Chickens

We had to say goodbye to Jasmines babies this week. They were just getting to big and were making a mess all over my deck, where they would roost every night. We already exceed the maximum no. of chooks in a residential area, even though we are right on the outskirts.

The babies have gone to stay with our other chooks and ducks at my mums house. Jasmine took it hard, as she was still caring for them as they were her babies. Haydn and Jas released them into Nan’s chook yard and we stood and watched as they played happily in their new surroundings.

Billy took the time to get reacquainted with Charlie who sat and waited to be picked up by him and is still as friendly as ever.

Separate rooms

I’m so lucky to have kept my kids in the same room for so long. Last week Jasmine decided that since she if off to school next year that it’s time she had her own room.

We have 3 bedrooms in our current house but one was being used as the playroom. A place where they could play and not make a mess of our living spaces. This is now Jasmines room and Billy is still in their old room. It took us all day to sort out what goes where and she had to set all of her little knick knacks up herself.

Billy cried his little heart out for hours when he realised what we were doing and there was nothing I could do to comfort him. Poor little man, broke my heart and I almost caved in and returned Jasmine to him. Jas eventually calmed him down with promises of sleepovers in each others room and he could read books with her each night. It’s actually easier to get them both to sleep as Billy can talk as much as he likes now without disturbing his sister!

Wes Wally

Recently we celebrated my brothers 21st birthday party by dressing up as Where’s Wally and participating in a car rally which took us to the party destination. Each car was  given a sheet of tasks that we needed to do and there were objects that needed to be collected along the way. All of this needed to be documented by taking photographs, creativity was the key.

There were five car loads of teams ranging from 3-5 in each car. I went with my sister and dad and my other 2 sisters took my kids. 

I love some of the interpretations

(Down the nearest slide)

   

 

(A picture looking sick near a hospital sign)

  

 

(I can’t believe we all fit in here!)

       

(Reflection)

      

 

(Jump)

    

It was such an original day and my mum worked hard organising and setting up.

Happy 21st Birthday little Bro!

Advent calendar

Hi everyone, I’m still here. I’ve been battling a shocking chest infection these past two weeks and have not felt like doing much at all. I refuse to take antibiotics, they seem to cause me more problems then help. So I decided to battle through and I now feel like the elephant has been lifted from my chest and I can breathe again. Yippee!

We have jumped head first into the Christmas spirit and have been busy putting up the Christmas tree, Christmas crafting and I even made my very own advent calendar with scraps of material.

It’s pretty crazy but oh so fun, I put a little surprise in the pocket each night for the children to find in the morning.

We don’t spend allot on our children at Christmas time as we believe less is more. So an Advent calendar with some little treats each day is a fun way to celebrate as well. A few of the things that I have for the advent calendar are:

• Notes with little clues- this sent us on a search and at the end there was a Christmas book and we have also found a colouring book and a felt board.
• New Toothbrushes
• Some funky pens
• Door Letters for their bedrooms
• Chocolate
• Bouncy Balls
• Glitter pens
• Little ornaments
• New socks/undies
• Art supplies

You really can have fun with the concept and do what suits your family. The kids love it!

Sticker stamps

It’s amazing what you find when your clearing out boxes.

My Nana gave me these sticker stamps about  a year ago for the kids to use with their artwork. She found about 50 sheets of these stamps, which my Pa must have collected from newspapers to give to the grandchildren. Although they never made it to the grandchildren but are now being used by his great grandchildren. The children sit down and cut out each stamp and using wet kitchen sponges, they stick them to the paper while looking at all the different types of Australian Wildlife.

A big Thankyou to my Pa who I wish my children had met and who I miss every day. –xox-

Wow, Christmas

Just popped in to let you all know I’m still around. I’ve been crazy busy for the past week. Time just seems to be flying by and I just cant seem to keep up.

I can’t believe Christmas is upon us. Luckily I am all organised with gifts all packed away and wrapped, plenty of time to get into some Christmas crafting.

There are so many ideas out there for the children to get their craft on. Here are a few links to some of the things we will be doing over the next month.

So many great ideas over at Christmas geek, I just love the reindeer cookies.

Jasmine has been making handprint reindeers.

Here’s some of the things we did last year.

I love handprint Christmas trees and do one of these every year.

These homemade Advent calendars are very cool, although I think I’ve left it a bit late to make one of these.

Beware terrible photos below. These are a few of the things I have done and placed in the children’s scrapbooks for previous years.

 

                           

Water play

  

  

If today is anything of what’s to come then I believe I can safely say that we are in for a HOT Australian Summer.

Save the dolphins

I was given a lesson on saving the dolphins recently when Jasmine asked me where the oil I was using came from (olive oil). She carefully explained to me and her friend all about people killing dolphins to get their oil and how we need to “save the dolphins” and “protect them because they are important in the ocean”.

She then preceded to draw signs (below) that “one day when I’m bigger” would put them up at every beach so people would know that killing dolphins is the “wrong choice”. As you can see the person in  the picture is holding a knife and there is a big cross over the picture meaning to STOP.

I’m really not sure where this information came from but she sounded very informed and passionate about this journey in life she will one day take.

This conversation really makes me think of what path my children will take in the future and what sort of people they will grow up to be. All I can wish for is that they grow happily and healthily and know that whatever they become will be okay by me. I think Jassy will work in a field with animals.

Painted Rocks

Last year the kids, Nan and I went down to the Avon river where we collected rocks to take home and paint. Searching on the web later that night, we came across these fantastic painted rocks and thought that we could give it a try. We’re not artists but I think we did some pretty creative rock animals.

 

Can you guess what each one is?

A Single Moment

{this moment} – A ritual. Photos, – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savour and remember. via Soulemama