the happiest Father's Day in our little world

Greetings all,

Yay, my husband is home for a visit!!  Much to our excitement, he arrived early - surprise - carrying boxes of mangoes & mandarins from Queensland, double yay.  

 Father's Day morning started with a quick cooked breakfast & i took our twins to compete in Tournament of the Minds (yes, 8a.m. on Father's Day) while my husband went back to bed (he drove 1350km on Saturday). 

 Our Maths & Engineering girl (in gingham above, with a French accent) won her division, like her big sister 3 years ago, so she advances to the next round.  Our Literature girl (below in green) was playing Cameron Diaz in a Shrek inspired performance which was hilarious, but apparently, not award winning. 

 Back home in time for lunch & freshly squeezed orange juice . . . 3kg fills the KitchenAid food processor jug to the pouring line, ok, a tiny bit too much, i did spill some . . . 

 & a sink filled with oranges to compost!! 

 For a simple BBQ dinner & salad, we threw together a lettuce, avocado & mango, no dressing, just raw ingredients chopped & a little bit mashed together - damn delicious!!

 Notice the flavour scale increase when my husband is around??  Well, he eats dinner in an Army mess & sometimes, meals for one at his bachelor pad . . . totally demoralising as he's a fantastic cook.  My cooking is bland, so when he's home, i assist him & we cook up a storm, of FLAVOUR.  Anyone for Peking duck tonight??

 So easy: pick up a BBQ duck from a good Chinese restaurant or grocer (around $28 in our neck of the woods, but feeds a football team/ my large hungry family), steam Peking Duck Pancakes, slice up shallots, add Hoi Sin sauce & roll up your bundle of happiness.

 Oh & just because we had some delicious bread rolls left over from the Fyshwick Fresh Food Markets, we made some pre-dinner herb & garlic bread, mmmm.

Don't worry about my waist line, we've been running around with the children in the park, on the oval & by the lake, plus our over zealous puppy.  Eat well my friends, love Posie
PS i have some great giveaways live right now, go enter . . . Hero Factory Lego &
Riley Grumpy Wombat book + pencil roll!!  Good luck!!

a Lego Hero Factory G I V E A W A Y for brave little Lego fans

Greetings all,

Lego Hero Factory is not for the faint hearted, it's down right monster scary.  But isn't that what children love - transformerish Lego creations which twist & morph into the most frightening & ominous creature they can imagine??  My 4 sweet angelic children love a bit of evil Voldermort kind of horror.

My 7 year old did ask for some assistance in the construction of our complimentary new friend Raw Jaw, the revolutionary ball & socket joints are a bit tough to click in place for little fingers.  We'll be adding to the collection with his heroes Storma, Nex, Bulk & Rocka (they even have back stories on their strengths & abilities!!)  It's really suitable for ages 7-16 or fathers, i know they LOVE their Lego too!!

 The Hero Factory is set in the jungle, they're on a mission to restore peace in Quatros, by defeating the sinister, spell casting Evil Witch Doctor.  New age Lego = a unique code to unlock exclusive content at www.HeroFactory.LEGO.com + a movie on Nickelodeon, of course!!  Go old school & let your children undertake their own imaginery missions, or they can listen to Hero Factory FM for the latest Hero Challenges.  If your child is heavily into computers, there is Hero Recon to customise their own Hero at www.herorecon.lego.com. 

Raw Jaw is nice & solid, bits have not been falling off him & he's been in a few battles this weekend, yes, including smurfs (i have my original ones from the 1980's, mum saved them for me with my childhood Lego). 

Ok, so he is MUCH loved & has had a few kisses.

Just a little shout out that Lego Creator released Lighthouse Island, Hillside House & Cool Cruiser last month, along with The Hidden Forest, The Knight Bus & Howarts to the Harry Potter range.  For the Star Wars freaks, you can add a bunch of new Lego to your collection with very scary names like Sith Nightspeeder & Ewok Attack - i thought Ewoks were cute, squeaky & cuddly??  Must be wrong.      

Have you noticed this on my side bar "it's always Lego time at our house" keep scrolling.  I queued up almost 2 hours in Canberra Winter to see creations like this cuckoo clock at the Lego Brick Expo - which was so good i spread it over 2 posts here & here.  We are nothing if not devoted to Lego.

Alrighty, the friendly folk at One Green Bean & Lego are offering . . .
3 boxes of Hero Factory to giveaway, value $19.99 each. 
Just follow this blog & leave a comment here, da dah, you're in.  The 3 lucky winners will be drawn randomly, at 9p.m. on Sunday 11th September 2011, good luck!!

Before you go, some feel good Lego facts . . . the Lego Group is still a private family company in Denmark, devoted to children's creative & imagination abilities, available in 130 countries.  Lego was founded in 1932 (the year my daddy was born & the Sydney Harbour Bridge was opened) - a very good year indeed.  Love Posie

PS Massive thanks to all the interesting feedback & comments on yesterday's post!!  I'm responding to everyone with an email contact, such a wonderful, hearty opinions from all sides.  You're the best!!