I was reading a guest post by the lovely Babymac over at A Baby Called Max.
It was all about Barbie – go read it… I’ll wait..
Ahhh the memories!
So I was going to make a very lengthy comment about my barbie dolls and memories but I thought – why not just write my own post.

My favourite barbie was Day to Night barbie and I was lucky enough to have her and her home and office set. She was so cool but I blame her for my desire to grow up and work in an office, which is a dream I achieved several times but it was never as glamorous as barbie made it look. Maybe it would have been better if I had a reversible skirt/ballgown and an ugly hat, or those gorgeous two tone shoes.

I found the commercials on youtube for your viewing pleasure.

I also had barbie’s dream horse, Prancer. I got him for Christmas one year and there were supposed to be stickers included to decorate Prancer with, but I didn’t get any stickers. A friend took pity on me and gave me one of her stickers. Prancer had a pink saddle which could only be ridden side saddle. This pissed me off so I made Barbie ride bareback.

A friend of mine had Ken and a car and the three story Barbie dream house complete with Elevator! I would go to her house and bring my five Barbie dolls with me and together we would have about eight Barbie’s and only one Ken. Ken got around a LOT. In fact, he was so promiscuous that he got one of the dolls pregnant and gave the rest of them AIDS. Not a very innocent play scenario at all. I blame Judy Blume and her book, Forever, that we would all read together and giggle at the naughty bits.

I received 4 little cartons of Cocobella Coconut Water to try, thanks to Nuffnang, and here is what I thought of them.

The cartons are small, only 250mls. I am used to drinking cans of soda at 375mls so these seemed a bit on the tiny side.
I can see these are definitely marketed at women. All the pictures of celebrities drinking the product, are of women, mainly models, drinking it on the go. They must take their own straws with them because Cocobella coconut water does not come with a straw. It would greatly improve the ability to drink this on the go, if there was a straw included. There is a hole in the top that you could drink from, but I much preferred to drink it with a straw.

Enough about that, how did it taste?

Different. Subtle. Refreshing.

The flavours were present but not overwhelming. The result was a smooth full bodied liquid with a hint of flavour and a twist of “something else” which would be the coconut water’s own unique taste.

I tried Pineapple, Mango and Pink Guava which contain 5% fruit juice and Straight Up, which is 100% coconut water with no added flavour. I was surprised that the Straight Up was my favourite flavour.

Delivering five key electrolytes and containing zero fat, cholesterol or preservatives, nutritionist Lola Berry says it is a delicious, healthy alternative to many sugary sports and energy drinks.
The flavoured ones are 76 calories each and the Straight Up is only 58 calories.

One of the many reported benefits of coconut water is it’s powers of “super hydration”. So maybe 250mls is all you really need. I’m not sure. I was still thirsty after one.

I like it. But I don’t know if I would buy it. At $3 a carton it’s high priced for something so small. I appreciate that coconut water is harder to get and attracts a higher price tag and maybe if I was a model, it would be my sports drink of choice. But my budget prefers water. Although I read another review that said it could be found at Coles from $1.99 or two for $3.60 “if you are lucky”.

It would be a good drink to have on hand the morning after a big night out. Super hydration and all those electrolytes would be awesome. I would recommend popping some in the fridge before your next big night out. Or you could save all the pain in the first place and drink some Cocobella mocktails instead. Check out these yummy recipes here.

I was not paid for this review. I received the product free of charge from Nuffnang for the purposes of trial and review.

I had been looking for new ideas for stuff to do with Millar for awhile and we also have a LOT of crayons in different stages of broken that appear, seemingly out of nowhere, to litter the carpet and hide under couch cushions. Colourful little choking hazards.

So when I saw this post at Mum’s The Word, I knew I was onto a winner!

I did not have the silicone bake-ware that the recipe called for, but I did have a metal dinosaur cookie cutter so that would do right? Right.

I placed the dinosaur cookie cutter in the middle of a small sponge tin (or whatever it’s called).

Millar and I then chose crayons in shades of blue and I tediously removed the paper wrapping and cut the crayons into small pieces and slivers.
We made sure all the nooks of the cookie cutter were filled with crayon slivers so that the resulting crayon would be as close to dinosaur like as possible.

After admiring and photographing our handiwork, I placed the tray in the oven and set it to 220 degrees and set the timer for 10 minutes.

Millar kept saying how yummy it was going to be, so we spent the next 10 minutes discussing the difference between food and crayon wax and the fact that not everything that comes out of the oven is edible.

The buzzer rang. I leapt up. I was pretty excited about our awesome dino crayon and the fun possibilities this opened up for all the other cookie shapes and bits of crayon we had.

I opened the oven and all those possibilities drowned in the sea of blue crayon liquid that surrounded the empty cookie cutter. “uh oh”* I said.

I slipped on a pair of mitts as quickly as I could and grabbed the tray out of the oven. The liquid was cooling and setting already, I was running out of time… I grabbed the muffin tin and poured the liquid into one of it’s craters and left it on the bench to cool…

I didn’t even take the time to photograph the lake of crayon wax. Bad blogger!

Here is the finished result. Millar wasn’t very impressed and asked me to change it back to crayons. Sorry dude, not possible.

Looks Like A Urinal Cake

Millar photographing the end product.

On the shopping list for this week: Dinosaur silicone bake-ware.

*I may have said something else, but my mum fail score is high enough with this story as it is.

Millar,

You are growing up so much. Your stubborn streak is fierce and your new favourite pastime is arguing with me. Sometimes you have a reason, like not wanting to go to bed, or do anything that I have asked you to do. But sometimes it seems that you are arguing for sport, for example; You ask “Where are we going Mum?”, I say, “Nowhere” so you say “yes-where!”. That one made me laugh.

You still love to help me around the house. Carrying the washing basket, emptying the dishwasher, putting clothes away; you are a little domestic machine when you are in the mood, and checking the mailbox is your special job after kinder.

Photography is another love of yours right now. You’ve often used toys as pretend cameras, but this month Dad bought you a cheap digital camera and you have loved taking photos of everything. Some of them are pretty good too!

There is so much I could write about you, you’re such an interesting little man.

I love you,

Mum