Day at the Museum

With the weather being very ordinary on this Anzac long weekend we decided to head out for the day.

We needed somewhere indoor, interesting and hopefully not too crowded.

The Australian Museum in the city seemed like a good choice.

We caught the train in, as it's way cheaper and more convenient than trying to find parking and arrived at the Museum around 11am.

The dinosaur exhibition is the big draw card at the museum.

Rhianna wanted to see what it was like to pick the nose of the giant wombat - she's all class my girl!

We voted this guy the dinosaur we would most like as a pet.

The great thing about the Museum is all the interactive stuff they have for the kids.

The photo below is Rhianna using a gigantic interactive table about sea creatures.

When you touch certain areas of the table, animals would appear and then describe them in very simple text.

Rhianna is touching a blue ringed octopus.

The computer programs are popular too. There was no waiting time to use anything so we definitely came on a good day.

There was a drawing area for the kids to learn how to draw tree frogs.

Rhianna came away with a really good picture.

Not to mention all the exercise we got walking around and riding the exercise bike.

The bike demonstrates how your skeleton works when you ride a bike.

It really was a fabulous day out with us not arriving home till after dark.


If you live near Sydney or are visiting soon, I highly recommend it.

Friday 4th February 2011

This week was the first week back at school for kids in NSW.

It has also unhappily coincided with the hottest week of the summer so far. So other than dropping Rhianna off and picking her up from school I've been barricading myself in the air conditioning.

My son Broc had an operation last week so he is home as well keeping me company.

As I tidy the lounge room this morning I can't help but be a little sad when I look at Rhianna's cubby that she built in the lounge room during the holidays and spent much time reading, playing and watching TV in there. Now there are no little brown legs poking out from under the sheet - bit sad really.

The up side is that we are having a fantastic time every afternoon after school when we both flop in the pool and play games till dinner.

One of the books I got for Christmas is called The Happiness Project.

It's a bit of a bio about a a New York Mum who decides that although her life is very nice there is always room for more happiness. She sets out to explore every month the things that she can do to increase the happiness in her life.

The book is set out in a monthly format running January to December with a challenge for each month.

For January she decided to get more sleep and exercise every day to see if it increase her general happiness with life.

For the month of January I did the same.

Not too hard to sleep in this weather though is it?

I started to go to bed earlier, no late than 10.30pm and I exercised every day. I mainly walked but did some swimming too.

Yes, I did feel happier. I felt more in control of myself and the house. I found I did not lose my temper as much with the family and had plebty of energy to do things with Rhianna through the holidays. I also lost 4 kilos.

For February she focuses on her relationship with her husband. I'll let you know how I go with that at the end of the month. Bill says he can't wait to see how I go either haha....

In retail therapy news, I have continued to buy with sustainability and no chemicals in mind.

In Priceline this week I found this lovely Sukin facial mist spray which is lovely in place of a moisturising cream in this heat we are having.

I also found another brand of aluminium free deodorant to try.

And for winter some foot and hand gloves made from sustainable bamboo. After moisturising your hands and feet at night, you pop these gloves and socks on and wear them to bed and they help to your hands and feet retain the moisture. I do tend to suffer from very dry hands in Winter.

Another busy weekend coming up for us. Keep cool everybody.

26th, 27th and 28th January 2011

Well the last week of the holidays has been a looooong, slow one. It's been so incredibly hot here with temperatures in the 40's. We have alternated between hiding out in the air conditioned house and mucking around in the pool in the cool of the afternoon.

Australia Day Bill did some work in the morning and then we played in the pool with Rhianna all afternoon. Here she is in the pool with her free hat from the newsagency.

Inside we've been getting creative.

Today we did some science activities.

We decided to look at substances that do and don't dissolve in water. We started off with our instructions from the text book and some substances to test in water such as salt, gelatine, sugar, soil, vinegar and oil.

After hypothesising what might happen with each substance, Rhianna would combine the water and the product. Here she is adding gelatine to the water.

Some stirring then needed to be done.

Results were recorded.

She absolutely loved doing this. Must run in the genes as Bill has a highly technically job in chemicals. I don't think she even realised she was learning.

At the end Rhianna chose some other substances from the pantry to try - including baking powder, food colouring, cake decorations (!!!!) and glucose syrup. So much fun, no money had to leave my purse and she actually learnt something as an added bonus.

We are off for the weekend as our last hurrah for the Summer holidays. It's somewhere I've always wanted to stay after hearing rave recommendations about it from my friend Natalie. Will post pics on Monday.

Have a great weekend if you are reading this.

Tuesday 18th January

Woke up this morning to a very excited child asking me to quickly come into her bedroom. She had spent half an hour she told me making her bad and she was so proud. Just ignore that crochet blanket stuffed down the end of the bed. It's the thought that counts right???

We had a very lazy morning. Rhianna dug out a puzzle and spent the morning sitting and working on that until her friend Rose arrived for the day.

Then it was off to the little local movie theatre to see "Tangled". I have to say that I absolutely hate animated movies and although the girls loved this one, I was yawning quite a lot of the way through it.

Just before we went in we ran into my neighbour Jo. She was taking one of her little girls to the same movie and we caught up in the foyer. That's one of the good things about a small community - you always run into somebody you know.

Then it was home for some lunch, a swim in the pool for the girls and some homemade slushies.
Just look at all that colour and preservative whizzing around - Yummy!!!!!

I'm actually loving these school holidays. Rhianna has been an angel - amusing herself almost all day with her toys from Christmas and lots of play dates and we've had lots of fun outings as a family. Couldn't be happier really!

Our Weekend

We've been trying to get out a bit more as a family over the Christmas break.

This weekend we only had a small amount of time to fill in on Saturday morning as Rhianna was going on a sleep over (again) - she's hardly been home all holidays!!!!!

We decided to go bowling - we have never been together as a family. Bill told us on the way there that he hates bowling. How can anybody hate bowling we asked him? At the end of the games even he had to admit he'd had a good time.

No weekend is complete without some craft. This morning we made tiaras and wands. Rhianna made me promise I would wear mine all day - and I did. Then she was off for the night.

Sunday

We had organised with the parents who were doing the sleepover that we would take the 2 girls out today. My plan was to get down to the Vintage markets at Cronulla.

We got to Cronulla but the markets were shut. Why was I the only person with a disappointed look on my face????

Nevermind, let's have some lunch instead.

And then maybe an hour (or 4) at the beach.

There is no such thing as too much water play when you are 7 years old. The girls came home and played for another hour in the pool.

What a fab day out. So happy to finally have some real Summer weather.
Such a pleasure to take these two girls out for the day :: not a whinge or a cross word between them all day.

School Holidays - Day 2
A Crafty Play Date

I have the privilege of knowing a very clever young lady by the name of Emma Clark. She is into all things stampy and papery. Not only is she into it, but she's just so good at it. And today she turned up at my place with all her little card making goodies for a morning of crafty fun. Well........, it started off as a morning and turned into an almost all afternoon day of crafty fun.

Emma has a daughter the same age as Rhianna so while the girls were busy running from one end of the house to the other and creating havoc, Emma and I got stuck into some card making. (And lots and lots of nattering :: as you do!) Here's our work table about half way through.

We had a wonderful time and the girls thoroughly enjoyed their playdate as well.

In the letter box today was the latest Cath Kidston catalogue - oh drool, drool over all her beautiful bits and pieces. I think I'll try and find an Aussie stockist first before I start buying from the UK. Although our dollar is doing very well against the greenback, it's still a long way from being equal to the pound.

Speaking of currency conversions, it is a great time to be buying from the USA and I bought myself these two little lovelies from Etsy last week. They are two little crochet purses. One is an apple and the other is a cupcake. I didn't buy them for any particular purpose other than I thought they were cute.

Some exciting news for you all tomorrow - there is going to be a new addition to the family - more details later. Have a happy hump day tomorrow everybody.

School Holidays - Day 1

I count today as the official first day of the holidays as it's the first day Bill is back to work and I am nominated Chief Fun Maker.

I can't do anything fun though, until the kitchen is clean. The rest of the house can look like a spanish bull has gone through it, but I can't leave the house until the kitchen is clean and tidy.

Does anybody else have a funny little habit like this?

Oops :: spotted these bananas that need to be made into some banana bread pretty quick smart I'd say!!!

First stop today was some bowling. Found a great deal at a local bowling alley of 2 games, hot chips, drink and some game tokens for the pinball machines all included.

We love to bowl. We like the bumper bowling where no balls can go into the gully and we use the super light ball to make things easy.

After a quick stop in town for some musk essence and some craft supplies at Spotlight we got home in time for some candy making -( this is where the musk essence comes in.)

We love our Frankie magazine at this house and Rhianna spotted this recipe for musk sticks in a back issue last night. Who am I to say no to some candy cuteness?

Let's just say that they look easier to make than they were. But as we have a lot of leftover musk essence, we'll have a go at them another time. We managed to make about 10 good ones.

But we did have some laughs trying to get the nozzle on the piping bag to work properly.

A close up of the action.

We also dug out a hammock that some friends gave to us a few Christmases ago and used the monkey bars to string it up. Rhianna's been out there all afternoon swinging away in it with Finn (our dog). Has kept her amused for ages. I love it when you find something good for the kids to do - and it hasn't cost you anything.

Hope everybody has a good week.

Xmas in July

Well we just squeezed in a Xmas in July before August got here. We decided to hold the night at my house - hoping for some very cold Wintery weather - maybe some snow....hahaha.


I didn't put the tree up - no, that would have been insane even for me! Just a few 5 minute decorating bits and pieces to jolly the place up.

A wonderful friend of mine, Natalie did the nibblies plate with a very definite Xmas theme.

We allowed the kids one present each under $10.

One of the presents included some stickers which Rhianna and Sarra put to good use. Bill had drunk enough wine to think it quite amusing.

The next morning we headed up to Katoomba hoping to see some snow. Bill and I have also purchased some land just past the Blue Mountains and wanted to go and have a look at it to see where we could build. No, we are not moving...just creating a little weekend get away place.

The girls came in our car - and the night before festivities had caught up with them by about 10am. But what a peaceful drive up the mountain it was with these two sleeping beauties in the back.

No snow at Katoomba unfortunately but we did all get to ride down the dirt road to the new property in the back of the ute. Of course some adults had to ride along as well for safety reasons. The kids loved it.

So for the August challenge I have already cooked one new meal - Roast pork Belly on Cider braised cabbage with apple - as my Yuletide dinner. And visited one new place - the property at Rydal.

Only the 1st of August and I'm on a roll already.