Friday 29 January 2010

Board Games 11: The Kids of Carcasonne

This is the first of our Christmas board games and we gave it to Lucy on Christmas Eve so we could spend some time playing it. Lucy often begs to play Carcasoone with us so we thought we would get her this modified children's version of Carcasonne. The Kids of Carcasonne is a very fun game about completing roads. The first player to use up all their wooden pieces wins. Although Lucy seems to understand the concept she does not always maximise her chances in the way she plays - often she will do things to make the roads look good or fill in a blank space rather than placing her piece in the best way to win. It is a great game for 4 year olds and a very basic beginning to Carcasonne.

Wednesday 27 January 2010

Australia Day

There was great excitement in our house in the lead up to Australia Day. We received parcels of goodies from both Ethan and Cora. Lucy painted signs (Happy Australia Day, G'day mate) and we had all our books, flags, stickers, soft toys etc ready for decorating the house. Unfortunately only 1 person came to our playdate - our lamingtons and ANZAC biscuits went uneaten, our quiz unplayed. But we had a good time with Dominic, played for a really long time and had lunch together!

Tuesday 26 January 2010

Recipe of the week: Snickerdoodles

I cut out a lot of recipes from magazines hoping to use them one day. I have a lot of cookbooks but I usually use a few tried and true recipes that I use on a regualr basis. So in the footsteps of Julie & Julia I have decided to cook something new every week. This of course led to me cooking 12 new recipes in the first week, but I get ahead of myself here.

Today's experiment was snickerdoodles. I picked the recipe because the name was unusual and the recipe said that it was traditional to make these at Christmas. They are basically sugar cookies with cinnamon sprinkled on top. They were SOOOO good eaten straight off the tray while still hot. They didn't last long.

Monday 25 January 2010

It's been a while...

so what have you missed?

  • We got a new dishwasher. The old one leaked every time it was used and on occasion the door had to be belted with a hammer! Since we moved in 3 years ago we have kept the door together with duct tape. I literally LOVE the new one. It must be the quietest dishwasher on earth as I can't even tell if it is on unless I look at the front panel.
  • Henry started crawling. We are investing in gates
  • Deb & friends from Australia visited, had dinner with us and played some board games. My cousins Darren & Lisa also toured through Wilmington but didn't get to stop in.
  • The weather was freezing! The bird bath turned into an ice skating rink. We have returned to a more normal 'cold' with a couple of hot days thrown in last week.
  • Lucy and Henry were sick twice. The second time Henry got RSV resulting in bronchiolitis. We didn't get much sleep last week and he uses a nebuliser twice a day - not a fun task for a 6 month old
  • We made LOTS of doctor and dentist visits. The most interesting being Lucy and I visited an allergist Dr Yip to see if we are allergic to seafood (and other things for Lucy). Surprisingly, at this point, neither of us is allergic.
  • My friend Amy announced that her family is moving to VA this year. Boo!!!
  • 31 used books trickled in to our home to start my 2010 reading list
  • We were supposed to become church members on Jan 17 but Henry was sick, then Jan 24 but I was sick so we are aiming for next week Jan 31 barring any more sickness
  • Lucy started saying the the word fast as 'faaast' instead of 'farst'
  • Henry received his US passport. We are in the process of registering him as an Australian citizen (more complex than the US passport) before we can apply for an Oz passport
  • Our US visas expired on 22 January. Our new visas arrived at the last minute on 22 January and we spent many many hours at the DMV getting new drivers licences. That place is seriously straight from a Kafka novel. Read 'The Trial' and you'll get an idea of the red tape involved.
I think that's it in a nutshell. Regularly blogging will hopefully commence again but we'll see - there are still lots of nebuliser treatments to go.

Friday 1 January 2010

2010

Happy New Year to everyone! We had a great time last night at the Lingenfelters. Although it was raining, so that we couldn't have the much anticipated bonfire, we had a great time talking and playing board games. At midnight we toasted the new year and let off a few (legal) fireworks. Now, except for Henry we are all grouchy from lack of sleep. Maybe I should say that Lucy and I are grouchy as Andrew is still asleep - I hope he repays the favour so I can have an uninterrupted nap this afternoon! The blog is taking a couple of weeks vacation so that we can get organised for the year ahead. Come back later in January and get the lowdown on all the board games we got for Christmas!