Notes on Andrew Belinda & Benjamin Lattimore

Things I am Loving xo

Fresh Tomatoes!! This must make the third or forth time I have mentioned my home grown tomatoes. But I just love them soooo much. They remind me of when I was about four years old, on holidays at my Granny’s in Victoria. She grew the best tomatoes. We would cut them really thick and have them on toast. YUM!

Rides in the Wheelbarrow! Ben sat in the wheelbarrow (blowing Dandelions ) while we weeded the lawn.

Playdates! I love watching little ones play together. I also love the cup of coffee and catch up the grown ups have too!

Memory Notes xo All to often when life gets busy I forget the little special events that happen on a daily bias – a quick hug or a funny statement or even just a quiet moment of peace. I saw this on Pinterest and thought we would adapt the idea for our family. We now have a jar of Memory Notes on the shelf. Anyone can add one (even visitors) and on New Years Eve we will open them and celebrate the memories together.

Linking with Things I am Loving xo and Life Made Lovely Monday

Mmmm Roast

I cooked my first roast chicken with gravy. I am a little pleased with myself….. my chest is puffed out, I’m standing taller and their is a really big smile on my face. It was a hit (even if it was slightly over cooked) – YUM!

It was mentioned at cooking class by Louise (our food trainer) that roast meat with gravy tastes so much better eaten with your fingers. At the time I thought ‘each to their own’. But Louise……. you are so right, it really does!! It was seriously finger licking goodness! Don’t judge but give it ago!!!

Paint…

Last week it was a challenge to keep Ben indoors while he had croup. We did lots of little projects to try and keep busy. Ben’s favorite was playing with his Star Wars Lego. But he also enjoyed doing some good old fashioned easel painting – Star Wars Themed!

Ben found this picture for inspiration (who he calls Padme but I thought was Queen Amidala)

and he used his favorite colour…..

and this is the finished product!!

“Da, Da, dat dah. Dadda Dat dah”

“Da, da, dat dah. Dadda dat dah. Da, da dadda dadda dadda dadda dat dah ”

Do you recognise the tune……..? It’s the Angry Birds theme song. Angry Birds is a bit of a hit in our house. It is very addictive and a bit of fun. So when I saw this online I knew we just had to give it a go.

SUPER FUN…… you have to try it!

Linking up with Heather – Life Made Lovely Monday (on Tuesday) xo and Emily – Embrace the Camera.

Gotcha!

The other day I was having a lovely cuppa with my Mum and Ben in our lounge room when something caught my eye. At a closer look it was a mouse running across the room …eeewwwwww!!!

Andrew put a plan in place that night using this and doing this.

Once the dog and Ben had stopped knocking the jar over we waited and waited and voila……

What happened to the mouse after this I chose not think about. Andrew said something about feeding it to the Kookaburras. I can’t think about that….. I am such a softy!

Cooking with Jamie – The Finale!

$Picnik collage Jamie\'s Ministry of Food Ipswich week 10$

This week was our final week at the Ministry of Food – roast chicken, good gravy, easy chicken stock, and roast potatoes, parsnips & carrots. We cooked roast vegetables, watched how to make good gravy, talked stock while smelling the wonderful chicken roasting in the oven. It all tasted super delicious and I already have a chicken in the fridge to roast this week.

We can’t thank the wonderful staff at the Ministry of Food enough (especially Louise) for their contagious enthusiasm in the kitchen. I used to look at cooking as a chore but it’s amazing what a handful of new tasty recipes will do to spark some excitement. More importantly Louise has helped our little family with a ‘Wholefood’ approach to eating.

‘Wholefood – food that is eaten as close as possible to its natural state, without unnecessary processing and refining…’ Jude Blereau

Wholefood to us is eating good fresh food (like we grew up on) and avoiding where possible highly processed and artificial foods. We have big plans for our garden this spring!!

So thank you Louise, Danella and all the wonderful volunteers. We will miss our cooking classes on Saturday afternoons. Andrew and I have had a fabulous time. We have enjoyed ourselves immensely and are truly thankful for the direction you have taken our family xo