It's getting hot in here!

I'm having a rare moment of solitude right now. Both the Bear and the Butterfly are fast asleep, knocked out by this sudden and intense heat I think. Poor little Butterfly feels it the most, last Summer she was only 3 months old so didn't really notice much but this time round, at the grand old age of 14 months and with all the walking, running, jumping and climbing that comes with it, she is noticing it BAD. Her little curls stick to her forehead and her neck in a sweaty mess, her chubby cheeks are continually flushed red and her little hands clammy. She's been living in a nappy and singlet, quite often ditching both to run around naked (which amuses the Bear no end - if you can hear shreaks of "Nakey Baby Bottom, Nakey Baby Bottom, I can see a Nakey Baby Bottom!" it's coming from my house).

I'm determined to embrace the heat this year though. Normally I start whimpering as the temp creeps closer to the 30s, hugging my air conditioner remote close and taking a hell of a lot longer to choose things from the fridge, simply for the blast of cold air it provides. This year though, with two little ones watching every move I make, I'm going to tackle it head on so they see that Summer can be fun (there's a sentence I never thought I'd say). We've got an awesome sand and water table on the back deck which is filled and refilled multiple times a day, we've got a water ring that connects to the hose and shoots water a metre or so high and we've got a freezer full of iceblocks. And you know what? So far it's working. The Butterfly has added "deck" to her never ending list of words and now calls it out as soon as she wakes, jumping up and down with excitement and inevitably empting the entire water table over herself within a few moments.

One thing I do love and have always loved about Summer time is it's promise of Christmas just around the corner. Have you been in the shops recently?? When we first walked in and saw all the decorations all three of us gasped (much to Hubby's amusement). We have already been and visited Santa and are planning a great deal many more visits (he was on first-name basis with both little ones last year) and Christmas arts and crafts have started with earnest. Hubby insists that we can't put up the tree untll December 1st so instead I'm hanging up all the kids Christmas craft - just being a proud Mumma, nothing to do with decking the house out festive style of course ;)

Speaking of which we went to the video shop this afternoon and Bear picked out three Christmas movies. To anyone unfamiliar with us this is a BIG deal - we don't really watch tv in our house so him getting to choose and then watch movies? Big time baby! I must say I'm as excited about them as he is. I can remember a certain Christmas movie from my childhood, well actually I can only remember one scene from it. There is a little boy standing in front of a barn, to the left of the sleigh as it's being loaded up. There is a stripy pole behind him and naturally, lots of snow. I have no idea what the movie was, what its plot was or who was in it, but I remember I loved it! I'm hoping I might just stumble across it, you never know!

Oh and in other news, I've finally decided what I'm going to do study wise and what career I want to have when the little ones are in school! I don't want to go back to teaching, I want a totally new direction and I think I've found it. Wahoo! I'll go into detail later, right now I'm off to check my sleeping babes. xx

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!!

I know I blogged about Tassie last night but I just have to dedicate a post to the glorious stuff that is snow.

Now to give some background info (and perhaps make my reaction seem a tad more understandable), before this holiday I had never been near snow. I'd seen it on the Swiss Alps, bu never actually got close to it. Since we've been here however I've got to experience it in all its icy cold goodness. We always had to go up the mountain though, and it was mainly snow on the ground (as opposed to falling snow).

Today however, that changed. This morning we were all munching on our breakfast, planning our day, when Hubby looked out the window and announced that it was snowing. I didn't exactly believe him. The conversation went something like this:

Hubby: "Look Bella (one of my millions of nicknames), it's snowing"
Me: "No it's not"
Hubby: "Yes, it is"
Me: "No it isn't, that's rain"
Hubby: "White rain?"
Me: "Yes. But it's not really white. It's just fat rain"
Hubby: "White, fat, floating rain that is making the ground white?"
Me: "OHMYGOD IT'S SNOWING!!"

I then promptly scooped up the Bear and ran outside (the Butterfly was half way through her toast and would not have been very pleased if I had taken her away from it. She takes after her Mumma that girl, nothing gets between her and her breaky!). So I raced outside, Bear on my hip, and started dancing and cheering and spinning and trying to catch as much snow as possible on our hands or in our mouths. I wasn't aware exactly how much noise I was making until the man next door opened his window, leaned out and called "Yes Lauren, it's called snow". Smarty pants :P After returning Bear back to his breakfast I resumed my snow dance and soon noticed that my feet, legs, hands, arms and face were burning. In all the excitement I had run outside exactly as I was - in my pj's of boxers and a shirt (it's a heated house, a must-have down here). I had stopped to grab Bear's coat but nothing for myself so I quickly learnt a very important thing about snow. It's cold - not gee that's a bit chilly, but seriously seriously COLD. And yes, I am aware that snow is in fact ice, but I had somehow glossed over that fact when I raced outside.

Anyway, after lunch we decided to head up the mountain and see if we could find some more snow. There wasn't too much on the ground, just a light covering, but we decided to hop out anyway. Within about 5 minutes snow started pouring down. It was so thick the sky was literally white and we couldn't see our car about 10m away. It was freaking awesome. If you looked up you could see thousands of flakes falling down to you, and if you tracked it carefully you could watch one fall from the highest height then catch it in your hand.

We all had a ball. When we were so cold we'd nearly turned into snowflakes ourselves we piled back into the car, cranked the heater then giggled the whole way back. I think this trip has converted us - we are a family of snow bunnies :)

Some piccies for you - they are hardly the best quality but I wanted to spend time playing in the snow, not photographing it!! Apologies for the scenery only pics, I don't feel comfy putting photos of my family up on the net.  xo

Tassie Tassie, oh Beautiful Tassie

Told you I'd come back sooner this time :D

So I thought I'd use this as a bit of a travel diary tonight and recap some of the amazing memories we've been making on our holiday so far.

I have to start with the plane ride. The Bear was oh so excited about flying down, his Grandma and Grandpa gave him a pilots cap a while ago and the moment he woke he scrambled out of bed to find it and plopped it on his head. It stayed there the entire trip down, an event made all the more wonderful by the fact that two actual pilots commented on his hat - one saluted him and asked if he was going to help fly the plane today, the other said he preferred the Bears hat to his own and did he want to swap. It makes me so happy to come across lovely people like this, willing to take a moment out of their own busy days to make a little boy smile. A rather amusing moment occurred though after we had taken off when Bear looked out the window then,  quite shocked, announced to the entire plane "Mummy Mummy, we are up in the sky!". He has flown before but apparently he only just noticed we weren't driving along a road :) The Butterfly took the whole thing in her typically chilled out-cheerful stride. She loved having an audience to goo and coo to, and took to batting her eyelashes and smiling at anyone who walked past. Her one moment of disapproval occurred when she desperately tried to make the mini TV screen scroll, touch screen style. She eventually gave up with a grumpy 'humph'.

Since we've been here we've done so many wonderful things, I'm filling up my camera's memory card every day and wishing I had more. The parks down here are amazing, they just kick the pants of the ones back home. There is the "Lighthouse Park" which features a great big lighthouse, a HUGE wooden boat filled with ramps, slides, tunnels, sand toys, mazes, rock climbing walls and anything else you can think of; then there is  Princes Park which has a huge slide (Bear's jaw nearly hit the ground when he saw it), rolling grassy hills perfect for the Butterfly to crawl and roll down to her hearts delight, and a really fun spiny wheel-circle thing (yea I know, a great description. It's a great big circle on tracks that the kids can sit or stand on. As they climb onto it it starts spinning around, sending them flying into the sand or squealing with delight as they spin around and around). And not to forget the Train Park, a gorgeous little corner park with a bike track, a big train to play in, wonderful climbing equipment but best of all two great big slides, side by side, perfect for Mummy-Bear races.

We've been out to Richmond and raided the lolly store, driven through some gorgeous countryside calling out hello to the millions of cows, bulls, sheep, geese and chicken that we passed. We've feasted on ice creams while wrapped up in millions of coats, beanies and scarves. We've played in the snow, making our very first snowman and snowballs, the Butterfly bursting into laughter as she watched it dissolve in her hand. We've feasted on beautiful cheeses, the Bear making his preference for Blue and Brie clearly known. We've visited Oatlands and huddled under a huge old windmill, danced in the rain through the markets, cruised the streets picking out houses we'd love to buy if ever we win the lottery. We've given up counting the rainbows, they seem to be a daily occurrence here, instead just launching into a family rendition of the rainbow song whenever we spot one.

All in all we are having such a lovely time. There is nothing quite as nice as waking up on an icy cold morning, all snug and warm inside your bed, pulling your little ones in to join you and laughingly planning what new adventures you should have that day. The Butterfly is loving this holiday tradition and happily points to our bed when I get her out of her cot, gleefully pulling the covers over her head and giggling like mad while she waits for the Bear to "find" her.

Life is sweet. So very, very sweet. xoxoxoxox

This Weeks Fun Five

Image by Luigi Diamanti

I've got my personal Fun Five sorted for this week......1) Toy Shopping   2) Toy Shopping  3) Toy Shopping  4) Toy Shopping and just to be different, 5) Toy Shopping! I love the toy sales, I have so much fun trawling through  the catalogues picking out what my little ones would like, all the while trying to think of as many reasons as I can to give them the pressies as soon as possible. I was never very good at the whole 'waiting to give gifts' thing, as soon as I buy something for someone I want to give it to them right now. An example is Hubby and my Christmas tradition - the first ever Christmas we were together I was just bursting to give him his gift early but I was determined to wait and I got really really close, I caved in and gave it to him at midnight on Christmas Eve. Since then we always give each other our gifts at midnight, although each year I try and bring it earlier but the party pooper wont let me *sulk*.

I also love the toy sales because they take me back to my childhood, as I look at everything that's on offer I can't help but oooh and aahhh over the things I would have LOVED as a kid. You know those little art and craft packs where you make your own jewellery? And all the new Barbies with their little houses accessories? And the toy animals that make little noises and look oh so cute? They would have been on my Santa list for sure.

Anyway, back to the Fun Five for my little ones (though in all reality they would probably be happy with five days of toy shopping too!)

- Have a Green Day: Equipment: Green food colouring, green food, green clothes, green paint, etc.  Activity: Tell your child in the morning that you're going to have a Green Day, where everything you can possibly think of will become green. Add a small amount of green food colouring to the milk for their cereal, make a green platter of food with kiwi fruit, honey dew, avocado, green apple, snow peas, celery pieces, etc. Select green clothes for everyone to wear, or even help your little one dye a white shirt green, Do some green cooking (green jelly, green patty cakes with green icing); Make green play dough by mixing yellow and blue so they can see it turn green as they play; Add some yellow and blue food colouring to their bath water and watch it turn green; Collect as many different types of green leaves, flowers etc as possible and make a Green Chart.

- Garden Obstacle Course:  Equipment: Garden chairs, Hoops, Broom, Rope, Cardboard boxes, Ladder, Old pillows, anything else you can get your hands on. Activity: Get your little ones to help you set up an obstacle course in the yard. Try to use as many different ways of moving as possible - crawling under garden chairs, jumping on or over pillows, jumping through hoops hanging up or in hoops lying down, walking along a curvy rope, running around a tree, hop through the rungs of a ladder laid flat on the ground, etc. We do this one a couple of times every week and the Bear never ever gets sick of it.

- Marble Painting: Equipment: Paper, Cereal boxes or a large plastic box, Marbles, Containers of different coloured paint; Teaspoons. Activity: Put the paper in the large box. Put a few marbles into each different coloured paint and use a teaspoon to lift out one marble at a time and put it in the box on top of the paper. Show your little one how to lift the box and roll the paint-covered marble all around until all the paint has come off and made marble tracks all over the paper. Repeat with a different coloured marble. Makes great wrapping paper for gifts!

- Wind Chimes: Equipment: A coat hanger or sturdy stick, String, Anything that makes a nice sound! Activity: Discuss sounds with your little one, specifically all the different types you can hear. Go on a sound hunt around the house, clanking things together to see how they sound. Collect the things that sound nice, i.e., keys, spoon, etc. Tie the items onto pieces of string and attach them to the coat hanger - instant wind chime.

- Homemade Finger Puppets and Puppet Theatre: Equipment: Old gloves (washing up ones work well), Permanent felt pens, Strong glue, Wool, Sequins, Buttons, Other decorations, A Cereal box or Shoebox. Activity: Cut off the fingers of a pair of gloves and get your little one to decorate them however they like. Use pens to draw faces, glue on buttons or sequins for funny mouths, wool or fabric for hair or beards, etc. Stand the box on its end, cut a window out, and put on (and be the audience) some funny puppet shows!

We never got round to making the place mats last week so I'll be tucking that up my sleeve for a rainy day. The house is however filled with pet rocks and balloon heads of all shapes and sizes (and hubby now has one of each proudly sitting on his desk at work). If you haven't yet made the balloon heads do yourself a favour and do it outside............. I didn't and am still finding traces of flour around the house!

Now back to those toy catalogues ;)

My 'Fun Five' list

Image by Digialart

Today we went to Dreamworld which was great fun, but I'm too exhausted to write about it. Seriously. I'll do it tomorrow, I promise. Instead I thought I'd share my Fun Five list.

Basically, my Fun Five list is a list of five new activities to try with the Bear and the Butterfly during the week. The plan is to have one new activity for every day. Obviously this doesn't always work out, some weeks we do them all in one day and other weeks they love one of them so much we just keep doing the one over and over again.  Ideally the list is made up of things we haven't done before, or otherwise it's things they really love and get all excited about.  I thought I'd share my thoughts for this week. Please note these aren't all my ideas, I search everywhere for good activities!

Things I've come up with or come across for this week:

- Sponge Targets:  Equipment: Chalk, a wall, sponges, buckets of water. Activity: Draw a clowns face or some other target on a brick wall in chalk. Fill a bucket with water, dip a sponge into the water and take it in turns to throw them at the target and 'wipe' it out.
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- Balloon Heads: Equipment: Balloon, funnel, plain flour, water, felt pens. Activity: Blow up a balloon then deflate it. Put a funnel into the balloon's mouth and carefully spoon in as much flour as you can. Add a little water to make the flour pliable and tie up the balloon. Draw funny faces on the balloon and play!

- Pet Rocks: Equipment:  Rocks, art and craft supplies. Activity: Collect rocks of all shapes and sizes and glue on googly eyes, wool hair, make funny hats, etc.

- Make a Place Mat: Equipment: Thin card, crayons, pens, pencils, magazines, scissors, glue. Activity: Give the little one a piece of card stock and crayons, felt pens etc. Together draw pictures of as many different foods and drinks as you can both think of. Go through magazines and cut out different pictures of foods and drinks and glue them onto the page. Laminate it and use it as a personalized place mat.

- Flying Saucers: Equipment: Paper cup, paper plate, scissors, glue, sticky tape. Activity: Cut the cup in half. Keep the bottom half and cut small slits along the cut edge. Bend the slits out to make flaps and sticky tape it onto a paper plate. Cut slits around the outside of the plate, folding each flap alternately up or down. Go outside and fly the saucers!

So that's my five for this week. Do you have any ideas for activities? What do your little ones love doing? I'd love it if you left a comment and let me know what they are!

That's is from me tonight I'm afraid. Must go sleep...... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.