I love having a full house :)

With Jaidon here and a friend visiting I realized that we will need a bigger table in the near future! One of my go to recipes when I have a lot of kids to fed is porcupines with brocoli,  pasta and left over potato bake from Christmas.  Nom NOM!! And I love those silly moments when my little guys sit on the table to help me finish my dinner! 

Merry Christmas 2013

Introducing our newest furbaby Sake

I've been thinking of adding another pet to the family for the last year. Our Ragdoll cat Tonka, is 10 yrs old this year and is a great family companion.

And I know that another Ragdoll would fit in fantasticly with the kids, but I wasn't able to pay the $600+.

So I decided to duck down the the RSPCA and have a sticky beak, and sure enough was won over by a little lady called Sake. (as in the Japanese wine). She had just been brought out to the viewing windows after recovering from being desexed and when I approached her cage she came up to me stroking herself against my hand purring.

I was smitten :) I met her behind the scenes and decided to bring back the little kids to meet her and see if she would be a match for the family. I was worried the little kids might be a bit grabby and scare her but all went well and I signed the adoption and now we are the proud owners of 2 awesome cats :)

They say that she was brought in as a stray, is a domestic medium haired cat, and that shes about 1yr6mths. She small though, and could still pass as a kitten.

Sake has a beautiful loving nature, and already has settled in really well.  And it feels good to give her a loving forever home :)

Large Family Sized Veggie Garden :)

I have big ideas for this space in the back corner of the yard :) Fingers crossed, this weekend, I'll have a dog/kid proof area ready for my large family sized veggie garden!!

Sure I might have missed the prime summer growing season but I'm hoping the weather stays warm enough to grow a little something to help with the budget :)

Nom Nom Nom!! 

More of Christmas 2012

The tree survived the kids this year :)

Yes I have matching stockings (I even bought a couple extras just in case) lol

Our yummy Christmas feast

My family enjoying our Christmas lunch

Handmade goodies decorated the table this year

Our Family Christmas Photo 2012

A belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our family to yours :)

(Silas 6, Jaidon 16, Braith 1, Livia 12, Kaydence 3, Aliya 8, Danion 8mths and Callum 13)

Some of Christmas 2012

The cookie that survived the food processor intact!

Callum and Jaidon figuring out the right size of the snow drops

Aliya concentrating on creating the perfect ripple cake :)

Livia waking up Kaydence it took several goes to convince her that Santa had delivered the presents :)

And so the present unwrapping begins

Danion's very 1st Christmas

The end of a successful Christmas day for Braith, especially when a truck feels comfy enough to sleep on!

My fat cat Tonka in the perfect post Christmas pose

So I fibbed a little .........

But not intentionally!

The month of March just kinda slipped through my fingers, in a haze of homeschooling, chores, sleepless nights and pregnancy.

I would often sit at the computer and ponder on what I could blog about but everyday has felt a bit mundane, a bit boring, and if I bore myself, why would I want to bore others? lol!

I have to admit that this pregnancy has slowed me down, and with just over 3 wks to go, I can't wait to finally meet this little one and get on with getting myself healed and back into shape! Bags to be packed this weekend, baby clothes getting their wash and everything organised just so.

Homeschooling is on hiatus atm, its Easter holidays and big brother Jaidon is here (school holidays) and it feels 'cruel' to be making the kids do school work while their brother is 'holidaying'.

Household projects are on the go again, plastering, painting and even sorting out the eyesore of the 'side of the house' where things go to 'take the trip to the dump', getting lost in the over grown weeds, is being done this weekend!! Weeds pulled, and a truckload of cement dirt to be laid, so glad I'm so far along in this pregnancy and won't be able to help!! lol!!

Boring see? Very very boring! lol!! I hope everyone has a great Easter, and I'm sure, like 12% sure that April will be a big blogging month for me! lol!!

Art - Inspired by James Rizzi

The kids had great fun recreating pop art by James Rizzi today. I have to confess that I would never have come across this artist's work myself, I'm just not an arty crafty sort of gal. (Though I'm in the process of learning a lot more about art)

Livia participates in an art class run by a homeschooling network, and was introduced to pop art in her latest lesson.



It looked so fun I decided to also do this activity at home with the family. Every one from Silas (5) to Callum (12) participated and really enjoyed it, I even decided to join in with this one :) I was well impressed with the level of operation between the kids and of course praised them, to which their reply was "We're being good because we're learning something fun!" lol!!




Firstly we drew our designs with pastels and then used water colours to paint.



And here are their finished pieces of work!

Created by Silas

Created by Livia

Created by Aliya

Created by Callum

Totally at my witts end!!

Nope its not the kids driving me nuts, its not the chores making me loose my mind, its the socks! YES! SOCKS! lol!!

I have a over abundance of socks that seem to end up loose and lost around the place, in various baskets and draws.

Sock cake anyone? lol! This is a 3l milk next to the pile, big hey?

And since I seem to have early nesting going on I thought that I would tackle the situation head on! lol! With Livia's help, who is the puzzle master, we managed to cull the socks once again to a (hopefully) manageable amount.

We chucked out nearly half the bucket, due to socks being holey or stretched. Surely I'm not only large family out there with a sock situation?? ;)

Family Fun :)

One thing we like to do together as a family is have Marshmellows by the fire :) There is something so earthly and grounding about making a fire and sitting around it enjoying the warmth. Time seems to slow down for a little.....




Sometimes we make a damper on sticks and fill them with honey, or toast bread on sticks over the fire and spear with butter.......yummo......

The kids then enjoy a night play, running around with balls and hula hoops or jumping on the trampoline. I love that we have a 'old fashioned' backyard where we can make fires and have the kids play outside late without the neighbours cracking it lol!

Oh and we take fire safety seriously, as you can see the baby is strapped into his pram, Aliya has her long hair tied back and once we are finished enjoying the fire it is put out with the hose. The children are not allowed to pick up leaves or put in paper to 'make the fire bigger' and they are not allowed to be constantly getting up out of their seats in case they bump into each other or the fire. One can never say never when it comes to children having accidents, (without wrapping them up in bubble wrap) but I try to let them have some 'old fashioned fun', supervised of course.

2009, 2010 and 2011 Christmas Santa Photos

I came across some old Christmas Photos and couldn't resist sharing how much our family has changed over the last few years :) As you will notice Jaidon is not in every photo, that is because we have him alternating weeks ie before/after Christmas Day on the Christmas holidays over the years....

I can't wait for 2012 Christmas Photo because Jaidon and the newest baby will be in the photo :) All of our 8 children together :)

A day of Christmas Craft :)

Today was a day of entertaining kids so that they didn't drive me up the wall :) I find that structured 'organised' activity stops them from squabbling with each other and constantly nagging to use the computers.





We made chains (with the dreaded leftover brochures that the kids deliver), while singing along to Christmas songs. Callum (no picture allowed to be taken, too cool you see) made Christmas biscuits to decorate (job for tomorrow) and he also organised the kids to do some Christmas coloring ins and word searches. Callum then decided to make lunches, fresh egg sangas (run out of lettuce lol) since the dodo birds are laying so well atm.





It was a fun day, no pressure to be out and about. The kids had minimal tiffs which were resolved quickly :) Since the kids behaved so well, the big kids were rewarded with computer time, and Mumma was rewarded with quiet time as both the little ones went down for a nap together :) YAY for me :)