Family | The Lattimore Acre

Bits and Pieces

Kindy – Kindy is over 🙁 for the year. Last Tuesday was officially Ben’s last day. During the last few weeks Ben received lots of candy canes, Christmas cards and little trinkets from his classmates. It was so lovely to watch his excitement when receiving these little gifts. Ben gave his classmates each a novelty pencil. We wrapped each one…… well I did! I do love wrapping presents but after twenty-two … maybe not so much.

It is lovely to have Ben home with me……. but would it make me a bad Mum to say I miss Kindy a little already?

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Car Airconditioning – Our car’s airconditioning stopped working over two and a half weeks ago! Oh I know it is not the end of the world but I love my aircon! No seriously I love it!!! Between the heat, hot flushes and Ben holding his ears (from the noise of the windows being open) it has not been a pleasant experience. Tomorrow it will finally be fixed….. YAY! I have learnt one very important lesson from this – Don’t take your car to the nice friendly old guy at the local Auto Electrical Shop…….. take it directly to the Dealer. They can probably do the job in a couple of hours not two and a half weeks!!! My patience has been tested!!

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Water Play – Ben has been spending his days doing this.

We made our own boats……

I can’t seem to keep any clothes on him when there is water around. He doesn’t even keep his togs on while playing with this. I’ve given up….. his four…….let him be a rudie nudie!

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I HEART These Kids!

I seriously do love these kids. Charlotte, Finlay and Ryan (not in photo) are so lovely. Ben has grown up with them and he is always SUPER excited to see them. They spent Friday afternoon and evening with us. They raced each other up and down the driveway, played Hide and Seek forever, watched Cars 2 and shared pizza. Ben refers to them as his cousins but they are our wonderful old neighbours that have become wonderful friends. Their Mum and Dad are pretty fabulous too! They are true friends – the ones that can knock on the door and find you in your pj’s but you don’t rush to get dressed you put the kettle on!

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Cracking the Whip – Andrew and Ben were up to old tricks again last night. After Ben had had dinner and a bath I find them doing this. The whip was out, the horse dusted off and there was some serious cracking going on. I tell you they crack me up!!! Ride like the wind Bulls Eye!!…….. seriously hilarious! I wonder if Andrew’s arm is hurting again?

I love these two xo

The Christmas Kindy Concert

Ben looked a bit handsome ready for the concert tonight. He didn’t look very ‘Christmassy’ as he didn’t want to put on the Santa hat I had for him.

Well that was until we arrived at Kindy and he saw all the kids with them on and then he couldn’t get it on fast enough.

I was so excited about the concert but was trying to calm my excited so I didn’t freak everyone out. I have been the teacher at many Christmas concerts but this was my very first as a Mum. My heart felt so full xo.

Because Ben is a little shy at times Ben’s teacher suggested that we should sit somewhere around the middle/ back of the room. There was concern if Ben saw us he wouldn’t want to participate in the concert. I was pretty sure this would be the case. Well….. we should have given him more credit. He sat and sang along (well mostly as well as playing with a couple of lego men he had in his pocket). He did well. I am such a proud Mummy! The children and teachers did a lovely job! The children sang beautifully. My favorites and Ben’s – Six White Boomers and Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer.

This was my view from the middle/back of the room…….. I was fretting I couldn’t see!

This was Ben when he spotted us…… LOVE IT!

And I just couldn’t stand it and had to get a better picture. I went out the back door, around the side, nudged my way in to snap this. I had a giggle at this one. So many little personalities – So lovely!!

Ben has grown so much this year. His Teachers Mrs Symonds and Mrs Thorne are fabulous.

Love you to bits gorgeous boy!!

New Family Favourite Dinner

I have slowly been working my way through Jamie’s Ministry of Food Cook Book. So much yummy goodness. We have many family regular meals from this book. But we had a stand out this week. A new family favourite . It is finger licking good. You really must try his Chicken Korma recipe. I wasn’t sure if Ben would eat it…. but he loved it.

Jamie’s Chicken Korma

800g skinless and boneless chicken thighs or breasts (preferably free-range or organic)
2 medium onions
optional:1 fresh green chilli
a thumb-sized piece of fresh root ginger
a small bunch of fresh coriander
1 x 400g tin of chickpeas
groundnut or vegetable oil
a knob of butter
1/2 a 290g jar of Patak`s korma curry paste (opps I put the whole jar in and it was delicious!!)
1 x 400ml tin of coconut milk
a small handful of flaked almonds, plus extra for serving.
2 heaped tablespoons desiccated coconut
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
500g natural yoghurt
1 lemon.

Cut chicken into 3cm pieces, peel, halve and finely slice your onions. Halve deseed and finely slice the chilli. Peel and finely chop the ginger. Pick the coriander leaves and finely chop the stalks. Drain the chickpeas.

Put a large casserole-type pan on a high heat and add a couple of lugs of oil. Stir in the onions, chilli, ginger and coriander stalks with the butter. Keep stiring it enough so it doesn`t catch and burn but turns evenly golden. Cook for arund 10 minutes. Add the korma curry paste, coconut milk, half your flaked almonds, the drained chickpeas, desiccated coconut and sliced chicken breasts. Half fill the empty tin with water, pour it into the pan, and stir again. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down and simmer for 30 minutes with the lid on . Check the curry regularly to make sure it`s not drying out, and add extra water if necessary. When the chicken is tender and cooked, taste and season with salt and pepper – please season carefully.

Serve with rice. Add a few spoonfuls of natural yoghurt on top, and sprinkle over the rest of the flaked almonds. Finish by scattering over the coriander leaves, and serve with lemon wedges for squeezing over.

Seriously YUM!!!

Oh Christmas Tree!

It feels like Christmas is our house. Our tree is up. I love Christmas decorations!!! Ben and Gamma helped me put up the tree. We spent the morning listening to Christmas carols and sorting decorations. I gave Ben a selection of decorations and let him go for it. This is his masterpiece!!!

I left it that way for three days and then did this……

I did it while Ben was at Kindy. He thought Santa had been and left a wonderful tree. He loved it. I was relieved. I didn’t correct him and tell him it wasn’t Santa but his control freak of a mother who did it!

So is your Christmas Tree up yet? I know tradition says that you should wait until the first of December to put up the tree. I just couldn’t wait!!!

Linking up with Life Made Lovely Monday

1st Halloween

This was our first ever attempt at Halloween. Our neighborhood children seem to really enjoy the whole thing. Why wouldn’t they….. FREE LOLLIES!!

We had Trick-or-Treaters from 4.30pm. It was mostly boys and some of them were so focused on the lollies they forgot their manners. Most children came in great costumes but we did have the odd teenager in no costume with a shopping bag (shocking hey!!). Ben had the best time handing out the lollies and yelling out ‘Happy Halloween!”. He didn’t want to Trick-or-Treat….YAY! I turned our lights off and took down the decorations at Ben’s bedtime but this didn’t seem to stop the lollie hunters. To be honest I’m not sure if I am really that into Halloween…….I’m not convinced it is a celebration at all – maybe just a very large lollie hunt!! (I always knew this really but it’s nice to look at something fresh through the eyes of your child)

First Pumpkin

Halloween has never really been a major celebration in Australia…… well not for us anyhow. But last year we had so many Trick-Or-Treaters. So this year we thought we would do a little to join in. Ben and I bought our first pumpkins to carve.

I cut lids and opened them and thought ewwwwww really??!!!! I wasn’t expecting so much slop!! I also didn’t really have any idea of what we would carve. So I did what every good researcher does and ‘Googled’ it – Halloween carving templates and How to carve a pumpkin. I had everything I could possible need right on the computer screen – Thank you Mr Google!

Ben and Andrew picked a scarey design and I picked a more smiley one. I used a small stanely knife as I found that the easiest. This is what we ended up with (don’t look too closely!).

And in the dark…..

It was a bit of fun. Ben is excited to put them out tomorrow and hand out lollies to the Trick-Or-Treaters. So I think this is when I am supposed to say ‘Happy Halloween!’ (I’m a Newbie).

Linking up with Life Made Lovely Monday (I know this is my second link up but there is so many lovely things happening!)