Kenilworth

Kenilworth is a small town in the Mary Valley, that we love to visit.


The purpose of our trip down the Obi Obi Range, was to check out the Cheese Factory, which was one of my 30 before 30 goals. Unfortunately, they no longer host tours of the factory, so I had to be content with browsing their extensive on-site shop ;) I already had some of their delicious Feta cheese at home, so I bought half a wheel of Camembert and a small piece of their signature Red Malling.

Kenilworth has a lovely park for children, and particularly, a small fenced off area for smaller kids, which I always love to see as it means the Mama can put her feet up a bit, knowing the little ones are playing safely. Today, Roman found a friend, and they spent some time chasing each other around and generally having a good time. Leo just hung out on the swing, it's by far his favourite!

After the park we popped into the local op-shop, Shed Some Light, which supports orphans in Kathmandu. I picked up a bag of fabric remnants for $3!

Then we proceeded to the bakery, to get the boys their promised ice-cream, and Kaleb and I, enjoyed a meat pie.

We took the long way home, through Conondale and up to Maleny. All 3 boys, fell asleep on the way home, missing all the beautiful Jacaranda's that are flowering at the moment.

 

x Shara

Silkworms :: Another Mulberry Tree Adventure

I had silkworms as a kid.

So when we moved into our new house and spied our large Mulberry Tree, I knew we had to source some little worms for Roman.

Cue Facebook, and all it's wonderful local groups! I posted on our school-free families page, and was then directed to a local, buy/swap/sell group, where a lady had posted only hours earlier, that she had a silkworm oversupply!! We drove out to her home a few days later, shoe box and mulberry leaves in hand, to pick up our silkworms! Of course we spent some time being showed around her little "farm", meeting her dogs, guinea pigs, chooks and alpacas!!

1 week on and our little worm friends are not so little anymore and are eating through their leaves so quickly, we are having to replenish each day. It is Roman's responsibility to check them, and then go down and pick some fresh food. An easy transition I think into the world of pets!

I can't wait to observe their lifecycle and even have a go at spinning their silk! I have even been told that if you feed them lettuce leaves their silk will be green, or beetroot leaves will turn it purple.

Do you remember having silkworms as a kid? Do your kids have silkworms?

Stay tuned for the continuing silkworm adventures!!

x Shara

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

 

 

Lately....

Well, I unexpectedly lost my internet connection last week, but finally have it sorted and back online ;)

Here's what we've been up to....

x Shara

There's a Super Moon on the rise...

Yesterday afternoon, while at the beach, all these photographers started showing up. I couldn't quite work it out.... a wedding? No. You don't need 6 photographers. Then I happened to look out to Kaleb and Roman down at the waters edge, and I saw the moon!! I was annoyed that I had only taken the Ipod and not the camera. You can just see the Super Moon above Kaleb's head.on rising to the right

Then when I got up early this morning to take Kaleb to work it was just going down behind the ranges.

Looking west from our house around 6am

Looking west from Dulong around 6.20am

The houses you can see here are in Mapleton, where my husband works.

Looking east from Dulong, at the sun rising around 6.20am

You can just see the ocean (and the town we live in is just below this range)

We live in an area just at the bottom of the Great Escarpment, the part of the Great Escarpment in our area is known as the Blackall Ranges. These ranges form the front of the Great Dividing Range, known collectively as the Great Eastern Ranges, which run up the east coast of Australia.

Did you see the Super Moon?

x Shara