Thursday, July 21, 2011

Sewing Projects - for Mouse!

 I've been happily sewing away on some extra warm goodies for Mouse!  I made her this cute little pj set, she looks adorable in it, and this little fleece top.
The top was made with some leftover fleece I had from my pj project, I also had some pink left over that I used to make a top for a sweet friend.

I just completed two other sets of pj's, one for Mouse and another for a sweet little friend's birthday.  Will post pics soon of this set!

At this stage I'm busy with birthday gifts for two little birthday boys who's birthdays are around the corner and I'm also knitting an adorable little pink jacket for a friend who's baby is due a bit later in the year. So many projects and so little time!

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Bubble fun!

 We have been blessed with some amazing summer weather in the middle of the Cape Town winter!  When I saw this fun Bubble Snake post on Confessions of a Homeschooler I knew we had to do it! Erica has a superb tutorial on her post, just click on the above link!

I took an old 500ml cooldrink bottle, cut off the bottom and removed the top.  I then used a piece of polar fleece that I attached with a rubber band to form our bubble blower!
 Mouse loved dipping the bottle in the soapy liquid, we went through 1liter of liquid!
When you blow on the top the bubbles comes out as a long snake.  I couldn't get a great picture of the end result because Mouse kept on dipping it, she had tons of fun!  Visit Erica's blog to see some great pics of her kiddos with the bubble snakes.  I of course also had a bit of fun with it!

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Princess Tea Party

We invited two sweet little friends, Sweet Pea and ArrowBoy, over for a Princess Tea Party!  We had tons of fun and the girls looked super cute in their tutus and crowns!

 I made them each a crown from yellow construction paper and gave them some fun stickers to decorate their crowns with.  They had so much fun doing this.

 Doesn't ArrowBoy look adorable?
 In between decorating the crowns there were a few laughs!  I love the sound of my little girls laugh!  I'm feeling so blessed that she has such sweet friends!

 The highlight of the morning was the cupcake decorating!  I made loads of cupcakes, some icing and gave them sprinkles and smarties and they came up with these creations all on their own!
It was such a fun morning and I'm already planning something fun in two weeks time!  The kiddos had a great time and an added bonus was I spend some time with my dear friend as well :)

Monday, July 18, 2011

Having fun with scales!

 About a year ago I received a free lapbook from A Journey Through Learning, a great site by the way, on My Body.  Mouse was still a bit too young to do some of the activities and I decided to save it until now.  I printed out the first section of the lapbook, it is a HUGE lapbook and I think it is real value for money, and we started on that.

The first section covers:
  • Birthdate (year, date, age, name)
  • Weight
  • Lenght
  • Body features (to draw in eyes, etc on blank body template)
  • Drawing of real body features via tracing

 She loved adding the details to the body template, I ended up drawing a few more templates for her to complete.
She also stamped some details on the templates with the birthday stamps that I made for her!
We weighed her and completed the section in the lapbook.  I then gave her some items from the kitchen cupboard to explore weights some more.  We weighed all the items determining which was the heaviest and which was the lightest.  I explained the working of the scale and weights to her.
She loved watching the needle move on the scale!
To make it even more fun I asked her to fetch 4 items of her choice to weigh.  We weighed each item and wrote down our findings next to a drawing of the object.  We determined which one was the lightest and which one the heaviest.  I gave her both items to physically feel the difference.

She laughed herself silly when she saw my drawings!

We will continue with the lapbook as well as measurements, the human body and some other fun activities!

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Feeding the Duckies!

 Mouse loves feeding the duckies at our local dam.  She especially loves it when daddy goes along!
I just love this pic of the two of them.
Here she is being all silly and pretending to take some photos of her own!

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Baking time!

 For her birthday a few weeks ago Mouse received beautiful cookie cutters in different shapes!  We couldn't resist baking some real cookies with it.
 She had so much fun picking out the shapes, rolling the dough and of course, eating the cookies!
We now have two tins filled with delicious home baked cookies.  Yummy!

Zoo Visit

 We are fortunate enough to live close to our local Zoo, only about 30 km's drive. We've been there before, when Mouse was a bit younger.  A friend suggested we do something fun with the girls and the zoo was the perfect answer!
 They loved all the animals and had a blast enjoying the amazing sunny day in the middle of winter. 
 I was impressed with Mouse, she counted the animals in the cages and asked questions on what animals they were, what they ate, etc.
She even named one of these Storks Alicia!  Loved the zoo and planning another visit soon.  All the fresh air and walking also ensured a wonderful night's rest!

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Flippen Lekka Sausage Rolls

I just love sausage rolls, but I do not love all the hidden fats and preservatives in the shop bought varieties.  I found the original recipe for this absolutely yummy homemade version on the MasterChef Australia website, I made some changes though, but if you click on the MasterChef link you can download the original.

Ingredients:
1tbs unsalted butter
1 large carrot, grated and peeled
1tbs olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 t minced garlic
700g lean beef mince
2 cups fresh breadcrumbs {best to use fresh crumbs, if you using shop bought crumbs, half the amount}
2 x rolls ready to roll puff pastry {I used Today's}
1 egg yolk
2 t Flippen Lekka BBQ Spice

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius.
Heat butter in saucepan and add grated carrots, cook over low heat until the carrots are really soft and yummy!  Season with some salt and puree very fine.  Set aside to cool.
Heat the oil in a frying pan and brown the onions and garlic.  Season with some salt and black pepper, put aside to cool.
Combine mince, 1/4 cup carrot puree, onion and breadcrumbs in a large bowl.  Add 2 teaspoons of Flippen Lekka BBQ Spice. Mix well.  Divide mixture into 4 and roll into a log shape (about 25cm long).  Roll out your puff pastry to about 4 mm thick.  Slice each sheet in half lenghtways and place a sausage log across the closest edge of the pastry sheet.  Roll to cover meat mixture, seal edges of pastry with some egg yolk.  Cut of any excess pastry, brush with egg wash and bake on lined or greased baking sheets for about 20 min.
Slice each roll into little sausage rolls once cooked and serve!

Enjoy!

Thank you to Flippen Lekka BBQ Spice for providing the spices used in this recipe.  Flippen Lekka Spice is available in a variety of sizes and hot or not!

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Mouse is 3!

My baby girl is three years old!  Hard to believe that she is not a baby anymore.  This year we had a Winnie the Pooh party.  She chose the theme herself and she was super excited about it!

I didn't spend loads of money on decorations, in stead I used what toys we had and I also used our Winnie the Pooh blankets as table cloths.  It all made for a fun atmosphere!

Auntie Noenoes from next door blessed us with this Winnie the Pooh sugar picture for the cake!  It turned out gorgeous!

Mouse looked forward to blowing out her candles on the cake, last year she didn't want to, but this year she was excited about it.
For little gifts for each special guest I made stamps.  I used old milk bottle tops and stuck foam stickers in fun animal designs on them.  They made cute little gifts!  Auntie Noenoes also blessed us with Winnie the Pooh Gift bags and some other party favours for each little guest! Thank you Auntie Noenoes!


I made sleeves for the juice boxes, just to make it a bit more fun!
Some of the gorgeous girls that enjoyed the day with us!

We had so much fun!

My little girl is super sweet, she is calm and easy going {most days!}  I love her to bits!  Happy birthday my sweet angel! May God bless you and keep you! I pray that you will live life to the full, that you will experience God's richest blessing every day and that you will recognize and see God's Grace in your life. Love you!

The photos without our name was kindly taken by my sweet friend Georgia from Love and Lollipops, thank you my friend!
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