I hate January. It always goes by so quickly and is so very, very hectic in the Kulhan household with the business taking front and centre with tax reporting stuff and deadline stuff etc. I am absolutely disappointed that my birthday falls in January because I feel that I don't have a lot of time to enjoy it and that it is so soon after Christmas and New Year.
Anyway, the reason that I am blogging now is that I finally am having a chance to do so as I am almost (and I mean almost) caught up with everything and breathe again.
It has been a horrible couple of months healthwise. Syd has been sick several times - seriously twice - and Kendall - seriously once - so it has been rough. The Dr thinks that Syd may develop asthma as she seems to tbe the one that gets sick first and hard too.
Anyway, back to being caught up. So now I have a huge amount of piccies and things to post about and I don't know exactly where to start so I will start with the Australia Day party that we hosted yesterday.
So here is the low-down...
Now you may be asking - Is this the first Australia Day party that we've held since we've been in the USA? That's correct and the reason is because in Vegas, our house was too small to hold a party just inside. And Vegas in January means being inside for any festivities as the weather is not exactly pleasant (or predictable!). Also we never had any room for a jumpy castle to amuse the kids (in summer we had the pool for the kiddoes to play in but winter? Nothing...)
So, in this house we have the room for a jumpy castle and of course, the weather is splendiferous in winter and it is so easy to have the doors and windows open with the kiddoes running around in and out.
So I spent three days (in between work and kids) baking Anzac bikkies, Chocolate crackles, lamingtons, butterfly cakes and sausage rolls for 30 people. I was a little stressed but in the end I was really pleased how it all turned out. Oh and everyone loved the food except for the samples of vegemite that I gave. One friend referred to it as "burnt dirt"! Oh well, to each their own.
So here are some pics...
Here is some quick piccies of the banner and stuff that I bought and hung up. UNfortunately I didn't take them during the day so they're a little dark - sorry!
My first batch of lamingtons. So time consuming but oh, so tasty!
The finished look - with mini Aussie flags and all...
Now I did try and get a full pic of the tablescape but the kids kept running in and out and grabbing at the food and for some reason I couldn't get a good pic (see the blonde hair at the bottom? She already had her plate half full and we had to beg her to put her selection back so we could take these pics!)
The butterfly cakes and the Anzac bikkies to take home. I also bought some Aussie lollies for the kids to try (minties, redskins, milk bottles, pineapples, clinkers). Everything went except for the redskins - they couldn't quite understand how to eat them.
Had to get the green and gold in!
Some of the sausage rolls. I'm kinda glad that there weren't any Aussies here as I'm still perfecting my recipe. I think I'm going to have to grind the pork as the sausage mince is very salty and that puts the mix off right from the get-go. But they were still tasty - just not the same tastiness that the local bakeries manage to attain back home everyday. We did think about doing meat pies but again, so labor intensive with the facilities (think a two-pie maker) that we have.
We served sausage sangas but again the sausages weren't the right ones but the onions were cooked just right! See the vegemite tubes I handed out to the guests? I cannot believe that only two littlies and two adults appreciate the black gold that Aussie kids grow up on!
A pasta salad and some stewed beef on rolls rounded out the savoury portion of the meal. See the Aussie BBQ sauce next to the crockpot? Well the sauce got rave reviews and was all gone by the end of the night. Lucky I bought 3 bottles!
The backyard with the jumpy castle after the meal.
That's Storm in the blue shirt/white shorts following Amber (out new editor) into the house. Amy (red hair on the couch) is leaving to move to Austin the same month that we are leaving here so we're thinking about having a combined good-bye party - jumpy castle and all!
The girls wearing their Aussie shirts. (Syd did not want to pose)
Yes, that's me on the jumpy castle. I had to do it. It was so much fun! (Mind you I am soooo suffering right now. My back, knees and neck are hurting not to mention the head bash that Kendall and I shared - that didn't seem to bother her at all!).
Both girls had a blast playing on this. They couldn't stop giggling and enjoyed falling over and playing and jumping and generally enjoying being jostled around by the big kids. Kendall cried when we took her off it.
A couple of mummy's - Lydia (holding the beer) would have been our neighbour had we built on the block of land. However, we may not have been friends considering that she extended onto her house so that she would have a much better view of the bay and if we had have built what we wanted to build, our house would have blocked her view completely. She says we would have thrown down over it. Oh well, at least we don't have to worry about that now.
