The Perfect Autumn Day

 We started out our day at Questacon, the science center here in Canberra.  We had a bit of play time before we headed in to our science class!

 Today's science class was about Autumn leaves!  It was the perfect Autumn day for it.  The girls made "leaves" out of their hands and hung them on the HUGE tree on the wall.

 Destiny worked on cutting :) 

 **This sign was posted in the bathroom stall.  TMI, if you ask me!  geez!

 After Science Time, we headed to play in the leaves outside of Questacon.

 As you can see, things are turning quite beautifully around here.

 We even found acorns and other fun things that had fallen off the trees!

It was a beautiful time!  This arvo (afternoon) we are off to a doctor appointment and then the girls are going to dance their socks off at dance class!  It shall be a gloriously fun day!

Enjoy today!

Mum's Day

 Hello Friends!  Destiny made me a little something special for Mother's Day at school this year!  This is the first year that she has made something for me guided by someone other than her daddy.  She made me a beautiful flower arrangement.

 She also made a cute card with a drawing of me on the front.  Notice my lovely pink dress and my HUGE head!

 I'm one lucky  momma!

Speaking of Mother's Day!  I'm getting really excited to be a momma of three!  It's crazy to think that he will be here in just a couple of months!  Names?  We are looking for any ideas you have because, frankly, we cannot agree on anything!  Send name ideas our way!  PLEASE! 

As far as the pregnancy, everything is going great!  I feel fantastic!  I'm still running (sometimes I amaze myself!), still craving any kind of dessert.  Baby is a mover in there.  It's so much fun to feel his kicks!  We have a doctor appointment tomorrow so I'll give you more details after that!  I am crossing my fingers that he is now head down so I can quit worrying about a breech delivery.  29 weeks have flown by!  I'm sure the next 10 will too!

For now, enjoy today!

Chopped

 Hey Friends!  Have you ever watched the show "Chopped" on Food Network?  That is our recent television obsession.  We set up the lap top in bed before we go to sleep and Hulu an episode of "Chopped" before we drift off to dream land.  One night, before I drifted to sleep, I mentioned that it would be fun to do a "chopped challenge" at home with Matt.  Matt ran with the idea and the next day we had ourselves a little challenge!  If you have never heard of "Chopped" here is how it is described on Wikipedia: 
"In each episode, four chefs compete. Their challenge is to take a mystery basket of ingredients and turn them into a dish that is judged on their creativity, presentation, and taste with minimal time to plan and execute.^[1][2] The show is divided into three rounds: "Appetizer", "Entrée", and "Dessert". In each round, the chefs are given a basket containing between three and five ingredients, and the dish each competitor prepares must contain each of those ingredients. The ingredients are often ones which are not commonly prepared together. For example, in "Yucca, Watermelon, Tortillas," the episode which originally aired on February 10, 2009, the appetizer course boxes contained watermelon, canned sardines, pepper jack cheese, and zucchini.
The competitors are given access to a pantry and refrigerator stocked with a wide variety of other ingredients. Each round has a time limit: twenty minutes for the Appetizer round (thirty minutes in some season one episodes), and thirty minutes for the Entrée and Dessert rounds (some episodes gave the chefs 40 or 45 in the entrée round to allow them to handle whole large poultry, e.g. turkeys, geese, or ducks; another gave the chefs fifty minutes in the dessert round). The chefs must cook their dishes and complete four platings (one for each judge plus one "beauty plate") before time runs out. After each round, the judges critique the dishes based on presentation, taste, and creativity. The judges then decide which chef is "chopped," that is, eliminated from the competition. Thus, by the dessert round, only two chefs remain. When deciding the winner, the judges consider not only the dessert course, but the entire meal presented by each chef as a whole. The winner receives $10,000.
An episode of Chopped takes 12 to 14 hours to tape, with deliberations after each round taking about 90 minutes.^[1] While contestants do not know the ingredients ahead of time, they are given a tour of the kitchen at the start of the day and some preparation, such as pre-heating ovens and bringing water to a boil, are done in advance of each round.^[1] According to host Ted Allen, the show "was originally meant to be taped at some guy’s mansion with him and his crazy Chihuahua. A stuffy fellow in a tuxedo was to host, and the losing chef’s dish was then fed to the dog...it was too much for Food Network."^[1]"

 We set out to make two courses.  I selected the items that Matt would use to prepare the Entree Course and Matt selected the items I would use to prepare the Dessert Course.

 Matt's items: Frozen Fish Sticks (yuck!), Semolina, Canned Water Chestnuts, and Butternut Squash.

 Matt rolled out with a few surprises and ended up making a very yummy meal.

 He had 40 minutes to plan, prep, and cook the food.  His semolina battered onion rings were to die for!

 Many pots, pans, bowls, and utensils were dirtied in the process, but the results were phenomenal!

 In honor of Cinco de Mayo, Matt rolled with a fish stick taco, spicy cream sauce, a salsa of squash and water chestnuts, and he brought it home with semolina battered onion rings!  It was ACTUALLY edible and tasted pretty darn good!

 The Dessert Round:

 Mandarin Oranges, HOT Peppers, Hersey's Milk Chocolate Kisses, and Prepackaged Trader Joes Ginger Snaps!

 Roasted Pepper.

 The competition with the clock was intense...and yes, I always cook wearing a scarf (not really!)

My final product: Mandarin oranges dipped in a chili pepper chocolate and drizzled with an orange glaze. A fluffernutter made with cookie butter (homemade with the gingersnaps) and marshmallow fluff and grilled to perfection topped with some chili chocolate and a bit of orange rind.

What a delicious meal and we had SO much fun! 

Come and visit me and we can duel it out in the kitchen too :)

Enjoy today!

Market Day!

 Look at all of our market loot!  Woo hoo!  I just LOVE our farmer's market.  We are absolutely spoiled here in Canberra and living so close to one of the biggest farmer's markets here.  The girls and I went shopping and found {only} the essentials! ;)  big loaf of bread, apple juice, onions, cucumbers, apples, kiwi, mandarins, garlic, HOT peppers and my current craving of the day: radishes!?!  It's going to be a yummy week over here!

 The girls with their favorites!  (the sun was in Dest's eyes!)

 The hustle and bustle of the market.  I love the accordion playing young man and the older man who plays the violin.  Such beautiful music while we peruse the produce.

 Pumpkins, pumpkins, who wants some pumpkins?  The majority of the pumpkins would be considered "squash" in America.  I love the butternut ones! yum!

 Such a crowd!

{My photos uploaded backwards}  This is the start to our market adventure!  The girls each wanted to carry a bag.  By the end of it, I was carrying each bag plus the HUGE loaf of bread, Addi was asking to be carried in my arms and Destiny wanted to ride on my shoulders! ha!

I hope you are eating good this week too!
I smell some french toast in my future :)

Enjoy today!

Bored? Games!

 Hey Friends!  Today the girls and I were stuck at home waiting for an electrician to stop by and fix an issue we had going on in our house.  The girls and I decided to play some board games! 

 Candy land was a blast!  Addi even lasted until the very end :)

 We played a fun game called Zingo!  We played it just how you would play Bingo and the girls loved it!

 The next game was a "Hide the Sock Monkey" game!  That was a BLAST!

Feeling bored?  Why not play a game with your loved ones! 

Enjoy today!

Beauty and the Beast 3D!

 Starting the day with a royal bubble bath, my princesses primped themselves for a morning out at the movies!  They each took a turn sitting at their vanity while the queen brushed their hair and selected their accessories.

 With their best dresses on, they were ready to ride in the coach to the theatre.  (They chose dresses from their dress up trunk!)

 They posed for a quick photo with the princess picture in their room.

 After picking up our tickets, the girls posed by the sign for the show.  Unfortunately it is really dark in the movie theatre hallway.

 The girls were pumped to wear their 3D glasses!

 Addi opted to take hers off, but Destiny enjoyed the show in style ;)

We saw the movie in 3D on Xtreme Screen!  Wowza! 

Now we are recovering by having a relaxing afternoon! 

Enjoy today!