Thursday.

don't you love it when a pile of fluff get's a few stitches and becomes a treasured possession?

This little ballerina sure does. 

She's having a rest in it before taking her daddy to his first ballet practice this arvo.

I told him he'll be in fits of giggles while he watches the little girls do their practice with all the seriousness of a judge.  They are truly too cute. 

But as for this morning - it needed a good workout first...

and we have a very happy little miss fluffing about today...

Bax loves climbing this tree to collect the apples.  

Monty is far too busy to strike a pose. 

Making sure his daddy doesn't get more than earshot away to hear his constant calling of "Daaa"

Made my Grandmother's delicious apple sauce today. Well - not exactly.... These apples need no added sugar, and very little else than a cinnamon stick thrown in for the boil and the zest of a lemon. And of course - the bit that really makes applesauce perfect - a tablespoon of butter at the end - to gloss it up and make it just right.  

Have a happy day. xx

delicious loganberries

Our first harvest off the loganberry bushes.  Our friend Erica helped search for the purple ones.  She's headed home to make a special dessert and we are into the kitchen to make our loganberry crumble. 

Do you have a favourite crumble/crisp/cobbler recipe? 

I'd love to hear about it as we haven't got one that we  particularly love.

Have a happy day.

xx

I have a date!

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...with my precious daughter.

Gretta and I are off to Melbourne's National Theatre for an afternoon date.

We will first go to Richmond for a girly lunch with baby chinos and latte's.

Then off to watch the beautiful Ballerinas preform "The Nutcracker"

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There are two very excited girls in this home this morning.

Have a happy Sunday.

Happy Anniversary, Mom & Dad. xx

P.S. have you checked our our new blog yet?? Well - what are you waiting for??? www.rubyhillsorganics.blogspot.com

lessons

My biggest of my smalls are finally getting some swimming lessons.  When we lived in Gundy - our options were very far away (70 K), and with a baby thrown in for good measure - just didn't happen.  I'm not sure that it has been such a bad thing that we've waited until age 4 & 3 and a half's as they seem to be doing really well - they've both had little frights, but are still excited and are keen to get the oh so fancy and super special goggles.  Seeing as we live 10 minutes to the beach, we thought it might be nice if Santa brought a life jacket for each of them.  Gretta was hoping for something more like lippy and tutu, but ... we'll see...

How's the gearing up for Chrissy going?  We've got our tree up and subsequently are constantly putting ornaments back up and saying - "NO" to Monty as he parades around the house with his new treasure.  As you can guess, about 90% of the ornaments are now at the TOP of the tree.....

We are having a joint garage sale tomorrow with our neighbours from around the way.  I've done some baking for the morning so that I can wake kids, chuck in car, and toss a muffin to them while I unpack the goods. The muffins are really good! 

Here's what they are...  

they use olive oil - which makes me balk - firstly for cooking with Olive oil - it shouldn't go above 170 C otherwise it goes off.  But secondly - baking with the flavour of Olive oil?? Hmm.  But these are little rippers! (Well - not so little - it made 12 regular and 6 large muffins!)   Give em' a go - if you can't read the recipe above, let me know.  

Of course I added something - as I always do - chopped macadamias on the top.  And I used Organic Spelt flour. And decreased the sugar by 1/4 cup.  

Serve warm with a large lashing of butter.  I better go put them away before I help myself again.

Off to organize garage sale, pay bills and process eggs on my day off from the kids.

Have a happy day.

xx

nesting

We've been doing a lot of nesting around here - except there is no pending baby... don't worry!

More like putting all of our things in just the right places.

I nipped outside to the shed and found this little beautiful treasure from nature a few minutes ago.  It is so pretty and intricate.  

Unfortunately, we might have just a few too many eggs for it... see below....

yep, still coming thick and fast around here.  I've got a couple of new clients in Melbourne, and one beautiful little Organic Cafe that are featuring our eggs.  Will let you know more later..

Meet Lesley. She's our WWOOF'er.

And don't we wish all visitors could be like her.  She's helpful, fun, smart and just plain easy to be around.  

She's helped Nic on the farm, sown my seeds in the veggie patch, read books to the kidlets, ran and played games with them, nipped into the kitchen to do the dishes while I've bathed the kids, baked amazing rhubarb crumbles... and the list goes on! We are blessed.

Many of you may be wondering why this little toe-head isn't featuring in many pictures at the moment...

That's because he is FAR too busy.

He'll have to get back to you later.

xx Amy

She's Three.

My darling little girl is Three today. It is magic to be Three.

She requested corn flakes for brekky and a pink cheesecake.
Our beetroot cheesecake was a very subtle pale pink, but she noticed that it was in fact pink.

She has been well spoiled with A LOT of loot.
A very special addition to her collection is her mama made doll house. Well, it's actually a mini bunny house. My girl has a "thing" for bunnies.  She love's all things bunnies.

Not bad for a $10 opp shop doll house, eh?

Must say thanks to Mandy for helping with the interior and exterior colour schemes.  She came from NZ to make this special for our little girl.

I love you my darling. You are my precious little girl, and you make my heart bloom a million times a day.

xx

fashionista fairy floss strikes again.

Have you got any idea what the essential accessory for brekky eating is?

that's right - swimming goggles.

Particularly useful if your brother is going to throw milk at you or something. A girl can never be overprepared.

On another note - my big boy is becoming quite the gun at taking photos! Have a look...

 

Do you see that adorable bunny hairclip in FFF's hair? Hair Fairy Clips. Get onto it - she's awesome.

ahh - be still my heart.

She's still nibble'able and has enough attitude to make you scream, but is as tender as velvet when she wants to be too.

As I picked her up from "Mini Minors" on Wednesday and she was skipping to the car hand in hand with me she said, "Mommy - I really really really love (pronounced loeb) you... I doooo." in her beautiful little husky voice. Yummo.

on the phone

Happy Birthday, Nanny!
Good to talk to you this morning.
I'm off inspecting cows with daddy.
Have a happy day.
xx G

parfait on a tree, anyone?

Changing this little man's nappy is now like trying to nail parfait to a tree.
He arches his back, flails his arms, buckshots his legs and grabs hold of anything in reach. I do believe that he is part heffalump. But 100% delectable. ...and yes, that's him standing up.

this is the daddy dogpile. they are all over him when he gets home from being in the yards.
Do you think they're attracted to eau de parfum de warthog?

"I don't like what the humiditiy is doing to my hair! ROAR!"
This is actually herself being a lion in the nuddy noo nar. Frightening. V. frightening.
...but most frightening of all is what the humidity is doing to MY hair. Oh well - the packing boxes do not mind if I look like Medusa.

Happy Birthday Nic!

We have just polished off GINORMOUS slices of Pav in honour of my Mr's birthday. This kids were very excited to help open parcels this morning, and the little miss was keen to try on the snorkeling gear. 

What do you reckon of my very first Pavlova? It was delicious. Happy Hubby too.

thanks Yardage Design for the perfect recipe!