Healesville Sanctuary

On Saturday (the 20th), Anne, Ev, Mum, myself and the kids headed to Healesville Sanctuary (one of the three Melbourne zoos), while Gord, John and Bill went four-wheel-driving with Brett, our next door neighbour. (Uncle Bill has videos, you'll have to ask him. Anyway, back to us!) While driving to Pakenham with Auntie Ev a day or two earlier, it became apparent that she didn't know what a wombat was, and I had a bit of trouble trying to describe one (was it like a warthog, she wanted to know? Yeah, kind of the same size, but more cuddly - hmmm, not so helpful!).

So it seemed like surveying a few Aussie animals was in order. I didn't get any photos of the animals, only a few of the Canadians, being by far the rarer species around here! However, Anne and Ev took home some snaps, or at least some memories, of kangaroos, wallabies, dingos, koalas, Tasmanian Devils, possums, sugar gliders, small crocodiles, emus, a platapus, echidna, wedge-tailed eagle, a sleeping, hard-to-see wombat, and many others! And caught some didgeridoo-playing and boomerang-throwing to boot!

Surveying the koalas...

The cutest koala!

Snap time!

Later that evening, we had dinner all together with my parents. (Nice earrings, hey Sharon! Thanks!)

Anne and Piper had made (another!) birthday cake for Piper after we got home from Healesville Sanctuary, so she was able to have a party with all her grandparents together... pretty special - you can see how much she was smiling! (The cake was a mother horse and a baby horse, a baking set I found just recently at IKEA and couldn't pass up, with these carousel horse candles - all a bit horse-mad around here!)

Piper turns 5!

Piper turned five on the 6th of March, and in the midst of our baby-space, we tried to make it a special day.

Mum and Dad came round for morning tea, and Piper was able to open her presents, wearing her new favourite dressing gown from Savers that she bought with Dad.  She'd wear it everywhere, if she could!  Anyway, present number 1, a ballerina thingy from Pippa...

Some horse stuff from Gord and I...

Pink Barbie gumboots and Pink Barbie slippers from Pippa and Poppa.  (My Mum took Piper shopping earlier in the week and this is what she chose.  No surprises there!)

A ballerina t-shirt from Gramma & Opa in Canada.

And posing in it later on - man, she's getting to be a big girl!  (The hat's still in use, Michelle!  So are the skirt and coat!)

The other present Piper got (from her dad!) was getting to eat whatever she wanted all day! About two minutes after Gord announced the concept over breakfast, she says, I'm gonna eat some chocolate!  And so she did!  And goodness, by the end of the day, was she hyper!  Hopefully it was empowering for her, and a reminder for me why we try and eat healthily, on the whole!

Lovely shots of Dad and Jas.


Later on, a movie night, watching one of Piper's favourites from the library: Spirit.

Meanwhile, Jethro had his first bath...

Cuddles on the couch.

The next day, Olivia, our neighbour, made Piper a cake, and the whole family came over to see the baby and sing Piper Happy Birthday - lovely!

Labour of love

I'm finally getting to blogging, after a month or so where I felt like, the bigger my belly got, the less headspace I had for anything blog-wise or computer-wise. And hey, now I have something kind of interesting to blog about! Here's a bit of the story...

A Piper-and-Jasper totem pole, in front of the birth pool bits.

Labour's kicked in, midwives on the scene...

Resting between contractions...

Kids up, baby must be coming soon...  Jasper really doesn't know what's going on!

Baby born - Piper thinks "piece of cake!"

Man, I look happy!  I think I'm glad it's over!

And my reward: tea and toast in bed, wrapped up with a new baby...

Birthday Baklava

I made baklava for Gord's birthday, both cos he wanted it, and we wanted to use up the filo pastry we had kicking round in the freezer! I used this recipe, using almonds as well as walnuts (with inspiration from Nigella, of course, but I couldn't get hold of rosewater, hence I went with the cardamon-flavoured recipe). (For those of you who give a rats'!) It was very tasty, and there was plenty enough for me to be enjoying a piece as I write this, the day after (but now there's only one left!)

I made it the day before Gord's birthday, in a bit of a mad rush before his cousin's wedding (why do I do that??). That's probably why I was hyper, hanging out with Matt, Sharon, Dar, Jeff and Gord at the nuptials! Then the next morning, I was making a gluten- and dairy-free cake for someone at house church, and Gord was whipping up some mini quiches (using up more of the filo!). We brought three dishes of food to the housechurch special brunch, in honour of some guests. Perhaps that was overkill, but they all tasted good! And so did all the other dishes!

Housechurch was busy, lots of people, and three birthdays to celebrate! Monica showed everyone how to draw labyrinths. Then when we got home, Scott and Leanne, friends of Gord's from his Winnipeg days, who he hadn't seen for five years, were waiting on the doorstep (not for long, thankfully, and yes, the visit was planned, they weren't just rocking up out of the blue after a half-decade!). I was wasted, unfortunately, and eventually crawled off to lie down with Jas to try and convince him to sleep.

Then, when I got up, Scott and Leanne were gone and Gord told me Shaun and Helena were coming over, spur of the moment. That worked out really well, especially the bit where, after a bit of visiting, Shaun whisked Gord away to the bottleshop - that was EXACTLY what he needed to perk him up and make him feel like he was celebrating his 34th birthday! See, my parents know him well! (see below...)

So yes, long story short, Gord's birthday: a fair whack of cooking, and three lots of socialising, culminating in a lovely relaxed (to the point of delirium!) visit with Shaun and Helena. There goes another birthday...


Here's the family man.

Birthday cards and fall foliage, beneath Piper and Jasper's creativity. Piper drew Captain Hook on her envelope, which was very cool, with a definite hook instead of a hand! I just drew flowers. Gord liked them =). Mum and Dad bought Gord a cordless drill as a present, and rather than send it over, they send a miniature cardboard version - very clever (Dad)!

But look closer at the card from Mum and Dad, yes, that one with 'Son' written on it - notice what's on the front? It's a pint of beer, a pleasant honey amber ale, by the looks of it. They know Gord too well! (See the cardboard drill set?!)

Birthday bonfire

To celebrate Gord's birthday, we hung out child-free with his parents around a fire in their backyard. Ah, the serenity!

It's definitely fall time... I'm loving it!

The birthday boy, sorry, not the best shot in the dusky light...

Me sporting a freshly-made pompom, part of a secret project.

Four and a half

We celebrated Piper's four-and-a-halfth birthday today, just for fun. She and I made a cake yesterday, and iced it today. It worked out that her friend Aimee could come over for a sleepover, so they had fun making a tent in the loungeroom, hunting for some lollies Gord hid, and consuming cake. All's quiet in Piper's room, so maybe they've even gone to sleep!

Aimee...

...and Piper!

Here's Jasper stuffing his face - he loved the cake. But actualy, he stuffs his mouth full most of the time, no matter what we're eating!

Gord and I are sitting down side by side with our laptops, something we haven't done for a long time. Both blogging - how's that! We have cups of tea we half-heartedly want to drink - just doing our bit to use up teabags in the cupboard. So it was chamomile for me last night, green tea this morning and now cascade mint, but what I really want is plain old Earl Grey! I didn't buy any today - very restrained of me! Gord is slowly plowing his way through the vanilla roiboos.

Okay, I take that back, that they'd gone to sleep! No yet...

So yes, furthering our efforts to deplete our food supply, we finally defrosted the turkey we got for free at Stuperstore when we first got here. Shaun and Helena are coming for tea tomorrow night, so they'll help us eat some of it. The rest, Gord wants to mince up before we cook it. It's not my favourite thing, finding old stuff in the freezer and eating it, but I'm being stoic. It helps having a list of what's in there - I should probably have done that from the start, then there wouldn't be so much old stuff in there!

In other news, our vegemite is ALL GONE! Sob, sob! Carolyn kindly brought over a tube in May, to replace a little jar Mum and Dad sent over earlier, and because we were going through it so slowly, I turned Mum down when she offered to bring some more over in July. However, I was not counting on pregnancy cravings for warm buttered toast and vegemite! I now resort to Grandma Wiebe's homemade peach jam, which is definitely delicious, but hardly salty! We had Grandma and Grandpa Wiebe over for tea this week, which is how we came by the peach jam (before that, I was resorting to plain old honey), and they told us that sometimes for dessert, they eat a spoonful of the jam right out of the jar! I think that's cute. Good to know you can still do fun things like that in your mid-eighties!

Anyway, I really need to go to bed, so ciao for now!

Finally! Eating donuts at Piper's bday!

Kids eating donuts, oh yeah, and the grandpa!


And now the adults...

Jasper's 1st Birthday

Piper was determined to make a party hat in celebration of Jasper's birthday, so that's what we spent the morning of the 5th doing, while Jasper was asleep. Pat, Dar and Jayden came over for lunch, which helped make the day feel festive. I videoed Jas opening his presents from Mum and Dad, Anna, and Pat & Dar, but hadn't pushed the record button, darn it! So I don't have any photos of the lunchtime/present space. Here's Piper in her princess hat!
Jas sometime in the afternoon...

John and Anne came over for dinner (roast chicken, potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, maple-drowned parsnips - a hit, roasted beets - not such a hit, peas and salad). I felt like I spent the entire afternoon in the kitchen, even though a roast is a relatively simple meal, but I wanted it to be a feast. Worth the effort, that's all I'm saying...

Opening a present with Gramma.

Washing up.

Post-dinner space. We went for a walk to a nearby park - the weather was lovely. Found some other kids to play with, that's always fun...

I made a party hat for Jasper too, although he was quite determined not to keep it on!



Ugh! Good riddance!

First birthday cake (I made a pumpkin orange cake - I wanted something soft, and I'd found this recipe a while ago and had been meaning to try it, but dunno if I'd make it again.... it was okay... Man, you didn't know this blog was actually about my culinary explorations, did you?!)

Happy Birthday to you, Jasper!

When I was journalling on Wednesday, I made a list of all the things I could think of that Jas could do/has achieved in his little life so far. It's far from comprehensive, and these are hardly the most important things in life, but here goes:

JASPER

- has 6 teeth

- can walk by himself and is doing so more and more

- can say: mama, dada, piper, bang, miaow, boo, duh-dle (cuddle), ah-ah (amen) and bye bye

- waves his arms to communicate 'all done! no more food!'

- bestowes kisses upon request (most of the time)

- has a great giggle

- gets into funny games with Piper

- likes clapping and dancing

- watches everything - keeps his eye on us and his sister! Learns so fast that way! So wants to ride Piper's bike and trike and brush his teeth and hair

- feels compelled to shut some doors around the place, especially the hallways closets

- can climb onto the couch, and then the armrest, and has fallen from there at least three times

- has undertaken the Canadian rite of passage and fallen down the flight of stairs at Jeff and Sharon's house (I wasn't there, I only found the carpet burn on his nose later! Gord wasn't there either - I think that was part of the problem! He was talking to Sharon somewhere!)

- has managed to log in to the guest account on my laptop (thanks to its handy proximity to the couch and his new-found agility!)...finds keyboards fascinating!

- can crawl backwards

- waves bye bye and blows kisses

Pretty cool what a one-year-old can do and communicate!