Happy Birthday Mary!

The baby of the family has officially become a "big girl" or so she tells me. Five is very grown up apparently! Enjoy the pictures!

Thanks for the bell Grandma and Grandma, it's perfect for my scooter!

Mmm....flakes, thanks Frannie and Frampa.

Thanks for the warm coat Auntie Abbie and Barb, I will use it lots this winter.

My birthday cake, made by Mum.

Birthday pancakes with Daddy.

Last one...

Here's the last of the recipes I've tried from the 4 Ingredients Kids book that we've been using this week. These were a real 3/3, even a 5/5 as Hubby and I snacked on them too! Real easy, just slices of bread squished in a muffin tin, eggs and veggies and cheese mixed together and poured into the bread cups. A real hit and good way to use up not so fresh bread and the loads of eggs from our lovely chickens!

I'm onto a new book now, one from the Country Womens Association.....lots of lovely family meals which use good old fashioned simple ingredients. My kind of cooking!

Another 4 ingredients....

This time the recipe was picked by Miss 8 to make as the treat for our family night.

It was a rather sticky mess to try and get into the pan and getting it smooth and even was a challenge. It's condensed milk, m&m's and choc biscuits. (The recipe called for plain but we only had chocolate  ripples) It was a 3/3 for the girls but I only gave them a very small bit as it was super sweet and rich. Not sure that this one is a keeper.

We had my take on the humble meat pie for dinner made from leftovers of our Mothers Day Sunday roast. Writing words on food just makes me giggle.....the girls thought it was rather funny too!

And lastly the view from my balcony tonight. The Autumn sunsets have been stunning!

Hannah's concert

On Wednesday night Becky, Hannah and I braved the cold and rain to go to Meander Valley Schools concert in Westbury. Hannah has joined the grade 3/4 choir and loves being a part of it. They have choir practice once a week (at lunchtime) and often sing for assembley and other school functions. It was a really late night for them but so worth it. She looked super cute up their on stage (bad photo sorry) and really enjoyed herself.

Mary also had her singing debut this week when the Kinder class sang for all the mothers and grandmothers. She was in the front row too....curse of being small! It was rather sweet when they presented us with a little framed picture of themselves. Awww!

 While I was getting the photos from the camera I came across these that the girls had taken of their "rainbow land". I had a good chuckle over the nativity picture, love the missionaries peeking through the window and the 'ring in' baby girl!

Sewing or reading.....

What a tough choice! Our library has a "what's new" monthly sectionon their website and so on the first of every month I'm on there ordering all the new arrivals for myslef and my girls. I picked up this lot this weeka nd it's been such a tough choice whether to sit down and read or to sew!

One book I did curl up with last night was "4 Ingredients for Kids" by Kim McCosker and Rachael Bermingham. 

I've always been a little dubious about the 4 Ingredients series of cook books, it just seemed a little too easy to create a meal with so little......but then again I'm really not a naturally gifted cook so any help I can get is a bonus!

Meals that the girls will be excited about is sometimes a little tricky and finding a variety of things for them to snack on after school and to fill their lunchboxes is a real challenge. 

So I'm going to give some of the recipes in this book a go.....some of them I might miss altogether like chocolate covered Ritz bicuits?!

Here is this mornings effort, they are called "Purple Pikelets". 

The 4 ingredients are SR wholemeal flour, berries, egg and milk. I used froxen mixed berries, blueberries and raspberries and blackberries and I confess I did add a little castor sugar to the batter (just a few teaspoons)

The verdict.....well, mine weren't purple but that didn't matter, they were certainly filling and tasty. I think next time I might use a different fruit, like mashed banana or pear as the berries were a little big and chunky, perhaps I could have mashed them?

Because I have three girls I'll use a rating system that's out of three, if it's 3/3 then all 3 of them loved them! 0/3 means it became lunch for our chooks!

Verdict: Purple Pankcakes is a 2/3! 

One girl loved them and had about 5, another girl had one and said "I think I'll have some cereal" and the youngest loved them but minus the berries. 

Stay tuned for some more recipe reviews

May happenings.....

Marvellous May! We had the school cross country this week......I'm sure we just had one but that was 12mths ago! time is flying. All three girls participated this year. Cross country running isn't really a Walters strong point but they all did their best and finished the race and I'm really proud of them. I don't have any pictures of Mary unfortunately but here are some of the big girls.  (It was rather cute to watch Hannah and her friend run, they held hands the whole way until the home stretch, it's was so sweet!)

  

  

There were some awesome fairy toadstools around a clump of trees where the parents were standing. Aren't they cute?!

And here is Lionels offering for this morning, cinnamon scrolls, there is nothing remotely healthy about these but boy do they taste amazing! (yes, the gap is the one that we tasted hot from the oven)

 

And lastly the view from the balconey this morning. Coming upstairs after seminary is always a treat as the sunrises are just magical!

Mushrooms and a new store

 We've had some gorgeous Autumn sunshine over the last few days and it sure does good to see the sun shining after all the rain! 

Mind you, even though the sun's shining it's not exactly wam! I've been enjoying the sunshine from the warmth of my little sewing nook. 

Here's a little purse I've made for my new store, the mushroom print is super sweet. 

Speaking of mushrooms or toadstools here's a fun one I found while I was down watching my girls run in the cross country. I was the odd lady on her hand and knees in the tree taking photos of funghi!

I'm sure there is a fairy living there somewhere......