Harmony Gardens - Making Music at the Park

We ended our dance amongst the roses outing on Friday with a trip to Harmony Gardens in Dutton Park (since the playground at New Farm Park was closed for renovations). This park has a lovely little playground which local kids helped to design. There are mosaic butterflies on the path and butterflies on the fence, tall clay art and decorative seats to sit on. The girls liked crawling in a tunnel of what seemed to be big black bug eyes but all the usual playground fun was there to enjoy as well. Our current favourites are the swings.

An interesting feature of the park is the music making area. It does need a little fixing but you can easily find a stick nearby to make some beautiful music on the chimes. Lovely!

You'll find Harmony Gardens on the left off Annerly Rd as you travel into South Brisbane. It is next door to where the green bridge is which leads from Dutton Park to the University of Queensland. This is also a wonderful feature of the park and one we plan to go back and enjoy. It does however provide one negative to the park because we were the only ones enjoying the park yet the car park was full. Thankfully there was one car park for us! We had a happy time playing in the Harmony Gardens. It was a lovely ending to our morning out.

A Dance Amongst the Roses

We've had sniffles and snuffles all week here so it's been lots of home time for us to allow sick little bodies to get better. Today we went to the park for some outdoor fun as some events of yesterday made us realise that the girls had been cooped up for too long.

Still keeping things quiet we went to the park and danced amongst the roses. Here are my beautiful little ballerinas in the gorgeous dancing skirts their Aunty Mel made them for Christmas. We've wanted photos of the girls in the skirts so why not in the beauty of the rose gardens.

You can find these rose gardens at New Farm Park which is at the river end of Brunswick St, New Farm. We drove there today but you could also arrive by City Cat which stops right at the park. Check out the translink.com site for City Cat fare prices and terminal details. New Farm Park is spacious so there's plenty of room to picnic....and dance if you want to! You can also get a coffee and snack from the snack shack.

I'm sure you'll all want details for how to make the delightful skirts too. Sorry, I can't give them away. You'll have to get yourselves a wonderful Aunty Mel like ours! He he!

The beautiful hair clip was made by my gorgeous friend Cass . Don't you just love it!

Playing Along - Double the Bubble Fun

The girls and I are playing along in We Play with everyone over at Childhood101.com.

"Blowing bubbles"

"Chasing bubbles"

"Catch them if you can"

* * * * *

"Bubbles bubbles in the air

Bubbles bubbles everywhere

Blow them here

Blow them there

Pop...pop....pop"

Come play at the Childhood101 We Play link up.

Fence Painting

With tissues in hand we headed outside for some much needed sunshine this morning. Even with sniffles and snuffles we still had fun.

Easel painting is always a favourite with my girls no matter when it is set up and now that I have two girls there are times that I like to set up the painting a little differently to allow them to enjoy the experience together, side by side. We don't own two easels or a double sided one but we do have the ugliest fence in the street (I'm sure it must be!) and so I put it to good use.

Fence Painting

You will need...

Paper - of your choice - we used white easel paper this morning
Paint - choose any (celmix, water, acrylic) but remember water based are better if you don't want your kids to permanently paint your fence
Pegs - to hold your paper up
Brushes - or whatever you'd like to paint with (rollers, toothbrushes, sticks etc)
Aprons

Hang the paper up at your child's level using pegs. If your fence doesn't allow for pegs like ours does, just tie a line of string, wool or fine rope on to your fence to hang the paper instead.

Secure your pots of paint in a low bucket, tray or pot holder.

Let the kids enjoy painting their paper and when they've finished leave the paintings to dry in the sun.

We live on a street corner so this activity can sometimes stop traffic. The pedestrians stop to ask what we are up to. One day I think it would be fun to get them involved too by hanging the paper on the other side of the fence. What do you think?

Playing Along - A Girl and Her Scooter

The girls and I are playing along with everyone else over at Childhood101 this week.

I'm gonna ride on my scooter

Toot on my tooter - race on my racer

And then I'm gonna do it again

Justine Clarke - 'Great Big World' CD

If there is one thing this girl loves to do, it's ride her scooter. She would ride it anywhere, anytime but the best play fun comes when we take to the bike track down the end of our street, where Miss M can freely let loose and scoot on her scooter. Lots of play fun!

Don't you think the smile on her face says it all?

Come play at the Childhood101 We Play link up

Stepping Out From Behind the Camera

It is an incredible blessing to be able to blog. For me it brings together my past and the present as I enjoy life as a mummy. I love to encourage other parents by sharing the ideas I have learnt while working with kids and the new ideas I am trialling now in my role as "director of fun" with my own kids. Much of what you see on my blog is my kids just being kids, playing, doing art activities or going on outings however most of the time you don't get to see pictures of me and that's because I'm usually the one holding the camera. When you do get to see me I am careful to make sure that I am looking half decent with hair groomed (or hat covering bad hair!), some make-up on and I'm dressed in a snazzy mummy outfit (Maybe not that snazzy but you get the idea).

Today I am squeezing in to the final hours of the Bloggers Without Make-up Day started by Jodie Ansted at http://www.mummy-mayhem.blogspot.com/ . You'll have to check out her blog post to understand why so many in the blogging world are doing this no make-up gig - it's a challenging read.

This is probably the best time for me to post a pic as I've been through the day with my two girlies so the make-up is gone, my hair has not seen a brush since very early this morning, the hat is not around anymore to cover the hairstyle and if I checked, my clothes are probably in desperate need of a wash after little Miss H has given me messy handed cuddles all day long. Oh and I'm wearing my warm goofy looking slippers because it's a bit cold here (Sorry you can't see them too).

If the truth be told I'm the kind of mummy who can still be found wearing my maternity dresses and jeans around the house....and out. (They're comfy alright! Miss H is 18mths old and I'm definitely not pregnant!) If we're having a home day my hair is often just thrown back in a messy pony tail and during colder months I'll wear whatever I have to to keep warm. The joys of being a SAHM I guess!! Actually sometimes I add a pair of koala ears or a tiara to my outfit depending on what the girls and I are playing. Can you tell that I love my job?!

This isn't the best post picture I've put up on the blog but you know over recent years I have been taken on a journey of learning to love who I am so right now while posting this pic I can feel ok about you seeing it. I have a God who created me and loves me and it makes it a whole lot easier to love those around me when I can love who I am first of all.

Some very special people once told me..."You are the apple of His (God's) eye. Each apple is unique and different. God made them that way." I've never forgotten those words and they have spoken to my heart ever since.

So here it is.......a picture of ME....being apple(ish) just for you, black tired circles and all!

To see some other bloggers I happen to think are beautiful see...

• www.beafunmum.com
• www.aspiremum.blogspot.com
• www.squigglemum.com

Sweet Smelling Play Dough

It's a great idea to have play dough stored in the fridge for whenever you need it. I like to use play dough for keeping Miss H (18mths) occupied at the kitchen bench while I cook the dinner.

What kind of play dough do you have at your house now? Green, pink, blue, yellow? What if I told you that you could give it a new interesting scent? You can have your play dough smelling like all kinds of different flavours to go along with the great colours and texture.

Scented Play Dough

You will need....

• Play dough - follow directions on the side of the Bi-carbonate of Soda container to make some (found in the Supermarket).
• Essential oil - with the scent of your choice for older children OR
• Baking essence - for those likely to eat the dough

Add the smallest drop of oil to your batch of play dough. Remember that you are using oil so too much will make the dough oily and it won't be usable any more. You may also need to consider kids with allergies (and pregnant mummies) if you are making it for a playgroup, kindy or mums group.

Be as creative as you like with your dough! Lavender scented play dough would be great in a lilac/ purple colour or strawberry play dough in a pink. Rose could be red or pink and my favourite, vanilla could simply be plain. Have fun with this and let me know what colour and flavour you created.

Our light blue play dough has a vanilla scent and I'm sorry you're not here to smell how great it is but you can certainly make your own fantastic smelling play dough. Have I inspired you to give it a go?!

Playing Along - Race Track

The girls and I are playing along with We Play again. You'll find lots of brilliant play ideas at www.childhood101.com .

Don't you just love how much the mind of child aged 3+ explodes with endless creativity? We have a steady flow of ideas floating around this house which come from Miss M who likes to make up her own games. Today she created a game of "sisters" where Miss M, Miss H and I became sisters. She would go off to kindy/ school and sleep in her sleeping bag which was really a sack race sack. Miss M doesn't go to kindy in real life but is really looking forward to going next year. It was lovely to see her set up a game which included Miss H as this sometimes seems tricky to do with "big girl fun".

We also enjoyed a tea party with the toys, a coffee shop in my kitchen while morning tea was happening and a concert with play microphones.

It was the game pictured above that interested me the most. You don't often see games with cars happening in this house but we do have some available for the girls to play with whenever they'd like to. Miss M (3.5) tore pages out of an old note book I had given her and placed each page carefully around the little blue table. She then asked Daddy to play the game.

The aim of her game was to race the cars around the track and the first car to get to a break in the track was the winner. Miss M had organised pencils to write the winners name on the paper which had to be put exactly in the place where they had won. Sadly I missed the game as it happened early in the morning but I was super pleased to hear all about it and see the set up left there. Sometimes I wonder what game is coming next! No two days are the same in this house as something new is always being played.

Where have your kids' imaginations taken their play lately? I'd love to hear what they've been up to and I'll especially enjoy looking at all the wonderful ideas in this week's We Play.

Come play over at the Childhood 101 We Play link up

Making Flowers for Mummy

This morning the girls and I were busy little bees making beautiful flowers for Mother's Day. It was a special time creating together, even Miss H gave them a go. We had a few different items to put on our flowers but the three main crafty things we used to make them were coloured and spotty patty pans, sticky tape and green bendy straws. The finished flowers look great and they only took a few steps to make. (This mummy loves big bright spots so these were perfect!)

You will need....

Patty pans - big or small, patterned, pictured or plain - it's up to you!

Drinking straws - we used green straws to be the stems. (You could also use pipe cleaners, straight straws or paddle pops for stems)

Sticky tape

Scissors

Glue - we used a Bostik glue stick which worked fine for our decorations. I would suggest a mix of PVA and Cel Mix or just straight PVA if you want to use anything thicker to decorate eg: pom poms, sequens or felt.

Decorations - we raided our collage supplies and came up with confetti and crepe paper but circles of pattern paper, felt, tissue paper or glitter would work well too.

Make up the basic flower shape by cutting petals around the patty pan - rounded edges look pretty but cutting straight lines down to the base circle can also look like an interesting flower.

Invert the patty pan (if colour or pattern is on one side) and stick the plain side on to the bendy top of the straw using sticky tape. You'll have a beautiful pattern or colour on the top.

Decorate your flowers however you like. For some of our flowers we liked gluing the little patty pans (1,2 or 3 of them) to the middle of the bigger ones.

With Mother's Day happening on Sunday, these beautiful hand made flowers could be just the thing to put a smile on a mummy or grandmother's face. Now to leave this blog post open to hint to your husband!!

Before posting this I noticed that Elise over at www.etadventures.blogspot.com has also made some gorgeous white patty pan flowers with her little girl Savvy. She has many other ideas too so please make the trip over to see what they've done. Great minds think alike! Why not sign up while you're there. It's one of my favourite blog sites.

Train Spotting at Hives Park

Miss H enjoying time on the fort

This is the park you must go to if you have little boys. It's not that my girls don't like watching trains, they just don't love it that much. Our Mums on the GO group went for a play there yesterday and you could hardly peel the boys off the train line fence. They were absolutely taken with watching each and EVERY train go by and talking about them in detail - very cute!

If do happen to prize your children away from the fence you'll also find there are actually a few other things for them to enjoy like the boat and water skis which are great for balancing skills, a fort with a slippery slide as well as some bouncing seats and swings. There's also a track going through the park which is good for trikes, bikes and scooters.

Hives Park has heaps of trees but probably not as much shade as any parent would like over the playground. Early morning or late afternoon plays are best. You can find Hives Park by going a few different ways as paths connect from Primrose St, Thallon St or Quarry Rd in Sherwood. The playground is smallish but the park itself is big so there's plenty of room to run around and lots of trees to hide behind. This park doesn't have all the comforts like toilets, taps or bbqs, it's just a simple park where the trains go past and that makes it a great park in my books.....and I'm sure most Brissy boys would agree!

Some follow up activity ideas.....

• play with a train set at home
• watch 'Thomas the Tank Engine' dvd
• go for a ride in a train - electric or steam

Playing Along - Shop Play

My girls and I are playing along with everyone over at Childhood101 once again. What fun!

Miss M (3.5) has been playing shops a lot lately so I've been thinking for some time about surprising her with a little shop in our play room. She loves to be the "payer". I like the idea of changing the play environment every so often anyway to keep play varied, fresh and interesting.

Each week a lovely delivery of fruit and vegies comes to our door but I think I like the boxes they come in more than the produce! I've been collecting the small and big black boxes for months for something special like this and so they were perfect for joining together with tape to make the shelves to put our shop items on. I did this part before Miss M and I worked together to stack the (recycled) items for the shop. We've been collecting them for art and play activities so they were ready to go.

Miss M, Miss H and I (and the baby dolls) had fun playing together, taking turns to buy, sell and pack the bags but I'm sure we'll see many more shop games happening with just the girls in the next few days. I'll enjoy watching their role playing.

This game has already encouraged....

• language/communication skills
• turn taking/ sharing
• gentle play
• role playing

All great things for this big sister, little sister relationship.

We could extend this activity further by....

• changing the shop to a different type of shop eg: shoes, art, books etc
• making pretend money - we chose not to since Miss H was involved
• putting fruit and vegies in
• talking about healthy teeth food
• making signs

But for now it's just wonderful to watch the girls at play.

Come play at the Childhood101 We Play link up

Wynnum Family Outing

Another long weekend - hooray! Three Daddy days - hooray! We had to do something special before the week hit again so off we went to Wynnum, down by the bay for a morning of family fun. How lovely it was to get out of the house together and enjoy everything Wynnum has to offer.

This place is "crazy central"! At least that's what I'm calling it. There were people everywhere enjoying swims, water play, fishing, fish 'n' chips, bbqs, picnics, bike rides, scooter rides, walks, dog walks, beach fun, play fun.......and this list could go on and on. Wynnum seems to be the place to be!

We are so happy that we went. It is such a family friendly place and to delve into my past a little, I remember it being lovely for anyone. My friends and I would head there for breakfasts or fish 'n' chips on weekends. It really is wonderful.

There is a bike/walking track that goes all the way along the waterfront and dotted here and there are fantastic playgrounds, including a water one for the kids to play in. Kids of all ages were everywhere when we went so we had to keep a special eye on our two. (Divide and conquer is our best way of watching them!) I would imagine that things would be a little quieter for a play date during the week.

A good place to start for a family visit is The Esplanade at the end of Edith St, across from Pelican's Nestle Inn. You can also find a Coffee Shop to grab a cuppa as there are stacks of them around and three fish 'n' chip shops are just across the road from the playgrounds and bike path.

Before you go, pack your bikes/ scooters, buckets and spades and don't forget your swimmers. We'll certainly be returning for a wetter trip next time around since we didn't have our swimmers with us on the weekend.

Wynnum ticks all the boxes for a great family day out. It's fun, full of adventure and can be cheap, depending of course on the food you buy or take. We enjoyed a fish 'n' chip lunch which cost around $20.

Our little family loved our morning out and we can't wait to go there again.