Crazy school days...

The past couple of weeks have been crazy with Marley starting grade prep... It has been an overwhelming experience emotionally as well as adopting new routines after a time of virtual free fall (holidays)... So far it has been great, and she is loving the experience... I have warmed to some of the other mums and Marley's very sweet teacher... Doing the readers has been awesome! Her reading skills make me so proud... I remember being in a special reading class with the grade 6's when I was in grade one, so seeing that in her has been lovely...

I haven't been here loads but am on my Facebook page www.facebook.com/coolinwithkids 

Every day if you want to check it out!

Friday Baking... Apple cinnamon bread...

Baking has been way off lately... Too busy through the holidays and then the heatwave, which is when I intended on baking this apple bread... It's delicious! 

Recipe from 

http://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/apple-cinnamon-bread/

Who have loads of amazing recipes on their blog... I made some changes, using pear as well, because I only had one apple! It's almost worth it for the smell of cinnamon through the whole house!

Apple Cinnamon Bread

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon all spice
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 large eggs
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup granulated sugar
2 cups chopped apples, skin removed (we used Granny Smith)

Topping:
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray an 8 by 4 loaf pan with cooking spray and set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, all spice, and cloves. Set aside.

3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the eggs and beat on medium speed for about 30 seconds. Add in oil, applesauce, and vanilla and mix until smooth. Next, add the sugar and mix until well combined.

4. Slowly add in the flour mixture and mix until flour is barely combined. Gently fold in the apple chunks. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.

5. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, sugar, and cinnamon. Sprinkle over the batter in the loaf pan. Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until loaf is golden and a toothpick comes out clean.

6. Cool bread in pan for 10 minutes. Loosen sides and remove from pan. Cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.

Brickvention (Lego Convention) Melbourne 2014

Brickvention 2014 

Event Venue: Royal Exhibition Building

Last year I heard about Brickvention and it was already sold out! When I saw tickets on sale, I snapped them up immediately, and they were really affordable as far as family outings go, $12 per adult and $6 per child... We arrived for our slot 15 minutes early and the queue was already quite long, in the next 15 minutes it quadruped!  

Once in there are tables among tables of Lego sets assembled, really well thought out and detailed dioramas, collections of mini figs and modified sets... It's madness, and so interesting to see what the exhibitors have done... It's also nice to have a chat with exhibitors, and learn about their experiences with Lego... There was loads of Star Wars stuff, which I could appreciate even though I'm not a fan... A few awesome superheroes sets, and cities, underwater, trains, it was a lot! And then of course there was the stalls, so much Lego to buy! We bought a few mini figs, as they weren't in their packs so I could get what I wanted out of the new series... 2 of those mini figs was the first Lego that I have ever owned, I don't see myself as becoming addicted like the rest of my family, but they were particularly cute characters!

www.brickadventures.org.au

Www.Facebook.Com/coolinwithkids 

Lollipops Forest Hill

Lollipops at Forest Hill Chase

Over the years we have been to many play centres, ranging from mediocre to really bad... In September Lollipops at Forest Hill opened, and I can't look back! This place is amazing!!! Levels and levels of crazy fun... Canons, massive slide, big webbed tunnel to climb right up the centre of, and your usually, jumping castle, ball pit, oh and let's not forget, the mini pirate ship! Yes an actual ride! 

When we usually go to play centres, we stay a couple hours, we can easily put 4 hours in here! It's just amazing... I would say better suited to preschoolers then mid 2's and under, there is a toddler area, but it wouldn't be worth the cost... It IS expensive, around 30% more then our usual centre, but Mark said 'it's more then 50% more fun!' And he is right, it is... Fun for the kids, fun for you too, if you want to get involved, I went down the slide, and it is FUN! 

It looks like we will be having the kids birthdays there this year, they are obsessed!

Choc chip cookies ('normal' and lactose free)

Wanting to do a little baking yesterday, something that could easily be adapted for Mark's lactose allergy... Chocolate chip cookies seemed like a good idea, and they were, it's just a struggle trying to make lactose free cookies taste as good as lactose cookies... They are called 'amazing', I wouldn't say that they are amazing, they were almost all gone in 48 hours, but amazing would call for more... I switched non dairy butter for the butter and vegan chocolate for the chocolate chips for Mark's cookies... 

http://allrecipes.com.au/m/recipe/8897/amazing-soft-and-chewy-chocolate-chip-cookies.aspx

Ingredients

• 125g butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 caster sugar (or white sugar)
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 cup self-raising flour
• 3/4 cup plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup milk chocolate chips

Preparation method

Prep: 15 minutes | Cook: 12 minutes

1.

Preheat the oven to 160°C.

2.

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat (or in the microwave) and set aside to cool slightly.

3.

Pour butter into a large bowl and stir in brown sugar and caster sugar until smooth and sugar is mostly dissolved.

4.

Lightly beat the egg with a whisk or fork and stir into the sugar mixture along with the vanilla.

5.

Sift flours and baking powder together into a small bowl and then gradually mix into sugar mixture until combined.

6.

Stir through chocolate chips.

7.

Drop rounded tablespoons of the cookie mixture onto lined baking trays.

8.

Bake for 12 minutes or until golden then remove from oven and allow to cool on trays for 3 minutes before transfering to a wire rack to cool completely.

Frozen... Film...

Girls day out! We used our Mace free day to go to the cinema and see Frozen... I can't speak highly enough of it! Great characters, great story, beautiful visuals, catchy songs... I don't really want to say too much because I don't want to spoil anything, but I love the love in this film... Marley (4) loved it too, on the way home she asked if we could watch it again at home... I said we had to wait for it to be released, then she asked if we could listen to the songs, to which I agreed, so we have spent the last hour and a half listening to the songs and remembering who sung it and why... Must see!

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The Sound of Music Live...

I have always wanted to share the film The Sound of music with Marley, it meant so much to me as a youngster...  She is still not quite old enough for the film, but in rest time I put on the Sound of Music Live, and she was absolutely taken with it! We watched in one session, it is awfully long! I could not believe that she didn't switch her attention to something else in that time, she did want to fast forward the 'adults talking', which suited me as after hearing 'Nazi' she wanted to know about them, I went in gently, but was happy to eliminate that aspect from the movie...

Stephen Moyer as the captain, eeeeek!!! He just doesn't have what the original captain had! At all, he just looks angry the whole time... The thick American accents are awful, no one sounded refined like the actual film, Carrie Underwood is THE worst!!! She lacks acting ability and spunk which Maria is supposed to have, almost asking it unwatchable... Most characters lack natural facial expressions, it might be a theatre thing...

'I am sixteen' missed all the acting, and flirtation of the film.. It just felt like they wanted to remember the notes...

The storm/favourite things sequence being replaced with the goat herd song was wrong on every level, but Marley loved it!!! And thankfully they did include Edelweiss at the very end... 

Overall I wouldn't have enjoyed it, had my kids not been well in to it... I was so happy that they loved it, playing the sound of music imaginary play game afterwards, trying to act out the parts... When Mark got home, Marley ran up to him to tell him how her mum died  but then she got a new mum, he looked awfully confused until I explained that she was being Gretel... And little Mace was being Captain Von Trapp... I can't wait to take them to Salzburg one day, such a wonderful place...

Blackfish

Blackfish

I knew going into this that it would be bad... And it was... I felt sick from the get go... Aside from learning more about beautiful Orca Whales, I learnt mostly about how awful humans are... Watching the way the whales are captured, and kept, in tiny pools was akin to putting a human in a cage, like prison, these whales are prisoners... Their babies are taken away, and the despair the mother expresses when this happens is parallel to human grief... 

The lies these parks tell are awful, about the age whales live to be, about their floppy dorsal fins, saying that the whales live in their family groups, when in the wild babies stay with their mums/families their whole lives! As a mum and someone who loves animals it just broke my heart...  It's unbelievable that the staff aren't given access to the amount of and type of accidents for trainers working with the whales, further perpetuating the lies... Surely it would cross your mind that these are HUGE, wild animals that have no way to let off steam for many, many years... It seems obvious to me that they may lash out from time to time...

I remember being pregnant with Marley (08), there was a baby whale orphaned in the Sydney harbour area... Poor little love was suckling yachts, trying desperately to find it's mama... I cried for days over that, broke my heart, and eventually they put the baby whale to sleep... After watching this, I am glad they put it to sleep and didn't try to capture and train it... It's all just awful... I have had flashbacks over the 20 hours since I watched it, I still don't feel composed about it... Too heartbreaking...

Routines vs School Holidays

Routines vs School Holiday's

I am a routine type of woman... I love to be organised and for the kids to know what's happening next, so a routine is the way forward for us as a family... School holidays started over two weeks ago, and Mark's and my holidays started exactly two weeks ago... We have wanted to make the most of this time together as a family, I am all too aware that Marley is starting school at the end of the month, and I'm getting nervous about it... Because of this, we have made lots of plans, done a lot of activities, been to the zoo, scooters at the park, play centres, play dates, the list goes on... The kids have been tired, and when they are tired, they seem to sleep less, I have never been woken up so many mornings before 7am since they were under 6 months! And because of it, we were all exhausted... From the weekend they have finally gone back to sleeping from 7-7.30, and what a difference it has made!

To combat the exhaustion, I schedule in 'chill times' on top of 12.30-2 rest/nap times... During which we might watch a movie, read books, just have downtime... I am doing this every day, yet the kids are still tired, which makes parenting a little more tricky then it is while we are all in the thick of our routine... I miss it... I miss us all getting up and ready for kinder, the drop off, the hanging out with mace, I'm sure time spent apart helps the kids relationships! The pick up, cuddles on the couch, dinner, bed, no incidents, just a smooth operation... And while kinder is not on the cards now until Mace goes, yesterday I really enjoyed our return to work (having Daddy home is seriously exciting for them), to our routine being semi back on track, so that the rest of the school holidays is a bit more relaxed, and we can make the most of spending time with Marley before she goes off to school! 

Happy new year! And the Myer Melbourne Christmas windows...

Happy new year my people!! Hope everyone has has a great holiday period... I go back to work Monday and am quite looking forward to getting back to my routine, and using my brain for non parenting related duties! 

Things were hectic with work last month and I didn't get a chance to tell you all to take advantage of the myer Christmas experience... They had a magical Christmas area with Santa (photos) and a Christmas train (free) as well as the myer Christmas windows which were lovely this year (also free), I'm pretty sure that  they are open through January... We had an awesome morning there... The trick is to go see the windows before myer opens and then leg it to the Christmas area as doors open... This years doors opened half hour before the Christmas area opened, so we left mark in line and took our time with the windows... Santa was lovely, the kids loved the train ride, overall a lovely morning out!

Merry Christmas to you!

I have been meaning to write a post about how great the Myer Melbourne windows and Christmas experience was, and about all if the awesome things our football club, Melbourne Victory, have been putting on for it's fans, but this is the busiest time of the year... For my work, it gets crazy, looking after around 100 high school students book and uniform lists... And then there is the general Christmas social fun, and planning for the big day... So here I am saying Merry Christmas to you! From my family to yours... We have the kinder, soon school, holidays and we are both home with the kids for two weeks! So there will be loads of fun, probably not much posting! See you in the new year!

Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Catching Fire: Hunger Games Trilogy

If you are new in my life or to my blog, you may not know about how much I enjoyed The Hunger Games books... I read them twice in a row, and once we saw the movie, I read all 3 books aloud to Mark... The first film was actually that bad that I felt bad he had to sit through it before knowing the story...

We went to see the film with the same couple that we saw the first film with, who had also read the stories... Gold class is the only way to see a film this long (over two hours), and it was worth every cent... I was really happy with everything about this film, I felt that it was true to the books, as well as being something someone who hadn't read the books could get easily... Even if you were disappointed with the first one, definitely give the second one a go!

Perfect Mums?

Perfect Mums?

I don't read tabloid magazines... No interest, no time, would prefer to read a book... But today I was at my Nanna's and had a moment of browsing her Woman's Day... This was a mistake... Front cover is Katherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, new mum, on the front cover with what is effectively a before and after Prince George picture... She looks tired... I was horrified that there is even comment about this, let alone a front cover!!! The woman is a first time mum, raising a Prince and doing it without all of the usual household staff required to raise a prince... Way to let all the new mums down, nobody feels great after a bad night, the last thing they need is some before and after shots...

Then Fifi Box going on about losing weight to be a mum her kid can look up to... Seriously... Sure if the actual focus was the healthy lifestyle she says she has taken on to lose the weight... But ultimately the headline was that she lost the baby weight to be a good mum...

Now I know that parenthood is different strokes for different folks, and what I think is best for my family may make you cringe, and we can all be a bit judgy sometimes, but ultimately we all do our best with our families, what works for us... And we should all support each other in that... Whole I think it makes all the sense in the world to lead by example, to eat healthy meals with your kids, and let them see you exercise and prioritise being healthy, but being thin doesn't make you a good mum... If there are days that you look and feel like crap, that doesn't make you a bad mum... It's all so bad... I hope that only old people read these magazines and that no new mums out there can possibly take these publications seriously or let them affect their self worth...

Clean November...

Clean November

Late October I was reading my girl Amy Cohen's fitness newsletter (find her at AC fitness on Facebook) and she suggested we all try Clean November, giving up wheat, sugar, sugar substitutes, dairy, dairy substitutes, processed foods, caffeine and alcohol... Immediately the answer was no, the more she wrote about it, and the staggered approach, giving up food groups one by one, by the time November 1st came, I was ready! Was completely sucked in to the idea, and as a happy surprise, Cassie decided to join me in this venture... This was a highlight because there was support, only a text away, in moments of triumph and moments of weakness... 

There was one caffeine detox headache, it was mild, but then I only drink a couple cups of tea a day... The most surprising thing that happened was sugar detox! Holy moly it was bad!!! I was feeling so low, I thought I was getting really sick, this went on for a couple days, ending in me having a 10 hour sleep, and waking up fine! Until I really thought about it, I didn't realise that sugar is in just about everything we eat... It's bad! And of course explains the detox...

The meals themselves were mostly delicious, though more then once I are food just because it was nutritious instead of being because I actually wanted to eat that particular meal... I felt like I was eating all the time, I have never consumed so much food! 

Once that first week was over (even though it was a staggered approach, I cut just about everything immediately), my skin was glowing... My insides felt great, my body was functioning brilliantly! Overall it did feel like my body was happy with my eating choices... And as a reward I lost cms off everywhere, which is a nice kick start to Dirty December! 

I definitely learnt a lot about my own willpower... Preparing food for the kids was very hard, but I did it, I even threw out sweets they didn't want! I baked chocolate caramel brownies for a kinder meeting, and didn't even lick the batter off my fingers! We went to Sydney for a weekend and I even kept it together there! 

A great experience, highly recommend doing it...

Veronica Mars Movie

When the call came out that the Veronica Mars movie would go ahead, if they could raise the money, I wanted to be involved... It took them a while to work out the logistics of overseas backers, once they did, I backed it... For $50 plus shipping I got the tshirt and will get the DVD, once released, delivered to my door! The tshirt and sticker pack is cute, can't wait for the film!!!

Play Doh Marvel Super Hero Squad and Strawberry Shortcake

Play Doh Marvel Super Hero Squad and Strawberry Shortcake 

Mace is deep into superheroes, seriously deep... He found these at Target at the bargain price of $13, my plan was to come back in a couple of days and buy them in secret, but there weren't thaaaat many of them and I would have kicked myself if I missed them... For $13 you get 4 different colour mini tubs, a full body mould and the heads of all the characters, plus a knife and rolling pin... I think that is pretty good value, for the hours of play (and it really is hours) that they get, making them and doing imaginary play with their new friends... Great fun!

Exploding Volcanoes

At kinder last week the kids made volcanoes and exploded them, it was a great success... Marley brought hers home with instructions on how to explode it...

Volcano

Upside down cup covered in foil, decorated and stuck on card

Explosion

Fill concave at top of cup with vinegar and two drops of red food colouring

Add a teaspoon of bicarbonate soda and watch it fizz

This brought great joy to our house this morning!

Peppa Pig Live! Treasure Hunt

Peppa Pig Live! Treasure Hunt

Arts Centre Melbourne, Playhouse

Melbourne, VIC

We all love Peppa Pig in this family.. I think the kids have had long periods of time where they thought that they were Peppa and George... When Mace was smaller and had fewer words, that was their favourite game to play... We were lucky enough to get tickets to see the show, I am so glad we did!!! 

The show was a great production, puppets, sets, songs, interaction with the crowd and the story... Both of the kids (2.5 and 4.5) thoroughly enjoyed it! Dancing, shouting back when called for, bopping along to the music... Completely sold on it! As was I! It was one of the best children's productions we have been to... Highly recommend...

Cherry ripe cheesecake balls...

I love both of these together, so when I saw the recipe on www.stayathomemum.com.au I thought it would be a great 3rd sweet for my cup day afternoon tea... It was the only one with anything left at the end of the day, but it was a very small amount, and people took them home!

250g cream cheese softened

4 cherry ripe bars diced

3/4 cup coconut

1tblsp sugar

Coconut to coat

Chocolate dukkah (I used cadburys drinking chocolate) to coat

Beat cheese and sugar until smooth

Add coconut, mix well

Add cherry ripes and mix with wooden spoon

Roll teaspoon sized balls

Coat in coconut

Cost in chocolate

Refrigerate for an hour before serving

These go straight from fridge to table, they will keep in fridge for 5 days in an airtight container

No pictures because the day was just so busy, I didn't even touch my phone!

It's Halloween in the house of spooks!

It's Halloween in the house of spooks!

I know people get their back up on Halloween, it's fairly new over here in Australia, but it's a nice celebration, we have celebrated it for years... This year it fell on crèche and kinder day so the kids did dress up, but we did a part two to it today, with some Halloween craft activities and carving our annual pumpkin... Marley loves Halloween, mace does too, but I'm sure it grows as you get bigger... The only confusing part is that it's really meant for autumn, so much like Christmas with that seasonally weird feeling!