Sunday, 8 January 2017

Lakes and Back to School

Today we started back into somewhat of a normal routine of doing schoolwork again. I had told
Auron last week that we would be starting again today and he wasn't impressed. This morning he sulked and whined and carried on like I was going to ask him to climb a mountain in the snow barefoot or something. This was all before breakfast had even started! Lili however was ready and excited as soon as she woke up. 

Once we actually started our bookwork Auron's attitude changed completely and he ended the morning asking me to print of extra math work for him to complete. I am hoping this will be a much better year for him and his level of enjoyment. He loves the product of his efforts yet he doesn't like the process to get there. Unfortunately that is one of the hard facts about life, that nothing comes to you without putting in the effort beforehand. 

Melbourne really heated up this past weekend so instead of wilting away inside all vying for the best spot under the air con we packed up and headed out to the lake for  a swim. Now this lake is set in the most beautiful park. The lake itself was no Lake Taupo but when it is creeping in on 40 degrees all you want is wet and cold and this hit the spot like no other! I think we spent about 6 hours until we headed home. We probably would have stayed longer if we hadn't run out of food! 


Aarahi took the kids out on the raft they got for Christmas.....I think every kid in Melbourne got a $15 orange Kmart raft for Christmas this year! The was this one family who had the most amazing green Dinosaur floatie thing. I wont lie, I was pretty jealous. The lake is a man made lake and the water has some kind of rock in it that makes it look like its full of glitter, it was very sparkly. Lili was impressed. The kids didn't get burnt....parenting win there. Aarahi and I are nursing some burnt backs, I guess you can't have it all right? 


 



Tuesday, 3 January 2017

5 Fantastic Summer Holiday Activities

If you are living in the Southern Hemisphere the Summer holidays are in full swing. However with the excitement of Christmas has probably diminished somewhat and new toys and games have been played to death. You are probably now looking for something to occupy the kids to keep them from climbing the walls. So here I give you 5 awesome activities that are cheap (or freeeeeee), provide hours of entertainment, get your kids brains working and not parent intensive!

ONE


Sign up for a subscription for Artventure. This is an wonderful online art class, with lessons ranging in level from ages 5 - 12. All you need to supply are basic art supplies like paper, water colours and crayons etc. We use this as part of our homeschool art curriculum and my kids ask to do it every day. I am actually completely impressed with what they manage to turn out. It will definitely keep you arty farty kid busy for hours and your not so arty kids will probably still love it too. You can use the free trial for a day then a full subscription is $29 for 3 months. Awesome for those days when the sun refuses to shine or you just need a quiet day in.


GO TO ARTVENTURE


TWO

How about sending the kids off on a scavenger hunt? Auron and Lili are forever off on some kind of adventure with their carefully designed maps, in search of hidden treasure. A scavenger hunt is right up their ally. Just to make it easier for you, I will add a website with links to 30 different hunts so all you have to do is print one off and let the kids loose.


GO TO SCAVENGER HUNTS


THREE

The next time you are out at the shops pick up a box of sidewalk chalk. This has the benefit of harnessing kids creativity and imagination with virtually zero clean up, especially it it happens to rain that afternoon. It will likely send you hurtling back to you childhood hopscotch days, which depending on how many children you have had, may not be a good idea for your precious pelvic floor....
You can find an assortment of different ideas for chalk play to get the kids started at:

Matty Angel

GO TO SIDEWALK CHALK

FOUR

ICE CREAM! Ice cream is always a winner during summer, so how about making your own. It is not as messy and complicated as you may think. Using a "ice cream in a bag" recipe clean up is a breeze and the kids can practically do it with out much supervision. My one bit of advice would be to double bag and invest in some decent ziplock bags. This time it pays to steer clear of homebrand. You can also get creative and add different flavours or fruit.


GO TO ICE CREAM IN A BAG

FIVE

Build a secret hideout or treehouse. I remember spending hours upon hours carefully designing and executing complex hut building plans as a child, often complete with rope swings and the like. Give the kids some supplies that you can probably find around the house or garage like rope, old bits of timber, old sheets some of the tree branches from all that gardening you did last weekend etc and let them get to work. Be kind and offer to bring them out some icypoles later on as hut building is hard work. Don't be surprised if they think that it is a good place to spend the night too!






Sunday, 1 January 2017

Goodbye 2016 Let's Never Repeat!

It's 9am on Monday morning and I am still in bed. Lili has come to keep me company so we are listening to a Frozen playlist as I type. I fully expect her to start dancing around on the bed at any moment.

I am so so happy to see the back of 2016, please let's not ever have a repeat of that year. I laid in bed and listened to the fireworks feeling such a sense of relief feeling that it was over. I don't know what it is about the end of a year but it I totally feel like it gives you permission to push the rest button on life.

Our family has a crazy exciting year ahead! Our house that we are building....have been waiting on for TWO years should finally be finished in the next 2 months!!!!! Things I am most excited about? Well an oven door that doesn't need duct tape to close, a living room that doesn't let it rain inside, a dish washer, aircon, a nice neighbourhood. We really really really can't wait. Last week the roof leaked so bad that there was a waterfall in our living room. It saturated all our books and board games and PASSPORTS! Thankfully 2 of the most damaged passports already needed renewing but Lili's didn't and I am pretty annoyed about having to fork out the money for that. The silver lining on that cloud is that her passport photo is not the cutest...just being honest. She was a cute baby but that photo is not cute!

In 77 days we are leaving on a month long road trip in the USA, with a 5 night cruise to Mexico thrown in to celebrate mine and Aarahi's 30th birthdays. I have spent HOURS over the past year planning for this holiday and I can't wait to see it come to fruition. Hopefully I will be able to share some tips and trick for holiday planning on a budget and how to do it debt free in the next couple of months. We will be visiting LA, Catalina Island, Ensenada Mexico, Las Vegas, Southern Utah, Salt Lake City, Moab, Page, Grand Canyon, Sedona, Phoenix, and San Diego. We may even try to vlog out trip but no promises.

We have one more week of holidays before we are back into school work. Auron would much rather watch youtube and play Roblox all day but unfortunately the kid is only 5 and life doesn't quite work that way. Lili will also be joining us officially this year which she is RIDICULOUSLY excited about.

As for New Years Resolutions? I haven't really made any. Last year knocked me about pretty bad so this year I plan to just focus on my own family and forget about trying to please everyone else. Also I'll try to keep this blog updated because it really do enjoy it. I will aim for 3 days a week and see how we go with that.

Ps Lili left 20mins ago and I am still listening to Frozen, even singing along. I can't even what pre-kids me was like anymore. I am pretty sure I didn't know the words to every Disney song!


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