apple pie

who makes it to 36 and hasn't made a fancy apple pie? me. 

but today i fixed that. with a bunch of apples that had seen better days, i did some googling and got to work.

first up was getting these apples ready with this incredible apple pie filling recipe i found here. they were amazing and i would have happily eaten the entire lot as is. wow. will be making that again to eat with icecream for sure.

the crust recipe was from here, although even though it tasted okay, it was not the best for rolling. i finally got the base in in one piece, but the top was having none of it.

in the end i got a cutter and just cut the entire thing into little hearts and then laid them across the top of the pie. it looked adorable, cooked great and tasted fabulous. 

apple pie, checked off the life list. thank you and good night!

alex kendall - devil child

this kid looks sweet and innocent and cute and cuddly... but do not be deceived. he is the devil. no word of a lie. he is into everything and destroys things constantly. madeline and joseph were nothing like that, but i cannot let him out of my sight until i want to find something ruined.

the other day started off as normal. alex bugging to watch moana, which we did. after a while he started wandering as usual and took up residence in joseph's room for a bit...

i went in to check him and found a permanent marker with no lid on it, then breathed a sigh of relief when i couldn't see it on anything, until i turned around and

there it was. bloody black permanent marker all over the wall right inside his bedroom. oh hell. i am pleased to report that after scrubbing for almost an hour with a scourer and rubbing alcohol, it's all off and joseph didn't even notice. but seriously... i can't even deal with him.

oh and here we are an hour later, looking sweet and innocent again, fast asleep, tired out from all the mischief he's been up to. 

birthday treat bake up

my friend elena had her birthday today so i told her i was baking her a treat. when i asked her what she wanted, her response was "surprise me" so i did...

with options.

first up, i made triple choc brownies. when i worked at chippers before madeline was born, one of the guys wives used to make these epic brownies like once a year. spoiler alert: it was the best day of the year. they were so good that i asked him if he could get me the recipe and he did!! amazingly madeline is now nine and this is the first time i have made them, only now i wonder why the heck i waited so long... this could be dangerous. they are just as good as i remember.

triple choc brownies

125g cold butter chopped

200g dark chocolate, chopped

1/2 cup (110g) caster sugar

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 1/4 cups (185g) plain flour

150g white chocolate, chopped

100g milk chocolate, chopped

grease deep 19cm square cake pan. line base and sides with baking paper. 

preheat oven to 160 deg celcius (fan forced)

combine butter and dark chocolate in medium pan, stir over low heat until melted. cool 10 minutes. stir in sugar and eggs, then sifted flour, mix in remaining chocolate. spread mixture into prepared pan.

bake in moderate oven for 30 minutes, or until mixture is firm to touch. cool in pan. sprinkle with icing sugar to serve.

100% the best brownies i've ever had

next up, lemon pie bars. my friend lisa from america made these once and we were all obsessed with them afterwards... i love everything lemon and these are a winner! i've made them loads of times and they always deliver.

lemon pie bars

2 1/4 cups plain flour

1/2 cup icing sugar

225g softened butter

4 eggs

1 1/2 cups white sugar

1/2 cup lemon juice

1 tablespoon grated lemon rind

preheat oven to 160 deg celcius fan forced

mix 2 cups of flour and icing sugar together. cut in the butter. mix well until the dough resembles pie dough consistency. press the dough into a 9x13" baking pan

bake 15-20 minutes until golden brown

beat together eggs, sugar, remaining flour, lemon juice and lemon rind for at least one minute. pour the mixture over the baked crust.

bake the bars another 20 minutes, or until the lemon topping has set. sprinkle with icing sugar when cool

topped it off with a batch of caramel fudge and sliced away...

caramel fudge

125g chopped butter

395g can sweetened condensed milk

2 tbsp golden syrup

1 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup (110g) white chocolate chips

grease and line 20x30cm metal dish

in a saucepan, stir butter, condensed milk, golden syrup and sugar together over a very low heat until simmering and sugar is completely melted. stir constantly for 10 minutes until slightly thickened and golden brown

remove from heat, add white choc chips and until mixture is smooth and the chocolate is completely melted

pour into dish and refrigerate until set. slice with a hot knife into small squares.

it was quite the bake up and she was stoked... so it was all worth it! 

happy birthday lanes ❤

apple + mulberry shortcake

my whole life mum has made a gorgeous apple shortcake for the family on many an occasion. her recipe is great and there have been many variations of it, apple and lemon, apricot, mulberry... 

i'm ashamed to admit it, but today was the first time i actually attempted making one myself! i have had a bunch of mulberries in the bottom of my freezer for ages and whipped one up with a small can of apples.

apple shortcake by barbara goodlet

125gms softened butter (needs to be real butter!)

1/2 cup caster sugar

1 egg

3/4 cup plain flour

3/4 cup self raising flour

440gm tin pie apple

lemon zest from half a lemon

cream butter and sugar

add egg and beat together

add the flour and beat until it all comes together

make into a cylinder shape and cut into two rounds

grease and line a 20cm cake tin with paper

press half the mixture into the tin, bringing it a little up the sides

mix lemon zest and apples together and spread over pastry

roll out the pastry for the lid on a piece of paper to fit tin, then flip it over and drop it in

press edges together to seal the fruit in and then sprinkle top with a little sugar

back at 170 deg celcius for around 30 mins

leave in tin for 5 minutes, run a knife around the edge and remove to cool on a wire rack

i am please to report that i got it right and it was great! storing that one away for future use. so lucky to have mum and all her awesome recipes available to me. seriously so blessed.

yum!

what an honour - double whammy edition

i am the proudest mum today! i got two separate emails from the kids teachers earlier this week, to tell me that both kids would be receiving an honour certificate at this weeks assembly. double whammy! it was a little sad that i couldn't be there to watch, but with covid restrictions it's all being done digitally now (so that there aren't too many people on the school grounds at once), so i just got the joy of them racing over to me with them at the end of the day instead.

as you can see, they were pretty stoked too!

madelines said:

for always taking on every challenge with a strong growth mindset and in a delightfully mature way. we are so proud of how exceptionally kind and confident you are. thank you for being you, madeline!

and josephs said:

for writing a well structured and entertaining version of jack and the beanstalk. joseph used a range of punctuation to keep the reader hooked!

so proud of these kids! ❤

primary sports carnival

ever since covid hit and shut everything down we've struggled to be able to organise primary activities for our kids. we were called as a new primary presidency the week before church was closed down, butttt now that we are able to have church again we organised an activity to get our kids together... outside! we decided on a sports carnival so that we could be outside and appropriately "social distance" whilst doing so.

we had a bunch of kids turn up and had an awesome cheer squad of family members!

first up, we divided the kids into 3 tribes, the nephites (in yellow), the lamanites (in red) and the jaredites (blue) and handed out headbands for them to wear.

 then, we ran age group races on the grass strip by our chapel...

before coming back for team games, which were all modified to suit our day-

-egg and spoon races (with giant spoons and plastic counting eggs)

-flag race (run to each one of the cones and tap as you pass)

-three legged race

-hula hoop circle

-bean bag throw

we kept track of each of the winners throughout the day and allocated points to each of the teams for the individual and team events, to allow us to come to the final winner scores:

nephites in 1st place

lamanites in 2nd place

and jaredites in 3rd pace

we had bishop award the winning tribe with prizes and had our activity days leaders award our choices for the champion girl and boy for the day, we'd been to kmart and picked out a pile of things for them to choose from and they loved it!

we ended the day with a bbq, juice boxes and cupcakes, before racing to pack everything up because the rain was coming in... it was a great day and i'm hoping we manage to sort another one soon!

our little primary carnival gang. ❤

 

smashed car

oh the joys of having a car. last night we were on our way home from taking madeline to ngawai's birthday in joondalup, when in the pouring rain, someone rear-ended me at the roundabout closest to our house. it was crazy, i could see automatically that he was going to hit me, which he did. thankfully not too hard, but enough for madeline to scream and to shock alexander enough that he yelled and then cried too. 

i really did feel bad for the other driver, he had braked, but his brakes did not respond quickly enough to stop. a nice reminder for me to leave a little more space in this weather. i was nice about it, (as was he... very apologetic) as we are both in the same boat with damaged cars, but thank goodness for insurance! i had the entire claim completed and lodged online with no issues at all in about 15 minutes. just need to get it assessed, but i've also been told i'll be provided with a free hire car, so that's awesome too!

poor madeline was so worried about alex, so much so, that the minute we got home and i had him out of his car seat, she rushed inside to give him a cuddle and held onto him for a few minutes. she really does adore her baby brother. good news though, we are all okay and not hurt at all. just a waiting game for repairs now! 

 

cleaning out the closet

today i tackled a long overdue project at the mother-in-laws house with the "help"of a cheeky little redhead. the linen closet was bursting at the seams and over the course of this crazy year everything had been thrown in all on top of each other.

after dumping it all on the floor (very best way to sort haha), i sorted it back into sets, threw some out, donated a few huge bags and folded, folded, folded until it was all neat and tidy and how i wanted it. alex of course climbed in and out of the cupboard and all the linen and messed it up time and time again, but we finally got it done. of course i forgot to take a before shot, like always, so i can't show off just how beautiful this after shot is, but i am super proud of the end product.

sorted, sealed, delivered! and the very best bit, was that under all of it, i found the covers from the air mattresses we were loaned by a friend back in january when all of oli's family arrived for stephen's funeral, which had been missing since then. winning.

another thing checked off the to-do list.

 

alex is twenty-two months old

this little nugget is now officially twenty-two months old and for all you following along at home, you only have two more of these posts to sit through, congratulations.

during the last month he has...

- fiiiiiiinally started sleeping past 7am!

- says pees? (for please?)

- eaten so many of his teething beads that we eventually had to take them off. it made him unsettled for a few days because he used them as a comforter, but he quickly learned to deal and sleep without them.

- he can’t stand being carried anymore, wants to run everywhere

- has started to say oooh yucky when we change his pooey nappy.

-says cookie!

- chats away to us in baby language, then looks very offended when we respond in the same manner. just trying to help mate!

well, we must be doing something right, you're still alive ... somehow! haha

alexander, you are so loved!

ngawai's baptism day

one of our absolute faves had her baptism today! miss ngawai rose. it was made even more specil by the fact that she was baptised on her actual birthday day!

let it be known here - we love their family so, so much - so much so that i've even worked a way to keep them around forever, by marrying ana off to joseph (they were mates before they were even born, mel and i were pregnant together) or manaia off to alex - or both, whatever works ahahhaaha.

it was such a lovely day. the weather was perfect, everyone was happy and laughing and the baptism and service was beautiful. ngawai had asked madeline and i to sing during the service and we sang a gorgeous song called a child's prayer that i have always loved.

Heavenly Father, are you really there?

And do you hear and answer every child's prayer?

Some say that Heaven is far away

But I feel it close around me as I pray

Heavenly Father, I remember now

Something that Jesus told disciples long ago

"Suffer the children to come to me"

Father, in prayer I'm coming now to thee

Pray, he is there

Speak, he is listening

You are his child

His love now surrounds you

He hears your prayer

He loves the children

Of such is the kingdom, the kingdom of Heaven

look at these gorgeous sisters! baby sister was sleeping at the time though.

and with their proud as punch dad. ana was so funny, kept popping up in the photos. 

and my beautiful friend mel with them.

aren't they just the cutest family!

congrats to our lovely ngawai, what a special experience for you, we were so thrilled to be a part of it. 

alex's obsession

this kids is straight up obsessed with hey duggee and it is the cutest thing ever. we were in big w today and found these pretty big cuddly toys - that all talk! he was so excited to see them and happily cuddled all five of them at once. he would have been even happier if i had bought them for him, but at $25 a piece, that wasn't happening. that's $125 worth of toys in one shot! no.

cutest little face though. i love his obsession. 

a walk with the boys

while maddie has been off enjoying a sleepover at the pinkers, joseph was miserable because he wanted to be there too. it was almost funny, but i started to feel sorry for him when he kept asking over and over when maddie was coming home. so i found him something to do yesterday that would entertain him for a couple of hours.

i bundled both the boys up into the car along with the pram and josephs little bike and drove out to the old train tunnel in swan view. joseph has been dabbling with riding the bike without training wheels for a while, but just wasn't committing to it, but recently he's been riding around the grass at the park and getting his confidence up so i figured it may do him some good.

i wasn't wrong! the minute we go onto the walking trail, he was off, leaving me behind in his dust as i pushed alex along. we got to the tunnel and actually walked all the way through (last time we came almost two years ago he was having none of it) which i will never do again with a pram, because it was near on impossible... i ended up having to swap the handle over and put the big wheels first, but it was worth the effort to make the boys happy.

success! out the other side. we set off again and joseph rode along 50 or so metres in front of me the whole time like he was embarrassed to be seen with me haha.

eventually i told him it was time to turn around so that we didn't get too far from the car and risk him complaining the whole way back and the little monkey sped off and took the trail back while i freaked out the entire walk back because i couldn't see him and worried he could have gotten lost or fallen down the drop down by the path. ohhhh being a mum is scary sometimes.

but... when i finally made it back there he was sitting patiently on a rock by the carpark. i was unimpressed, but very grateful he was safe.

we did have a lovely afternoon though and i was so impressed with joseph's newfound riding ability. it won't be long before he's got it perfect!

joseph's favourite part was when i let him climb up this giant rock and stand on the top where he could see for ages.

i guess being a boy mum isn't all that bad. ❤