Tuesday 31 January 2012

A Wonderful Time in Bright

We've had the most amazing holiday with friends, family, nature and good food. Blogging fell off the priority list because we were having so much fun!

These photos capture a tiny bit of what happened in the great month there.

Picking ripe tomatoes from the garden and scoffing them down
Catching baby trout in the river in Wandiligong
Hanging out with the cats
Playing with the diggers and pebbles in the garden, also running after the cats.
Pulling friend in dingy back to shore.
Played for hours at the awesome Bright playground
Jumping and rolling on the trampoline with friends
Playing in the beautiful, clean, flowing pebble river
JJ caught his first fish at the trout farm! He used a lure and caught it on the second cast. He reeled it in all by himself! It was a very proud moment for him, and for us. We got it all on video check it out!

Thursday 5 January 2012

Rhyming Bingo Game

Yesterday at the toyshop in Beechworth, I found a bingo game for kids that was based on rhyming words. I thought I'd try making my own version and playing it with JJ.

Setup

I made two bingo cards with four words on them:
1) Boat, House, Star, Moon
2) Spoon, Run, Red, Far

Then I made some cards with words that rhymed with the words on the cards:
goat, mouse, car, balloon, bun, and bed.



Teaching how to play
I asked JJ if he wanted to play a new bingo game called Rhyming Bingo, and he said yes.

Sitting at the table, I explained to him what rhyming words were. I used a piece of paper like a blackboard, and wrote examples for him to see while explaining.


Playing the game
Then JJ got to choose a bingo card, I took the other. I put the word cards into a little pencil case. Then he picked a card from pencil case - he giggled when he got to choose a card!



Once he got a card, I said "OOhh! What card did you get?" He read it out loud "goat". I asked him which word on his card rhymed with goat, and he had a good look and said "boat". Success!!

He put the word card above the word on his card that matched. Then it was my turn.

We kept playing until JJ had all the words covered, at which he got to say "Bingo!" and he was very pleased.

I think I'll play this game again but modify it to have more words so it lasts longer - say nine words on the card. At least he has the concept now!

This Bingo game could also work really well for foreign languages in matching English words with the foreign translation.

Wednesday 4 January 2012

Beechworth

We're itching to explore some more towns in the local area, and today we've decided to go to Beechworth, an hour's drive from Bright.

None of us have had breakfast, so by the time we get into Beechworth I'm ready to eat the table.

When I'm about to take the kids out of the car, I realise that the boys are sitting in their seats without any shoes on - we've left their shoes at home!!! Can you believe it?!

Luckily their river shoes are still in the car, still slightly damp from yesterday, but better than nothing.

We find a fairly kid friendly cafe/deli called Beechworth Pantry. The boys demolish French Toast with bacon and maple syrup, and when they've finished JJ says he wants dessert. The food by the way was really delicious.

The boys adding sugar and stirring my mug of latte
We take a stroll around the lovely Beechworth shops. The boys take a fancy to some corrugated metal animals meant for the garden and the window display of the lolly shop. We come across a splendid toy shop which has a Thomas the Tank Engine trainset table, and they are glued!


Eventually when it's time to go, SamSam has a melt down when we leave - this is despite giving them our usual five-minute-warning. Finally by the time we get to the car he has calmed down. He just loved that train set to bits!

We stop by at Myrtleford and pick up some fish n chips and excellent burgers for a picnic lunch by the river.

Our picnic turns into a whole afternoon affair when we find a wonderful spot by the river. It's another hot day, so it's perfect to be in the water. There are millions and millions of pebbles, and we build another little rock pool in the river.

Among other things the boys pretend that the pool is a cafe, and go inside to sit down and pretend to eat chips!


After the whole afternoon by the river, we return home exhausted, and the boys have fallen asleep in the car.

When they wake up, they are a ball of energy and running around like they've been set free. They invent a new game which I call 'Extreme Swiss Ball Rolling'. The game entails running behind the exercise ball and pushing it as fast and as accurately as you can in order to squash and flatten your opponent. JJ gets squashed quite a few times by SamSam.

After dinner, showers, reading, devotions and milk, I try and get them to bed, but they are pretty playful this evening. Each time I go in to check on them, they are rolling on each other, or remaking their beds, and no doubt telling each other jokes because there is so much laughter going on in there.

Eventually I move them out of our room and into another bedroom together. Somehow the new surroundings seems to work - or at least they are finally sleepy because it's now 9:30pm and I put them down at 7:30pm. They should be so exhausted! I am!

Tuesday 3 January 2012

Floatin' on the Doughnut

We're up and at 'em at 7:15am today.

I opened the laundry to let the cats out and found two mounds of cat vomit, and a big fur ball in the middle of one - yuck! How do you get a cat to get rid of its fur balls??


Today I am taking SamSam out on a special excursion - just him and me down to the village shops - and Daddy will be spending some time with JJ. I've noticed over the last few weeks that SamSam is playing up a bit more than normal. He is going through the two year old stage where tantrums are pretty common, but I think he's needing more one on one time to know that he's loved.

We go to the op shop to find the rest of the My Book series that we bought yesterday, but someone has beaten me to it, and has snaffled ALL the remaining alphabets that I wanted. They were too quick! Siggh. However, SamSam has a fantastic find - a little Emily train - and we take it with us for 50cents.

We go to the Rock Bookshop and Cafe for some coffee and orange cake (yumm). SamSam pushes Emily around the salt and pepper shakers, and discovers that he doesn't like the taste of the salt. I have to admit I've been distracted all morning by shopping for the missing books, and now by the awesome books at this fabulous little bookshop, and then I remember that I am meant to be spending quality time with SamSam! Yikes!!

I look at him and I realise how beautiful he is! I tell him and he's still playing with his train. He repeats after me - "I am bee-u-tee-full" in his little SamSam voice.

I ask him, "Who loves you?"
"JJ".
"Who else loves you?"
"Daddy:
"Who else loves you?"
"Mummy"
"and Jesus loves you too!"
:)

We head back to the van, and pick up Daddy and JJ along the way who are coming back from a walk. While we've been out, Daddy has been reading with JJ, jumping on the trampoline with him and finished with the walk.

SamSam falls asleep on the way home so he has a little rest in bed when we get back.


In the meantime JJ and I play Uno, and then he does some dot-to-dot drawing. When SamSam emerges from the room, we play Thomas snakes and ladders that they got for Christmas. They are getting fidgety so I suggest we do some dancing, and they happily agree.

I bought them a Colin Buchanan CD for Christmas. I've been looking around for some good Christian music for kids and when this was recommended to me by a good friend I quickly went out and got it. The one I bought is "10, 9, 8, God is Great" and it is really, really good. I'm talkin' 10 out of 10! (And I'm really picky when it comes to music).

The songs are really catchy with great rhythms to move to. The fantastic lyrics hang around in your head and I'm walking around the house still singing verses from Lamentations, like it's the coolest rock pop tune ever. I like how he uses Bible verses within the songs, it's really great stuff!

Colin Buchanan who wrote the songs and sings them, was apparently a presenter on Play School once upon a time. His concerts are sold out where ever he goes! I want to go too!

We dance around the living room, boogeying and a groovin' and it's a great time. Kids are so cute when they dance!

Lunch is leftover seafood paella that Daddy made last night.

During their nap time I take the opportunity to duck back to the bookshop and have a good scout around. When I come back they are still fast asleep. But not for long, as the mercury must be around 40C and it's time to cool down at the river.

Daddy builds another dam, so that we have a cascading-two-waterfall effect with three separate pools to swim in! Bliss! I've brought along an inflatable doughnut ring, and the boys and I have fun floating down the river - me with my bum wedged through the hole and legs hanging off one end, JJ sitting on one edge, and SamSam sitting on my tummy.

We manage to float around without capsizing - amazing and so enjoyable! JJ squeals with delight as we move along with the current and SamSam grins from ear to ear. What can be better than sitting on Mummy's tummy and floating down a river on an oversized doughnut?

What a lovely afternoon :)


Monday 2 January 2012

Boats, Shoes, Books and a Cake

Every morning since we've been in Bright, SamSam is the first to wake up and get out of bed. He is so excited to go into the living room to play with a huge duplo train set we've found in our friend's cupboard!

I've never seen Duplo train tracks before, but this one absolutely rockksss. It's way better than the IKEA tracks or the Thomas tracks. The tracks can be stuck on Lego, which means that you can make the tracks go up onto different heights. Awesome! All the Duplo cars can fit on them, yess!

After eggs and toast, we're off to the shops to find some toy boats to sail down at our favourite river spot. While we're there I take the boys into the camping store, and we pick up some good 'river shoes' that are grippy and they can wear in the water. The river has lots of slippery pebbles and sometimes sharp rocks, so I feel much better knowing that their feet are protected.

Hurrah, we find some $2 boats at the discount shop! The boys cradle their boats as they walk around, and we check out a couple of Op shops before we head to the stream.

The temperature is oven hot by the time we get down to the water. However the water is almost icy cold, and my feet are almost aching to walk in it! But it doesn't worry the boys, they are having oodles of fun sailing their boats down the current of the river.

We have to block up the holes in our man-made waterfall as the boats sometimes escape between cracks and we watch Daddy madly chase them down the stream.


The boys have fun putting pebbles on the boat, then sticks, then sail them into the 'harbour'. They also play with our plastic drinking cups and bottles filling them with leaves, pebbles and water. This is such great explorative play for them. After a few hours it's time to take the boys back for their afternoon nap, and I feel sad to leave!

After their nap we have a cake for Daddy as it's his birthday today :) We sing Happy Birthday and the boys help to blow out the candles. They want extra serves of the chocolate cake, but we hold firm!


I give the boys some books that I bought at the Op shop this morning. They turn out to be really good ones (only 50 cents!). SamSam's is 'My S Book', and JJ's is called 'My K Book' - both by Jane Belk Moncure.

SamSam sits on the rug to look at his, while JJ sits next to me at the table and I get him to read it out loud. He learns some new words - Kaleidoscope, Koala (I can't believe I have somehow not taught him what a koala is!), Keg and Kid (as in a young goat).

These books are at the perfect reading level for JJ, and I want to go back and get the rest of the alphabet! They have such gorgeous illustrations too!

Afterwards they play outside blowing bubbles, and with a bucket of water and some cups. It's so hot that JJ is soon sitting in the bucket of water! They eventually take off all their clothes and are having a great time splashing water and playing with the garden stones and some old toy trucks and cars.

Before I know it, it's dinner time, then bath, and then books before bed. We read 'My K Book' once again, and then a section about water in 'Richard Scarry's Best Bumper Book Ever' - such a great book.

Today's devotion is about practice. The boys learn that they need to practice if they want to learn to do things, and that God can help them when they try.

Sunday 1 January 2012

Happy New Year!

The first day for 2012 was jam packed. Still on holiday in Bright, we went to the local church in the morning, then went to a trout farm in a nearby town.

The boys loved feeding the fish with the fish pellets! There were some whoppers in the ponds and we got splashed quite a few times. It was great entertainment for a two and three year old, and it only cost $2 for the fish food that lasted an hour!

There were older kids were busy trying to catch the fish with long fishing poles, and they were so excited when they actually got one.

So I highly recommend taking kids to a trout farm when on holiday!

We had lunch at the local pub - the boys first pub experience - where JJ couldn't resist getting on stage and pretending to sing. We had fish and chips and steak and chips. The steak was delicious!

Later in the day we went to our newly discovered swimming spot in a pretty flowing stream. We've started rearranging the stones and pebbles to create our own toddler pool in the flowing river, plus a larger adult sized dipping spot. So much fun!!!

Tomorrow the temperature is supposed to hit 37, and 39C the day after. This shady swim spot will come in handy!


Today's devotion was called Happy Faces. The boys learned that God can make you happy on the inside and out!

'A happy heart makes a face look cheerful'  Proverbs 15:13