Cooking and mish mash in June

I have been thinking the camera I have is not that great but I am working out to use it and I am getting better results. There may be hope for me yet. I bought the camera because I felt I needed it and thought I could buy a better one and give this one to my daughter.

I have got very behind in blog posts so I will share a few things.
Av has been drawing and writing which is awesome.

We visited the school on the last day of term for school sports. My daughter won an award for sportsmanship in her grade level. She won a movie ticket so I took her to see Mamaduke.

Something else we have been getting into is learning to cook. My staple meals that I make are pasta, simple and cheap. I make a mean pasta sauce! I also make stir fry. All vegetarian of course.  Apart from that I am not much of a cook. Av is very much into cutting vegetables and helping with cooking and we have felt inspired to learn to make a few things from scratch.

This is pesto pizza which is delicious! I have been even baking which is not really my thing. Using apple and pear to make pastries. We also made hash brown from scratch which is quite involved. Next on the list is making our own bread. Artisan bread sounds interesting.

I am still knitting and crochet more than I probably need to! I just can't help myself. Mostly hats atm.

                                       Handwarmers for my daughter and I in Cascade Heathers red.

Hives

He went out for 15minutes in the car and came back complaining he was bitten by mosquitoes. I thought that was strange because its winter. The next day it became worse, to the point he was crying for help. I figured out it was Hives and and a mild antihistamine helped straight away.

It was very scary. He is allergic to dander so he usually reacts with hives when licked by my Mum's dog but its never like this.

Just a reminder

My daughter was getting upset that her tooth was loose. It was a milk tooth, and it was a reminder she is not all grown up yet! She has now lost 9 baby teeth.
She is very excited about going on camp this year. She talks about very little else so we will try our best to get the money together to pay for it.
Meanwhile our eldest son says he is not interested at all as he will have the opportunity next year. He really enjoys school. We met his teacher who is happy to challenge him in his school work which is great. He has mastered level 30 in reading. He doesn't think so but his reading is great - confident and he always gives a word a go no matter what length. He was reading about a web page that my husband was looking at and it was about Nazis or something and it was astounding to me. He is only 7. He loves maths and is forever testing me on my timetables! He likes problem solving and I go to him if I need help with something like putting things together.

Av has been learning too. At home of course. He is quite adept at using the computer and can type and write his name. His vocabulary is probably up to what would be expected of his age I'd imagine. He says some funny things but he can communicate very well now. Funny saying of the month - "It goes different with the  nuts." He was suggesting his hungry older brother would like some grain bread! I love how caring and affectionate he is. He was such a rough nut as a toddler but now he is so sweet and loving, it is so wonderful. He is forever saying he loves me, giving me kisses, and showing compassion for his brothers and sister.
As much as I felt guilty about it, I decided to day wean J. I could see we were  both unhappy and cranky and maybe the constant feeding was why. I am back to enjoying feeding him but at night and in the morning (and yes during the night some nights). Its not what I really want but its what we need. I see J smile more and come to me for cuddles and I am loving that. I also feel closer to my older kids too. J has now started to enjoy more other foods and is not as fussy which I think is a good thing. In about 3 months he will be 2 and I hope he can continue feeding til at least then.

The Awesome 4 - June 2010

Treat Mama like a Queen day (End of the World)

My daughter proclaimed that the public holiday we call Queen's birthday will be now Treat Mum like a Queen day. :)

We planned to go for a drive and we took a good friend with us. (On this day I had actually a great sleep, sleeping all night, woke at a reasonable hour, did some laundry and went food shopping and made a dip and sandwiches all before the sleepy head J awoke!)
It was a lot of fun and very relaxed. We drove down to Rye and had a picnic lunch. The kids loved playing on the beach, rocks and pier.

We arrived in Portsea at about 5 so it was too late to visit the National Park so we just went down to the Pier.

Not quite the end of the World, but the end of Victoria.

Back- Up Plan

 I really liked this movie. Its a little bit different to what I would expect from a mainstream Hollywood made movie. A love interest who is into sustainable organic cheese making? A group who promote homebirth and breast is best and feeding til self weaned? I thought it was really normal and awesome! While others may laugh nervously at all this, I thought it beautiful.

Handmade buttons and a jacket for me

I wanted to try making some unique buttons for my projects. I at first tried Sculpey III then Premo which I prefer.

Bulky jacket for me from cestari yarn.