We have you been all their lives....

I'm a big believer in taking the girls "out" for food, teaching table manners and appropriate behaviours in public is high on my list of lessons. There are the occasions when it all falls apart but most of the time its quite an enjoyable experience.
My local cafe know my girls by name and actually smile when we arrive, scoop up Evie for a cuddle and pass out complimentary marshmallows but unfortunately its not always like this elsewhere.  I totally understand the whole eating out with kids debate but seriously if your respectful of others dining and clean up after any major mess they make it really isn't that hard. Little Eats has a great article here that I totally agree with - if fact while your there and your from Melbourne, pick out some great places to eat as well. Its usually the first place I look when brainstorming for a new place to visit.

We went to Cheeky Chino's over Easter break and all I can say is why hasn't someone done this before. Its totally a great place to start with, if your building your "eating out" confidence. What amazing service, yummy food and most importantly perfect coffee. There were TWO staff actually playing with the girls in the play area while the hubby and I had lunch and somebody helped me by taking the pram to the pram parking area and then helped set us up at the table. The food was just as good as any other high end "hipster" eatery and the fab kids menu had plenty of healthy choices (not a fried food to be seen). We enjoyed a delicious chicken sandwich and toasted foccacia, 4 coffees (yes we went back for seconds) and Lou enjoyed the choice of six different babychinos types and a yummy pink iced tea cake.  The toilets are family friendly with a place to change nappies if needed.

They have thought of absolutely everything here including plastic cups for the water just for the kids and sanitiser for bare feet in the play area. They only negative I can see that once word gets out about this place I'm sure it will be packed daily.
We will be back very soon.
 Linda xx

Photos sourced from Cheeky Chino's facey page  

The Party round-up...

We had a little celebration over the weekend to mark a very special girls first birthday. Rain was predicted all week for our party but thankfully it never arrived. The wind made a mess of my streamer backdrop but that's all that really went wrong so I couldn't complain. The husband and I decided back when Louise had her first birthday that we would go all out for our children's first party. We don't do religious events or the like, so we really wanted a chance to celebrate our child's first year and thank our loved ones for being apart of such a special time in our lives. 

I started planning (and saving) a couple months back - knowing that the guest list would probably tip the 100 mark, I wanted to be as organised as possible.

As overdone as it is .... I couldn't go past a rainbow theme for Evie, its perfect for her. Especially when I saw a custom printables range from Fairydust Stylist Stationary. I love her work and she sets up the most stunning party tables. Here's Evie's Invite:

The husband conveniently has an air compressor (to lovingly clean his beloved bike) so he had no excuse trouble getting 200 balloons blown up so I could try out Design Moms awesome Balloon Banner I found in Pinterest. It looked great in the morning but the wind certainly took its toll on it and became quite bare by the arvo.

 

  

I had a caterer do the food, so only had to take care of the fun stuff ...desserts and cake!! I have been itching to try out THE Rainbow cake - and turned out a lot better than I thought it would.

A week before the party I suddenly realised we would have about 35 kids with not much to do. The best decision I made was ask the Kindy mums if anyone knew a good entertainer - Benny Blitz had just done a session at the local hairdresser for a Shave for a cure fundraiser. He was fantastic - the kids loved his tricks and he had such a talent for making very cool balloon creations. Honestly if an entertainer is in your party budget I totally recommend getting one. It saves the time, stress and hair loss of planning games a million times over.

I did organise a photo booth area though. I wish we had had more time to use it because the photos I did get were awesome. I haven't had the heart to take it down yet. Maybe I can get visitors to pose to I have an excuse to keep it there?

I used the printables again to make up some different Thank you gifts. Chocolates, Cookies and Lolly Bags. A Big Thank you to Susie at Sweetie Darling for doing the cookies (and the gorgeous flower on top of the cake) for me.

 We had a wonderful day and our normally surly little munchkin, didn't give us a frown all day. 

She obviously enjoys being centre of attention.

 

You can see Louise 2nd, 3rd and 4th birthdays here

My $11 Cake Plate

Yep $11... Isn't it cute? I made it .... so easy I'll show you how.

You only need 3 things - A Candle stick (mines from IKEA), a pretty plate and some hot glue.

Just glue one to the other and wollah....

A Handmade Cake Plate

Chicken {Heart} Pie

Now that I have some of my cooking mojo back, I thought that I would post
some of my tried and tested favourite meals.
(with both pregnancies I totally lost the ability to cook - it was either burn't or tasteless)


I make this when I want to cook something yummy but can't be 

bothered going to a lot of trouble. Enjoy!

6-8 Chicken Tendeloins (organic if possible) cubed

~I like tendelions because they are not as dry as the breast but easier to cut than the thigh~

1 packet of short cut bacon cut into small pieces

1 leek sliced thin

8 Mushrooms sliced or more if you like them lots like we do

1 Big handful of baby spinach

250gram light sour cream

2 teaspoons Djion Mustard

1 teaspoon Seeded Mustard

1 tablespoon of plain flour

Dash (or more) of any white wine

Salt and pepper to taste

1 and 1/2 sheets puff pastry

egg wash for the pastry

heart shaped cookie cutter

• Gently warm the leeks (careful not to burn them as they go bitter) then add chicken and bacon to brown.
• Add the mushys cook them a little then add the wine and don't forget scrape all the goodness from the bottom of the pan as you stir. Let it simmer a little while the wine evaporates then add the flour, sour cream and mustards.
• Add salt and pepper to taste
• Simmer until sauce thickens
• I like to add the spinach last so its not too soggy
• Scrape everything into a pie dish and cover with the puff pastry
• Use the cookie cutter and cut out lots of pretty hearts to decorate the top (you could skip this step but really where's the fun in that)
• Cover in the egg wash
• Place in the oven to cook for about 1/2 hour until warmed through and golden on top.

We usually have this with a lovely big salad

Easy Peasy!!