FuShMuSh

Project 366: Photo Dump

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:15:38 +0000

Day019: Evie is undecided about cats

Day020: Street art in Dulwich Hill

Day021: Afternoon tea

Day022: Afternoon swim

Day023: Working hard in Erko

Day024: Old school catchup

Day025: Banana cupcake and cup of tea

Day026: Happy Australia Day

Day027: Crafternoon

Is this Sydney's tastiest lamington?

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:50:54 +0000

I wouldn't call myself a foodie exactly but I do love lists. I also like checking things off lists. So when Caitlin linked to a post about Sydney's tastiest lamington and asked for volunteers to test the claim, I put my hand up immediately.

Sydney's best lamington is apparently at Single Origin Roasters in Surry Hills. Who decided this? David Lebovitz, an American food blogger, who calls Paris home. He taste tested a few lamingtons while visiting Sydney on holidays. So I'm not really sure just how qualified he is to make decisions on Sydney's best lamington.

Anyways, I love lamingtons and ridiculous claims and Caitlin and I were overdue a catchup so we made a date for morning tea at Single Origin Roasters. Andrew also loves lamingtons and coffee so he tagged along too.

So is it Sydney's best lamington? Well it was good but it wasn't hugely better than those I've had from bakeries, Vietnamese bread shops or even from a chain like Michel's pattisserie. I guess lamingtons aren't that hard to make. It's just sponge cake covered in chocolate and coconut after all.

While the lamington wasn't mind blowingly awesome it was lovely to catch up with Caitlin and to see how much Poppy and Edward have grown. They are almost one and heading into toddlerhood. It goes so quickly.

Caitlin also blogged her review of the lamingtons at Single Origin Roasters on her blog, Roaming Tales

More photos (slideshow) on Flickr.

Copacabana: Paddling Pool

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:20:14 +0000

The Copacabana posts continue. I was up there for 2 weeks and so have many cute photos to share.

Evie and Audrey received a paddling pool from Nan and TD for Christmas. We put it out in the backyard a few times while we were up at Copa and the kids loved it.

They actually liked it much better than the beach. The water was warmer than the ocean (we always put a couple of buckets hot water in), it was just the right depth for splashing, and there were no scary waves to knock you over.

More photos (slideshow) on Flickr.

Copacabana: Pirate's Cove

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 08:43:39 +0000

Last year, we had lots of fun dressing up on New Year's Eve so we decided to make it a tradition. This year, I decided to go with a Pirate theme as I figured I might be able to use some of the props we bought for last year (we had a Copacabana fiesta theme last year). Of course, I then wasn't able to find any of the props that I'd bought last year. Good intentions and all...

The best costume prize this year goes to Elliot. Clare made him an awesome Parrot costume.

The funniest costume prize goes to Adam and Chris. They dressed up in some awesome Pirate costumes that were more 80s glam rock than loot, pillage and plunder.

Here is Evie dressed up as Pirate. She wasn't too sure what to do with her dagger. She ended up trying to eat it.

"Hrm, what is this new thing I've never seen before? I wonder what it tastes like."

We had a BBQ, we played salad bowl (Goldy says "my hat is so much more awesome than this game") and we celebrated the beginning of 2012 with bubbles and sparklers in the backyard. NYE 2011 was officially a good night.

More photos (slideshow) on Flickr.

Trivia: Save a whale, harpoon a badger

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:12:44 +0000

Second place at trivia again this month. You know the Badger motto: A good night at trivia is one where you don't leave empty handed. But, it would be nice to come first occasionally.

Here is your chance at this month's questions. You know the rules:

Name the two countries in the world that have names starting with "Z".
What film was Roger Moore's last appearance as James Bond?
How many Oscars for Best Director has Steven Spielberg won?
How many American states have names beginning and ending with the same letter?
Which was invented first: the fountain pen or the sewing machine?
The word "snorkel" comes from which language?
Who is credited as the inventor of champagne?
Is ranidaphobia the fear of frogs, fleas or rats?
Jaap is a chocolate bar (similar to a Mars Bar) from which country beginning with "N"?

Project 366: Photo Dump

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 08:22:14 +0000

Day010: Green Chair

Day011: MGroup meeting in the pool

Day012: Save a whale, harpoon a badger

Day013: Doing uni work while Evie naps

Day014: Rain and BBQing don't mix

Day015: The world's smallest lunch box

Day016: Is this Sydney's tastiest lamington?

Day017: Swimming

Day018: Water park

Evie: 7 and 8 months

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:12:42 +0000

Last week Evie reached 8 months and I wanted to make sure I posted in a timely manner - you may have noticed that I missed the 7 month post. December was so busy that I thought I would combine the two posts into one.

Evie has sitting mastered now but isn't interested in crawling yet. Truthfully she isn't even really rolling around. She can roll, she just doesn't want to. So maybe she isn't that interested in being mobile yet.

She still isn't a huge fan of tummy time so I'm not sure that she will crawl in the traditional way. I think she may become a bum shuffler as she has started to bounce up and down on her bottom. When sitting she also leans forward and puts her weight on her hands. But who knows, she always surprises us with how quickly she picks up stuff.

The big thing that has happened in the past couple of months is that Evie has started to eat real people food. She's gone from being exclusively breast fed to eating three meals a day. We started Evie on a combination of purees and finger food, however Evie wasn't a huge fan of purees. She loved feeding herself, so when I tried to spoonfeed her it would usually end in a struggle for the spoon. Then I tried the "Spoon for Mummy, Spoon for Evie" trick but that didn't work either. Evie would end up with both spoons. So I stopped trying to make Evie eat purees and just gave her finger food.

Each baby at MGroup has a strength - some crawled early, some have lots of teeth, some can wave goodbye. Evie's super power is being able to eat normal people food. Everyone watches warily while Evie chows down on cucumbers, cherry tomatoes and pieces of unpeeled fruit. She loves fruit and will eat a whole peach, nectarine or pear in one sitting. She's pretty good at just eating the flesh and will leave the skin behind. Although sometimes we have to fish the skin out of her mouth at the end of the meal or she will chew on it for ages.

So here are a couple of videos of Evie eating. It's a new skill so we've found it kind of exciting.

Here is Evie eating Mango. She looooooooooves mango (like her Mum. Her Dad thinks mango is too mangoey.)

And here is Evie trying to eat steak. She found it a bit frustrating as she doesn't have any teeth yet. Poor bubs.

Christmas at Copa: Christmas Day

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:35:35 +0000

I've already blogged about Christmas Day but I'm just going to post a few more highlights.

Here is our traditional and delicious Christmas day breakfast. We have eggs, smoked salmon and caviar (yum!) with a glass of champagne.

Evie enjoyed Christmas breakfast too. Obviously minus the smoked salmon, caviar and champagne. So just eggs on toast really but it still marks the first time she's joined in on our tradition.

Don't the girls look cute in their Santa hats.

And my perfect Christmas Day includes a swim in the ocean. Andrew and I escaped to the beach for a quick swim while Evie hung out with Nan and TD. It was low tide and there was sand bar which made it great for boogie boarding. Leo had a ball.

More photos (slideshow) on Flickr.

Christmas at Copa: Christmas Eve

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 11:30:23 +0000

And I'm still catching up on Christmas posts.

This year was a Christmas at Copacabana year. Complete with Santa on a fire engine.

Santa and his RFS helpers drove around the streets of Copacabana, Christmas music blaring, scattering lollies for children who wait by the roadside. The kids loved it (although this uptight mumma with a sleeping baby thought they could have done a few less circuits. Isn't it funny how I expect the whole world to be quiet so my baby can nap.)

This year we left home made biscuits out for Santa (which was an improvement on the tiny teddies of the last Copa Christmas). Leo decided that milk is the drink of choice for reindeers so they got an enormous bowl filled with milk and some carrots.

We had our traditional ham orientated Christmas Eve dinner. We had the tastiest Christmas ham this year. It was 8kg, heavier than both Audrey and Evie. Richie made some awesome toasties for dinner.

More photos (slideshow) on Flickr.

Project 366: Photo Dump

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 03:12:31 +0000

So I've gone a bit crazy and decided to attempt Project 365 this year. Except this year is a leap year so technically it's Project 366. The idea is that you take a photo everyday for a year. I'm not going to take it too seriously. I'm just going to take photos on my iPhone. Every now and again I'll post them on FuShMuSh. I think it will be a nice chronicle of the year.

Day001: Perfect at Copacabana Beach

Day002: Evie going for a swim

Day003: Locked out

Day004: Holidays generate so much laundry

Day005: Pup gets a triple century

Day006: Challenging times

Day007 - Gold Class for Andrew's Birthday

Day008 - Brunch date with Nan

Day009 - Evie has her own room now