Who doesn't love a party!

It's that time of year again, my oldest bear will be celebrating her 6th birthday soon (how in the world is it possible that she's turing six!) and this year for her party she wanted to decorate gingerbread houses with her friends. I've written about how special it is for kids to receive fun and creative party invites (click here for the post), so this year I thought it would be fun to bake mini gingerbread house cookies to match the invites. For photos of the invites and where to find them along with gingerbread recipe (which makes the softest, tastiest gingerbread) click below. 

Creepy Crawly Cookies Revisited

You may remember the creepy crawly cookies post from last year (you can find it here), well they got a revamp! To learn how to make them super spookie, with the addition of spider webs, click below.

Trick or Treat... definitely Treat

Once again a holiday has snuck up on me. This week has been a whirlwind of assignments, study, baking, sewing halloween costumes and making treats for the little bears to take to school. I have promised myself that next year, I will be more organised and pace myself instead of the craziness that has been my week! If you're looking for a relatively quick and fun treat to give the kiddos this halloween then these mummy pops are just the ticket. Read on for directions.

Afternoon Pick Me Up

I don't know about you, but I find around 3 o'clock everyday I get sluggish and hungry. It's way too early for dinner, which is three hours away, and way too late for lunch, which I've usually had three hours prior. I find having a bit of afternoon tea perks me up and I'll admit, makes me less grumpy. The difficult thing about afternoon tea is, that it is so easy to eat something big and spoil your appetite for dinner or eat something that probably isn't very healthy. A while ago I posted this recipe for muesli balls, which I make as snacks for the kids and while they are delicious, I wanted to change things up a bit. What better way than to use two of my favourite ingredients, cocoa and blueberries. For a quick, healthy and delicious snack, make these antioxidant rich energy balls. 

Start your engines...

So a five month long blog hiatus was not planned, but life got busy, really busy and the blog got put on the back burner. I have been thinking about posts I wanted to do and have taken loads of pictures but have just not had the time, or head space to post. Now that my hospital placement is over for the semester and my uni classes are under control, I have a bit more time at night to devote to the bears four. 

Recently my littlest bear had his fourth birthday and he is hot wheel OBSESSED. So of course the party theme had to be hot wheels. Click below to see photos from the party with ideas, tips, free downloads and recipes that will insure you throw a super duper hot wheels party. 

Most Important Meal of the Day

I've been finding lately that by the time I get the kids dressed, fed, hair done, shoes on, teeth brushed and ready to go out the door, I have barely had time to get dressed and ready myself. Lately I've been so neglectful of myself that it's been nearly noon and I'll realise I haven't even had water yet! Really not good. So to do something about it, I've made these healthy and delicious Banana Blueberry Muffins that I can just grab and go in the morning, so even though I'm still short on time for myself, at least I'm still eating the most important meal of the day. For recipe click below. 

Rainbow Art Party Recap

I've been meaning to write a post on this for a few months now but other things ended up taking precedence and I just never got around to it until now. My oldest bear is a crafting, painting, drawing fiend and she decided pretty much right after her fourth birthday that she wanted a rainbow art party for her fifth birthday. This post is a photo recap of her party with some rainbow themed food and craft ideas that were easy to put together and a big hit at the party. 

Nothing says I LOVE YOU like a...

Racking my brain trying to think of something to make the bears for valentine's day and this popped into my head. Giant anything is pretty cool, but something giant you can eat is the best! This is a great novelty valentine's day treat and it can be personalised with fun messages like "without you I'd crumble" and "your so cute I could eat you up". For the really tasty and simple recipe click below.

School Snacks: DIY Fruit Roll Ups

Only a couple more weeks until the start of school, so now is the perfect time to start bulk making school snacks. Following on from last week's post, here is a really simple way to incorporate more fruit into your child's diet. Luckily the little bears LOVE any and all fruit but for those that find it difficult to get all 2-3 serves of fruit in each day, this might be a solution! This recipe is also a great way to use up fruit that may be overripe and would otherwise not get eaten. For the step by step recipe and more photos read on. 

School Snacks: Apricot Muesli Balls

I can't believe one of my little bears is big enough to go to school this year! Where does the time go? While she's super excited to head off to big kid school, I am trying not to think too much about it. I'm going to miss having one of my sidekicks with me during the week but it's really time for her and she's getting pretty bored of me. One school related thing I have been thinking about is healthy yummy snacks for her to take. I thought now would be a great time to post a healthy snack recipe once a week in the lead up to the start of school. Each recipe can be made in bulk and frozen. Read on for how to  make these delicious apricot muesli balls. 

Santa Sampler

It's important to leave cookies and milk out for Santa on Christmas eve as he has a very busy night delivering presents to children across the world, which is hungry work. This at least, is what I tell the little bears, but really I just love any excuse to make cookies. This year for presents for our neighbours, friends and family I decided to make a Santa Cookie Sampler of four different delicious cookies. I'm sure Santa will appreciate them too! For recipes and more photos click below.

Halloween Treats: Creepy Crawly Cookies

I love Halloween. I've always loved Halloween. Yes I was one of those teenagers who shamelessly still went trick or treating with their friends even though they were definitely past the appropriate age. So given my affinity for the holiday I really miss it here in Australia. It is just not the same here. People don't decorate their houses with gusto, you don't see people wandering the streets during the day in full costume and you can not ring most door bells on October 31st without people wondering why on earth you're yelling "trick or treat" at them. Having said all this we have found a couple good streets near us that have trick or treating but if you get there past 5:30pm there are no lollies left! Trick or treating during daylight is just wrong. To combat the lacklustre Halloween festivities here I've taken it upon myself to show the kids how much fun Halloween can be. This year after ridiculously early trick or treating we're going to have a pizza party with friends. The little bears cannot wait. I was racking my brain for dessert ideas that had a nod to Halloween but also small portions, since I have a feeling a lot of sugar is going to be consumed before pizza time. Click below for the recipe for these creepy crawly cookies.

Halloween Treats: Jack O' Lantern Pops

Halloween is just around the corner and I needed something for the bears to handout to their classmates at preschool. I didn't want to make something I've seen before but I also wanted to make something that took little time, could be make in bulk and looked great. I had one of those light bulb moments and came up with these super easy and fun Jack O' lantern rice crispy treat pops. Read on for step by step directions and photos. 

Layered Jelly Cups

This year for my littlest bear's superhero birthday party, I tried to focus on only making a few food treats that required minimal work but had big impact. These layered jelly cups certainly fit the bill. They're great because you can tailor the colours to your party's theme and kids love them. Read on for directions.

Salted Caramel Apple Pie

Salted caramel. Delicious. Apple pie. Yummy. Together. Unbelievable! This is one of those combinations that was just meant to be. Reminiscent of autumn childhood fetes with caramel apples galore combined with grandma's famous apple pie, this is a recipe must! For directions and more photos head over to Sharon Wee's blog, where I've guest posted this week.

Bon appétit!

Caramel & White Chocolate Covered Giant Marshmallows

This year's birthday party for my littlest bear was a lot more low key in terms catering and decorating than previous years. For the goodies bags I kept it simple and made these caramel and white chocolate covered giant marshmallows and giant chocolate chip cookies. These marshmallows are super yummy and decadent but the best part is they are easy to make. For recipe and more party details click below. 

Bilpin Springs Apple Picking + Apple Chips Recipe

Before the brunt of winter hit we made a trip to the foothills of the blue mountains to Bilpin to go apple picking. We made the pilgrimage the previous year to the same orchard, Bilpin Springs which has granny smith and sundowner apples. Both varieties of apples are great for baking with, so of course a good proportion of the $35 worth of apples we came home with were used to make cakes, pies and apple chips. Click below to hear more about our apple picking adventure and for an apple chips recipe that is easy and tasty. Bonus, it will make your home smell amazing!

Kahlua Colada

I decided not to put any demands on myself to post any blog updates while on vacation. I figured, if it happened it happened. I knew there was no way I was going to do any sewing tutorials (no sewing machine) or any baking recipes (way too hot here to have the oven on!) but a cocktail recipe, now that I could do! Click below for the recipe and a little look at our vacation thus far. Oh and you're allowed to be jealous, perfectly understandable ;) 

Salted Caramel Cookies

Well it is definitely winter now in Sydney, though I really can’t complain as we’re going to be blowing this popsicle stand soon for a more tropical location. In the meantime though, I needed a way to entertain the little bears one afternoon and baking was the way to go. We made these Salted Caramel Cookies and they were so good I had to share.

Rail Trail Adventure Part 2: Red Velvet Cherry Ripe

Another bakery stop on our Rail Trail Adventure brought us to Goulburn Bakery. I couldn't resist trying their Red Velvet cake, which they called a Red Velvet Cheesecake (I'm guessing because of the cream cheese icing) but I wasn't expecting it to taste exactly like a Cherry Ripe! Eating it reminded me of childhood and I couldn't wait to try to make my own version at home.