A Rocky Road Xmas Tree For You!

Every year a make these yummy Rocky Road Xmas Trees and i give them to the kids teachers as well as my clients.
They are extremely easy to make!

Here's how:

 Pennys Rockyroad Xmas Trees
2 pkts milk compound chocolate
1 pkt mini marshmallows
2 pkts of lollies of choice ( i mainly use jelly babies and i cut them in half as well as clinkers also cut in half.)
1 small pkt of nuts of choice ( i dont add these unless i really know the person as with some many people with nut allergy's i would rather be safe than sorry)

Directions
I slowly melt the chocolate in microwave then add all the other ingredients to the melted chocolate.

Tree Moulds
I buy cardboard from the newsagent then depending how big or small you want. cut up the cardboard into squares.

These are small moulds, i like to make them alot larger. The Tree looks great as a centre piece on the Xmas table too

Set
Place into fridge until set. This should only take a few hours. Once set i then drizzle melted white chocolate over the top, giving the look of snow. i sprinkle coconut over the white chocolate and it looks great (not for the nut allergy one's of course)
The star is from Coles - it is actually a christmas present tag. I have cut off the string that was attached. They come in bundles of about 20 or 40. Cost about $2



I  make mini ones for our Xmas table and create individual ones for each person. I place their favourite lollies inside.
IE: my hubby likes assorted licorice and nuts in his. the kids like clinkers and sour worms, all with mini marshmallows too!

So to all my followers - Here is your's!

I  saw a good idea when watching Channel 9. they had the lady from 4 Ingredients on. She has a new Christmas Book out!
She crushed up a heap of candy canes added them to melted chocolate and placed it into a flat slice tin. Put it in the fridge to set then broke it into pieces and put it in clear cellophane bags.
Red ribbon around and whala!

Here they have been very creative and added both milk and white chocolate.

So this is what i am doing today,
maybe you might too!
Pen :)

PS ' The builders are hoping for a quick turnaround on the design issue by Thursday and it is back with the designers now and they should have something back to me by late tomorrow or Wednesday and then submit something back to Stocklands on Thursday.'

NOT HAPPY

 This is an email we received this morning from Stocklands.

Unfortunately the plans cannot be approved in their current form and the following comments are made for your consideration..

1.The flat roof parapet design and minimal articulation across the long frontage presents a heavy masonry appearance.

2. The front facade wall exceeds the 7.5m wall length limitation of The Observatory Design Essentials.

3. It is suggested that alternative roof forms be considered to be incorporated within the design such as a skillion to help soften the appearance and provide additional interest.

4. The second material of Scyon does not provide enough difference from the rendered primary building finish and appearance.

5. Details of the colour schedule should be provided to assist in the Design approval assessment.

Amended plans are to be submitted for further consideration.

What tha???????? 

So a phone call to the builder who was ready to start Tuesday.......

Looks like we have to make a few changes...............

Stay tuned

Pen :(

PS on a lighter note "off to mum's dance practice i go"

Henry Joseph Adams

Tomorrow i get to meet our newest family member. HENRY JOSEPH ADAMS
Henry arrived on 21st October 2011 and is a first child for my brother Ray and his wife Leah.
They live in Sydney and are coming up to Qld to visit Leahs mum. So we get to meet him too.
Here are a few of my favourite pictures of Henry.

How perfect !

Greta family pic along with Sam the dog

Favourite photo - men and breast milk!

I love this pic of Henry

He is now 5 weeks old......
Can't wait to cuddle him.

Enjoy the day
                    Pen :)

We have pegs

After months of wondering if it was ever going to start, we have pegs!

I love our view, so i will continue to take pics.

I can't wait to have New Years Eve 2012 in our place next year. The fireworks will be great!
The builder said that they will cut the block on Tuesday so fingers crossed, i hope this happens......

I am off to the kids school today as they finish up next week and i have a few presentations to attend.

Enjoy your day!
                        Pen :)

Our weekend fun

On the weekend we held a Pool Party for our youngest son James. he isnt 9 untill dec 11, but he always misses out on having a big party as school is finished up here in qld by the first week in dec and lots of kids head off on holidays. so we decided to have a early party.
And the weather was perfect.
He invited all the boys from his class and a few footy team mates.
Not sure how many came but it was around 25.

James helped the night before with the decorating

James was happy with the finished product

cheeky boy waiting for his party guests to arrive. the skirt came off soon after this photo was taken

slip slop slap

gotta love the good old slip n slide

The party went from 11am - 2pm.
We had loads of fun and i over heard some kids saying "this is the best party ever"
So by 2.15pm all kids had gone and it was time to clean up and pick up all the busted water bomb balloons.

By 4pm i was off to the mums dance practise.

thats our dance teacher MR MARTIN. the lady sitting on the stool in the background is sitting out today as she has put her back out!!!! maybe from all our leaps we were doing last week at practise

this is Anita - stopping for a drink break - yes it is a cold beer....

we have a mum who has had some bad news and is currently having treatment for colon cancer, not sure if the prognosis is to good so she wants to surprise her daughter and be in the mums dance. So we are officially now the mums GLEE club. what a trooper !

the dance is going to be hilarious. we are dancing to "lets get physical" but at this practise, Mr Martin added a twist and as the song is almost finished the music scratches and the music changes to "i'm sexy and i know it" we all then dance freely to the music pulling kids from the crowd up onto the stage and encouraging the audience to clap along as we are the last act of the night.

 

 

 So 2 more practices to go and it is show time.

God help us all,
                       Pen :)

Busy weekend

We had a busy weekend with school fete, mum,s dance practice and horse races.
On Saturday the kids had their school fete. It is held only every two years. So it is a big deal for the kids.
  I know when i was young our school fete consisted of toffee apples and cake stalls and a few lucky dips.
WOW how times have changed.

James is on the left at the end.

love the big dipper

James slimeing a school teacher. Got him a good one too!

Front row closest to you is our daughter doing a hip hop dance display

i took this pic while i was searhing for my 12 yr old for over 1hr. found him up on the college ovals playing rugby.

James in the black tee - first time on the ROUND UP and poor little man got off and vomited his ice slushie back up. TIME TO GO HOME

 So i dropped the kids home and took off to the MUM,S DANCE practise. Talk about funny. I will take a few pics and blog them on our next practise day.

Then on Sunday we went up to Caloundra - Sunshine Coast to watch our DONKEY - i mean horse race.

Degree of Honor - number 4

LAST PLACE

Not happy as Jack thought he was going to win plenty

James is happy as he isnt sitting in the middle for the 2 hr drive home

Gaby reading the form.

The day ended with enough for KFC on the way home and we all agreed even though our horse didnt win we all still had a great day out with minimal damage to our wallet.

Pen :)
PS "the house should start any day now - fingers crossed"

Hol(e)y SOCKS.

How many time does one mum have to ask the kids not to wear their socks outside?????? 
 Is it just my boys? Please tell me not!

With only 4 weeks left of the school year i have told the boys they have to put up with their holey socks as blah blah blah you know where i am heading..........
I saw Jack our 12yr old wearing another pair of socks under his school socks today so what did a sucker of good mother do, she slipped him $8.50 - i know $8.50 for 1 pair -  and sent him to the school uniform shop this morning.
I can hear you all. That isn't teaching them a lesson. I know :P (but how uncomfortable is wearing socks with holes in them)
Boys will be boys and i sure hope they will one day understand all my frustration...
Have a great weekend. Mine is a full one....
Penny :)