Pirate Ship Playground

Last weekend we made a much anticipated trip to the Heathcote Reserve playground in Applecross. The playground has been closed for sometime having some maintenance work done and Junior has been dutifully asking each weekend if it was open yet.
Well it finally is and we had a lovely Sunday morning outing to explore the delights of the "pirate ship" a definite must for both the boys (and Aussie Dad as well).
As a bonus there is a cafe close by so Aussie Mum got her decaf latte fix which always makes my day!
Have you been exploring any great playgrounds lately? We are always on the hunt for new outdoor spaces to explore.

Pumpkin scones

Recently we were given a rather enormous pumpkin which we have been slowly making our way through. So far we have enjoyed roast pumpkin, lots of pumpkin soup and this weekend pumpkin scones for afternoon tea.
I haven't made these for ages and had forgotten how much I love them with a cup of tea in the afternoon. I used a recipe from the my CWA cookbook (copied below) which makes sweet pumpkins scones but we are also going to try and find a recipe for savoury pumpkin and cheese scones because there is still plenty of pumpkin left!
2 cups self raising flour
1 egg
a tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon hot water
a cup of mashed pumpkin
pinch of salt
1/2 cup of sugar

Cream the butter and sugar with hot water. Add the egg and beat well. Add the pumpkin, then the flour and salt. If too stiff, moisten with a little milk. Roll out, cut and bake in a fairly hot oven for 10 minutes. Enjoy!

Do you have a favourite pumpkin recipe to share?

We Play Music

Both the boys love listening and dancing to music. They love boogying along in the car to the Wiggles or Abba and Bub in particular likes to try and make his own music whenever he gets the chance. His favourite is drumming (on anything and everything) but he also likes to blow the recorder or harmonica, tinkle on the piano and shake maracas.
I'm not sure the neighbours appreciate his musical experimentation but it is much nicer than listening to him drumming a tune with his feet on the dinning room table or with his hands on the glass patio doors! What music are you and your children enjoying this week?“Come over and play at the Childhood 101 We Play link up”

Weekend Walk

This morning was a perfect, cool but sunny, winter morning for a walk along the river. Jack dog has been a little neglected lately so he was very happy to get out and the boys were happy to get in a short bike ride.
Junior, our budding photographer, took along his new camera (a much asked for birthday present) and had to stop lots of times along the way to take a few snaps ......
before practicing his "flying" on the swings.
Bub settled for a little more sedate spinning instead.
Hope you are enjoying your weekend!

Nature Walk Collage

We spend a lot of time at our local park, playing on the play equipment, digging in the sand, rolling on the grass, or exploring the trees and gardens.
We invariably spend a bit of time playing "hide-and-seek" and climbing trees, and we usually bring home a few treasures and a lot of sand in the bottom of the pram. Junior has been enjoying a few collage projects lately so yesterday I drew a tree for him and asked him to add some of the things we see when we go to the park.
I had a few pre-cut insect shapes and helped him to cut out some leaf shapes - then he got sticking and drawing.
He added ants, butterflies and lady bugs crawling on the trunk of the tree, leaves in the tree and falling on the ground (I got told I should have provided some yellow, orange and red leaves as we have quick a few deciduous trees in autumn colours at the moment), flowers in the garden, a nest and bird in the tree and the sun shining in the sky. He also drew three little figures (Junior, Bub and I) playing on the grass.
This little project kept him entertained for quite a while and gave us a chance to talk about all sorts of creatures that use our park.

We Play - Play dough

Bub is teething and therefore everything goes in his mouth at the moment. This has restricted our arts and crafts options of late because I'm forever extracting chewed crayons, pencils, chalk, felt pens and even paint brushes from his mouth! So this week we have been playing with lots of play dough. This still sometimes finds it's way into his mouth but despite it being pretty salty I don't think it has done any harm. What craft play have you been up to this week? “Come over and play at the Childhood 101 We Play link up”

Planning a few craft projects

Last week I read a great post at the Artful Parent about planning craft activities. Since we have all been suffering from an on-going winter lurgy I haven't had much motivation to get crafty with the boys. However her post inspired me to go through some books and other and writing downa few craft ideas I would like to try with the boys. I started by having a good look through MaryAnn Kohl's Preschool Art which I bought recently as a birthday present for myself. There are so many great and simple ideas in there - I already have a long list of crafts "to do".
We started out with tissue paper sun-catchers which were very quick and simple. We used crape paper as we didn't have tissue paper and just got ripping! Lots of fun.
If I was more organised I could have cut out shapes or used other materials as well but this was a quick off-the-cuff craft which didn't really require any planning - other than digging out some clear contact and coloured paper.
There are now lots of ideas on my list for when we all get over out cold and get our energy back!