Strawberry Picking

A few weekends ago, we took the boys strawberry picking at on of the many local farms. It was such a lovely set up, with a playground, plenty of running around space and lots of tables and chairs. There was even a birthday party happening in one of the sheds! What a great idea! We picked a load of strawberries, about $30 worth, but it was so fun, particularly for Roman.

When we got home, we washed all the berries, and then made some fresh strawberry milk, then some strawberry syrup for pancakes, then we ate the rest, some plain, some with cream, some with icing sugar, and on pancakes! Delicious!

This is the strawberry farm we went to.

Another 30 before 30 activity checked off!

x Shara

A Family Day Out at Australia Zoo

 

Last Saturday, we finally had a day together as a family, after Kaleb worked nearly a whole month without a day off. We have been wanting to take the kids to Australia Zoo for a while now and it was also on my 30 before 30 list.

 

This is just a small selection of photos from our day, but what I loved most was seeing Roman's face every time we got to a different animal enclosure. He lit up, asked all manner of questions about the animals and listened intently as we read to him from the information plaques at each animal. He told me that he only really liked the dangerous animals, not the Koala's!

 

He had a turn at feeding an elephant, which scared the pants off him. I think he was pretty awestruck at the sheer size of it.

 

The highlight for me was seeing the Giraffe's and a Rhino. I could never have imagined how large a Rhino really is and I couldn't stop looking at him.

 

Leo was such a trooper all day, mostly content to stay in his pram. Looking at the animals wasn't really something that held his interest, although you can see in one of the photo's above that he did find a Frill-Necked Lizard in one of the gardens and spent a good amount of time chatting to it.

 

We wisely took our own lunch and snacks, knowing that it would cost a fair amount for the entry into the zoo, and it was a welcome break to find a playground at morning tea time and then sitting down to lunch on the grass in the shade.

 

Surrounding the grassed area where we had lunch were some "funpark" rides for the kids (free!) and Roman had a go on the jumping castle. On the other side, was a sandpit, complete with cave and "fossils" that the kids could discover.

 

We spent around 4 hours at the zoo and saw almost all the animals, but we decided not to see any of the main crocodile shows, as it would probably have been difficult to get Leo to sit still in the grandstand.

 

On the way out we grabbed some ice-creams for the kids, and then they both fell asleep in the car on the ride home.

 

Roman has spent all week telling everyone he sees about our trip to the zoo, and has been surprising me with his remembering of animal facts (like, Red Panda's have 6 fingers on each hand!).

 

It was fun!

 

x Shara

 

 

Weekending

~ Friday night is always homemade pizza night

~ Roman waiting patiently for Mama to stop snapping pictures and get ready

~ Voting for Queensland State Election - amazing results!!

~ Mini road trip to Gympie for my cousin's 30th birthday

~ Leo playing happily with his cousin, Hunter (my sister's son)

~ This soup for our dinner with fresh homemade bread (all done in machines while we were out!)

~ Picked up a crochet project long forgotton about (it certainly won't fit Leo now)

~ One of my favourite movies on TV (North by Northwest)

~ The new Country Style magazine

Hope you've had a wonderful weekend too!

x Shara

 

Weekend Style; Midweek

Kaleb usually works Saturdays and Sundays, so our family weekends are spent together on a weekday. This is fine by me, as there is never a crowd anywhere midweek. Like today's trip to the beach. Roman has been asking for days, but this darned toothache has been holding me back. However, today had been going so well (smooth run at the grocery store, and then a successful, no tears swimming lesson with Roman) that I thought, what the heck, let's go!!

A decision I'm glad we made, one of my favourite family days in a long time!

Of course both the boys fell asleep on the way home, the beach will do that to you...

x Shara

Weekending

With the weather here still leaving a lot to be desired, I decided to brave it and get out with the kids anyway. We are completely fed up with being cooped up in our teeny tiny house!

So with the company of my Mum and her husband, we ventured out to Yandina to visit the Ginger Flower and Food Festival. This event is held every year in January at the Ginger Factory.

It was so very busy and I soon realised that the Ergo would have been a better choice for carting Leonardo than the pram.

We wandered around for a bit, looking through the gift shop and at the plant displays and then found a spot to sit down for a bite to eat. A bit of live music and and ice-cream for Roman and then we were off to get in the line for face-painting! Roman wanted to be painted as a dragon (dragon's are definitely having a moment in our house) and the Fairy lady did a brilliant job of transforming his face!!

There was lots to see and do, but it didn't take long before Leo was ready to leave, so we didn't get to see any of the celebrity chef cook-offs, but I did get a quick photo of Australian gardening guru, Colin Campbell on the way out as he was signing some books.

All in all a great day out for the family! My only suggestion would be to remember your patience, as there were people everywhere and the queues were long!!

x Shara

(I should also add that my husband works for Buderim Ginger, but I was not asked to write about or endorse the festival in any way, I genuinely love the Ginger Factory and thought you would too!)

Return of Creativity

The weather this week has been deathly! After an extremely mild December (that I did not take for granted at all), the second week of January has been a doozy!! Mid 30's all week and nowhere to hide...

I am never motivated to sew, hook or even read in that sort of weather, I only have energy to move closer to the window or push the couch directly under the ceiling fan. Thank goodness we have Air Con in our bedroom, so night time was bearable...just....with all 4 of us in the one room!

So now I have awoken (extremely early) on Saturday and it is overcast! I even had to put a cardigan on to pop to the shops! This means only one thing.....stuff will get done this weekend!

I'll leave you with a few random photos of the week and be on my way.

See you on Monday, with the next Sewing Book Series installment! Wow, I can hear your excitement from here...

I ate my first Banana ever in my adult life, it was good!

A kitchen experiment that worked...stay tuned!

Quesedilla for lunch

Finished this gift for a friend just in the nick of time

More of this soon too!

Total score at the op shop...so soft!

Lots of food related photo's...I promise I'll tell you why soon!

x Shara