A Round up .......again!!

What can I say? I guess it's the result of having a full life!
Here is another catch up post on what is happening, well happened in our lives lately.
You do know that a picture is worth a thousand words right?
So here are a thousand pictures, well not really, but it surely will have lots of images in this post.

It's only just been cool enough lately to really enjoy the outdoors again.
In the summer of which we have had a very long dry spell of, we certainly do enjoy the swimming but it really gets to a point where we are hanging out for the Autumn season.

It's really lovely when the younger ones are so keen to cook and Vellvin and Trahaearn made a beautiful Wedding Anniversary cake for us earlier this month.

 Like I said the Autumn weather means lots more outdoor activity. So its time to fix up the bikes- we get lots of punctures in the tires. Naturally Daddy and I had to have a turn checking them out.

 Autumn foliage is a beautiful addition to our beauty inside.

 The Mud kitchen is always popular but again in ccoler weather it really gets a lot of use.

The children prepared a beautiful Anniversary Dinner for us. We had to stay away for this and they surprised us with the decorated room and a lovely dinner.
They asked if we wanted to go out for dinner but frankly I always love to celebrate at home with the blessings that are our children.

I have started a new ferment for our family - Jun Tea. It is prepared almost the same as Kombucha, I need to update how we do this.
Jun is made from green tea and honey.
It has a lovely gentle flavour slightly less sharp.

 Second ferment on the right with a fruit flavoured tea. It is really quite nece without the second ferment unlike Kombucha in my opinion

 We attended the Anzac Day parade as we do each year

 We have been doing a fair bit of weeding, of the non productive gardens that are here on this rental property. The fact it is unproductive means we really don't bother much with this garden at all.

 Mothers Day naturally brought Breakfast in Bed for Mummy along with some beautiful home made cards and presents that I have been eyeing off for a while

 At dinner time that night the center piece was made by Rogan who used Mother Earth and some of the Root Children and Flower girls to represent each of my children.

I have been wanting to try Soap Nuts for some time now and a friend ordered some for herself so naturally I begged her for some to try.
First impressions are that it is highly effective. Now I just need to work out the cost comparisons between this and home made detergent

I have been waiting for some time to add some different herbs to my collection of herbs. I have especially been looking for some herbs for Asthma and lung problems. These are not available locally so I have been researching the best price from various on line providers.

Again with the cooler weather we have been doing our reading outside for learning.

These are some of the books we have been reading lately :)

Another great spot for reading too

Our Autumn has a new cat that now lives in side. I have never been that fond of inside cats but this one is quite cute inside.

A major part of our time over the last couple of months has been preparing Vellvin for her Debutane Ball.
It was a very beautiful ball and the pre organisation was amazing. They did dance practise every week that they had to travel 1 1/2 hours to and were very dedicated.
Saxon was partner to one of Vellvin's friends and so the four of them spent some lovely times together.

I finally made Vellvin's dress in less than two weeks before the event. I was very blessed to have help from a very dear friend as we had to alter the pattern to achieve the look we needed.
Naturally Vellvin was so very beautiful!!

We have had a couple of sleep over visits lately with our grand dumpling and after we did a major tidy up of the garage the piano was accessible again.
Saxon had a lovely time getting the little one to play with him.

Arwen and I made a pumpkin cake with Emmer flour. I had found this on line when I was looking for Einkorn flour which seems impossible to find in Australia. So if you know anyone who sells it here I would love to know.

I did get this beautiful sourdough starter sponge from the Emmer Flour too. It made lovely textured and tasty sourdough bread the children 'gobbled' up very quickly.

So one day there was a fire across the road and these two ran out the front to see the fire truck at work. I love kids in trees. Don't you?

It's not often that I get to have a little cuddle in the morning with this precious girl. We had a lovely time one morning just the two of us chatting for a while beofre the other children woke and found us.

So......... the birthday season has started!!
That means I get to stay up late and make felt birthday crowns and Saint Peg dolls.

We struggled for a few weeks with a lot of hay fever in the family as the weather seemed to be all over the place. Time for Home Made remedies that actually alleviate symptoms and don't harm the body in the process

The joy and learning that is expressed by our children as they dress up and create whole new worlds is always so rewarding to see.

A little help from his sister and he has played with this outfit for many days. He especially loved the feather in his helmet.

Daddy and Trahaearn on the swings for some special time together.

I loved making these water colour painted butterflies for Easter baskets this year too I really delightful and quick craft project

My companion in the morning after he gets up and makes his way down stairs to his 'kitten bed'. He snuggles up here until he is ready to completely face the day.

What do you do with the left over gingerbread cookie dough you made at Christmas time? You freeze it and bring it out on days when little ones need a distraction, and then they can bake cookies on their own. Then they can proudly distribute them to every one at home and save some special for those at work.

Finally we are at the end of this pictorial tour :)
Really it is just a taste of every thing that is happening but still a taste is better than nothing right?

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

My Birthday Treasure Hunt!!

It's been a couple of weeks now but my birthday has come and gone!

The build up to this birthday was quite significant, not due to the number but due to the fact that my birthday last year was pretty non existent.

The major thing I wanted was to have a treasure hunt with everyone involved.
Thankfully I have some very clever children who were able to make this happen.

We divided into three car loads and it was a race to see who won.
Everyone in the car had to get out  at each location and retrieve the clues as we had little people divided over the three different cars.
The first stop was to find have each team run into K-mart and find a book.
It was so fun to have each of us running in and out of that store ☺

Saxon had even organised for us to have to have to ask for the clue from the staff at his work which I am sure they were laughing so hard at as we raced up to the counter and asked for the next clue.

After we had found the last clue we all went back home and had a late lunch! 

I admit it was the most fun activity we have done in a long time.

I would love to do more of this as a family and so think we will look into geocaching as it was a lot of organising to work out the clues and then to plant them before everyone was ready to play.

Here is a list of the clues in order of us getting them.

Thank you to all my family for such a wonderful and special thanks especially to Saxon, Vellvin and Rogan for doing all the organising you did to make this such a special  day for me.

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

A Special Tea Time Party ☺

I really don't remember when we started having Tea Parties but they are such a regular and important part of our lives.

It seems we don't need much of an excuse to have one in our home, at any hour or day.

AS I write this up we had a mini one last night and Vellvin and Rogan are having another one now ☺

However it has been a long time since we have had one with our lovely Bernadette, our very own Mary Poppins.

Really we have not had one with her since we moved here from Tasmania, and so we truly loved having a special one again.

We were so delighted to have Bernadette visit for a few days and we loved catching up on all the things we used to delight in doing together.

Bernadette would often bring over little bits and pieces of craft and we would, well I would attempt to, do them together ( our small children loved the visits too).

While she was here we started a  new project she brought with her and we were inspired to get back into the crafting we used to do more of.

We knew from the start we needed to fit in a tea party while Bernadette was here and we planned this ahead of time, especially as Bernadette is gluten free!
So we found recipes that would suit both her and our THM lifestyle.

Rogan made a beautiful Strawberry Cornflour Sponge Cake. It was his first attempt at this cake and look how beautifully it turned out!
Vellvin made her famous Baked Lemon Cheesecake. It is both Gluten free and THM friendly.
Vellvin and Arwen made the Chocolate Cupcakes with Peppermint Icing. These again are sugar free, Gluten Free and THM. We have used these in our Feast Days celebrations and the children love them.
We wanted to try a Caramel Slice that if not THM was at least Gluten Free.
So Rogan tried this Salted Paleo Caramel Slice. It was not well received by all. Some liked it but others did not.

Naturally we had our tea cups for this Tea Party and Bernadette has her own tea cup that we keep at our home with ours in the china cabinet for when she does visit.
This has been our tradition since our first Tea Party with her ☺

I was very blessed to be given that lovely High Tea Plate that the cup cakes and caramel slice are sitting on as a birthday gift from her, just in time for the Tea Party. I have long coveted one and the children could not find one for me for Mothers day even though they looked everywhere.
So of course Bernadette in her magical guise of ' Mary Poppins' was able to find a truly beautiful one for me.

Tea Parties are such a wonderful way to show special love and attention and this one was especially special with the visit of our very own Bernadette.

Blessings to you and your homes,
   
Linked to - A Wise Woman Linkup