little boy baking

He's been in the kitchen most mornings, either of his own volition or because I'm coaxing him out of a mid morning lull without his big sister to entertain him. However, why ever, he loves the baking!

He gets his little apron on, takes a bowl from the cupboard. Gets the eggs, cracks two in the bowl, peels the bananas, starts mashing them and then just helps generally with all the pouring and mixing. Last of all he licks the bowl with great delight.

We've just finished making a batch of banana muffins, his favourite.

The other day, we made these fruit buns, the old fashioned, long way. Proving bread actually provides a whole morning's worth of baking. He gets to do the mixing first, then take a break while it proves. Then pounding and kneading and poking, forming into balls. Then another break.

Then the eating!

The recipe is from Laurie Black's book, New Home Cooking.
I have adapted it by mixing all the milk with the yeast at the beginning and adding whatever fruit I have available. It works well with wholemeal flour too.

baby bmx-ing

This was so much fun. She's done it twice now and considers herself an expert at all the turns and humps. I was never so brave as a child.

The bike is a balance bike, made from plywood by a NZ company. This one is a Runna bike.

Now, you couldn't do that with training wheels...

play stations and work stations

I don't know which is which, really, perhaps both - but my side of the table is equally matched by the kids' side for entertainment and attention at the moment.
I've been sewing, more on that later. Hugo and Georgia have been making play-dough and plasticine treats for their play oven.

It will probably stay like this for another few days until Chris and I are completely driven mad by the mess and want our table back for 'regular' activities.

But we are having so much fun!

handmade by little hands

During the holidays Georgia learnt to write. It was a self-led process whereby she first asked how to write and spell her name, then the rest of the family, and it grew from there. 

I soon realised she didn't have a copy of the alphabet to work with.

The wonderful font 'Schoolhouse Printed A' shows pretty standard formed letters so I put together an alphabet and some pages of family names for her to read from.

She reads it during naps and in the morning sometimes, reciting the alphabet song. But otherwise all her writing is done by asking us to call out letters for whatever word she wants to write.

Understandably she wants to share her new skill with people so any picture she draws is usually dedicated to someone and their name written on it, then 'from Georgia'. 

You can see an early attempt here. She has chosen to write capital letters at this stage, so I won't confuse her with little letters until she's ready.

She went to Maggie's 4th birthday the other day so she made a card and some wrapping paper.

It was so cool to see her sense of pride at having made something herself to give. The present was, at Georgia's request, a small set of stationery so the birthday girl could give it a go herself.

party hat

This was fun!

All the 'hens' had to make a rosette for the bride-to-be's hat.
Georgia had fun putting the sequin kits together. Add buttons, feathers, glue, card,  safety pins, tape...
More to come in the handmade wedding series. Not to be confused with the second-hand wedding variety (great NZ film by the way) which I can also relate to.

a little gardener

 Georgia made these practical garden labels. We have the vege patches weeded at last, ready for planting. But no plants! Packets of seeds (I spent $100 last year on seeds!) and a sudden urgency to have them growing.

She found sticks in the garden, some of them were hardened flax cut into strips. With cellotape she connected the labels to the sticks and stuck them into the pots.
She enjoyed making these and it was great to have her to something useful and for her to see her contribution to our business of growing our own food. We'll see if anything's ready by xmas.

kite making

The wind has made its presence felt these last two days. The promised storm turned up in time for us to collect Georgia from Kindy. I huggled Hugo against the thunder and lightening and we made a dash for it. Got soaked, of course. But we lit the fire and got warm again, then the sun came out. Typical, four seasons in one day. The wind dried up everything and the storm was nothing much to see here. Other parts of the country got blasted and power is still out to thousands, though.

So the wind made mincemeat of the washing today. At last I could give the clothes drier a rest! I love line-dried washing. Every part of the process pleases me, Perhaps I am strange, but it really makes me happy. It's a nice excuse to get outside and into the fresh air. The clothes get ironed by the wind. I feel like I've achieved something, which I don't when I use the drier. It saves power too, which is great after the rather large winter power bills...

Motivated by the wind, Chris decided to make a kite with the kids. I used to make these with my Opa and cousins as a child. So much fun, especially all the cello-taping. 

  

He had a rough idea what to do, but got some tips from this site. We went for the standard diamond shape. Georgia was most interested in making the pretty tail, naturally.  

  

With so much anticipation the kids thrust themselves out the door to the park (we live next to a great park) and Chris tried to get it going. Yeah, well. Tried. 



    

The wind was too strong and too haphazard. This way then the other way in the same breath. The kite got off the ground a few times. The kids didn't mind, they were thrilled. But it was a bit dangerous, spinning in mid-air and behaving completely erratically and looking like an injury hazard. It nose-dived and took a chunk of muddy grass with it. They were screaming with excitement, but we had to reign them in and seat them on a park bench to watch, which took all the fun out of it.

Another attempt to fly... 

Then he gave up. 

If you are to try making one of these for yourself, here are some notes:

• Use strong plastic for the main sail.
• Make the kite balanced, so it sits nice and level when you hold the string. Tie strings to all four corners to attain this balance.
• Don't make the kite too big, and wait for a windy day, but not gales! And keep your kids safe by maintaining a distance further than the length of string.

Sweet Georgia made one herself after. It was heavily stapled, cello-taped, drawn on, then all that folded inside and stapled again with a pretty ribbon for the tail (and string). Outside to fly it, no luck, but no worries. She was so pleased with it.  

Dutch treat

We made a gingerbread house. The second one in my lifetime (my uncle made one with me and all my cousins when we were young) and this one was made with no particular occasion in mind - just some fun for the kids.  

  The recipe is a family favourite for gingerbread boys. The idea is to let the children create as if it were playdough to make biscuits resembling boys and girls, animals, and basic shapes. Here is the recipe, a family one, I think from my Great-grandma's days. I have played around with it through years of making these reliable goodies. 

Flour - 2 1/4 lb (1 kg)Brown sugar - 1 lb (1/2 kg)
Ground ginger - 1 oz (30g packet)Butter - 1/2 lb (450g) Golden syrup - 1 tin (1kg)

Mix together in a really large vessel (I use a soup pot) the dry ingredients (flour, sugar and ginger). Grate the butter into this and rub it together until it resembles bread crumbs (much like how you'd make scones). You can do this in batches to make it easier.  Warm the syrup by placing the opened tin into a shallow pot of water, bring to a simmer on the stove and turn it off. Should take a few minutes only, don't let the syrup get hot, stir it often with a table knife. Mix the syrup with the rest of the mixture until it forms a stiff dough. You can do this in stages by adding enough syrup to make the dough by guessing and checking. It is not an exact science...

It's ready to roll, or get the kids busy making their 'boys'. I like to use currants for eyes, buttons etc, and any marks made by a fork or knife will stay put. The dough doesn't rise much, it expands ever so slightly as it cooks. Ensure the cookies are between 3 and 10mm (1/8-3/8 inch), the thinner the crunchier. Also, not too large as the middles won't cook through so well. You might need to 'squash' the children's creations to make them fit the height restrictions. Here is an example my daughter made. 
 I also like to roll out some of the dough and use cookie cutters to fill a tin with crunchier biscuits to go with cups of tea. These I make a bit thinner than the handmade kind, closer to the 3mm height.

Bake at 150 degrees C until cooked through, usually 15-20 minutes. Cool then store in an airtight container.

Apparently it isn't easy to come across tins of golden syrup like we have here in NZ. The brand is Chelsea and if you can't find any, try molasses or treacle instead??

Anyway,  back to the gingerbread house. We are part Dutch and always like to get some dropjes (Dutch liquorice, often salted) from our local Dutch shop. We went for colourful ones this time. They made cool roof tiles.
This cake isn't as pretty as it could be if I'd made it alone, but the kids sure enjoyed getting stuck in and decorating it. I like to think they will enjoy it more for having played a part in making it. They helped with all stages of the dough making and cutting too.

Wicked! Now, to think about who to share it with and when to eat it... Coffee on Saturday afternoon with the grandparents sounds good. Check.

bay hopping

You've heard of bar hopping, well today we went bay hopping. We got in the car, having had too much of the mundane at home, and headed north to the Kapiti Coast. Sure enough, the sun was out and it felt like a different day. Our first stop was Plimmerton beach. We'd been to bad old KFC (I wish there were more healthy options at drive-thrus) and Georgia's box of chips had the seagulls circling, much to Hugo's delight. 

     
  In the background is Mana Island and Wellington Heads. Lurvely. A popular spot with windsurfers.
 Our next stop was Paekakariki and QE II Park. An old haunt of my childhood days, I rediscovered the hidden gems - the kids ran through the tangled paths and found the playground.  Georgia surprised me by using the see-saw independently by kicking with her foot. Lucky she and Hugo are nearly the same weight, it worked out really well.

Paekak (pronounced Pie-cock) beach was full of drift wood and pipi shells to add to Georgia's collections at home. More on that another time.

 And I couldn't stop looking over the ocean to Kapiti Island, the shore, the waves, the clouds and the sparkling sun and thinking to myself, 'we are so lucky to live here'. I haven't travelled much (Australia, do you count it?) so I take pleasure in exploring the places at my disposal. I'm probably guessing right that many people would pay good money to visit these places. We take them for granted.

Living in New Zealand is synonymous with beaches and wide open spaces. Yes, ok, farmland and greenery too. I love the romance of the seashore, its meeting with the sky, the way it sparkles, changes colour with the weather, offers escape from constriction of cities, helps you to breathe... and the smell makes you feel really alive.

The Land of the Long White Cloud (loose translation of the Maori name for NZ - Aotearoa). You beauty!

 Winding back toward home we stopped into another bay, Pukerua Bay. I am ashamed to say it is the first time I've ever visited this beautiful spot. You have to turn off the main road to get there and drive down a very steep hill. I think I've found a new picnic destination! Check out the beauty here!

      
Ok, this, not so beautiful, but kinda typical of some of the artsy types around these parts...

  And finally, this is how I know it's time to go home. Hugo's very good at communicating, even if he's not talking properly yet.

So I'm new to this blogging thing and have to carry a camera around with me everywhere now! Thank goodness for this goody hoodie with its huge front pocket. I'm not used to having practical pockets. Thanks Mum! I think I'll live in it now.  

    
Ice-blocks on the drive home. All are happy. We had a good day after all.

pikelets, or children's 'high tea'...

We made pikelets again! Yay! said the kids. I was less excited, not because I don't like making them or eating them, but because we make them so often. They cost little more than the price of an egg, take 10 minutes to make. 

 They are perfect for a mum at home to whip up for instant gratification and full tummies when there's nothing in the cupboard. But I get sick of eating the same thing all the time, so we vary the jam - apricot, plum, raspberry, strawberry, and sometimes have cream or maple syrup.

   

And always, the proof is in the eating.