From my Kitchen Window

We have these large kitchen windows that look out to the back garden.  It's great because the kids can go out there and I can keep an eye on them from the kitchen. These days they either get along like little angels as seen in these pictures or the opposite. It's a flip of a coin kind of thing with these two. Here Annmarie is showing Ben how he can draw with chalk rocks.

Peanut Butter Cups (Recipe)

These are so yum! They're vegan, gluten free, refined sugar free, all those words they are using these days. And they are very good.

Chop seeds or nut of your choice either by hand or in a food processor. In a blow add coconut oil (soften), peanut butter, vanilla, honey, salt, and seeds and mix until well combined.

Scoop mixture into lined muffin cups.

Place muffin pan in the freezer.

While that's chilling, make the chocolate sauce for the top. In a small pot, melt coconut oil. Turn heat to low and add remaining ingredients. Stir until everything is well combined. Spoon chocolate sauce over the chilled peanut butter cups and place back in freezer. Freeze for at least 20 minutes, then pop them out of the muffin pan, and store them back in the freezer. Keep frozen until ready to eat. I also like to sprinkle a little sea salt on top before eating.

Makes one dozen big peanut butter cups or you can make some small and some big.

Enjoy!

Ben at the Beach

He's having a fun summer down under.

5 things

Let's start with Annmarie.

1.  She completed her first year of primary school - kindergarten.  She had a great year and the best teacher. It was an adjustment (for all of us) and there was plenty of drama a long the way, but overall it was a success.
2.  We kept the extra curricular activities to a minimum this year - swimming and nippers are the two things she participated in.
3. When I asked her what her favorite things to do are and she said; playing with friends, making things with the beads from Ikea, riding her scooter and the ipad. I asked her; what about swimming and she said "we do that all the time" with a eye roll. 
4. She has become a pro at Go Fish (the card game).  She can't hold all the cards in her hand so we have to set up a little block-aid for her, but she's fierce.
5. For her Birthday she flipped back and forth with having either; pies, tacos or sushi for dinner. She went with pies.

xx

Now this little man.

1.  He's a mamas boy.
2.  Bugs, dirt, garbage trucks, trains, dinosaurs, water - obsessed.
3. He's a mad man on the scooter. Santa got him a balance bike for Christmas thinking he would love it like the scooter, but he pretty much wants nothing to do with it. Annmarie likes to potter around on it, but it's like five times too small for her.
4.  He still has a mean appetite and if he does skip a meal or not eat a lot, he'll always, always make up for it. 
5.  He has a temper. I guess the books would call him spirited. He's a bit self absorbed.

xx

Summer Holiday {More Video}

I know - I have I thing for making videos right now.

Here are moments from the beginning of our summer holiday (basically the time Jamie had off from work). Annmarie is still on summer break and goes back to school at the end of Jan.



Song - The John Butler Trio - One Way Road.

Here are some pics that didn't make it in the video.

We went into Sydney to see the Dinosaur exhibit - it was loved by all.

We also played tourist and went to Manly for the day. It was crazy full, but we still had fun. We got there early enough and managed to find parking. This picture was taken as we were leaving. We brought the kids scooters, had lunch and walked/scooted over to Shelly Beach for a swim.

 Too sweet. And I think he didn't even push her away or pull her hair.

 The one day I brought my real camera to the beach.

It's a shame Jamie had to go back to work.  

Christmas

Here is a video of our little Christmas just the four of us. It was a fun, simple, special day.



Jamie sadly goes back to work tomorrow after having two weeks off. We had nice holiday at home and activities included: almost daily beach swims, a trip to the dinosaur exhibit in Sydney, a full day in Manly and we entertained friends at home a few times. Unfortunately, Jamie got some crazy stomach bug and missed out on a few fun days, but he did bounce back and was able to end his time off with a ocean swim in Newport today. I'll need to sort through pictures and post more.

Annmarie is SIX!!!

Annmarie turned six a few weeks ago now - on the 11th of December to be precise.  We all know I haven't been the most timely blogger, but that's life. So let's just go back a bit and remember the fun we had.
 
For her actual birthday, she went to school and had cupcakes delivered to her classroom from the Canteen. Yes, I could have done them myself, but it's really a win win situation for all this way. After school we picked up meat pies per Annmarie's request and waited for Dad to get home. We opened some pressies and headed to Clareville beach for a swim and picnic. It was a beautiful night.

A couple of days later we had a Birthday Party at home. It was crazy and fun and more crazy. There wasn't a particular theme to the party, but we made bracelets, played a couple of games, danced, had a barbeque lunch and of course had cake.

I ended up putting together this video because I didn't take a lot of pictures, but Jamie took some video (he's such a Dad). And Annmarie requested the song.



We love you too much Annmarie!