Fly trap update

Firstly I would like to thank everyone for their kind comments about my norks on Sunday's post.  It has completely inspired me and I have decided to copy Guccimama and have Half Naked Thursday on my blog - yes, henceforth I shall be plastering my nekkid bits... oh as IF.

And, to the person who emailed me to inform me that if you zoom in on that photo, you can get them up to almost life size - I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE.

Anywaaaaaay.

I am sick with a rotten cold AND my life has exploded.  When I woke up this morning I had decided I could just about send Miss 4 back to school with a clear conscience (when I picked her up this afternoon the front of her top was crispy with snot - goddammit - tomorrow I'll dose her up with drugs so its not so obvious I'm a bad bad mother) and was looking forward to a few days during which I had nothing to do except execute a well organised countdown to Miss 4s birthday party this weekend.

Sigh.

Within the space of four emails and two text messages I ended up with about 45 MILLION other urgent things to do, AND hubs is dealing with a massive massive crisis at work so I haven't seen him for days, AND I had a huge panic about the party this afternoon and ended up running around random supermarkets with a Very Runny Nose and No List.

I cannot even remember what I bought.  Well, I do remember the gigantic packet of chips, because I ate them, and I spent the afternoon teaching my children to suck M&Ms onto the end of a straw and drop them in a bowl (you could Feel The Serenity in our house for an entire half hour once they got the hang of it) and I know for a fact that M&Ms were not in my vicinity pre-shopping.

Um.  So. Flytrap.

Not a success.  I think that one fly died of boredom.

Hmm.

No TV and a lot of ALL CAPS blogging

Further to my 'I am so introverted, I find this blogging biso so haaaaard,' waaaah-fest of last week (I HAD INLAWS, PMT and NEW SCHOOL TERM, okay?). Next time I start heading in that direction, someone point me to the following sign...

Lifted from Naomi's wonderful blog http://www.sevencherubs.com/

Gah.

So as we all know the UNIVERSE HATES ME.  Lately it has demonstrated this by making the possums in the wall pee all over the electrics that run the television.   Not surprisingly this has led to a great deal of blown fuses and singed fur/wee smell down that end of the house.  In the interests of not burning the house down we have - with much agony - turned off that circuit and therefore WE HAVE NO TELEVISION.

Sob.

We nearly had NO INTERNET, but hubs, somewhat wary of giving his wife a total nervous breakdown, fixed that problem within the first ten minutes.

Its not all bad. As we have internet, so we have iView and access to kids TV and Reading Eggs - though I do have to sacrifice the lappie and keep calm when it gets covered in another layer of sneeze, or even better, sneeze with peanut butter toast in it.

Yes. Life at my house is like living in a 3rd world country it really is. I mean this morning I could not even find the cheese slicer.

But then I did.

Um, anyway.  Things in the garden are looking super-duper awesome right now :). The tomatoes are about to get all tied up as they're growing about 2cms A DAY (I shit you not).  All those weeds in the photo are actually self seeded tatsoi and rocket.  Just goes to show slack-arse gardening has its benefits (I dumped a heap of bolting plants in that garden bed last year, and look at it now!!)

Hubs and I love our chamomile tea each evening before bed, and tonight, for the first time in years our tea will be made with flowers fresh from the garden.  Chamomile is another keen self-seeder so I'm hoping that I've bought it from the supermarket in teabags for the last time.

Apart from that, was up until 11.30pm last night writing party invitations for Miss 4 (we do her party early as she has a near chrissy birthday).  Despite this, I'm suffering from a hefty dose of denial about the whole thing and will worry about all it next week.

sigh.

Taa Daa

I am so knackered, but it doesn't look too bad.

Sherbet Cones

I have them!!

Words cannot describe my delight.

F*ckity F*ckity F*ck

Slight chocolate bat making disaster

So now we are just having two bats AND

A halloween sperm.

Is it just me or can you smell burning cake too?

Sigh.

Halloween Invitations

My hand hurts and I've got a splitting headache, I'm developing RSI, I've got bruises at the base of my thumb and even the beginning of a blister.

What have I been doing?  Making party invitations, that's what.

Here is what I have cut out today (yes a list).

1. 20 witches hats
2. 20 bats
3. 20 spiders
4. 40 gold stars
5. 40 silver stars
6. 20 purple notes
7. And curled 10m of ribbon

I think they've come out okay though, and the kids are so excited :)

Now I just have to figure out who to give them to.  Coaxing names out of a 3.5year old is not easy. So far we have Alex the boy, Alex the girl and the other Alex.

Marvellous.

Halloween Cookies

Its three weeks until Halloween (and ten weeks five days until Christmas - just sayin).   Miss 3.5 - the lesser of the two screamies - was born on 31 December. As anyone with a birthday around then will know, trying to organise parties is a bit of a nightmare at that time of year, so I have moved Miss 3.5's birthday party to 31 October.  Two reasons for this (and yes a list because I LIKE them)...

1. 31 October (or thereabouts) is the ancient Celtic New Year's Eve - ancient being pre-Roman - and is where Halloween originated.  Miss 3.5's birthday is modern New Year's Eve, and I liked the synchronicity.
2. Its well before the pre-Christmas insanity of late November/Early October

This afternoon we had a trial run of the Halloween biscuits we'll be making for the party.  Mostly because I couldn't wait to play with our new biscuit cutters.

All went as smoothly as any cooking project does when assisted by a 5 year old and a 3.5 year old, until we came to ice the cookies. After clearing up a small misunderstanding regarding ice the frozen stuff and icing the stuff you put on cakes - I poured my icing onto the cooled biscuits as per the cook book instructions.

Ruh-roh - as Scooby Doo used to say.

Through trial and error I discovered I needed a lot more water in the mix and it had to be hot enough to really hurt when I poured it onto my hand by accident.  Oh, and I added some food colouring.

Hmm, think I'll be having another stab at it before the big day.

I also discovered that putting tasteless orange food colouring (and by that I mean the food colouring has no discernible taste and not that it is not stylish, I mean orange is the very definition of style is it not?) into vanilla flavoured biscuits magically makes them taste of orange.

Miraculous.