Saturday, 27 August 2011

Sydney

The first leg of the holiday for Noah and I was a trip to the beautiful city of Sydney.  I hatched a plan for this stopover for a number of reasons.  Firstly I wanted a chance to catch up with a good friend I hadn't seen for several years.  Secondly I thought my parents could join us and get to spend some quality time with Noah.  They seem him almost every day but it's not the same as 'living' with him for 4 days.  They really loved it and they  really got to see him in his every day 'real life'.  My last reason was to break up the travel for both Noah and pregnant mama and to give Daddy a chance to wrap up work stuff without any distractions.  Almost without fail when we head on holidays Rob spends the last week working long hours in a frantic attempt to finalise everything ready for when he's away.  We usually don't see much of him at those times anyway so why not sneak in some extra holiday fun.

It was an excellent 4 days.  Noah stayed in a lovely sleep routine, I got lots of extra rest and we did lots of lovely Sydney activities.


Noah and Nanna arriving at the Airport


The Gruffalo Trunki - best purchase ever


Oh Yeah Baby - In the cockpit


Noah with Nanny and Poppy at Darling Harbour


Ta-Da The Opera House


The Bridge (from the Ferry)


Noah and Mummy on the Taronga Zoo Sky Safari


Out on the town

Tuesday, 23 August 2011

Dinosaur Rocks


I saw these around on a couple of websites and thought they looked like a great idea.  Originally my idea was to bury all the pieces of a balsa wood T Rex ($10 from Cotton on Kids) and have the kids find the pieces and construct the dinosaur. Rob said it was too hard and the kids would get bored - don't tell him but I think he was right!!

In the end we made these and buried them in a sand pit with wrapped chocolates and some loose dinosaurs.  Firstly the dinosaurs came in bags of about 10 for only a couple of dollars from Kmart and then the rock ingredients were already in the house so a pretty cheap activity and take home gift all in one. Don't tell the kids but the 'scoopers' were kitty litter sifters from the $2 shop!!

Recipe (Makes about 15)

2.5 cups Dirt (earth worms optional)
2.5 cups Flour
1.5 cups Salt
1 cup of Sand (we used some white sand pit sand but beach sand would be perfect too)
Water and Plastic Dinosaurs

Mix all the dry ingredients then add water until the mixture holds together (we may have added slightly too much but it still worked great so you don't need to be super cautious)


Mould dirt mix around the toys and then leave to dry in the sun for several days.  As usual I planned to do this preparation many days in advance but ended up doing it the day before.  We dried ours in a very low oven for most of the afternoon and then they continued to dry naturally the next day until party time at 3pm.  They were still a bit moist in the centre but it didn't matter.



Some Mama help was required to finesse the shaping but it was still lots of messy fun for the Birthday Boy


I couldn't resist this photo of the ultimate pre birthday party joy - licking the beaters.

A dino-riffic birthday

Before the onslaught of holiday related posts I wanted to share all the fun of Noah's party.  I had originally planned a Pirates and Princesses party but decided some of the activities I wanted to do might be better for an older crowd - so I decided to opt for the 'simpler' idea of a dinosaur party.   The first thing to note is no party is simple when I get involved - I can't help myself everything has to fit the theme.  I kept it as simple as I know how because after all we were flying away on a big overseas holiday a mere 36 hours later!! This was such a fun party though and I'm really happy with how it went.


The Birthday Boy - I forgot to put this little gem on the table in all the rush but it looked nice on the cupboard upstairs with all the birthday cards.


The Dino Dig site


These party hats were so cute (made from a printable file I bought on Etsy)
The treat bags were very simple but how cute are the badges.  Made using a printable cupcake topper and then asking very nicely at my local Marine Discovery Centre if they would let me use their badge maker. 



The Cake (I find there is never time amongst all the other party stuff to make a 'shape' cake - but Noah loved this one and was especially thrilled with the mini bunting.


I had so much fun coming up with theme foods and silly little puns.  Rob had no end of fun laughing at me when I put bottles of Jurassic Juice (green cordial) and Glacial water on the table.

There was a Sweetivore sign too but I must not have taken a picture of it. (Printables are from Celebration Shoppe)


Foam Dino masks from Oriental Trading were loads of fun for kids and adults!!


The Dino Dig was the only organised activity (besides Pass the Parcel) and it was more of a hit than I could have imagined.  Noah and I made our own rocks with little plastic dinosaurs inside - the kids had to find them and then use tools to get them open and make a historic discovery.  We also put some wrapped chocolates and some loose dinosaurs in for the smaller kids.  I'll share the recipe and some pictures of the creation process for the rocks tomorrow.


As always the hard work was worth it and it was a really fun day.   Thank you to everyone who came and for all the lovely presents you bought for Noah.

Monday, 22 August 2011

Home Again

So good to be back in front of a 'real' computer.  I love my iPad but all that two finger typing is so painfully slow.   We had a wonderful, if not somewhat hectic, holiday.  I can't wait to start looking through the 2000 plus photos and sharing some of them on here.  I had planned to blog as we went along but good quality wireless access was, harder than we expected, to find.

Last week was all about settling back into the house and getting Noah back into a good sleep routine.  It was great for him to be back to Kindy and Music and catching up with all of his little friends.  We spent lots of time at our local playground and scooting around.  You really can't underestimate how much the little ones enjoy the sanctity of their own home surrounded by their favourite toys.

Come back and visit often this week - I hope to blog every day.

Monday, 1 August 2011

Noah Hoe Down Dancing

Some impromptu Noah hoe down dancing at Disney... completely unscripted (by anyone!!)

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