What's in the box?

With Junior starting Kindy this year, comes the dilemma of deciding what goes in his lunch box. He takes a piece of fruit to share for morning tea every day and thankfully he is a pretty good eater, but like all littlies there are a number of things he "doesn't like" (like fresh tomato or lettuce - although he will happily eat tomatoes when they are cooked in something!).
So far he has been pretty happy with a standard sandwich but I'm sure that will get pretty boring after a few months. The request most days has been for ham, cheese, carrot and beetroot sandwiches - an interesting combination but all good stuff and given that he is happy with wholemeal bread I'm not complaining. We have also resorted to vegemite and cheese a couple of times when the fridge was looking a little empty. He will also snack on carrot sticks and hummus for dipping, or a boiled egg which is handy.

However, he has already let me know that some of the kids take packets of Tiny Teddies or Milky Way bars as part of their lunch so I have also included home made mini-muffin a couple of times. I have been thinking of trying him with some pasta salad or zucchini slice but I'm not sure he will like savoury slice cold for lunch. I'm looking for inspiration for ways to pack an interesting and nutritious lunchbox. Any suggestions or links to other sites would be great so please me know what you have been making your littlies for lunch.

So far I have found Taste.com and The vegan lunchbox - any other suggestions?

Our week

When I wrote my post last week about a change of season, I had no idea that a few hours later we would be experiencing a hail storm - neither did hubby who got caught in it riding his motorbike home from work.
Luckily he found a place to shelter and made it home wet and a little battered but otherwise fine. Just as well because it was his birthday the next day so we needed him in one piece to blow out the candles (with Junior and Bubs help of course).
The rest of the week has just flown by with lots of cleaning up the garden- the hail storm was one of the worst to hit Perth in years, and a few preparations for Easter.
One major milestone for the week is Bub's sudden interest in joining his brother in drawing. Bub does still chew the crayons a little but is quite interested in scribbling as well now! I just love watching those little chubby fingers trying to grasp the crayons!

A change of season

After a very hot and dry summer here in WA, it finally feels a little like Autumn might be on the way. The evenings are getting a little cooler (just about perfect for me) and thoughts are moving from the beach or pool to other things.
I have finally got around to making Junior a new batch of play dough - blue this time to replace the red batch we made for Christmas.
I went shopping this morning to buy some new clothes for Junior as last years long sleave shirts and PJ's are definitely a bit on the small side.
And we are starting to think about easter. I had my first attempt at blowing eggs so that Junior and I could make a couple of marbled eggs to decorate the table (along with some store bought decorations)
... and there is much talk of easter egg hunts and when the easter bunny (or bilby) will visit. Hope you are enjoying the change of season.

Beads

Last week I dragged the boys off to Spotlight, yet again, to buy some backing fabric for the lap quilt I'm working on. After much tooing and frowing trying to find the ideal fabric I found roughly what I wanted but had two bored and rather fed up children. So on the way out I grabbed a couple of bags of wooden beads as a thankyou present to junior for his patients.
With a darning needle and a bit of wool he has been stringing them up nicely. The good thing is they can be taken apart and re-threaded over and over again.
I might have to buy a few different beads next time we have to visit spotlight.

Another birthday bag

Juniors' best friend is turning 4 shortly and will be away on holidays in Thailand for his birthday. So as a birthday gift we have put together a little bag of goodies to keep him entertained during the flight. We chose a monogrammed drawstring bag - I followed the very easy goodie bag tutorial I found on the side bar of the Lovely Designs blog. Sharilyn has some fantastic tutorials and ideas and also has lovely photos of her stylish (and immaculate) home - how does she do that with a young child in the house!
Juniors' friend is a dedicated Thomas fan so we thought that a Thomas activity book with some pencils and crayons might come in handy during the flight, along with a small book to read. We also made him a birthday crown in his favourite colour (yellow) to help him celebrate while he is away.

Hope he likes it.

Guilderton Revisited

I had to share this drawing that Junior just gave me. It is Daddy and Junior on the Kayak at Guilderton with Mummy and Bub playing on the beach. I thought it was very sweet!

Guilderton

Last weekend we had a very nice (if exhausting) weekend away to Guilderton (just north of Perth) to celebrate our 5th Wedding Anniversary.
Unfortunately Bub has been unwell for a few days so he was very tired for a lot of the weekend. My usually happy little man was showing his red head side with more that the occasional temper tantrum. But despite that both the boys loved the sandy beaches and protected water of the river mouth.
Hubby even got the Kayak wet (for the first time in longer than he cares to remember) and Junior got to have a paddle as well.
Guilderton is a great spot for a family holiday and the chalets at the caravan park were perfect for an easy weekend away. Just a shame they have to be booked so far ahead to get in.
I think we are all keen to go back again but hopefully Bub will be feeling a bit better next time.

Junior's Quilt

I'm currently taking a beginners quilting class with my friend and neighbour Jennifer from "What's new since terminal 4". I'm working on a lap quilt for Junior's birthday but I'm making very slow progress. I have finally finished assembling the main panel for the quilt - just in time for tonight's class when we will start on the boarders.
I won't show you anything too close up or you may be able to see all the little dodgy bits I haven't had time to fix - but I guess it is supposed to be a unique hand-made piece right? If this little project goes OK then I might be feeling brave enough to finally finish my other quilt which I have been working on for years and has been sitting waiting to be quilted since before Christmas.

Happy Birthday Jack Dog

This weekend our beautiful golden retriever (our first boy) Jack turns 7!
So to celebrate we made him some mini muffins and sang him happy birthday!
He also got a walk at the river and picnic tea.

Foraging

As you can tell from my previous post Bub loves his food. So much so that he has taken to foraging when he is playing outside - stealing grapes from the neighbours vine!
They always taste so much better than out of the fridge!

How to eat a sandwich

Like all things in life Bub does, eating is embraced with much vigour and enthusiasm, ...
... generally with both hands at once, and lots of mess. Our dog Jack just loves it because we tend to eat outside as much as possible and he hovers beneath the high chair waiting for discarded bits to rain down on him!
Bub showed interest in eating solids from about 4 months onwards.
We delayed for a little while but he was clearly very keen so we tried the baby lead weaning approach, which worked a treat for him.
He hasn't looked back and hopefully it will be a little while before he becomes a fussy toddler when it comes to food.