basketball is done and dusted

this little champion made it through his term of basketball skills at altone park swan active and loved it! i was actually incredibly proud of him as he gets distracted easily, but he stuck this one out and made it to the end. 

he got a lot of good feedback from the coaches, that he was good at shooting and dribbling - and i think it really built up his confidence so we are really happy about that too! i love how proud he is here to show off his certificate too. what a champ. hopefully at some stage we will be able to get him into some form of actually playing sport, but for now i am super happy with this! you go joseph kendall! 

 

scripture eggs: a primary easter handout

i finally got these made up just in time to hand out to our primary families this sunday for them to learn a little more about easter at home - and teach their families too! i really love this idea which i have used a few times, here and here but i certainly streamlined it a lot more when i had 20 sets to make! it's such a wonderful lesson for kids of all ages and adults too!

my lovely friend jen donated 20 clean egg cartons to me (thank goodness cause they were going to cost me a heap to get new plain ones!) and all i had to do was peel the stickers off and get going with all the items i'd bought online to make them up.

here are the scriptures and contents for you if you want to make your own set, plus the printable above to stick on the cartons:

1. matthew 26:15 30 silver pieces

2. 3 nephi 11:11-12 & matthew 26:39 sacrament cup

3. matthew 27:24 small chunk of soap

4. mark 14:29-31, 53, 66-72 mini chicken

5. matthew 27:28-29 red fabric

6. alma 11:42 piece of rope

7. john 19:24 dice

8. matthew 27:51-54 rocks

9. john: 19:39 rosemary stem

10. luke 24:1-10 round white pebble

11. john 20:25-26 nails

12. matthew 27:59 & matthew 28:6 white fabric

highly recommend for an easy and effective handout this easter! our primary kids and their families loved them, we had amazing feedback from parents.

baby bunnies

last week i was just casually doing my grocery shopping at woolworths - and what should i come across in the easter section? special edition bunny print bonds onesies! oh my gosh. they were a must have, especially considering they came in both boys and girls colours. 

so. what do you do when your best friend has a baby that's a similar age to yours? buy them matching ones, then make them wear them in the middle of the day for a photo for no reason other than the fact that you and your bestie think it's a good idea. side note, i don't know if she actually thought it was that good an idea, but she let me do it anyway. you're welcome. how bloody adorable are they! the cutest little bunnies i've ever seen!

(added later: for extra amusement - every time i get out the bunny onesie now, alex says- oh millie! i like millie! so it's obviously left a lasting impression on him hahaha.)

 

isabel's frozen party

miss isabel macqueen had her birthday party yesterday - a frozen party! and as usual her mum pulled out all the stops to make sure it was the coolest party out. ha. did you like what i did there?

here i am with the guest of honour. my favourite child haha

and best friend jen. we still manage to get a selfie in every now and then.

baby millie made the cutest mini anna i've ever seen

and isabel had the most incredible elsa dress i've seen, complete with sparkles and shimmery fabric.

grace and madeline were on hand to make shaved ice slushies by the truckload as all the kids shuffled through.

so good!

banoffee pie and snowflake cookies made by moi and jen - a joint venture haha

plus snowballs and snow coated brownies

anddddd frozen jelly slice! it's my first time using clear "flavour your own jelly" and i was so happy with the result. it looked amazing!

jen outdid herself - as she does every year... i actually don't know how she always manages to top her previous efforts every time, but she hand painted an ice castle to have at the back of the table!

and the kids had the time of their lives playing with the snow machine. so much mess, but so much fun!

oh to be a kid again. ❤

the cake was increddddddible as always and delicious too.

the happiest birthday girl!

i just love her so much. ❤

the macqueen family. my favourite people out!

easter cupcakes

the kidlets were invited to an easter bash at our friends house today and had the time of their lives! we are so grateful to have the best "village" where people love our kids and make fun times for them. i always feel bad if i don't send something along though, so i made some easter cupcakes and decorated them with some of the leftover smarties from joseph's pac man cake. i have used the same cupcake recipe forever - purely cause it's the best there is.

best ever cupcake recipe

ingredients:

2 eggs

200ml thickened cream

1 tsp vanilla essence

3/4 caster sugar

1 cup sifted self raising flour

1. crack eggs into a 250ml measuring cup, then fill to the top with thickened cream. pour into a mixing bowl.

2. beat with an electric mixer for 1 minute

3. pour in sugar and vanilla essence

4. beat for 3 minutes

5. fold flour into mixture with wooden spoon until combined

6. place mixture into a 12 hole muffin pan, lined with paper casings
7. bake at 160 deg celcius (fan forced) until lightly golden, approx 15-20 mins

colour run fun!

ellen stirling had their annual "colour run" this afternoon and the kids loved it. i mean who wouldn't... getting to run around under the sprinklers and then getting coloured chalk thrown at them. what kid doesn't love getting messy? when i picked them up they were chalky and happy as could be.

joseph's teacher even sent me a few pictures of him loving it. i'm glad he is happy at school as he is such a serious kid generally.

the happiest kid on the block! ❤

when i went to madeline's class to pick her up i was met with two giggling girls, her and her friend emily who had copped an orange chalk bomb right in her hair and was waiting to tell me, "hahahaha look jade! i'm maddie!" what a crack up. 

i love seeing them laughing and loving their lives. ❤

northam country dance challenge

yesterday we had northam competitions - the country dance challenge. it's the first time i've been to comps other than the morley starlight festival of dance and i have to admit, i wasn't at all thrilled with the outcome. our girls danced in lyrical troupe and jazz troupe, meaning we had to be at the rec centre at 7:30am - but even after our sections were done, we had to wait for awards until the entire morning session was finished, which wasn't until noon. i must say, i'm a much bigger fan of the perth comps where they award the winners after each section! 

the girls were also meant to be dancing at the northam town hall, which i was thrilled to bits about, it is the most beautiful building and they would have loved it! however, last minute changes sent them to the northam recreation centre where they were left dancing on the basketball court with flimsy side set pieces which blew over when the fans were on... which meant they couldn't be on and the building was boiling hot. there was no changing areas as we were told it was too hot to use the gazebos, yet the local schools were given rooms to change in? 

no supplied photographer, yet we weren't allowed to take photos ourselves? ummmm. apparently the photographer was too busy at the first venue (solos, duos etc) to be at both.

the cashless entry (as marked on the front door) would not allow eftpos for entry to watch the dancing, meaning half the mums had to run to get cash and one of our group missed her daughter altogether. there was so many things leading to it being a really disappointing experience.

however. let's put this aside and focus on the reason we were there. the girls were a bit meh about it too when they saw what was going on and had to wait for hours but they love to dance and that's why we do it right? they danced their lyrical troupe...

and then their jazz troupe...

and sat patiently with the other competitors until awards

third place for lyrical troupe...

and an honourable mention for jazz troupe

all for the love of dance... and let's hope they smooth out the kinks before be go back next year!

the opshop gods are smiling

the opshop gods have been smiling upon me this week. my beautiful friend debra from church turned up with this pie dish as a gift for me that she found in her local opshop last week, she knew i would love it and indeed i do... pumpkin pie is one of my favourite things in the world and this vintage dish is gorgeous! i will very proudly have that on display and most likely cook pies in it too.

and i know this is random that i feel the need to report it, but this was such a huge win... we got the maxwell williams mondo cutlery when we got married 15 years ago and of course it has since been discontinued. my children have lost 1 of the knives multiple times, but this last time, it has not been relocated. like we are talking it's been missing for a couple of months so i don't think it's coming back. i can buy a replacement on ebay - for $15 a piece, but that's a hard pass. anyway, cut to the story, i went to the local good sammys and went through a giant box of cutlery, piece by piece, which took me a good half an hour, but i found a replacement and a spare and a smaller one the same in case of emergency. and the best bit? they were 20c each! i just don't understand why people wouldn't shop retail. op shops for life! 

toilet training alex

this little rockstar is well on his way to being toilet trained. what whatttttt. he seems to be taking to it no problems at all and is rocking the jocks while we go about our day. of course there have been accidents, but we will get there... hopefully sooner than later.

here's to no more nappies in the kendall house!

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edited to add. it's now almost a year later and he is still not toilet trained. grandma died not long after this and although he was doing great, he had to go into nappies so we could take him here, there and everywhere while we sorted out the funeral and everything else involved in it. and after that, he was completely uninterested. what a fail. let's hope it happens soon so i don't lose my mind. 

 

mini coconut muffins

i love simple, good recipes and knowing that they can be thrown together without much time, ingredients or effort when needed. i saw this beauty on the 4 ingredients facebook page a little while ago and decided to give it a whirl... honestly believing that without egg that there was little chance of them being any good.

i stand corrected. they are actually amazing - and i have tried them with diary free milk for a friend whose son has a milk allergy... just as good. we are onto a winner and i am filing this one away for frequent reference.

****************************

mini coconut muffins 

(makes 24)

1 cup self raising flour'

1 cup desiccated coconut

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup milk

mix all ingredients together and place spoonfuls into a mini muffin tin

bake at 160 deg celcius preheated oven for 18-20 minutes or until tops are golden

enjoy!

relief society ward history: a rs birthday celebration

i love being able to attend our ward relief society activities. after being the ward relief society president and knowing what kind of effort (and stress!) go into each and every one of them, i try never to miss a single one as i remember how much i would worry for the entire day that people wouldn't come.

this was an exceptional activity. each year we celebrate the founding of the relief society (march 17th 1842) with an activity to gather the sisters of our wards together. this was a celebration of the sisters of our ward particularly... with photos of all of our past relief society presidents in one of the displays. i was so honoured and incredibly humbled to be counted among these incredible women. i know and love so many of them and would never have expected to be placed alongside them. it is amazing what the lord can do with us when we are ready and willing to serve.

we played relief society bingo, which was an absolute riot. i can never get over how competitive these women can be.

some absolutely beautiful displays showed the talents and hobbies of some of our sisters

and days of relief society in the beginning

and there was a pile of throwback photos from days gone by.

the hall was set up to make us all really feel at home, like we were relaxing in the lounge

and of course when the relief society sister are involved, there is always the best refreshments! 

i truly love being part of the largest womens organisation in the world! ❤