Summer Ice Skating?

On a hot day what do you do?

Grab your winter gear and head down to the local ice skating rink!

It's been years since I have ice skated. Katie had been ice skating at a party a few weeks ago and my 4 year old son wanted to have a go as well. That morning we rushed out the door (running late as usual) and I didn't think about packing suitable clothes for him. I promised him we would come back another day.

When we did come back, he was so excited. At first he tried the twin blades which strap on to his boots. He did a few laps with his daddy holding him up which took nearly half an hour to do one lap (LOL).

Then we swapped over to the single blade boots. After a while he started to get his little bearings. You should of seen the look of wonder on his little face. He was so fascinated with the ice. He kept looking down at it which would make him lose his balance and he would end up on his bottom. Up he would get and do it all again (LOL). After an hour and a half he was able to have a little skate on his own.

Christmas Lights

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas!

My Christmas was a typical Australian one - wake up early, open the pressies under the tree, have breakfast, pack the car, head off before it gets too hot to be stuck in the car with the kids to do the rounds of the relatives (only 2 stops this year) and of course be late for lunch which consists of nibbles, a selection of cold meats, salads and prawns. That's a tradition I never seem to break with no matter how I try. I'm always running late.

Later on in the evening when lunch has digested a bit, we jumped in the car to go and have a look at the Christmas lights in front of the houses in the suburb where my parents live. People go out of their way to put on amazing displays. Some of the houses try to raise money for charities and have donation buckets. One of the houses we saw won a $10,000 prize for the best Christmas lights in Sydney. I didn't bring my camera with me so I had to make do with my partner's phone camera. The pictures aren't that sharp but it gives a general idea of how beautiful the streets look on Christmas night.

I love this part of Christmas evening. There are lots of people out with children walking around the street looking at all the lights, the night air is cool but not cold and it is a nice way to finish off an exciting day for the kids.

Orana (Carol Of The Birds)

Now just tilt your head to the left! :-)

A song from Katie to everyone -

Wishing everybody out there in blogland a very merry & fun Christmas.

Sunrays

I have been busy with the kids and have also gotten over a chest cold. Now I have lots of blog reading to catch up on. A friend gave me a flat screen monitor to replace our old bulky CRT monitor so now I can look at everyone's blog in a whole new light. Talking about light, here is some sun rays I've been making to brighten up your day!

Summer Nature Table

Summertime is here.

It sure felt like it today. It was a bit weird over a week ago - the upper mountains had a little snow - it's been weird weather.

First day of summer and I have a cold! I went to the doctors this arvo and I have to get a blood test tomorrow to see if I have whooping cough. WTF! It just feels like a chest infection. I took my boys to the local pool for a swim last Thursday and the next day I woke up feeling a bit crook with a sore throat. So I did a steam inhalation with some red thyme essential oil, thymus vulgaris (brilliant stuff). I find this stuff nips a sore throat in the bud. Hopefully, it is just a chest cold. This time last year I had shingles and that took me a few months to get over. I'm usually a healthy person. (LOL)

Anyway.... the Summer nature table. I had a great idea for the summer nature table. I thought, sand castle that was permanent so little fingers can touch it with out it falling apart. So I googled summer nature table sand sand castle to get ideas and came across Seasons Natural Toys .

There, I found a recipe for sand clay to make a permanent sand castle. So I got some sand from Mum when they went down the south coast, cornflower (the recipe said corn starch - I'm assuming it's the same thing), cream of tartar and a sand castle bucket for a mould. I was set.

I mixed it all together and left it in the garage to set for week. Anyway, a week later I checked on it. It had a crust on the top. I couldn't wait to see what it looked like so I cleared the kitchen table, got a board out to put it on, flipped it over and took the bucket off.......

Oh, my..... the smell. It stunk like a bucket of dead fish (LOL). This was a flop - it had only set an inch and the rest was like a smelly, fishy, sandy jelly. There had been a bit of rain here for the last week or so, and humid too. Maybe that's why it didn't set properly. I had to open all the windows in the house to get the smell out. Luckily, I was right next to the back door and out it went. So.... that didn't work. Maybe next time I'll use washed sand for sand pits instead.

So, plan B........

- a nice needle felted mermaid sitting on some beach rocks with some shells and driftwood ;)