easter egg hunt 2011

Every year since the children were quite little, well B1 and B2 anyway cause the others weren't born then, we have had an Easter egg hunt. 

VCH goes out and hides the eggs all over the back yard and the kids head out to find the eggs, they are given the number of eggs they are allowed to collect each and when they get theirs they help the others find the rest.

Pyjamas are a must, fresh from bed hair and Easter baskets, lined up from youngest to oldest.

Th pyjamas were all new given the night before when we did the Festival of Light before heading to bed.

The Girl her basket, look at the hair!!

B4 with his basket, that he decorated and his eggs.

VCH hid some in the pool area this year.

The eggs are all collected and we head inside for reading of Benjamin's Box and the Resurrection eggs,

and our boiled eggs for breaky.

big weekend with the girls

Finally here is the post from my weekend away with my girlfriends from High School, we were actually missing three from the group who couldn't make it, but seven of us descended on the Gold Coast for the weekend, I am sure they never knew what hit them!

 These girls I have known for many years, some since early childhood others since high school, some I still see fairly regularly, others I haven't seen for a number of years.

We had a fabulous weekend, with lots of laughs over old times, catching each other up on our lives, loves and children and making lots of fun new memories.

This is the view from our room down to the outdoor pool and spa, there was also an indoor pool and spa.
We stayed in two three bedroom apartments at the Meriton in Broadbeach.

Here is a rainbow framed by one of the skyscrapers late one afternoon.

We had good weather, just a couple of sprinkles of rain unlike at home where it was pouring, though nothing could have dampened our spirits.

Someone thought this would be a good idea, this is when we were all dolled up for a Saturday night on the town.

This is us having dinner before going out dancing.

Cheers

This is my oldest friend, we have known each other since babies and went to each others birthday parties and such even though we didn't go to the same school until High School.

This is when we went out dancing at a nightclub call Howl at the Moon, it was totally cool with two grand pianos playing and lots of music from "our era".

On Sunday morning before we left we went to Max Brenner's Chocolate shop.

YUUMMM!!!! 

We shared a fondue and had hot chocolate.

I want to go back so I can try lots of their other yummy chocolate treats.

We are determined not to let seven years go before getting together again so have decide do make this a biannual reunion!

I came home very tied after a couple of late nights and busy weekend and my wonderful VCH took all the children off to play golf on Monday Morning after looking after them all weekend so I could have a sleep in- What a Guy!!!

PS This is the most photos you will actually see of me on my blog because I am usually the one behind the camera and really you came to see the five brothers, one sister and the VCH and not me anyway!

easter feasting

I thought I might share some of the table settings and food we shared over the Easter weekend.

This is our table set for Passover,

I set the table very simply with a white cloth and beige placemats, white plates and the cutlery in a white napkin.

These are the containers waiting for the sedar condiments, flat bread, horseradish, haroset (mixture of apples, nuts and honey), parsley and salt water, and the gravy jug.

I made my usual lamb and roast vegetables.

We talk about each of the elements from the Passover and  what they meant to the Israelites' and why and then read the Last Supper from the Bible, it was lovely this year as we asked the older boys to take turns reading.

On Good Friday we make Hot Cross Buns and enjoy what I call munch, a combination of morning tea and lunch with Hot Chocolate.

B4 made me the cross and the wreath is representing the crown of thorns, the sack cloth (burlap) is for mourning.

 Egg sandwiches, salmon sandwiches, cake, dip and biscuits and 

fresh home made Hot Cross Buns, click on photo to link to recipe.

The family waiting to read the story of the Crucifixion from the Bible.

For tea we ate fish, homemade chips, salad and homemade tartare sauce.

The fish was sweep, an ocean fish caught locally (bought from the local seafood shop), I dusted them in flour with lemon pepper and fried them in a little bit of oil.

Easter Sunday after our Easter Egg hunt we have boiled eggs in our special egg cups before heading to Church.

In this basket are some things representing the Resurrection.

We have stone candy - for the stone over the tomb, 

a toy lamb - Jesus was the Lamb of God

an empty plastic Easter Egg- for the empty tomb

coins for the 30 pieces of silver Judas recieved

Jelly beans the colours represent our life in Christ

 black- our sin

red - the blood of Jesus

white-new life in Jesus

yellow- streets of gold in heaven

green- growth in Jesus

orange- prayer

purple- sorrow for our wrong doing

pink- promises of tomorrow

blue- holy spirit sent to guide us

and a book on the Easter Story

 

Everyone got a little Easter Bilby on their plate.

After church and visiting VCH's family to give out gifts we came home and ate chicken drumsticks, potato salad and coleslaw with some yummy garlic and olive oil sourdough bread and homemade butter (courtesy of Jamie Oliver 30 minute meals) eaten casually on our veranda.

hot cross buns

Every year on Good Friday we enjoy making our own Hot Cross Buns.

My dear friend Sandra (miss you too) requested the recipe so here it is.

It is originally out of a Family Circle Magazine.

Hot Cross Buns

2 t yeast

1 1/3 C warm water

1/4 C sugar (you could use honey)

4 C plain flour

1/4 C full cream milk powder

1 t mixed spice (I also add 1 t cinnamon)

1 C sultanas

1/2 C mixed peel (I use diced dried apricots instead as they are sweeter and add more flavour)

80g butter melted and cooled

2 eggs lightly beaten

1. Mix together yeast water and sugar and wait 10 minutes or until it has bubbled up.

2. Add other ingredients to bowl of electric mixer with dough hook attached

3. Add yeast mixture and mix for 5 minutes on low

4. Cover and set aside until doubled in size (if you are in a hurry or it is cold you can do this in the oven on a very low temp under 50C)

5. Punch dough down give it a quick knead and divide into 16 equal pieces

6. Place in lined pan close together

7. If you wish to put crosses on them now is the time, mix a little flour and water in a small ziplock bag and cut one corner and pipe on (I am not very good at piping but try my best)

8. Cover and leave to rise until doubled in size.

9. Heat oven to 200C 

10. Spray buns with water and place in oven. 

11. Bake for 10 minutes and then reduce heat to 180C and bake for 15-20 minutes longer, you can tell if they are cooked if they sound hollow when you tap them.

12. Cool for 5 minutes in tray before removing onto wire rack.

13. Make a glaze out of a little icing sugar and water and a bit of cinnamon (like a really runny icing) brush onto buns while still hot.

14. Serve warm with lashings of butter. 

Leftovers can be cut in half and toasted for breakfast the next day.

If you want something different than the buns you can make an Easter loaf by diving dough in half to make two loaves.

Take one and cut it into 3 equal pieces roll these out and plait to make a plaited loaf, do the same with other piece of dough, brush with egg white and sprinkle on flaked almonds and sugar, cook as for Hot Cross Buns. 

I usually make this as well but I can't find a photo.

shared at:

easter making

I thought I would share some of the things we made this year for Easter.

We generally like to make some Easter treats to give to our family, rather than just buying chocolate.

The Girl wanted to ice some milk arrowroot biscuits for Easter like they did at Kids Club, here are some samples that the 4 youngest ones made, we gave some of these away to VCH's family as part of their Easter treats.

We made these Rocky Road Easter eggs from a recipe found here:

The recipe said it would make 4 eggs, but it actually only made 3 even though we used the same sized moulds, so we ended up not putting them together and just gave them half eggs which I think was better anyway as they are quite rich.

These are chocolate truffles with Malteasers in the centre, they were very messy to make but totally yummy.

We gave these to the adults in the family.

I got the recipe out of the latest  Better Homes and Gardens (Australian) magazine.

These are the treats wrapped up and ready to give, I buy cellophane bags from a local wholesaler in various sizes and use these to pack all manner of goodies for Christmas or Easter, and I love tying things with a bit of raffia. 

We then popped them into little Easter bags that I bought at the Reject Shop for 50c each.

B4 and B5 and The Girl thought they would decorate their Easter baskets, B5 went a little over the top including a cat in his- I am not sure if there was any room left for his Easter eggs however!

shared at:

what's been happening...finally

While I was away enjoying myself VCH and the gang entertained themselves by installing gyprock, doors and windows.

 

 Here is the window in B3's little room, it was also found secondhand at the building site, it was aluminum in colour and  B3 didn't want me to paint it white so we left it as is. 

We are going to build a bed under this window with storage underneath and bookshelves up the sides.

VCH has gyprocked the walls, has plastered and now even painted them.

We are now waiting on the electrician to wire it up so that we can put the ceiling in.

 

 This is looking out the door of his room into the little hallway that goes up to the bathroom to the left and will step down to the right into the living area AKA games room.

 

This is the bathroom window, VCH now has the blue board (for wet areas) up and done a coat of paint.

The plumbing for the shower.

 and the sink in the bathroom.

 This is the toilet window and sliding door.

and the plumbing for the basin in the toilet - we decided only to run cold water into this basin, which is why there is only one outlet.

More has been done this week, mainly walls and plastering and a little painting, I will show you some pictures when I take them, but VCH heads back to work today, and as we really can't do a lot more until we have the electrician and plumber here we are sort of stuck, although there are some arguments discussions on the flooring for B3's room, the hall and the games room going on.

I haven't actually done anything about my pictures not uploading, they now seem to be, so I am presuming it was a problem with my server.

sentimental saturday six

Sentimental Saturday where I share a post from earlier in my blog life.

 

This week I thought I would share a post from last Easter.

We do pretty much the same things each year, very much into creating family traditions.

I will probably do a similar roundup next week or when my pictures will upload again, at least it is easy to obtain old pictures from Picasso.

Don't forget to click on the photo to read the post.

Hope you are enjoying your Easter Celebrations.

This will be the last Sentimental Saturday for a while- too much of a good thing and all that!

internet grrrr!!!!!

I know all my fans out there are eagerly waiting news of my weekend away and our latest building updates but something is happening with my internet and my pictures won't upload, so until I can get that sorted there will be no posts, thank you all for your patience.

For a quick rundown- weekend away was fabulous!!!!!!

Building progress is going really well, we have more done than I though possible, just waiting on the electrician to come and wire up before we can complete B3's room and the pre plumbing in the shower and toilet are all done and the blue board (for wet areas) is going up.

So wishing you all a Happy Easter.

We had a wonderful Passover last night and will be making Hot Cross buns today.

about us

Deanne- Christian homeschooling mother, loves decorating, repurposing, upcycling, and making stuff.
recently started my own business:
redeemeduniquegiftsandhomewares.com
contact me:  mumsmilk@skymesh.com.au 

VCH: Very Clever Husband- my sidekick who transforms my ideas into reality

Boys: 

B1- 18, referee extraordinaire, soccer player, shop assistant, wanna be farmer

B2-16yo, also a referee, stirrer, diligent worker, piano player, learner driver

B3-13yo, nice guy, sensitive soul, our 3rd soccer referee, 
Army Cadet.

B4- 9yo, gift maker, talented crafter

B5-8yo, super sweet cutie, soccer enthusiast

 and The Girl-6yo loves everyone, loves animals, loves books, loves learning,
little Miss Gymnast and soccer player.

Maggie

Bella (aka Snowbell)