Australian subscription boxes - Baby Bella Box January 2015

Bellabox is an Australian subscription service which sends you a care package each month of product samples that relate to the particular service you've subscribed to (baby, men or women). For the first quarter of 2015 I'm trialing the baby bella box subscription.

"Bellababy is all about finding you the best products, so you don't have to! Enjoy the items we love, to pamper mum and care for your baby beautifully."

So today while Ivy was SUPPOSED to be napping (but was in her walker being a sooky lala instead) I filmed my first unboxing video. It's not great - I hate seeing myself on camera, I can't help but notice all my flaws I'm able to overlook in everyday life - but it is what it was supposed to be... A video showing the contents of the baby bells box and a chance to get myself in front of the camera to get more confidence.

http://youtu.be/zOJtKHhEbac is the link to watch our unboxing!

Keep an eye out for next month's unboxing post and video and subscribe to my YouTube channel & give me some company. Until next time...

Australia Day Celebrations

The Lucky country, Aussie land, The land down under, Land of Oz... Which ever name you know it as, Australia is one of the greatest places on earth (my own bias opinion). The gorgeous beaches, lush rainforests, stretching bushland, cute native animals, perks of having cities situated on the beach, bountiful land and the most amazing diversity make this place one of the most beautiful places to live. Every January 26th on Australia day (invasion day) the nation comes together to celebrate everything we love about being Australian. We drink (lots of) beer from our eskys, we go 4wding, we hit the beach, we listen to the triple j hottest 100 countdown, we feast on our favourite foods, we swim in our backyards while the snags are cooking on the BBQ, we enjoy the heat and we throw parties to commemorate the arrival of the first fleet landing on our shores in 1788.

This year we started the day off with a cruise down the highways of the north coast beaches in our 1980 ford Cortina which has been re-engineered and done up to look (and run) like a million bucks! Cruising up and down the coast we saw so many people hitting the beach with their mates, carrying trampolines to the beach to play/ lay on and many in their million dollar mansions overlooking the shore hosting parties from their balcony pools.

Next we went to the Reindl Mamma's for a nice family lunch and so all the kids could have a run around in the sprinkler. The boys cooked up a beautiful barbeque of t-bones, chops and sausages and the ladies prepared some veggies, quiche, salads and some chicken for the boys that are in the process of shredding.

When we got home Lexi and I prepared a party feast with all of the foods i could think of at the time that scream Australian to me. We decorated the table with a blue PVC tablecloth, a giant Australian flag and some flag bunting then laid out all the foods. We had burger rings, pavlova (the cream wasn't thick enough), an antipasto plate of ham, salami, cabanossi, cheddar, brie, crackers, sun dried tomatoes, french onion dip and sweet chilli deli mix (OK so the antipasto plate wasn't ridiculously Australian), jaffas, minties, a biscuit selection of vovo's, timtams, Anzac biscuits and wagon wheels, party pies, sausage rolls (with tomato sauce of course) and an Australian themed trifle with red and blue jello and some red, white and blue sprinkles i found from my new favourite eBay store apenfold123.

The table looked so good full of some our favourite foods and it was a great way to celebrate the things i love most about being Australian!

how do you celebrate being Australian on January 26th?

T

Christmas Post - Christmas in our house

Every household celebrates Christmas differently and this post is about the way things go during the festive season in the Reindl household.

On the first day of December we begin putting up the decorations. We all get dressed up in our Christmassy gear, crank the Christmas carols and deck the tree out.

This year we added a new tradition to our family with the arrival of our family's elf on the shelf, Candy.  on the morning of December first Lexi woke up to a table full of surprises. a soft toy for Ivy, a chew toy for Roxy and for herself, Lexi found an advent calendar, a note from Santa explaining the arrival, our family elf, a plate and drink bottle (Christmas themed of course) and a few little goodies for her to take to school with her. We named our elf ,after reading through pins about the most popular/common elf names, Candy. Most days Candy had set herself up in our main living area but there were a few days when she was found in the baby's room, the laundry, the kids/guest bathroom and the lounge room. Candy hadn't arrived back from the north pole when we woke up on Christmas eve but when we got back from our day out, she was happily sitting in the front room with the Christmas eve box. I tried heaps of ideas from my Elf on the shelf pinterest board but still have plenty more that I'm excited to try out next Christmas.

As we are currently in the habit of evening excercise, lexi and I also decorated Ivy's bugaboo with some tinsel and battery operated lights. Each night we would go out (me pushing Ivy's pram, lexi on her scooter and the Reindl Man on his bike) and tour the suburb looking at all the gorgeous houses that had umpteen Christmas lights, inflatable scenes of Santa and full sized sculptures of the nativity. It was great to spend a little time bonding together and exercising while spreading Christmas cheer. In the week before Christmas, lexi and I added to the Christmas cheer by singing carols as we rolled along and shouting 'merry Christmas' to everyone we passed.

As some of the extended Reindl family wasn't going to be available for our traditional Christmas Day get together we all decided to do something special beforehand. We went to the Middle Reindl brother's house for a swim and lunch. We were each given three dishes to bring and were welcomed to bring additional dishes if we so chose.We had a few snacks when we all first arrived before all the kids and a few of the parents jumped in the pool to cool off. Soon, dinner was ready and a huge buffet of food was served. With 15 kids and 12 adults to feed there is always loads of food and a very particular way the family runs things.

After lunch it was time for presents. In previous years each family would buy a present of $10 or so for each of the children of the other families. This year we tried out secret Santa, when each of the presents were given out, the children were all told that the present was from all of the aunties and uncles and nan and pop. Sweets were served next before it was time for everyone to head home. While it wasn't a traditional Christmas lunch, it was good to have the whole family together.

On Christmas eve we decided to head into the city to see Santa. I had planned to do it earlier in December but between work commitments and other family events i just ran out of time. We headed in on the train which actually wasn't all that crowded and headed straight for Myers to check out the infamous 'Santaland'.
I'd taken Lexi every year since she was three, but this was Isaac and Ivy's first time. For anyone who lives in Australia i'd advise you to have a sticky beak. Personally i feel the experience is just so much more magical than when you swing by a regular shopping center Santa. When we were welcomed in to Santa's room ivy just adored the mechanical snoring Rudolf asleep in front of the fire, we were extremely fortunate that on this occasion Ivy wasn't scared to death by Santa (she'd screamed in terror every time we saw any other Santa that month). Lexi, Ivy and myself sat on Santa's lap when the photography elf asked dad to jump in too... I almost fainted when he jumped in with us (the Reindl Man HATES photos). The photo turned out great and to finish off the day we went to Outback Jack's Steakhouse for a special family dinner before heading home.

Christmas morning we were a little concerned that little eyes might go snooping before the parents were up but luckily Lexi came in to the room shouting how Santa had been. We all got up and went out to the main living area where we found Santa had drunk nearly all of his milk, left a few crumbs of his cookie and Rudolf had gnawed at his carrot. Oh yeah, plus there was a few pressies around too.

For the afternoon on Christmas day we went to the eldest Reindl brother's house for a swim and to spit roast the pig they had been keeping for around 6 months. As interesting experience as it was it's not my first pick for Christmas day festivities but it was funny watching the Reindl brothers bonding over the experience, the women all squirming and this kids giggling bout the piggie going bye bye.

How does your family celebrate Christmas?