Volcano

Some Volcano science fun, the old Bi-Carb soda and vinegar concoction dazzles them every time.

We added some food colour for a bit of added effect.

The 'volcano' was made from the top of an old milk bottle, that the kids covered in plasticine, eyeballs and glitter.

It was a fun, messy activity that filled in a school holiday afternoon, and after I filled a bucket with warm water and soap that the twins played with for just as long as they did the volcanos, note my little cleaner Alexis cleaning the bench while cheeky Rory is splashing water everywhere.

The simple activities are often the best around here.

Happy Friday! xx

Riding

 We're all about bikes at the moment, when we know we have a free morning, we plan where we can go for a ride, we plan how to take all the bikes there and I pack morning tea and drinks.

Tom recently got a new bike, and he is enjoying that the children like doing some tougher tracks and longer rides. I enjoy walking the tracks, chatting to who ever wants to ride along side me and taking photos as we go along.

Getting all four bikes to our destination is always a bit of a dilemma, on the weekend we took two cars, but we'll have to work out a better system so we can explore some tracks further away. 

I love seeing the children build their confidence on their bikes, wanting to ride over A-frames or logs but ride around them for 100 times, only to complete it with a huge smile on their face the 101th time. Seeing Tom encourage them lovingly waiting to 'catch them' if they fall, and I especially love how they cheer for each other when they see each other succeed.

With daylight savings having just begun this weekend, I'm sure there will be lots of afternoon rides and weekends spent exploring new tracks.

I know it's been awhile since I've blogged (again), but I'm going to try and pop a post up every Friday and see how I go with a deadline.

Wish me luck, see you next Friday... I hope. x

Bees Wax Wraps

Hello, It's a rainy old Sunday here, we've had a few of these days lately, cold and dark, so any sun we get we have been making the most of, and in between we have been reading, playing cards and doing some activities I have saved up for afternoons like this. 

This afternoon we made some bees wax wraps, they're a bit of a 'thing' lately, and great for using instead of clear plastic wrap, which we don't use anyway (I'm more of a container kinda gal). These wraps are good for lunch boxes (wrapping up sandwiches, biscuits, fruit, veg), or using in the fridge to cover left overs and such.

I found some pretty materials in the sewing basket, and we had gotten some bees wax from Pop a few weeks ago, as he keep bees.

We grated the wax and then spread it over some of the material we had cut, Poppy then placed some baking paper over the top of the wax and with a warm (not hot) iron, we melted the wax onto the material.

I had seen someone try this method and thought it seemed easy, but it didn't seem to work how was had hoped, lot's of spots were left un-waxed and it was hard to spread out.

The second time around we thought it would be easier to put the material on a tray in a low oven (120 deg cel) and melt the wax onto the material that way, then when it was out of the over we spread the wax over the dry spots with a paint brush. This worked a lot better, and was less messy also.

We hung the wraps to dry, and they were done in about 15 minutes.

 They really do look pretty in the fridge, covering bowls of left overs, or wrapping up an open avocado.

When they are in need of a clean, you can do so with a warm cloth.

With school going back in two days, the children's lunch boxes will be looking very fancy indeed!!

Happy Sunday. xx

Running

 On Sunday morning we all headed down to the city park where Poppy was going to compete in a 2k kids fun run. She recently practiced and competed in her school cross country which was 1.6k so I suggested that she enter this upcoming race and she was interested.

She had been practicing for the weeks leading up to the run and was very excited.  

Her run was at 9am so we got to the park at 8.30am for a warm up. It was a very fresh morning, but the fog that was about earlier had lifted and the sun came through just before her race.

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She had some before race nerves, lining up with all the other children.

Tom and his Mum went and found a spot about half way through the track to cheer Poppy on and Tom took some videos which showed her happy and waving as she went.

She did such a fantastic job, jogging the entire way.

When she completed the race she got a running medal and felt so proud of herself, and of course Tom and I were bursting with pride also. 

She said she felt so grown up doing the run all on her own, and is looking forward to entering the 5k next year.

Carrot Cake

This yummy, moist, easy to make carrot cake is perfect for school lunch boxes because it is nut free. Enjoy.

4 eggs

2 cups white sugar

1 cup oil

2 cups plain flour, sifted

2 teaspoons bicarb soda

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3 packed cups grated carrot

Cake: Beat eggs, add sugar and oil.

Stir in flour, bicarb soda, salt and cinnamon. 

Add carrot and mix.

Bake 40-50 minutes at 180 degrees C or until it tests done.

Top with a cream cheese icing. 

Mix 120g cream cheese, 60g softened butter and 1 1/2 cups of icing sugar together.

Saturday

On Saturday we headed out to a friends farm to light some bon fires, collect a bit of wood and have a BBQ lunch.

The children have recently borrowed some binoculars from their Granny and Papa for a Star Gazing event we are going to this week, so they brought them along to the bush to do a bit of bird spotting.

We brought the kids quad bike along, and the children did a few laps around the wheat crop on that, as well as played on Pop's excavator, practicing digging up the dirt and moving along, the paddock is a great place to practice as not much can be harmed.

It was a perfect Autumn morning, I even going to pack the kites, but there wasn't any wind, it was perfect weather for lighting bon fires.

We lit a smaller fire in an old tree stump to cook our BBQ lunch on, we had chops, sausages and onion.

Alexis kept busy moving rocks, bark, sticks and logs making her own fairy house.

A lovely morning spent in the bush.

xx