You should bow to me Mamma

Wait, what?? My daughter said "You should bow to me Mamma" and she was quite serious. So I did.

I was kind of taken aback by this one, I mean kids say the weirdest funniest things right? But where the hell did this come from? I was like, what? Can you please tell Mamma again sweetheart, I don't think I heard right. So she said it again. And like a good Mum I bowed to her then asked her to bow to me, which she did with a giggle.

Quite frankly Ava Mae rules over this household, Burnsie and I practically bow to her every day metaphorically speaking.  Her attitude and spunk make her irresistible and likely to get away with murder.

Don't get me wrong, we do practice discipline however when little miss attitude gives out some 'quick witted, intelligent and in context' lip, it makes me burst with pride and adoration. Is that wrong? The girl has an answer for everything and will not back down if she has something to say. Whilst if frustrates the hell out of me it also makes me incredible proud that I am raising a strong, smart, passionate and fiercely independent female. 

In my head I often hear the voice of my own Mum saying "karma"!! But for now I choose to ignore the fact that a cute and feisty toddler attitude will likely develop into a serious angsty teenage attitude - oh good grief!! For now I'm happy to ride the wave of cuteness and punch out a few entertaining status updates for family and friends. 

DIY paint for kids

Burnsie found this recipe on Facebook so we had to share it! 

• 1 cup salt
• 1 cup gluten free flour
• 1 cup water
• Natural food colouring 
• Mix together until you get the colour you want

So simple and non toxic, the kids can make it themselves!

Embarrassing stuff kids say

"Mummy, that lady has big boobies just like you!" Yes, you read that correctly. This is what Miss 3 yells out on the train today while pointing at an attractive young South American girl sitting opposite us.

Umm, thanks for that! If you have heard my daughter's voice lately you will have a pretty good idea how this played out. She's a foghorn, not sure where she gets that from. And if that statement didn't get everyone's attention, there's more.

Next thing she lifts up her top. Oh to clarify, Ava lifts her top. Unfortunately for my dear hubby it was not the attractive young girl lifting her top. She was probably totally mortified that her boobs are being compared to mine. Despite sitting opposite the crazy family (that would be us) she is completely avoiding any eye contact whatsoever. I am also hoping like hell that this girl does not understand a word of English. Not that it mattered, the lady next to us definitely understood English.

So with her top lifted for all on the train to see, Miss fog horn screeches "When I'm a grown up I'm going to have big nipples and boobies just like mummy."  Gold. No really, it was gold. I had to give it to her, Burnsie and I had nowhere to go from there. We were speechless.

It's times like this I have mixed feelings about having a smart and articulate toddler. I know it's not unusual for kids to embarrass their parents in public, it was just a bit of a shock when it happened on a busy Inner West train.

It's not the first outburst. Previous gems include. "Mummy I have to go to the toilet. I have a wedgie." And "Mu Mummy has a baby in her tummy". The former was true, the latter was not for the record !!

Ever since my sister came to stay with the gorgeous 12 week old Gabi, Ava has been obsessed with babies and boobs. She pretends to breast feed from me and talks endlessly about her boobies. Is this normal?

My Mum calls it karma! I think there may have been a few occasions that I embarrassed her a little when I was Ava's age. So is it karma or just normal curious and innocent toddler behaviour ?

Dr Seuss

Dr Seuss is still one of my all time favourite writers! He was so ahead of his time and incredibly insightful.

He wrote The Lorax over 40 years ago because he was angered by the way people were treating our environment.

Ava's 3rd birthday party

Gotta love a party loaded with sugar!! It's not often that I wilfully feed Ava bucket loads of sweets, but birthdays come only once a year, so why not make the most of it.

Bursie really outdid himself with this cake - although it wasn't gluten free so I am already paying for the cheeky slice I had to have. My contribution! I did the writing and a bit (ok a lot) of micro management of the final touches...poor Burnsie.  

Ava seriously lost her shit (but in a good way) when she saw it before that party this morning. She said it was the bestest cake ever in the whole wide world.

I should also mention that our rather fancy Ilve oven decided to pack it in the night before the party! Seriously???  It's only 4 years old grrrr!  Luckily the cake was done, it just meant that we had less savoury adult food as I had planned on baking a batch of GF mini vegetarian quiches. 

Ava and her best friend Marli had a ball playing together in the park. They have known each other since they were born. 

We didn't invite too many kids, just Ava's cousins and her best park buddies Marli and Emily. She had so much fun running around the park, playing chasing and bossing us all around too!

The kids enjoyed blowing bubbles, playing pass the parcel and snacking on a mix of both wholesome and sweet treats.

These fruit cups were really easy to make and were a hit with the kids and adults. We chopped up watermelon, cantaloupe, nectarines, grapes and berries that morning, put them into a big container, then filled the cups at the park. Simple, beautiful and really healthy!

For a twist on fairy bread, we made wholemeal hundreds and thousands pin wheels which disappeared pretty quickly.

To make these I asked the baker to cut the bread loaf long ways. You should have seen his face, he had never been asked to do this before and thought I was totally insane.

Actually, I think he was worried that his cutting machine would destroy the bread! However he cut the bread perfectly and it was so much easier to make them rather than cutting long ways yourself.

Tip!! Flatten the bread out with a rolling pin before you butter it and sprinkle on the hundreds and thousands. Once flattened out they are so much easier to roll up. Then you cut each roll into three pin wheels. So easy.

Can you spot the dodgy one I made???

The marshmallow sticks are another super easy and very pretty sweet treat. What kid doesn't like marshmallows??

Bunsie insisted on making home made LCMs. I am not a fan, they are sickly sweet and full of sugar. As you can imagine the kids loved them...

So it kind of backfired for Burnsie, he was hoping to have them all to himself.

Vegan flourless orange cake

Another day another dicey experiment...

One of the girls in my team had her birthday on Saturday. She is guten free and vegan, so I thought I would try my hand at a GF vegan cake. Having been sick for the last few days I was somewhat disorganised with limited ingredients to hand. So I opted for this orange cake which has very few ingredients and is pretty easy to make.

Ingredients

• 3 medium oranges
• 3 tbs chia or flax  seeds
• 9 tbsp water 
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 3 cups almond meal
• 1 tsp gluten-free baking powder

Orange Syrup

• 1 orange
• 3/4 cup caster sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 170°C. Brush a round 22cm springform pan with melted butter to lightly grease. Line base with non-stick baking paper.
2. Place the oranges in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil over medium heat. Cook for 15 minutes or until tender. Drain. Return to pan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and cook for 15 minutes (this will reduce the bitterness of the peel). Refresh under cold water. Drain. Coarsely chop oranges. Remove and discard any seeds.
3. Place the orange in a food processor until smooth.
4. Soak the chia seeds in water for 15 minutes. (This is a great egg substitute)
5. Add sugar and chia seeds to the orange mixture and mix well. 
6. Add the orange mixture to the almond meal and baking powder and gently fold until just combined. Pour into prepared pan.
7. Bake for 50 mins or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Set aside for 15 minutes to cool.
8. To make the orange syrup, juice orange and pur into a saucepan with sugar. 
9. Place over low heat and stir for 2-3 minutes or until the sugar dissolves and the syrup thickens.
10. Turn cake onto a serving plate. Use a skewer to gently prick the top. Spoon over syrup. 

The original recipe for this cake uses eggs. Without the eggs this cake didn't rise and crumbled a little when I took off the tin, but otherwise looks edible! I will update post with the taste verdict tomorrow.

OMG this cake was so moist and tasty! If you like zesty oranges, this is the cake for you! Everyone loved this cake, it was a hit! With 3 GF and 3 vegans in our team at work it was a real hit! 

Inner West Buy Swap Sell

Like most families, we have accumulated a lot of crap over the years. And I mean a serious load of crap, much of it sitting unused and gathering dust in drawers and wardrobes or collecting cobwebs in our carport.

We don't really need much, we have good imaginations and are quite easily amused. Yet I cringe at the many times Burnsie and I have trotted off to the shops for the latest must have product we just know will enhance our lives considerably.

We live in a pretty wasteful society, where most babies have more tiny clothes than a Paris runway show, more toys than Santa's workshop and enough products to keep a small country well moisturised. And while I stand high and mighty on my soap box, I am also the first to admit I love new stuff and have spent a small fortune on much of our treasured crap! Well it's time to offload some good quality crap! And as the old saying goes, one person's trash is another's treasure!

After a particularly gruelling clean out which included multiple trips to the Salvos, a full bin and a lot of recycling, we still have a heap of stuff too good to throw out. And I really hate seeing things go to waste, I really do!

So I decided that instead of wasting my time on eBay or at the markets, I would try to find homes for our unwanted goods locally using my BFF the interwebs. I went searching for an online trash & treasure or buy swap sell on Facebook, but there doesn't appear to be one for the Inner West. So I've set up one myself....it's aptly named Sydney's Inner West - Buy Swap Sell.

Please like and share it with your friends. The more people who like it, the more crap you can offload and the more bargains you can score!!

Please check out facebook.com/innerwestbuyswapsell and list your items, or check out the crap erm treasure up for sale! Share the love and do your little bit for the planet, it might get you a little cash on the side too!