{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.  Inspired by soulemama

A useful giggle...

The weather in Melbourne has been very hot, humid and full of thunderstorms. To me it feels really tropical (and not in the best sense). This means the mosquito juggernaut has descended.

Little B experiences the worst munching from the mozzies so we’ve gotten a little bit creative.

We’ve installed a mosquito net over his sandpit. He happily plays in his new “tent” and isn’t over run my mozzies. I have to say it’s quite pleasant sitting in there with him. Good company, nice breeze, no mozzies…what more could a girl want ;-)

Party time

It’s that time of year again :-) We have Little B’s birthday party at the start of December even though he is a late December baby. This means his little friends can come along easily rather than being away around Xmas.

Last year I focussed on ensuring the party was both eco-friendly and allergy friendly. And these are my main focuses again this year but I am also aiming for the food to be as whole and nourishing as possible, while still being party food.

Decorations

We will be re-using our home made bunting and paper lanterns from last year. I bought a variety of paper lanterns last year (to cover all our birthdays throughout the year) and the green will suit our Jungle theme. We are also putting up our solar lanterns as bright decorations out the front of the house.

Goodie Bags

Last year, I made fabric bags from some party theme fabric I found at the op shop. This year I’m using recycled paper bags. In these will be a home-baked choc chip cookie, a wooden toy and a little crafty something extra.

Entertainment

I believe in a lot of unstructured play for kids, even at parties. I have a few Montessori games up my sleeve, revolving around the Jungle theme (like “The Waterhole”) and we will be doing some strewing (like a jungle park in the sandpit) and some strategically placed toys around the garden. I’ve also set up some drums for some African drumming sessions ;-)

Food

I have been inspired for our party food mainly from Jude Blereau’s “Whole Food for Children”. We are having jelly boats (from pear & mango juice with agar agar), fairy bread (with sourdough, labne and allergy friendly sprinkles), home-made tzatziki & pinto bean dips with spelt crackers, and finally a gorgeous fruit platter. Little B’s cake will be a spelt butter cake, decorated with Hullabaloo food coloured icing.

I’ve asked our guests not to give Little B any plastic toys. I’ve also asked people to be as environmentally conscious as they can be in their gift choices.

** NB: If it’s raining, we’ve organised for 3 separate play spaces in the house. One following the strewing jungle theme, one with some jungle inspired playdough and craft and one for freeplay (with a big dress up box provided for inspiration.

So proud of

I am so proud of and happy for Mr B. On Friday he got his dream sustainable job and to make it even better it's part time. So work / life balance will abound. This is a bit different from his current job but we are very much looking to more family time together.

I also know he is very excited to apply his knowledge and background in sustainability and renewable energies to a new industry.

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.  Inspired by soulemama

Advent Calendar #2: Paper Chains

 Today's advent calendar goodie was a little note, "Today we will be building christmas paper chains to decorate Granny B's house". It was so gorgeous watching Little B do a happy dance when we read it out :-)

So this morning we crafted! Granny B's work gets hand me down magazines for their waiting room and in the last lot there was a series of magazines that had different kind of double sided decorated paper for craft. She saved them all and brought them home for us.

We cut them up this morning (which Little B loves to do) and glued our chains all together. We also made a few paper lanterns. I then finger knitted some cords to hang the lanterns. This was from thrifted wool from the op shop (I love that you can often find wool in baby colours like white, pale pink and pale blue). I then used some thrifted ribbon to make little handles for them.

And then we got to decorate the house.....

Garden Update

Our veggie garden went beserk while we were away. I found the growth in 8 days almost mind blowing. Our tomatoes doubled in size, as did our beans and broccoli.

I’d had my doubts about our spinach before we went away but the heat and sun made them flourish. Perfect as baby spinach for salads and sandwiches.

I spent most of Sunday re-staking everything, stringing our bean frames and snipping back our regular garden which was overhanging the beans in a big way. I think everything loved a week of warmth and sun.

The only thing not growing super fast are our cucurbits (zucchini, pumpkin and Lebanese cucumbers). But these are in a veggie bed we’ve had our doubts about in the past. Despite great sun and good soil, it always has “issues” growing things well.

I’m wondering if it is a drainage issue (given our abundance of rain this spring)? It’s a raised bed but I cant think what else could be wrong. Other than the possibility of bad bugs in the soil…hmmm… will have to keep experimenting and see what happens.