The weekend is already over

It was a busy weekend. Trying to finish off a quilt for a very belated birthday. Not quite finished yet but nearly there. My resolution for this coming year is to learn how to cook Vietnamese. Being Vietnamese myself and having a mum that is a great cook, you would think that I would be great at it but it's not the case. So this year I have decided to learn all I can from my mum and any Vietnamese cookbooks that I can get my hands on. This weekend for the very first time I made spring rolls (egg rolls if you are American). From my mums recipe and they turned out great.

We also took a trip to some markets. Eltham Craft Market and the Healesville Racecourse Harvest and Craft Market. The very first time we went to the Healesville market and loved it. A very big market with heaps of people. Not sure if it's always busy each month or because of Christmas. Took us 20 minutes to get out of the car park. They are having a Twilight Christmas market on 19th December, we will surely be visiting on that night.

Lunch at Giant Steps and a drink at the makers of White Rabbit Beer ended our fantastic day out.

Quilt that will be finished before Christmas



















Handmade soap at the Eltham Craft Market



















Healesville Harvest and Craft Market

























































TJ playing the drums with the stools

It's Cherry Time

It's cherry season here in Victoria which means one thing. A trip to Red Hill to pick some cherries. The weather was great last weekend for cherry picking, the cherries where only $8 kg and there wasn't anyone there. What else could we have asked for.

Backapakka

It's been a while since I've had the inspiration to blog. We probably haven't been doing much that's noteworthy. The end of daylight savings and the onset of some "wtf is it winter already?" cold weather has brought on the end of our park BBQ outings. But... we've discovered the baby backpack. We've been toying with the idea for a while because we're supposed to be heading to Thailand/Vietnam/Malaysia mid year. If you've ever been to Bangkok, a pram/stroller ain't gunna cut it going up and down stairs to navigate the overpases over the tuk-tuk filled roads. That and little man chucks a spaz when he has to sit in the pram anyway.

So the baby backpack... we tried it out a couple of times and TJ was not impressed but we bit the bullet and bought one anyway hoping he'd get used to it. It didn't take long. Which is fantastic because I was really struggling carrying him everywhere (although it has resulted in some fairly impressive biceps for someone who is as naturally scrawny as I am). So this means we can actually go places - places no little man has gone before. Well maybe not quite, but it is really going to open up some options for us over winter (as long as it's not wet). Bananas is planning to get us some maps of the Dandenongs so we can figure out some short hikes - short enough to fit in some scones from Miss Marples on the way home that is :)

First Birthday

For the last couple of months I have been very busy organising Baby T's first birthday. A very exciting time for both Bananas and I but also a sad time. Don't believe how fast he is growing and wish that he will stay this young longer.

The party is now over and we have been eating leftover for the last couple of days. A fantastic turn out. The last time that I counted there was 80 people and all packed into my parents backyard. The theme was rubber duckies and here are some photos that I would like to share.

First Christmas with the little manhhhhhhhhh

We love the holiday season. It's always good to wind down towards the end of year, fatten up on BBQ meat, seafood and pudding and drink lots of booze. This year we managed to maintain the tradition while still getting little man at a reasonable hour to sleep most nights.

To save ourselves driving over town on Christmas day this year we decided to host Xmas lunch. This also gave us the option to invite both sets of parents over. This can be frought with danger, but luckily we managed to round up some friends to come eat big bird with us as well to dilute the awkwardness that can sometimes arise when mixing parents. Feeding 17 people + toddlers meant our poor little oven needed help so we cooked the bird in our BBQ (one of those hooded ones). Was a fair bit of work but all in all everyone got fed and the turkey actually turned out pretty well for a first attempt, if I do say so myself.

Not alot of time on the day to do much but cook and eat, but had a bit of a break from work after that and had a really good chance to reflect on what an awesome year we've had. And it seriously was an awesome year. Our genes incarnate are starting to grow into an actual small person and learning to walk. He's even developing his own personality and starting to figure out things like he loves ice cream. Alot. He's also figured out that he doesn't like it when there's none left. I know he's not supposed to eat ice cream yet but what the heck, it's Christmas, and we were eating lots of stuff we probably shouldn't either. Meh. In any case, I think his favourite part of Christmas was all the lights. We've had lots of quality time with family and friends (even though we probably haven't actually seen as much of most of our friends as we have in previous years) and it's just been one of the periods of our lives that I am truly grateful for.

After this one, the next year has much to live up to. Just wish they's stop going by so quickly...

Baby TJ opening his Christmas presents.

















Tike from Mummy and Daddy.