Oscar, our new BOY in the house and Missy C are seriously the cutest and the naughtiest little pair. When we were considering getting a puppy to balance out the boy girl ratio, we thought that Missy A, and the dog would be a happy duo but the past weeks have shown otherwise. Missy C and Oscar are like the little pair instead.

They both get into trouble together and they both play well together. They take turns at playing, it is SO CUTE! Pity I can’t get photos but I will try in the next couple of weeks.

When Missy C is playing with her toys, he’ll steal it form her but she wouldn’t mind. She’d just let him play for a little while before approaching him to steal it back. Then Oscar will move on to another one of her toys and then it starts again. They also take turns in finding pieces of paper to EAT. Missy C will be the one that will find it and shred it. Oscar will play along and eat it. Missy C sees Oscar eating it and then SHE will eat it. AHhhh it doesn’t stop. Oscar then will find another piece from the waste paper basket, bring that to her and then its all over again.

Finding the waste paper basket is like a treasure hunt for them. Missy C will find it, tip it over and the both of them will examine every piece of treasure in it…. and then when I’m not looking… eat it.

OOh and they love crayons. Oscar will search them out from under the table or chair, sit by Missy C and break it up into pieces for him and Missy C… to eat. BAH!! Cute right?? No.

Coz there’s their poop. It is like their pooping and peeing cycle is in sync. First Oscar will poop in the corner. Then when I go and scold him, I’d smell a whiff from Missy C. BAH. I go clean Oscar poop, then clean Missy C poop. TURN around to find Oscar pee on the floor. I go quickly wipe it up, and then my top is wet in pee… from Missy C peeing on me. GAAAAHHHH.

They do almost everything together. Good thing is that when Missy C is eating her peas, she’s so kind enough to brush some off onto the floor for Oscar to clean up.

ahhh… so cute…. but… ahh…. so… soo… tiring….

Ok, so every now and then, as a parent you get a few “Get Out Of Jail Free” cards, and today was one of them when it came to Missy A’s school lunch box.

I think that the less often I make sandwiches for her… the more often I could possibly make them during those times when I just… CBF don’t have enough time. Today’s lunch box menu consists of:

Lunch Box Idea #4:

Strawberry Jam sandwich on wholemeal bread, A custard bun (saved from yesterday’s Yum Cha), a few Ritz Crackers, and dried cranberries.

ANOTHER “Get Out of Jail Free” cards, in which I intend to use on those REALLY bad days are… LUNCH ORDERS! But then again, like the game Monopoly, there should really only be two of those cards in the game.

For the REST of the week’s School lunch box Menu:

Lunch Box Idea #5: Avocado sushi handroll and

Lunch Box Idea #6: Homemade quiches….. Hopefully….

OK, so I thought this was an awesome dress…. until Dave decided to ask me where my apron was when I was vacumming. GRRRR….

House keeping anyone???

You couldn’t believe that 5 minutes after taking this picture, I smelt the rain…. and so we packed up and headed home, after only being out for only 15 minutes. We got home. Stepped through the door… and it PELTED down hail stones! Melbourne was drenched and the CBD was chockers and flooded…

…my poor lanterns. Well, good thing is atleast then our water thingie is now at 35%! Woohoo! I can now have 4 minute showers (instead of 3).

While me and the girls (and my shadow-Oscar) were lucky to escape the hail… poor Dave didn’t.

Wells… hope you guys were ok too!

Am I up to three?? I dunno, but I know that I’ve but last week was alittle on the slack side because Missy A had a day off school, my mother-in-law hosted a sleep-over (hence I didn’t have to bother), and well, our stove is stuffed! Damn you Whirlpool and Ikea!

So anyway, I only really managed to get together one pic of last weeks lunch.

With no usable stove, all my plans of steaming foods, and baking quiches went out the door, so maybe next week. Lucky for us and advancing technology, we had a wonderful microwave! So this school lunch idea is SUPER simple. Edamame! Missy A loves this. While we were in M’sia, she tried her first taste at a Japanese restaurant, and every since… loves loves this.

ANYWAY, so School Lunch Ideas #3?: Microwaved Edamame (Fresh green soya beans, that you can find in an asian grocery store in the frozen foods section – kinda like you would for frozen peas), cut carrots, slice of cheese, dried peas, cranberries and sultanas and for an extra treat, one of those fruit muesli bars.

Next week’s school lunch box idea may include baked mini quiches, some muffins, and possible that Orrechiates that we so loved – but this time with wholemeal flour! YUM!

I did say that I was going to take photos of the lunches I make for Missy A… but Um.. I’m not perfect and we tend to always be RUNNING out of the door on school mornings. LITERALLY.  So I have… two pics do far.

School Lunch Idea #1: Steamed broccoli, dried cranberries and sultanas, rice cakes and YUP you see right… a CUPCAKE! (How lucky is she huh??)

School Lunch Idea #2: Sourdough bread sandwich with chinese pork jerky (OMG.. yummiest ever, not so sure about healthy, but I could eat this EVERYDAY), cherry tomatoes, dried peas, and raspberry & blueberry jelly.

I like to give her a few different textures and in my head, its like something healthy, something not… it all balances out. So the last school lunch idea has something mushy, something crunchy, something chewy and then something… fresh.

My last post idea, I had Orechiate pasta which we planned to make for dinner and then for her school lunch… and WE DID! AND OMG.. it was so so yummy, so will put up that recipe for that and in the meantime here’s a pic of us making it…

We ate everything up and forgot to take pics.. hehehe… sorry but will defintely be making more this week, so yeh. Coming… Sooon…

School lunches can really be a pain in the butt, BUT at the same time I love it because, 1 I don’t have to be around my little one and constantly enforcing her to eat, and 2, well, I don’t have to clean up either. So as stressful as it is it is also such a blessing.

I remember when I was young, my mum would make sandwiches, and MANY of them ended up finding its way to the bottom of the bag and well… a week or so… I would find myself carrying a um.. a almost a compost bin as a bag. GROSS… yes I know. So lucky for my own experience, I am going to try to avoid the situation. I was also actually always too busy to eat. Actually.. hmmm I don’t remember eating much of my lunches… eh.. my bad.

ANYWAY.. this post is not about what a naughty kid I was in school, so lets concerntrate on the job at hand. SCHOOL LUNCHES. Avoiding them going to the bin, and hopefully providing my young daughter some nutrients during her busy midday schedule. I will attempt to put up each week my lunch menu plan for her and hopefully be able to give you a few ideas too on the way!

SO THIS WEEK’s SCHOOL LUNCH BOX MENU

Monday – Cooked peas, corn and diced bacon, a small handful of mini nestum cookies (thank you Chinese New Year!), and sliced peach.

Tuesday – Baked pizza dough (saved from Monday nights dinner) and spinach and onion dip, Carrot sticks and raisins

Wednesday – No School!

Thursday – Ham and cheese sandwich (I know not very creative but she loves this. She is only in prep and so sandwiches at this time is a novelty – so best use sparingly and its just a good and quick one), cherry tomatoes, yoghurt coated raisins, and crackers.

Friday – Orechiettes (prepared from Thursdays dinner) and steamed brocolli, Orange squares, and Jelly with blueberries.

The past weeks she has been at school, it has really been hit and miss with some foods, so I think it is really important to check and review what worked and what didn’t (D’UH… you give them something that they didn’t eat… chances are that they may not eat it – HOWEVER… I am also quite a believer that Kids tastes buds change.. and well, they’re just fickle little people when it comes to food). So what I think is good for her, she may get it back in her lunch box, maybe this time with something else so that she have another go at it.

I like to ask her if she enjoyed her lunch, and what she ate. Like last week, I gave her cherry tomatoes as a snack, and she mentioned that it hurt her mouth because she had an ulcer. So if I was to just look into her lunch and discover all the tomatoes still in tack, I could have assumed she didn’t like them but that wasn’t the case. It was because she just couldn’t eat them. So I’m giving them another go this week AND checked that ulcers are gone. BTW kids are also darn good liars too… so yeh…..

That’s the plan. Will try to take pics etc and put recipes up if this weeks school lunch box menu is a hit.

Blog bog Bog Blog…

I have two girls, and Dave has been a little out numbered and so to push the pressure my parents are putting on me to have another baby and PREFABLY and boy baby…. we went and got a BOY dog instead! HAHA!

YES… little Oscar is a Shit Poo. hahaha… a little Shih tzu crossed toy poodle and he is already very attached to me. IT is seriously like having another baby to take care off, and I am not too sure how many more black hairs I can spare to turn white! Well, if that ever happens, then atleast I can shave Oscar and stick that onto my head. He poops, he pees… and he puts everything he can into his mouth. EXACTLY what Missy C does. The good thing is that Missy C and him do not fight. They both seem to be very polite and gentle when taking turns to chew on the stacking cups.

Outfit: Kookai

Necklace: I made

Top: Zara

Bottoms: Kookai

Necklace: Thrifted

Picnic-ing at our favourite weekly spot. Can you believe it.. it was like 30 something degrees this dy but we didn’t even feel it because.. this is the best picnic-ing spot ever!!

Top: Thrifted

Belt: Thrifted

Bottoms: MNG

Top: Cotton On Pjs (heheh..shhh)

Scarf: Thrifted

Skirt: Mummy’s hand me downs

Belt: Just Jeans

Remember ages and ages ago… I had freebie friday?? Well, the very very very patient Bessie who won the competition is awaiting her little headband to fly fly its way across the ocean to her door-step! So I felt really really bad, actually, I feel REALLY bad still that it took so long, but ITS DONE! … adn her long long wait… hopefully… will not be so long anymore. I”M SORRY BESSIE!

Well, here it is!

Weird topic? I don’t know… I figured with school up and books to cover, I thought I would put in my two cents worth.

I loved preparing for school when I was younger (NOT that I am older… ??). I enjoyed buying stationery, labelling my books, and most of all… covering them. With Uni finished up ages ago… I have not had the pleasure to do so until Missy A starts school, and when she did… OMG SO SO excited… fo r like 10 seconds. THAT is because it was when I found out that her school will be providing ALL books, and ALL stationery. WTF!!?? They just killed all my hopes and dreams to frolic the stationery aisle at Kmart, or mush my drooling face at the window display at KiKi. WHAT THE!!!???

So anyway, after a good strawberry tea, I calmed down… and well, just accepting it. Though I was still planning in my head for NEXT year, and how I could possibly write to the school, and excuse Missy A’s inclusion of getting her books by the school. Weird? Crazy ? Yup. That’s me. That’s the stupid stuff I think about during the day. Night times, I’m more emo.

OK. So after her first day at school, you would imagine how SUPER excited I was when they got their exercise books, all in their naked form. WOOHOO! I get to cover them! Missy A, just did not seem as excited. Straight after school, we shopped for contact paper, and it was straight home to cover them! No Food, no stops, no nonsense. BACK TO COVER BOOKS. Ok ler, I wasn’t that bad. We had lunch, and chatted about school, and all the other obligatory parent stuff… (really… I am a good mother).

I’d like to think I am pretty pedantic when it comes to BUBBLE FREE covering. I remember once when I was in year 8, the first book I covered had HUGE bubbles in it that I opted to throw out the book to buy a new one. (I told mum we bought the wrong type… haha!).

OK so here are my two cents worth and the attempt to cover books with contact paper – BUBBLE FREE.

START to cover the back side first, because once you get the hang of it, then the FRONT is perfect. Logical right? (hmm never understood why Dave always said I never made sense…)

OK! Measure out the size of the book, and cut it out. Standard.

Then make a mark of where the edge of the book is, then fold over with an extra 2cm on the overlapping bit that is perpendicular to the edge of the back cover. Then peel back until the fold. This is where you start. Having just a small section exposed, creates less chances it will stick everywhere and drive you bonkers with creases, and bubbles.

Now, lay the book, back side up, and the page edges facing towards you. AS parallel to the edge of the table as possible, then lay the 2cm peeled side onto the book with the overlapping pieces sticking to the table.

Here’s a pic of what i did with the front cover.

..Then bit by bit, just rub along from the centre—out, while peeling back the contact.

TADA!

OK, hope that helped or not, but atleast now you know that I am even more crazy than you thought!

Schools has started so it has been all about getting organised, and into routine. Neither I have done. Hahaha…

Here’s what I wore to a really fun Baby Shower, and this is what I made for the expectant mother.

..A nappy cake! Its just so much nicer to put this together than to just drop off a box of nappies. Also, I made this cake with 4 different brands of nappy just so that Mother-To-Be can ‘trial’ and see which ones they prefer. My advice too was to use the cheap ones during the day as you will change more often and use the more expensive ones for the night like – Baby Love during the day and Huggies during the night.

MY FIRST LOAF OF BREAD! YAY! Yummo. We have just recently taken hostage my mother-in-laws bread machine, and we made our first sour dough bread. Because there is only the 3.5 of us in the house (Missy C is a half), I find the breads in the super markets either too big to finnish off, and the smaller gourmet loaves are just plain ridiculously expensive. SERIOUSLY… who pays $5.50 for a darn loaf of BREAD!

So I make bread say every 5/6 days, and it always fresh and makes the house warm and smelling homely.

My little Powerpuff girls.

With one asleep and the other playing play dough, there’s just a small window opportunity to pick some flowers and have a cup of tea. Bliss. OH and SIT DOWN TOO!

Missy A’s special outfit for Monday! Oh.. I so have to share a video we recorded before school! Soon Soon…