Cooking with kids....

Travis is learning to cook. He is 5 years old and into cars and construction in a big way - but cooking is something I've had to encourage. And I do - that is I do encourage Travis to learn to do "domestic chores" - exactly the same as I encourage Emy (the only difference is the allowance for age).
Gender on the domestic front for us is a non issue. The fact is that I CHOOSE (and it's still my choice) to stay at home with the kids. Sam is learning to cook regular meals (he was darn good with a waffle iron and could make hot dogs but that's it when I met him) and he enjoys it now that he does it about 50% of the time (we alternate the cooking & the kids showers routine).
Anyway I digress as usual. Cooking with kids is a fun, messy and often wonky affair. Travis is good at it when he is in the mood for it - otherwise he's just trying to wait till he can sneak away.
The one thing I can always get him to cook is biscuits! He prefers fancy biscuits but he will happily cook plain biscuits if he gets to ice them. Shapes are a little funky but they still taste great :D

Travis' favourite plain biscuit recipe is from the good old CWA cookbook.

ICED BISCUITS (53rd ed, pg 241)

Cream 125gm butter & 1 cup of sugar together. Add 1 egg (beaten), a dash of your choice of flavoured essence (we like vanilla) and 2 cups of self raising flour. Mix until forms a stiff dough. Roll out onto a lightly floured surface till 5 mm thick. Cut with biscuit cutter into your preferred shape and and put in the oven on a non stick pan (moderate heat) till slightly golden - 10 mins approx. Biscuits will stiffen on cooling and are great with a glass of cold milk!

Enjoy!

Eating Out With Little Kids!

Let's face it - when we go out to a restaurant we're usually not thinking of the kids; we're thinking of a nice meal with hubby or catching up with friends and family. We're thinking the kids will wear that cute outfit and everyone will think they're adorable and charming.

We are all mad!!We're mad to try to wrangle children when they're all hyped up and excited into an environment that requires them to be quiet, still and require little to no attention - apart from praise. IT NEVER HAPPENS!

That is why I was so very proud of my kids last Tuesday night! Both of them behaved as well as I could have asked at while out to celebrate DH's new job.  They weren't perfect - but they did as well as I've ever seen a child do! Afterwards (and again the next morning) I was able to "descriptively praise" the kids' behaviour and I took great joy in announcing that because they had been so good we would be able to do it again - maybe next time with some more people!

They we're polite, not screamy, ate every bite they could fit - without a fuss, didn't make a mess, enthusiastically coloured in the papers they were given and were generally pleasant to be around. So by now if you know me and my kids - your probably saying "yeah right - bull***" or "OMG Wow!!".

But the thing is - it was because of me - that they were so good! (self congratulations count!!!)

You see, when Travis was little I did a lot of research on places to eat and how to take kids out without being the embarrassed Mum standing out front of the restaurant alternatively pleading or growling for the kids to behave - as I was sure I was going to end up!  It's taken time and quite a few moments of embarrasement - but finally we're happy with our "eating out manners".

The main thing all sites said was "practice". So we did. We eat out with the kids when we can and expect the same good manners at a HJ's as at a good restaurant (except there is a playground time instead of deserts at HJ's).

Another thing they said was to "pre-prepare the evening". So we do: naps are had early, the kids are told what will happen in advance and how we expect them to behave. We pack a mini bag of quiet entertainments in case of boredom or delayed meals.

Also to "know your limits". When the meal is over we don't push it - we head home (its usually past bedtime by then and the kids are getting tired). We book tables earlier so that we're not eating when they're trying to go to sleep. But if we want to hang around - we make sure that we have extra entertainments on hand and the kids know that at a certain point they have to sit and have quiet cuddles until its time to go.

I cobbled together a list of restaurant desirables to cater to our needs. The restaurants have to have:

1) kid friendly meals - well that's obvious right? There's no point in paying for a meal that they won't eat!

2) high chairs. Again a basic - if they cant see the plate......

3) family atmosphere. I refuse to be glared at when my children occasionally get too loud or I am heard to ask "Do you need to poo?" or "Did you poo or have you just farted?" (yes I say fart to my kids - but they don't say it back!).

4) background noise. A silent place makes us stick out like a sore thumb! We're pretty loud people and as a family there's no way we can all be whisper quiet!

5) kids meals delivered first. There's nothing worse than kids waiting for dinner but not being able to move. They're not very patient at all! Not to mention they take three times as long to eat half as much! If a child's meal is delivered 1/2 hour before mine I'm probably still going to finish before them!

6) patient & forgiving wait staff. My last waiter had to clean up 2 spills, fetch extra napkins and had to stop by twice as often at our table for extra lemonades and Mummy's cocktails :D (yes we did make a point of tipping the awesome fellow)!

7) children's entertainment. A playground is nice - but I'm not talking about going to Micky D's here so there are very few places that have this. All I'm talking about is something simple; a TV (music videos work on my kids), an environment that invites questions and conversations from young minds, a colouring page and crayons etc etc.

8) a fair price. Yes it seems obvious but family's will come out more often if they can afford it without having to save for months! 

So all in all we have been to a few places that are great with kids but our favourite (that also happens to be closest to us atm) is Hogs Breath cafe. They go as far as to treat the kids like people - not just an attachment to the people with money. It has everything we could ask for and even the gentlemen at the front counter makes a point of offering a balloon at the end of the evening and shaking my sons hand (makes him feel like such a big boy that hes simply bursting with pride on the way home).
We will be going back.........at the very least for one of their yummy cocktails :P

House Proud

Ok, so not long ago I posted about the 1950’s woman and my attempt to emulate her “house proud” lifestyle.  I promised to keep you updated and so here I am ...trying not to boast :D

 I haven’t been perfect and my house is not shiny by anyone’s standards but I’m doing better!  My house is now consistently “visitor clean” 3 out of 7 days a week. By that I mean that if a visitor knocked on my door without warning on one of those days – I wouldn’t be embarrassed about the state the house was in! On those days the dishes are done and the floor is vacuumed. On the other days the house is generally tidier than it would have been before but I’d still be wincing inside if someone saw it.

I’ve also done a lot better with “hubby”.  I complain about my day (usually about whatever stopped me from getting things done) a lot less and surprisingly it’s had an unexpected bonus.....when I do complain now – he listens more!  We still have trouble keeping the house quiet when he comes home – but he he’s absolutely loving the coming home greetings. The kids even love doing it!

I do better with my appearance and feel better for it. I still have days (especially when I’m PMS’ing or when I was flu-ey) when I just can’t work up the effort to do more than be “not shameful”.  I’m particularly proud of my makeup. I bought a kewl brush set and I’m learning how to use it – so there is a difference between my 3 makeup stages now (excluding none at all; Mascara, concealer & lippy aka basic day wear.  Day wear plus & VIP occasion.)  Hubby has noticed and he makes a point of saying how much he likes it and is proud of my efforts.

When the weather is nice the kids are getting some outside time but the exercise on other days is not happening as much as I’d like. But then again – exercise isn’t one of my favourite things either.  :P  Travis has been given a couple of chores and he’s doing ok with them. He seems pleased to have them and loves it when we say thank you for doing them –  but it’s very hit and miss as to whether it gets done.

 I’m working towards my goals every day and I’m slowly getting there.  Getting slowly better with every week that goes by is pretty good if you ask me.  I’m proud of the progress I’ve made.

In taking my “don’t sweat the small stuff” advice, I try to no longer focus on the things I haven’t accomplished during the day and focus on what I have done.  So the most important thing I think I’ve accomplished – is feeling better about myself and making those around me feel just a little bit happier for it too!