Water Play at Rocks River Park

Only the crazy would usually swim in Winter but then you'd think it was the middle of Spring here in Brisbane, so why not. Being warm and since we don't have any sniffles about I promised Miss M that I'd take her to the Rocks River Park water play area. We've missed most of the heated pool swimming lessons over Winter so Miss M was desperate to "kick and paddle...kick and paddle".

Rocks River Park is found on Counihan Rd, Seventeen Mile Rocks. It is a very large park with plenty of shelters to eat under and lots of grassy areas to kick a ball. The playground is great. It's set in sand so it's a good idea to take your sandpit toys. There are swings, a slippery slide and all kinds of bouncy things. I like this playground because it's not enclosed but it almost feels that way. When we go with mums group the mums can easily sit and chat while the kids have fun. Further over is more playground with a huge spider web to climb and a flying fox for the older, more daring kids. We're not quite ready for that yet.

How fantastic is the water play! My photos will not do it justice as I was trying not to take any snaps of kids. This area is a shallow water area where kids can dip, splash and in some parts even paddle. It's surrounded by rocks so there are plenty of places for adults to sit if you want to take it easy. Miss M had a ball. We are going to return for another play on another day but best to go with some friends we think. (We might even move in over Summer!!)

My little swimmer is now enjoying a big sleep after her kick and paddles in the water. We're off to the beach next week for holidays so she'll be happier and more worn out than ever.

Perrin Park Play

We were at Perrin Park in Josling St, Toowong for Mums on the GO today. No matter how many times we go there we always have a good time. This park has two different forts to climb, one tall and one short. There's a bike track that goes around the playground and a huge flat bike track surrounding the oval. The kids and adults like a turn on the pedal bikes. There are three of them and they're mounted on a rail - lots of fun (puffy exercise) for everyone!

We took bubble blowing and bikes for added fun this morning but some of the kids found other things to amuse them. Some found Ibis birds to chase while others jumped in a large muddy water puddle near the taps. I was the mum with the wet, muddy girl to take home but thankfully it was a warm sunny day. Tomorrow I think we'll visit a water play park. Look out for the blog.

Perrin park is great for weekend sport, taking dogs to the dog park on the other side of the bridge or just a quiet picnic with friends and family. I think this is one of the best parks situated in the western suburbs.

Back To Basics

You know what they say....the simple things in life are often the best. This has been ringing true in our house over the past two days. Kids can own all sorts of toys (including my second hand treasures) but there are times when all they want is the simplicity of a game without much at all.

We've had two fuss free days after our weekend away and Miss M has guided our play from start to finish. Yesterday it was cakes in the sandpit (being the "cooker") and running races. Today it was hide 'n' seek around the house and skipping with a rope. (Not that Miss M can skip yet, she thinks she can and it's very funny to see!) There's heaps of fun and learning just in these activities.

Sometimes it's nice to get away from the toy box and see what games come to mind. It's wake up time here soon. I wonder where that little mind go and what games we will be played? I better get my joggers on!

Do you have some old favourites that are played in your house?

Fun on the Run

On Saturday morning our little family of four set off for a weekend of parties and adventures outside of Brisbane. We knew it would be a busy time but also knew that we would be seeing beautiful friends and family so it would be a great time together.

The first part of our trip took us out to Boonah. This is about an hours drive into the country to where our friends live with their two little girls. It was Miss A's dog themed birthday party which our Miss M enjoyed immensely (and so did we). There was dog collar threading, dog bone games, cute little dog ears to wear and take home and wonderful food created in the dog theme. What a creative mummy! It was a wonderful party.

While we stopped in Boonah I visited a gorgeous shop called The Story Tree. It was so lovely that I just had to tell you all about it. This little shop was filled with interesting books including a selection for kids. There was also gifts and stationary and a gated area down the back for the kids to play in. Boonah is a lovely place to spend a day. If you ever get there be sure to take a look in The Story Tree. http://www.thestorytree.com.au/ You'll find it in the main street of town @ 15 Coronation St, Boonah.

The rest of our journey took us to Toowoomba for a party and then an afternoon tea visit with special friends in Gatton on Sunday. Twas definitely a busy weekend and being the sleep deprived parents that we are, we're all partied out......at least until the next one! (in two weeks time)

What kind of weekend did you have? Did you find some time to rest or was it filled with fun on the run like ours?

Roller Painting

The first time I put this activity out for Miss M she was so excited. Now it has become a favourite that we do every now and again. It is a very easy activity. You just need to source the equipment before having a bash at it. We found some small paint rollers at Overflow (cheap shop) but you could also pick them up from art stores. They may be a bit pricey. Overflow stocks a good assortment of art supplies for a good price. We bought the rollers for about $1.00 each.

You will need...

Paint rollers - choose the size you want. You could do tiny little ones, medium ones or why not try large house paint ones on butchers paper. That would be great fun!

Paper or cardboard - we chose to do ours on white easel paper.

Paint - we chose Cel Mix but you could use acrylic or a mix of both together. Depends on the effect you'd like.

Paint tray/s - washed meat trays or those you get fish and chips on are great for this.

Squeeze a good amount of paint on to the tray. I set ours up with all the colours on the one tray but they can be done separately too.

Put paper on a table, the ground or easel, depending on your circumstances.

Let your child go creatively crazy as they use the roller brushes to put paint all over the paper.

While your child paints you can talk about the colours mixing or the action they are doing eg: "roly poly", "up and down", "side to side".

To extend this activity you could....

• Sing "We're Going Up" - Playschool
• Do another colour mixing activity
• Do car roller painting using toy cars
• Sing "I Can Sing a Rainbow" - teaching colours, talking about rainbows
• Use the painting for wrapping paper (with the child's permission)

The Pinkettes Are Back!

This one's dedicated to my little sister Lauren (who's not so little now!).


Formed in the 80's, The Pinkettes were set to make it big but unfortunately they didn't really make it out of the lounge room. Growing up, my sister and I and the three girls who lived down the road loved nothing better than watching Young Talent Time, taping our favourite songs on to cassettes (by putting the recorder up against the tv) and making up dances to perform for our parents. I did a great Funky Town routine : ) He he he!


A few weeks ago we went as a family, along with some good friends to see the Playschool Concert. It was fantastic! Ever since that day Miss M has been reliving the experience. Her teddies (and my old one) become Big Ted and Little Ted while Miss H's Molly Dolly becomes Jemima. An old blanket is strung up for a curtain (today it was the parachute) and costumes and props come from all over the house. A teapot for 'Polly Put The Kettle On' and a hat for 'Dingle Dangle Scarecrow'.


Sadly The Pinkettes won't really be making a comeback (sorry if I got you excited) but it has been a joy to see Miss M's mind work in a similar way as it takes me back to that time in my life.

The Great Bombe Alaska Bomb-out

There's been a theme running around a few blogs lately since SquiggleMum wrote a piece on un-bloggy bits. Diffferent mummy bloggers are sharing their not so presentable parts to the week and I'd be lying if I didn't admit to having less bloggable moments either. The things I blog about are generally positive and happy. Right at the start of my blog I wrote a post called 'On the Brighter Side' to share with you all that I wouldn't usually be posting about the un-bloggy bits but believe me our days are filled with those, whether it's a messy house, toilet training fun, tantrums, slackness in cooking dinner, a baby who won't go to sleep when she needs it and the list could go on. *sigh*


I thought I'd get in on the theme and quickly share with you a kitchen disaster I had earlier this evening. It's been a busy week in our house with two events being held here. The first was a Learning Ladder Party on Monday. A number of my mummy friends and their kidlets packed into our little house to enjoy some shopping, chatting, playing and eating. It was a lovely morning and the first time I'd had such a large group over in a long long time.


The second event was held tonight. Once a month a special group of my girlie friends meet for what we call our "girls craft night". Again I have to be honest and say that we haven't always done craft but it is a great excuse to get together. We don't get to do it all that much otherwise so this group has been a blessing. Tonight it was my turn to host. (And lots of craft was done - well done ladies!)


I love to entertain. Before my girls came along I used to entertain a lot and found it easy to make a few different things to offer the guests. Tonight I crazily thought it would be good to make two different desserts. Miss H had to be a good little sleeper for this plan to go well. The first was brownies which I cooked while my girls slept today. Thankfully Miss H did sleep well in the middle of the day. The brownies turned out well. (Thank you to cousin Karen for the very easy recipe) The other dessert I chose to do was Bombe Alaska. I'm not sure if you've ever made these before but they are reasonably simple to do, well at least they seemed to be the last time I made them!! This time the meringue was a disaster. It dripped all the way down,exposing the ice-cream which then melted while it was in the oven. (Just check out the picture) I felt terrible serving them to my beautiful guests but they still said they wanted to eat them.


This was truly a complete Bombe Alaska bomb-out and definitely not one of my finest bloggiest moments!

At The Car Wash

This Brisbane weather couldn't get any better. It truly feels like Spring has already sprung to life. I had one sick little poppet (the littlest) today so we stayed home from mums group and enjoyed some play time in the sunshine on the back deck and in the garden.

Last weekend Daddy and Miss M took our very dirty car to a car wash. This was Miss M's first experience with one of this kind so she came back wide-eyed telling me all about it. She was most impressed with the bubbly rainbow and the big brushes.

Over the week we got to talking about the experience many times so together we decided it would be fun to make a pretend car wash for her bike to go through. Yesterday we finally went to the newsagent and bought some blue and some turquoise coloured crepe paper. I cut it into strips and hung it on some string in the doorway of the downstairs area. A simple design. Now Miss M wasn't just talking and talking about the car wash, she was playing it and we were even able to involve Miss H. She sat in her swing and played the part of Jane the car wash attendant, who would take Miss M's pretend money when she would pay for a wash. (She just spent the time smiling!) I became Bob the car wash attendant who would help run the car wash machine. Now I can say that we've played car washes just as much as we've talked about it but it was a fun role play game that we could play together.

Do you enjoy playing make-believe games with your kids? What things or situations have you had to create or what characters have you become? Last night at bath time I was asked to be Miss Kirsten the swimming teacher so I guess we can take on many different characters when we're called to.

All in Together, This Fine Weather

I'm starting to realise that my girls are really growing up. Soon we won't have a little baby or a little girl anymore because we will be celebrating both girl's birthdays in a matter of weeks. Miss M will be 3 in September and Miss H will be 1 in November. Yesterday when we were at "Lizard Park" I found myself thinking ahead to the days when the two girls will be able to run around and enjoy the park together. I hope they will be great friends just like my sister and I were (and still are!).

This has got me thinking about activities that they can do together now with their varying ages and skills. Miss M loves to take the lead sometimes and read to Miss H or show her how a game is played, just as she did yesterday when the new dinosaur toy arrived. If you have two (or more) kids do you have some activities that you encourage them to do together? I'd love to hear some of your ideas.

Nothin' But Blue Skies

Today has been a home day. With all this sunshine about we stepped out into the back yard for a long morning play. I set up sand play, playdough play (with cutters), bubbles, bike riding and there was also the opportunity to enjoy a swing. Both girls have a swing downstairs now so it's double the fun! For Miss H I put a rug on the grass with some books for her to read. I discovered last night that she could turn the Peek-a-boo Book pages to reveal what is hiding behind them. Apparently she's been doing this for a few days now thanks to Daddy's night reading time!!

You may already know that I like to set up activities for some of the day to see where they will take my little girl's imaginations. The mat soon became a library. We didn't go to Story Time or Babies, Book and Rhymes this week with Miss H's sniffles but it felt like we had. We had a lovely time singing and doing rhymes on the mat. I had to be Miss Nicole from the library.

The most special time though was when we stopped, lay on the mat and looked up and around to see what we could see. You know there wasn't a single cloud in the sky! A gorgeous sunny day, not at all like Winter. We saw tiny gumnuts in the trees, purple flowers, the sun peeking through the trees, a drangonfly whizzing past and lemons growing on the lemon tree. We also stopped to listen. We heard the bell from the train station and the washing machine whirring as it went round and round. (yep, it is also a good washing day!)

Sometimes it's just good to stop to see all that surrounds us. We do live in a beautiful place!

We could extend this activity by...

• Making binoculars from toilet rolls
• Singing 'Up in the Air I Fly' from Playschool
• Collect some of the things we saw and put in a special box or on display
• Make lemonade or lemon butter from the lemons
• Make a dragonfly
• Make a nature collage
• Find books about nature to borrow from the library
• Peg out washing on a line - Miss M uses her little play machine to wash her knickers : )
• Go for a walk to the train station or even go for a train ride

Let's Get Ready to RUMMAGE!

It's no secret that I love to rummage through the second hand toys in "treasure shops" (Op Shops). I've found countless treasures - puzzles, ABC or ELC games, construction sets like the ones found at kindys and pretty dolls with their accessories. I'm keen to find educational toys in great condition but sometimes I find things that are not so educational but still a great treasure all the same.

Today's treasure find was a Fisher Price Drop and Roll Dinosaur. What a treasure! We've borrowed this toy from the toy library before. It's good to encourage hand/eye co-ordination for littlies but mostly it's just a lot of fun. They have have a great deal of fun posting roll-a-round balls, watching the lights, listening to music and seeing where the balls pop out. Miss M loved this toy when she was little so now it's Miss H's turn but we now have one of our own and all for $7. As you can see it's quite filthy but part of finding treasures is seeing what lies beneath. This treasure isn't broken however I will take some time to clean it up before we have some fun with it.

Here are a few tips to finding good second hand toy treasures in treasure shops....

• Look on a Monday or Tuesday after people have done their weekend donation drop-offs.


• Check inside damaged boxes to see what is within - I've found some of our greatest treasures this way. eg construction sets, matching games in cardboard boxes.


• Buy new plastic boxes to house your treasures and throw away the damaged boxes.


• Go with a budget - I like to have a few coins ready so I don't spend too much.


• Keep an eye on the toy catalogues to see what the new prices are. You'll know if you are getting a bargain. Some Op Shops charge a lot for old goods. Get to know the brand names.


• Clean marked toys with 'Gumption' which you can find in the cleaning aisle of your supermarket or to do a general surface clean and disinfect wipe over with 'Milton' (also found in the cleaning aisle). It is safe for the toys and ok when kids chew on them. This product is used for sterilising baby bottles.


• I choose not to buy stuffed toys but if you do, throw them in the wash and hang them out to dry before play. We have way too many of them already.

Off I go to clean up our exciting dinosaur treasure. It will go perfectly with the roll-a-around balls we already have so I must go and find them too. What I like about this toy is that it will encourage Miss M and Miss H to play together. Miss M can show Miss H how it works while she is still little. When they are done with it and all the other treasures we have we can bless someone else with them or return them to the treasure shops.

Do you like to shop for treasures in treasure shops? What great treasures have you found?

Lizard Park or Bird Park? It's One Terrific Park, That's For Sure!

Our adventures lead us to parks all over Brisbane. We love to explore big new exciting ones (new for us) but then there are the old favourites that we return to over and over again. Today we returned to an old favourite and just like the times before we enjoyed the equipment and surroundings but this time with a new level of enjoyment. It had been a little while since we last visited. Miss M is much older (almost 3) so she could do most things by herself which meant no chasing for me!

I call this park "Lizard Park" while my sister calls it "Bird Park". (Do you have special names for parks you enjoy with the kids?) It's real name is Centenary Suburbs Memorial Park (quite a mouthful) and it's found in Mt Ommaney in Greenway Circuit. This park is set amongst tall gum trees which are home to birds of many different kinds. The sound of them singing while you play is completely magical! (Squiggle Mum, you'd love this park!) We loved listening to the kookaburras and cockatoos but there were other sounds of birds heard joining in the song. You can see why my sister calls this park Bird Park.

I call this park Lizard Park, not because it has lizards everywhere (thankfully or I wouldn't go!) but there is a giant lizard for the kids to climb on and it's beautifully covered in mosaics. Miss M almost climbed from the tail to the head, with a bit of help from mummy.

Lizard Park also has a circle of swings, a blue truck to drive, a flying fox, shop play and other playground fun so it has gross motor and role play skills covered. A bike track runs around the playground and there is a bbq which would be great for a sausage sizzle. Turn off Dandenong Rd into Central Avenue (just past the Police Station) and then into Greenway Circuit. You can't miss it!

I don't know which is better, the sounds and surroundings or the equipement but put them together and you have one terrific park!

I Love Your Funny Face... Your Sunny Funny Face

Daddy days are the best days as they are usually quite fun. We still had a few sick germs about so Sunday was spent at home. Miss M and I were very keen to try an idea we'd seen on Playschool during the week. The activity was funny face painting and we had to get Daddy involved in our fun too. We all enjoyed this activity. Even Miss H liked watching what was going on.

We didn't have a perspex easel like Playschool did but we had another idea that worked just as well. We found a large piece of plastic, some pegs and the string line I have up to dry our artwork on. Here's how we did it....

Funny face painting

You will need....

Sheet of clear thick plastic (or you could use a sliding door - the paint will wash off)

Pegs

String line hung up just above child height

Acrylic paint

Brushes (medium size worked well)

Peg up the plastic sheet.

Get someone to sit on the other side of the plastic with their face almost pressed against it.

Paint funny faces on the opposite side of the plastic using their face as a guide to show where things should be.

Plenty of giggles were heard as we painted all sorts of funny faces on our plastic. Miss M has recently begun painting cute faces with eyes, nose, mouth, ears and cheeks so this was a great activity to extend her interest. Daddy's Dorothy the Dinosaur face was a winner with Miss M but here's some other ideas we did as well....animals, robots, funny human faces and characters from dvds.

I can highly recommend this activity and I can imagine that it would work well at any age. We certainly had fun and just look how old Daddy is - he loved our funny faces!

Spaghetti Pictures

I own a nifty Tupperware spaghetti holder which measures either enough spaghetti for one serve or enough for two. No matter how many times I use it I never believe that the two serve measurement will be enough. It always looks too little an amount and I don't stop to think about the spaghetti expanding while cooking. So, I tend to cook more than is needed. The other night this prompted an art activity for Miss M. She created pictures from spaghetti.

Overnight I saved the leftover spaghetti (of course not covered in bolognaise sauce) in a snaplock bag. You can try this also.

Spaghetti Pictures

You will need...

Cooked spaghetti

Powder paint or food colouring - as many colours as you like

Water

Sieve

Pot to cook it in

Snaplock bag

Paper

You can colour the spaghetti one of two different ways.

1. Boil the spaghetti in coloured water, using powder paint OR
2. Cook the spaghetti first and let it sit in coloured water made from powder paint, just until the colour takes.

Strain the water out and put spaghetti into a bowl. Allow it to dry out a little.

Use the wriggly strings of spaghetti to make pictures on the paper. The spaghetti should stick well so you can be as creative as you like.

Obviously you won't be able to keep this spaghetti art for a long time to come or you may attract some hungry little crawly friends and it doesn't look so good the next day anyway. It is however an activity that provides lots of wriggly squiggly fun for kids as they give it a go.

It looks like we may be doing this activity again tomorrow as Daddy's yummy spaghetti is on the menu again. Maybe not, if I can trust my nifty spaghetti holder!

Baby on the Go

It's funny how one day you have a little baby who is happy to sit and play and then the next day they're off and scooting round the floor on their tummy. Miss H is doing just that so it's time to create some things for her to explore!

We have a sheet of thick clear plastic on the floor in the study/ playroom. It's job is to protect the floorboards from our office roller chair since we happen to live in a rental property. This plastic is great for all sorts of games for Miss M (which I will share with you later) but this time round it is Miss H's turn.

Have you ever noticed how much little bubs love to see other bubs? It seems to bring a smile to their face. Yesterday I flicked through some magazines to find pictures of baby faces with lots of different expressions. I cut them out and placed them under the plastic for Miss H to discover. I'll enjoy watching to see if they'll bring many a smile to her own cute little baby face.

Catalogues - Junk Mail or Fun Mail?

I have to be honest and admit that I really enjoy reading junk mail. In fact most of the time I don't see it as junk mail. To me it's fun mail. Not that I need to buy everything I see. (by now you know I like to shop for cheap treasures in treasure shops) I enjoy looking at the pictures. How fun are the Aldi brochures that arrive each week!

Recently all the toy sales have been on in the big department stores so the catalogues have been delivered trying to get people to buy their goods. Miss M doesn't realise that the catalogues are for that purpose because she only knows them as something good to cut up.

Catalogues provide a good amount of pictures to cut out which is great for this mummy who doesn't buy magazines. Just think...there are food ones and clothes ones, toy ones and house ones. It's up to mummy to sort through them first to find age appropriate ones for this activity.

When we first started doing this activity Miss M was a lot younger so I would help her to cut using scissors with holes for an adult finger + thumb at the back and child's finger and thumb at the front. To make things simple I would tear out the pages but not in front of her, so she didn't think it was ok to do the same to books. Miss M can cut mostly by herself now (with supervision) so I just provide her with a glue stick and a piece of paper to stick her cuttings on. She isn't at the stage of cutting around objects yet but she is starting to aim for them. That part will come later and I look forward to it. For now this is a good cheap activity that is helping to develop her ability to hold a pair of scissors and cut with them.

• To find a pair of scissors like the adult/ child ones mentioned talk to the helpful people at Speedy Art Supplies, Richlands or any school supplier near you.
• To buy a good pair of child scissors look in the stationary section of the supermarket next time you're doing your shopping. Make sure that they are small enough for little hands but big enough to manipulate easily.

Digging in the Garden

The days have been quite long and hard in the past week with my brother in hospital (in Melbourne) after a serious motorbike accident on Wednesday. It's been difficult not being with him so the weekend was spent mostly at home to be near the phone and just to spend some quiet time reflecting, thinking about him and praying to God for his healing. Sunday afternoon we put on our hats, went into the backyard in the glorious Winter sunshine and did some gardening.

Miss M loves to much on crunchy carrot. She's like a little rabbit at times. Sometimes I put carrot with "dippy cheese" for her morning tea or she'll love it served up cooked for dinner. Her love of carrot sparked a conversation last week about where the carrots come from so we decided to buy some carrot seeds to see.

Daddy and Miss M dug up a plot for our carrots to go in and made a little path from bricks for Miss M to walk on when she waters them each day. She was quite the little helper getting bricks and helping to dig the soil but the excitement grew when the seeds were sprinkled in, covered over and she was able to get her watering can and water them all by herself.

I can't say that we have green thumbs in this house so we'll just have to see how they go...or should I say "grow". Our most beautiful plants we have are those that creep through the fence from the neighbours' gardens.

If you asked Miss M about what she found during the experience she would tell you...

• a long wriggly worm - that was a great find!
• lots and lots of ants crawling everywhere
• a cat peering over the fence
• beautiful flowers

So much to see when getting your hands dirty in the garden.

To extend the activity...

• Sing 'I Take My Shovel and I Dig Dig Dig' - Playschool
• Pretend to plant in the sandpit - add twigs and flowers
• Collect things found during the activity and glue on to card or paper (just not the cat or worm!)
• Water the plants each day
• Talk about the sun and water helping the carrots to grow

We'd like to plant something else now. Could this be the start of something big? Hmmmm....what's next?

Look out for...

Catalogues - Junk Mail or Fun Mail?
Digging in the Garden
Baby on the Move