bought me a good 40 mins lying on the couch watching them and trying not to use my poor throat!

Of course there is the inevitable! The mess associated with this activity is quite substantial although very easily cleaned up. The girls set to work with a dustpan and brush each and I finished off.

Made sure to have it done by the time Daddy came home! Although he allows us to make these sorts of messes, they make him jittery and I'm not sure he totally understands how much fun they are!

The best cookies in the world!

These cookies are delicious!

Sorry for the pic! I opened the tin expecting to see a lovely big pile of cookies to photograph and I found 3 stuck together and a few broken bits. LOL looks like the cookie monsters have been in residence!!


Makes 24

4oz / 1/2 cup butter at room temperature, diced
2oz /  1/4 cup granulated sugar
3oz / 1/2 cup soft dark brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp  vanilla extract
41/2 / 1 generous cup plain (all purpose) flour
1/2 tsp  bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
pinch of salt
6oz / 1 cup of choc chips (I use plain and white choc chips)

• Preheat oven to 180 c / 350f / Gas 4. Grease 2 baking sheets
• With an electric mixer, cream butter and the two sugars together, until light and fluffy.
• In another bowl , combine the egg and vanilla essence.
• Then gradually beat into the butter mixture.
• Sift over the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt.
• Stir
• Add the choc chips and mix until thoroughly combined
• Place rounded teaspoonfuls of the dough onto the baking sheets. I only put about 5 on each sheet at a time as they really spread out and all merge together. I just cook them in batches.
• Bake for 10 - 15 mins (usually done in 10 in my fan assisted oven) until lightly covered.
• Leave to cool for a few mins then transfer to a wire cooling rack. If you do it too quickly the cookies splat through the wires. Hmm not that I know this from experience!

Eat and enjoy!

It is getting chilly!

While everyone is mourning the end of the summer and the imminent loss of all that heat in the sun, there is someone going against the tide!

I can't wait! The trees are starting to turn, just the past 2 days I have noticed it being actually quite cold in the mornings and evenings. I was looking back through some old posts on here from last year. I came across one from  October saying how cold it was etc . That is only a couple of weeks now and I was comaplaining to Murray that it was still to warm here and we wont be "there" by the same time this year. I was thinking that the Disney mug may have to wait! But we'll see ! ;)

I run to the window in the morning to open it and breathe in the cool air, just hoping it will have that autumn smell. Not yet! But it is nice to have the anticipation......

Well ...............................

It is 104 sleeps until Christmas!!

I bought another pressie today! oooh! and the "ingredients" for a good few more! Yay!

Back to normal

After a very very busy summer in the Hamster Wheel, it was with a lot of relief excitement that everyone got ready for the first day back to School and Playgroup. Usually I have a real lump in my throat on the first day back but I am ashamed to say that this year I was needing it! It was back to school for ALL the kids (minded kids and my own) or into the nut house for Mum!

Here are my two beautiful babies all grown up and ready for their day!

Here is my Big boy! Or should I say young man, all ready to begin his final year at Primary School! How is this possible?? He is a little younger to go into Primary 7 because of when he was born but still. Almost 11! wow!

And here is my super big girl! All ready and packed up to go back to Playgroup! Mummy is ever so grateful that Kirsten decided to arrive bang on her due date which means she isn't able to start school until The Autumn after her 5th Birthday. A whole extra year with my littlest baby!

And not to be outdone here is Daddy all ready with his backpack! (sorry Murray had to do it ;) )

Everyone had a good forst day (especially Mummy!) and K was happy but tired when we came home. Still time for some nonsense though LOL

so cute!

I was in the shower this morning when K came running in. I couldn't quite catch what she had said so I popped my head out to see her wiping her nose. She was saying

"I just bless you'd Mummy!" LOL much cuter than a sneeze!

x x x

Thelma and Louise!

Take

One car

Two girls

Three nights

Four days and

Five hundred miles

This can only mean one thing ROAD TRIP!!

My big sis Sarah and I were driving cross country to attend a family wedding. We set off at 5.30 am and it wasn't raining so the roof was down!

Sarah took the first stint and we set off. Sarah of course was technically Louise because in the film the car belongs to Louise and she drives first.
Hmm also means I get to be Thelma who gets cosy with Brad Pitt! woo hoo ! Unfortunately he wasn't hitching a ride that day :(

In a haze of around a million toilet stops! (yes Sarah that was you!) caused by drinking 3 litres of water in about 2 hours (yes Sarah you again!) we drove for 11 hours in a black convertable with around 100 CDs and an Ipod touch for extra company. It was fab!

Dad was worried for our safety (really it was our map reading skills he was worried about ;)  ) and very kindly loaned us one of his Tom Tom sat navs. Unknown to us he had programmed it to Moo every time we went over the speed limit. As if we would! Sarah managed at least 15 mins before it went off. I thought I would never stop laughing it was so hilarious.

By the time  we had been driving for  2 hours (just before our first stop) Sarah was laughing no more. The 3 litres of water were telling on her bladder and She had so frequently broke the limit it was like Old Mc Donald was in the car with us! Much swearing filled the air at this time. Brilliant! Thus inspiring her nickname for the rest of the trip - Moostang Sarah.

Some blurry cows that I spotted while being a passenger to the speed demon above!

I don't favour the idea of the fines and penalty points on my license and the Moos weren't quite so frequent on my 2 hour slots. Inspiring my nickname of Miss Daisy.  Sarah did however discover that if you just kept speeding after good old Daisy had given the signal, then it didn't Moo again. So on the few occassions where I crept up high enough for the farmyard noise, just as I would lift my foot to slow down  a bit, Sarah would scream from the passengers seat

"Push through the Moo!  Just push through it! Screw you Tom Tom!!"

We sang and gossiped our way down stuffing our faces the whole way!  Lunch was a well deserved burger, chunky chips, onion rings and the coldest nicest glass of coke I have ever had! So good they had to be documented!!!

Once we arrived we sat out in some fabulous sunshine with a cold crisp glass of rose wine!

We somehow managed to torture the poor young guys behind the Bar because as we walked in to breakfast the next morning one of them muttered, "uh - oh here comes trouble"
huh??? we were on our best behaviour too! We were there with our parents and Aunt and Uncle! Imagine if he had seen us be our true selves!

(This next bit needs a disclaimer from myself, something strange happens to me when I have no children to be responsible for. It somehow goes to my head and I lose all sense of responsibility. I lose keys, lose ANYTHING and just basically lose my head a little. I tend to do strange and silly things.)

As we were getting ready for dinner one night we were having fun true girly style. Prancing around in a towel singing into hair brushes. Yep

I will let the pics speak for themselves

The ever glamorous Sarah

LeeAnn shimmying on down singing Valerie!

LeeAnn jumping on the bed........



Oh wait no pic????


hmm what is that mark on the ceiling????

Oh yeah that's right Sarah couldn't get a pic as LeeAnn smacked her head on the roof! (and then Sarah proceeded to almost fall over laughing)  LeeAnn  Smacked her head so hard that the teeth from her hair band cut some funky little circles in her scalp

oh yes we do have a pic of that!!

Fraser gave me such a telling off on the phone! He has told me under NO circumstances am I to ever EVER  jump on a bed wearing a hairband again! Woo hoo! I am clear for non hairband bed jumping then!


Then we went to a wedding , which was lovely . The bride was stunning and the champagne fabulous!!!  Ooops no pics! ;) must have been the champagne!

And then the  next day we set of for the long journey home. Much mooing was had, along with plenty more bitching  gossiping, eating and singing. We were ever so glad to be on the way home although I do think it has to absolutely not be a once in a lifetime trip!

 Where are we going next sis??

Next time for sure we have to find Brad Pitt! He's on my freebie list!!

Love ya! Thanks for the fun times xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A glance into the very distant future!

for reasons known best to themselves! My two cherubs decided to dress up as old people LOL they were having a sleepover at Granny Mary's house and had a blast dressing up.

I think they are hilarious! Love the serious expressions too!

3 year old randomness

Yesterday we were driving along in the car just chatting and generally hanging out. There was a slight lull in the conversatio and K piped up with

"Mummy?"

"ye -es"

"Why do cats bite?"


Honestly she was so serious like she was asking the meaning of life!

Don't you just love 3 year old minds x

If all the raindrops were lemon drops and gum drops - oh what a rain that would be!

Well we have had a good share of rain here this week (regular rain not the exciting lemon drops kind ;))and some fairly impressive thunder storms.

I am really enjoying it to be honest! I actually quite like the rain and I can feel the novelty of the sunshine beginning to wear. The problem is that as soon as my birthday has passed my brain starts to sneak in some Christmas thoughts! I know it is crazy because it is only July but I am already beginning to think of recipes to make, gifts to give and crafts I can enjoy in the most wonderful season of them all!

Hmm only problem is that I am getting no washing done as I cant get it dried! Hope the sun comes back long enough for us to still have some clothes to wear!