My Top Five Christmas Photos

There is something about photos that always makes me smile- I love flicking through my scrapbooks and remembering all of the things that have happened.

Christmas is a time where I tend to take a lot of photos- I document our daily Christmas activities and December also happens to be my son's birthday, so my camera is often out.

Sharing these moments every year with my family and friends in Christmas cards is also a wonderful way of keeping people up to date with what is happening in my life, and who doesn't love a Christmas card with a family photo?

Christmas 2009 was extremely special to me, as I had just welcomed my first son into the world! He was a week old on Christmas Day and even though he slept right through the celebrations, I still took a lot of photos.



One tradition that happens every year is that my father dresses up like Santa Claus, and I just love the wonder in my son's eyes in this photo. My Dad has also been known to dress up like Batman- he is such a kid at heart!



My son then had a big announcement to make on Christmas Day 2011, when we told the family that our second son would be making an appearance in July 2012.



By Christmas 2012 we were a family of four in our new house. This photo was the header for our family newsletter, which was sent all over the world.



Spending Christmas Day with my boys and husband is important, but I also get my other family members involved. I absolutely love this photo of me and my sister on Christmas Day last year, and once again I wanted to share it with my friends overseas.



 Family photos are a must in my family on Christmas Day, and  putting my favourite photos from the year on our Christmas cards and letters is one thing I love to do each December.

I have family and friends all over the world that receive my cards, and I have recently discovered that I can send photo cards or even online cards with minimal fuss that will still allow me to share my photos and Christmas greetings. I do take a specific family photo each year with the intention of sending it out to people, and so to have it on the front of a card is the perfect solution. My favourite design this year is a toss up between the Christmas Finestra or the Happy Happy Joy Joy for multiple photos for my overseas friends, as Paperless Post ships to the US, UK, Canada and Australia.

Do you send out Christmas cards every year- or even a newsletter? I would love to know your traditions on this!

Dinosaur Week for preschoolers

Continuing on my weekly themes for my four year old, we recently spent a week looking at dinosaurs.

Adam loves art and craft activities, so we made our own triceratops. We started by painting a small egg carton piece with green sparkle paint.



We used a cupcake liner for the ruffle, googly eyes, and a popsicle stick cut into three pieces for the horns.



As you can see, green and dinosaurs are popular in this household!



We also excavated our own dinosaur from an egg (purchased here) and it took us a good hour to retrieve the dinosaur from within- a great way to keep the boys occupied although I had a go too!



We then washed the excavated dinosaur and talked about which species it could be.



Some dinosaur dot-to-dot printables were a fun activity for both boys to do after school.



I cut out some different shapes from green cardstock and we played dinosaur Tangrams.



My six year old really enjoyed this activity, and spent ages making different animals from the shapes. Yes, he has dinosaur pajamas too!



Our family movie night was The Good Dinosaur, and I had purchased a kid's magazine that luckily had this Dino-Flake activity included.



It also had a dinosaur Peppa Pig workbook, which came in very handy!



We read the Dinosaurumpus book together and played the Listen & Move game during a wet day.



Dinosaur week was a big success with both boys!

WCW- Tropical Lunch Buns

I love creating quick and easy recipes to replace sandwiches in the school lunchboxes. The same old ham and cheese in between two pieces of bread can get boring after a while, and so I have changed it up a bit with these Tropical Lunch Buns.

Cheese, bacon and pineapple is such a classic combination, and always a winner in our household!



The rolls can be made bite size, lunch size or man size depending on who you are feeding.



These rolls are also great for picnics or as a welcome to the neighbourhood gift!



Someone couldn't wait to try one.....



Delicious warm with butter, or cold in a lunchbox, and even better with soup for lunch!

print recipe

Tropical Lunch Buns

Ingredients

• 250 grams bacon
• 4 cups plain flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup grated tasty cheese
• 500ml milk
• 1/4 cup canned crushed pineapple, drained
• 1/4 cup extra grated cheese

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.Cook the bacon for 3-5 minutes until crisp and chop into small pieces.In a bowl combine the flour, salt and baking soda. Stir in the bacon, first measure of cheese and pineapple. Add the milk and stir until the dough comes together.Knead on a floured surface for 1-2 minutes or until smooth. Shape into 12 balls. Place on lined tray, just touching. Sprinkle rolls with the extra cheese and cook in the oven for 35 minutes.