Holiday magic

And by holidays I mean this weeks break that the kids are having. I'm glad we started the week with such a fantastic short break as it means we can spend a few days just chilling out which is what school breaks are really good for.

We were lucky enough to start our laid back week with the arrival of our miniswap package yesterday. Super EXCITING. The kids just about mobbed the poor postman as he brought the package up to the door. I had to be super quick with the camera to get some shots as they opened the box...

All the kids got a bag full of goodies, but they had to work out whose bag was whose by the profile portrait inside....

Aren't those profiles so great! I'd taken some photos of them at Julie's request, but I'm still amazed how well she captured them. The kids got lots of little crafting activities to do, including the tissue paper flowers which are just gorgeous. (note the fabric squares-the beginning of my very first quilt!)

I was the luckiest, getting a cool bag filled with yarn, tazo tea, sharpies, yummy soap, face and feet masks, burt's bees lipgloss, post its, and this gorgeous garland made from cut out paper flowers sewn together. It was WONDERFUL.

The kids spent the afternoon making things. Ella and I had made some banana cakes in the morning, and some "cheesey niblets" out of her Angelina Ballerina cookbook (thanks Grandma), then they crafted away to their hearts content.

Today I have made some bread (we'd given our breadmaker to our friends before we moved back to Aus last time...they had it up at VT but hadn't used it once, so we brought it back)...and we made butter from cream. I have been wanting to do this with the kids for ages, and I just put some cream in a jar with some marbles and got them to keep shaking it while they were watching a movie this morning and while I sat cutting out squares for my quilt (see above). It actually took less time than I thought. We had to strain the butter milk off (which I'll freeze for those recipes that call for it) and we added some salt and it's delicious.

As I said ...the magic of the holidays!

A super big, HUGE thanks to Julie and her family for their care and generosity. We LOVE our gifts!!!!!