The House The Friends Built

Yesterday, after reading Talia’s blogpost, I had a hit of inspiration to build a Gingerbread House. From scratch.

It was SO. MUCH. FUN.

I made the gingerbread dough last night using the recipe that Talia referred to, from The Red Deer. It’s super easy. I actually refrigerated it overnight, as I ran out of steam and didn’t feel like baking after dinner. It was okay, but needed a good hard working to soften it back up this morning.

I cut the template pieces out of baking paper, which meant I could stick them straight on my rolled –out dough and easily cut around it. Once my pieces were cut and baked, I brushed on the glaze and gave them plenty of time to cool.

The icing is also super easy, my only tip is that when it says, “Beat until very stiff peaks form” it means VERY. The icing works so much better as cement/glue when it’s really stiff. I didn’t include the lemon juice in the icing, because I didn’t have any.

We first put together the walls. I wanted to decorate them before I put the roof on, so that I could get to all of it easily.

We were probably more gung-ho with the icing than we really needed to be, but better to be safe and sorry! We let the walls set for a while we did some chores and had lunch. Once the icing was well and truly hard, we felt safe enough to start with the decorating.

I found it easiest to squeeze the glue straight onto the lollies then stick it on the house. I made a make-shift piping bag using a snap-lock bag with a small corner cut out. Worked like a charm.

We used coloured musk sticks, M&Ms, sour straps, liquorice and freckles.

Once we had the walls how we wanted them, it was time to add the roof.

Again, we probably used more icing than we needed to, but it’s certainly very stable as a result.

Pete and I had so much fun doing this together. Mayana was a little bit involved, but she was putting more lollies into her mouth than onto the house, so we distracted her with ABC2 after a while!

So without any further ado, here is our very beautiful Gingerbread House, of which we are suitably proud – especially considering this is the first time that either of us have done any kind of Gingerbread House building/decorating, and we did it all from scratch! I think we may have added another tradition to our little family Christmas list.

Now everybody pray with me that it survives it's 2.5 hour trip out to Christmas day with Nana & Pop!!

Point + Shoot : Brisvegas Baby

This weekend consisted of a LOT of driving, and a LOT of fun.

It started on Friday, when we made our way down to Brisbane to finish off some of our Christmas shopping. We chose a Westfield Shopping Centre, and landed in Shop-Til-You-Drop Heaven. There are really not very many shops in our town, so to find ourselves in a centre that had David Jones, Myer, Target, K-mart, Big W and about 30,000 other little stores (including favourites such as T-2, Kiki-K, Typo, Bed Bath & Table, and STARBUCKS) was a very wonderful thing indeed. I fell a little bit more in love with my new (/second-hand) iPhone, which has a Westfield App that allowed me to find the stores I wanted to go to, and even showed me how to get to them! Love technology!

After we had had our fill of Westfield, and crossed most things of our list, we hot-footed it over to Ikea for a few more bits and bobs. How is it that I can never seem to step out of that place without spending an inordinate amount of money? Then it was dinner with Aunty Janeen before we went back to the northern side of Brisbane for the real reason for our trip: a visit with our wonderful friends (and Mayana’s wonderful Godparents) Daniel & Katherine.

They have just bought a very cute little home, and we enjoyed seeing it and spending time with them. It’s been a while, but they’re the kind of friends that it doesn’t matter how long it’s been, we always just pick up where we left off. Love it.

On Saturday afternoon, we went along to a Christmas event that Dan & Kat’s church runs at a local school oval. It was great fun, with lots of free stuff for kids (face-painting, animal farm, pony-rides, jumping castles, Christmas craft etc) and entertainment (JC Epidemic, music, clowns & Christmas Carols). It was a great community event, and had a really good time… especially Mayana!

In the Christmas Spirit and ready to have some fun!!

Face painted! (One of Mayana’s favourite things to have done, and about the only time I’ve ever seen her sit still).

Visiting the Animal Farm with Kathrine. She kissed every single animal in there. Including the pig. On the butt. The duckling made a much nicer picture.

She also brushed every single animal in there. Including the turkey.

Mayana rode a pony called Macky. She was a little disappointed that she didn’t get to hold the reigns, but had a lot of fun.

The two Maysies

We also happened to bump into my mum’s cousin and his wife and kids, who were also there soaking in the family atmosphere. It’s been a while since we’ve seen them, and their gorgeous little boy Eddie (who was only a few months old when we last saw him) is now over one, and such a cutie. Their daughter Maya is a couple of weeks younger than Mayana, and they had a lovely time together, punctuated by many cuddles and kisses.

On Sunday, we took Mayana to Southbank to have a swim at the ‘beach’. It was quite cool, so she was the only one brave enough to get in, and it didn’t last for long – as much as she insisted she wasn’t cold the blue quivering lips kind of gave her away.

A lovely picnic in the sun soon warmed her back up again.

As did playing on Daniel, The Human Slippery-Slide.

Then it was time for a stroll through the markets, before our final stop in Brisvegas: Max Brenner. Oh my.

Mayana was most impressed with her Baby-Cino, which came not only with TWO marshmallows, but a plate COVERED in chocolate.

Which she proceeded to get pretty much all over herself.

But it was worth it for the beautiful smile!

Then we waved goodbye to Daniel & Katherine, to scoot back to the Coast for Christmas with Grandma Suki & Grandpa Ron!

We sang some songs, because that’s just what we do when my family is together. I love this photo, and the look us sisters are giving our baby brother who clearly just played a dud chord.

Grandpa cooked us a delicious BBQ dinner..

While we soaked up the views.

We exchanged gifts and ate delicious dessert and just enjoyed each other’s company.

It was certainly a very full weekend, but full of awesomeness and happy memories.

I’m playing along with Lou for Point + Shoot. You should too!

Me in A-Z

Age: 24
Bed size: Queen
Chore you most hate: washing up
Dogs: None
Essential start to your day: Being woken up by Baby Two kicks and having cuddles with my hubby and daughter.
Favourite colour: loving shades of teal and turquoise at the moment.
Gold or Silver: Silver
Height: 153cm
Instrument you play: Keyboard, flute and a bit of guitar.
Job title: Distance Education Teacher
Kids: 1 and a half
Live: Qld
Mothers name: Tambrey
Nicknames: Zoz, Zozo, Zozzy, Zo
Overnight hospital stays: One night when I had Mayana.
Pet peeves: I'm pregnant and hormonal at the moment, I seem to have a lot of pet peeves.
Quote from a movie: 'Whatever I feel like I want to do, gosh!'
Right or left handed: Right
Siblings: Two sisters and a brother
Time you wake up: somewhere between 6:30-7am, sometimes earlier depending on Mayana.
Underwear: Cotton.
Vegetable you hate: Wouldn't say I hate it but I'm not a huge fan of silverbeet.
What makes you run late: My daughter and her habit of needing the toilet at the most inconvenient times.
X-Rays you've had: Ankle, knee, wrist.
Yummy food that you make: Fresh homemade pasta with creamy mushroom and white wine sauce.
Zoo animal: Elephants.

Camping… Mayana Style

Last week, Mayana asked her Papa if she could go camping. I’m not sure how she figured out what camping is, but she knew it had something to do with sleeping in a tent. Her Papa promised her they would put the tent up later in the week, but it rained, and rained, and rained. The yard was far too soggy.

So her clever Papa came up with a brilliant idea: Mayana could camp in her bedroom!

My camping-King husband took his smallest tent (a 4-man), cleared a space in her bedroom (have I mentioned how much I love living in a Queenslander with massive bedrooms?) and up went the tent (sans waterproof fly). In went her Ikea city-map mat, her old cot-mattress, her camping chair (of course!) and her fold out couch. She added her entire collection of stuffed toys, and I gave the whole setup a bit of class, by hanging a paper lantern stuffed with fairy lights from the tent’s ceiling. The whole effect was quite magical really, and Mayana was and is delighted.

She has slept in her ‘tent-bedroom’ every night since, and has spent a lot of time playing and imagining in it in the daytime soon. I wonder when or if the novelty will wear off.

In the meantime, I’m totally considering a sleep-over with my daughter…

Point + Shoot: whirlwind weekends

Being on holidays makes the days all blend together. I love waking up in the morning and thinking I have no idea what day it is today, and I don’t even care!

But once I sort out the days in my head, I find that this weekend was quite a busy one:

- Had friends over for dinner on Friday night which meant quite a late night for a certain over-excited little Miss, who fell asleep in the middle of saying prayers and…
- that she slept in till 8am on Saturday morning! Score!
- Practiced a song with a sister and a friend for a Christmas item at sister’s church on Sunday.
- Lazy afternoon in which the only thing I did was take photos to make 3rd birthday invitations for my little big girl!

- Sang said song at sister’s church, then rushed over to my church so that I could see our church family before Christmas and the New Year.
- Home to do some housework before heading down to Noosa to have afternoon tea and a Christmas-gift-exchange with the in-laws.
- Watched my awesome sister, brother and dad in their church’s fabulous dinner-theatre-style Christmas show, ‘Mary’s Story’.

- Spent time after the show catching up with wonderful friends and family

- Finally went to sleep well after 11pm… which is super-late for me these days!

Yep, big weekend, but our weeks have been just as big. Holidays are so not relaxing. But they are awesome!!

I’m playing along with Lou for Point + Shoot… you should too!