mum of 16 years

Today marks the day that our lovely Luc has made the journey around the sun 16 times. It also marks the day that I have been a mother for 16 years. Wow!

I rediscovered the egg image today, and it seemed somehow appropriate. Eggs and motherhood. I love the simple perfection and sense of calm that this image conjures. Mother nature has a habit of evoking these feelings. With all my eggs off the boil and no longer being able to have babies, it makes my lovely three all the more precious. 

The eggs pictured were purchased from a local farm that raised free-range chickens of several varieties. The resultant eggs were a mix of subtly different shades and sizes. I had hardboiled the eggs for one of the kid's birthday parties, and they were simply coexisting in a bowl together. 

Despite Luc towering over me now (at a stately 6'2"), he has a lovely gentle nature, is a deep thinker, and a truly wonderful soul to be around. I'm in deep admiration of his motivation and tenacity to not only write—but also illustrate and promote—his own cyberpunk novel. I only aspire to the levels of procrastination that can take someone to 150,000 words! 😜

Birthdays on school days, when one has to be out the door at just after 6:30am, mean celebrations have to be delayed. Oh well. A slice of carrot cake and a nice cup of chai with the family after school will have to suffice. Happy birthday my cheeky monkey—your Nanma and Grumpy would be so proud.

8 is great

 Our lovely Nic turned 8 years old today! 
Nic was overjoyed with the day - loving (most) every moment of it. Homework was made (a little) more tolerable when he was able to read one of his new books. 

I met Nic for lunch at school and brought him a Spanakopita and Lemon Bar from Chef Nancy's. I dropped off some treats to share with his classmates (boring pre-made chocolate bars to deal with school's new no-home-made/must-be-labelled/allergy-free policy).

As per his request, I made Nic spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. Paul made a spectacular layer cake with lime and lemon layers sandwiched with fresh cream and lemon curd.

What a big handsome boy he is now. I had a giggle after finding this movie of him recently. He looked like a real wheeler-and-dealer at almost 15 months... speaking Nicolese of course. 

5 years old!

Wow! The birthday we have been anticipating for months, finally arrived. We had been made aware of the impending celebration for a very long time... particularly as Mietta had been (verbally) inviting guests to her birthday party since mid-May! 
Mietta's birthday celebrations started with a birthday party two weeks ago, then a restaurant dinner the night before her birthday (venue chosen largely due to the family having a late afternoon swim at the gym)... then some 'treats' for Mietta's new classmates... then a birthday dinner at home, on the actual day, with requested Tacos, 'kid's wine' (sparkling cider) and a 'double chocolate fudge cake'. We were able to share Mietta's party with her grandparents (my parents) - via Skype!

I didn't get around to making a cake for Mietta's birthday as I was too busy trying to track down some type of 'treat' for her classmates. I was hard-pressed to come up with a treat as new school guidelines mandate that it CANNOT be homemade, cannot contain nuts, must avoid any known allergen, cannot be processed in a facility that also processes nuts, etc. I also had my own guidelines of no artificial colors or sweeteners and preferably sugar-free. I had to throw my healthy fruit kebab option out the window! I ended up buying some mini-meringues (one child had to avoid due to an egg allergy), that I skewered together with fresh raspberries using toothpicks I'd decorated with some big 5's and a birthday message. I had to present all items, in original packaging, to the school nurse for approval. Mietta helped hand the treats out to her class friends with some 'safe' lollipops. At least the pure joy emanating from her smile made the running around worth it :-) 

This fleeting childhood thing... sure is fleeting by rapidly. 

pool party... before the summer finishes

The Summer school vacation is just too long in our part of the world (12 weeks this year!) It eats up the entire summer and so summer seems to disappear all too rapidly. I dread the cold weather and rue summer's demise. Anyway, we needed to organize a birthday party for our little Miss soon-to-be-five. We'd agreed upon a pool party and needed this to happen before our neighborhood pool closes on Labor Day (September 2nd). Thankfully our cool/wet Summer abated and the weather was spectacular for the big day today. 

kid soup

It was a challenge planning a party for 20 kids, plus adults, away from our home with no refrigeration, no cooking facilities and no ready access to water or power. Hence... we ordered pizza! 

I made colorful carrot and beet dips with crudités, fruit kebabs, a giant tossed spinach salad, and pesto pasta to curb appetites until pizza arrived. A sudden dearth of available blueberries meant our rainbow kebabs lacked the blue spectrum!

I made the easiest decorated birthday cake I have ever made - with ever so many thanks to the wonderfully helpful video at 52 Kitchen Adventures. 

I frosted a yellow cake using this recipe for cake and frosting. I used the India Tree brand of natural colors to create the lovely subtle coloring. Mietta was very happy with the result.

To ensure our vegan friends did not miss out on cake, I made my first ever vegan cake! I used the recipe here for a Chocolate-Mocha Cake. Instead of instant coffee powder, Paul pulled four decaf espresso shots for me to use. I omitted the coffee from the icing and used the icing on the sides of the cake in place of the ganache. I topped the cake with chocolate-dipped strawberries. It was surprisingly OK :-)

I made some pink lemonade and we had juice and water for thirsty swimmers. As we had so many guests, I made a Pavlova too, and strew this with fruit that didn't make it onto the fruit kebabs. 

In the interests of providing a healthy - less trashy type of 'goody bag', we bought some of Alex's range of craft projects to hand out. Mietta really enjoyed the paper bag puppet kit she received for Christmas - and I had kept this in mind for such an event. We filled some goody bags with a tub of playdough and a few clay tools for the younger guests and some bags with craft paper, stickers and origami paper for the older children.

We also had some balls for each child to take home. No sweets - much to Mietta's disgust "ALL goody bags have candy!" she protested. Well yes. Most do... but I have been trying to thwart this for years! In the past, we've given out: popcorn containers filled with microwave popcorn, pencils, erasers (for a movie theme party); a bag of healthy prepackaged snacks (Annie's bunnies, raisins, etc.); novel tastes and treats from the Asian supermarket; decorated letter cookies with the appropriate letter for each guest (decorated by Luc); board books for the younger set; bubbles, balloons... It can be a challenge to think of ideas that will delight - but not end up straight in landfill or harm little tummies.

We had such a good time - a really lovely day. Our wonderful guests graciously helped out with kid wrangling, clean-up, cake dispersal and cake storage (in a nearby fridge) - freeing up Paul and myself to actually speak to people... and for me to take a few photos! We were most grateful. 

Mietta had the best time and was a wonderful host. Her enthusiasm lasted ALL day. Upon returning home she immediately constructed one of the left-over goody bag crafts, then built Mega bloks with Paul all afternoon, before taking Rascal for a walk and having her first-ever attempt on a pedal bike. Phew!

My birthday brunch

My darling husband seriously makes the BEST Eggs Benedict! When he asked what I would like for my birthday breakfast - there was no choice! Making the muffins (from scratch) as well, meant that breakfast arrived at brunch. No complaints from me. 
Where custard-type cooking makes me cringe, Paul has no problems making Hollandaise sauce - or custard or Zabaglione for that matter. 
Paul pre-poaches his eggs (one at a time), lets these rest in iced water, before refreshing in boiling water just before serving. He makes his Hollandaise early and then keeps this warm in a thermos container. Paul starts the muffin mix the night before to speed up the process a bit. He cooks the bacon in the panini press. Everything is timed to perfection to serve 5 at once. It is one of the family's collective favorite foods. 
Of course, any breakfast or brunch is not complete without a flat white made by my Mister Barista. 

11 11 11 - Remembering Nic's birthday

Another occasion to celebrate. Our lovely Nicolas turns a great big whopping 6 years old! Congratulations dear son. Nic's birthday falls upon Remembrance (Poppy) Day in Australia - and Veteran's Day in the US.

Given the elementary school had requested students dress in red, white and blue as a sign of respect for Veterans, I felt it only fitting to make birthday cakes for Nic's classmates in the same color scheme. Same old banana cupcakes with cream cheese frosting - always a favorite as we often seem to end up with a few bananas that are only really suitable for cakes.

Today was a chance to reminisce a little....

Nic was induced as he was 9 days late. Being late was not such a great issue except for the following facts: my parents had been hanging out for two weeks in our very small cottage, waiting to 'help out' with the new baby - and were eager to return home (as a friend had died while they were away); it was a Friday and my obstetrician wasn't 'on call' over the weekend; I'd had a tough time with sciatica and back pain and really was 'ready'; and importantly, we were in the process of getting visas for Paul to work in the US and the baby was delaying this (No baby = no birth certificate. No birth certificate = no passport. No passport = no plane tickets. No plane tickets = no visa. No visa = no job!). So - it was decided - bring on the baby!

Remembrance day seemed to be a good birthdate - particularly for the US - where dates are written in reverse order - it would make (and has made) writing Nic's birthdate a whole lot easier to fill out on forms.

The midwives and obstetrician wanted to know if I was going to observe the minutes silence, required at 11am on Remembrance Day... Of course, that was a question asked with a very real risk of retaliation / inflicted pain (verbal or otherwise)... If you have ever met a woman in labor before, you will understand what I mean.

If Nic had popped out as a female, I wanted to name the baby 'Poppy' - as I thought this would be a fitting name given the baby's birthday.

An apple a day...

The kids had a vacation day today due to it being election day. As Paul will be away on a conference, we took this as an opportunity to celebrate Nic's birthday a little earlier (he will turn 6 on Friday). The weather was superb - so we decided to go to Carters Mountain Orchard in Charlottesville to do a little apple-picking. I had taken Paul's parents here when they visited last year - during peach season. I had also visited the orchard with the kids last year and they really enjoyed picking apples. So... off we went! A little later than hoped... as I have succumbed to Paul's latest virus - BLAH! And we were delayed somewhat when Mietta had a bout of carsickness and we were forced to go in search of some new clothes!

After finally reaching the orchard, we had the obligatory cider donuts and apple cider to give us strength to pick some 25 pounds of apples! The kids LOVED this and took more than one opportunity to bite into crisp and delicious Pink Lady apples. Yum. Interestingly, this is a modern variety of apple and was developed in Australia.

Little Miss (now) Two

We were lucky enough to have Paul's parents visiting when Mietta turned two. We had plans for a birthday party, but tight visiting schedules meant this was more of an impromptu party, at home, with little time to prepare. I was able to make Mietta's requests "s'ghetti and meatballs' and a large) 'Mr Happy cupcake'. Paul made her favorite 'wockamole'.

How fast Mietta has reached the milestone of two! Our little girl is a bright little button and her language has just exploded. She appears to be permanently cheerful with a very happy and agreeable disposition. People are quite surprised when she has a meltdown: she can be fierce and has the loudest voice of any of our kids. Lukily she can be easily distracted from tantrums. Mietta is a bit of a conundrum: she adores playing with cars and trucks, zooming rockets through the sky, kicking a soccer ball and walking around on her knees saying "I am a wobot, I am a wobot" in her best monotone robot voice. Despite her penchant for 'boy' toys, Mietta loves to dress up and must wear a 'pwity jacket', hat, shoes and bracelet with every outfit (even with pajamas after she wakes in the morning or after her bath and before bed). Sometimes she even includes a handbag / purse.

Master 3 turns 4!

Our darling Master 3 turned 4 years old today. My husband and I breathed a huge sigh of relief... we managed to raise him to 4! At times we didn't think we would get this far... as he raced to an almost certain doom or as we trekked off to the ER. Our 'middle child' is frustratingly 'individual', master of his own destiny and was assured to be 'challenging' from an early age. A real conundrum, he has had some behavioral issues at school (totally within his control) yet is the most loving, compassionate and sharing child. He continually astounds, annoys, aggravates and amazes us. We hope we can raise him to a ripe old age as it will be a real revelation to see what he eventually becomes.

Master 4 was extremely happy with all of his birthday gifts. a real sense of wonder and a love for toys means this child loves anything. This makes me happy as we can avoid many of the 'commercial' type toys that his big brother adores. The 'winner' toy was a Melissa & Doug Treehouse.

090909 - One year today!

Our darling little girl turned one year old today! How time has flown: it does go faster with each subsequent child. In her first year, our little one has managed trips to Australia, the UK, the west and east coasts of the US, and a complete change of abode/lifestyle. Taking it all in her stride, our happy little one is completely at home playing in the dirt in her new garden.

My husband wanted to do something special to mark the occasion, deciding to make a carrot cake complete with cream cheese frosting. This was a special dessert loved by us all. He admitted that this was the first cake he had ever made 'for someone'. I felt a little miffed that I hadn't been his 'first' (cake recipient) - but can't deny our little miss the title... besides, I am currently enjoying the spoils with a cup of tea as I type!