Rail lands, Mount Gambier for kids

I love what Mount Gambier has done with their old rail lands. It is amazing, in particular the nature playground they have created. Kids love it!

I love that they have retained most of the old buildings and incorporated the railway tracks into the landscaping design. 

There are some wonderful sculptures throughout, my favourites are the stumpy tail lizard by Ant Martin, and the animals carved into the rocks amongst the man made creek. Sam Wass' limestone carvings, the frog and wombat are highlights too.

There's an onsite cafe, to keep the coffee lovers happy and the Wehl Street Homestyle bakery right next to the park with a shopping centre on the other side. I actually took the kids into the shopping centre, bought Wendys for lunch and they ate it in the rail lands. 

Mount Gambier has some fantastic play areas for kids, this is one of our new favourites. 

I wish our council would do something fabulous like this with our rail lands.

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The cup fence

One of my second week of school holiday jaunts to get the girls out of the house was to the cup fence. I'd been hearing about it for a while, but not knowing exactly where it actually was. 

I stalked the comments on a photo on facebook (someone I'm not friends with), and surely enough someone asked where it was (insert smiley face).

The cup fence is about half way down Walker's tin hut road, a few kilometres out of town, towards Adelaide. We came onto the road from the Adelaide Road end, and I told the girls to keep thier eyes out for cups on the fence. I saw htem before they did, but didn't say a word. They were a bit excited when they saw all the cups as I am sure they were a little baffled when I said we were going to the cup fence.

I'm not totally sure how long people have been hanging cups here, I don't think it's been too long.

When I mentioned it to Mum about taking the girls there, she offered some mugs she had in the shed, left over from boxes bought from clearing sales. I grabbed three and they sat in the car for a few days before I actually took the girls out there.

We hung our cups, and walked along looking at all the different kinds of mugs and tea cups. the girls ran up and down laughing and having the best time. I was great to be out as it had rained so much the few days prior. There were a few puddles laying about, and it wasn't long before they were getting muddy and wet. I made them strip down before they got in the car and it was in the bath straight away when they got home.

The fence has been vandalised in the past couple of months, and it is a shame for those that have come and hung a cup. It's a wonderful community thing to be involved in. I'll be annoyed as hell if someone breaks our cups!

Now to venture on another day to the thong tree and the bra tree, when I work out exactly where they are!

I was so busy strolling along looking at cups, taking photos, I turned around and Izzy had put plastic bags over her shoes to splosh in the mud. She should have worn rubber boots like her sister! She ended arse over tit, with mud all down her back, and legs and thought it was hilarious.

  

The three mugs we hung up on the fence. We used small cable ties, which should keep them hanging up.

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The "it's as cold as ferk" garden edition

There's not too much excitement from around the garden in winter. Some rose pruning, loads of weeds, lots of rain.

I mowed the lawns yesterday and let the chooks out for a scratch around. They haven't laid any eggs for the last couple of weeks, and I don't blame them. It has been ridiculously cold. It is winter after all.

I was in awe of the rainbow I was blessed with as I drove down the driveway after school drop almost two weeks ago. We are in our last week of school holidays and so excited because our banana tree flower has opened to reveal a heap of bananas. The flower actually came out about a month ago, right before a week of severe frosts and I dreaded that any thought of bananas had been dashed forever. The leaves are severely frost bitten. We'll see how they go, surely it is too cold for any hope of a ripe banana anytime soon. I have a few friends who have these cool climate bananas that have had successful crops, just have to be patient I suppose.

There isn't much colour in the garden besides the camellias, hellebores, jonquils and surprisingly some gardenias. Rosemary plants are flowering now, and the mint is making a comeback from it's frosty die down. 

It has been raining a lot at night, with mainly sunny, cold days. I am watching the snow reports wishing I could lay in the snow and shape snow angels and catch snow flakes in my wintery gloves. Pat snow balls into snow men and poke twigs for arms and small rocks for eyes. We went to the snow with my neighbours last year, and I wish we were headed there this year. Ironic as it is, I am not a fan of the cold. I am longing for short sleeves and three quarter pants of the warmer Spring weather. 

We're off the warmer weather in a month or so, to QLD for this years holiday, which I will love to defrost my bones. I wish it was to sit back and relax, but we're off to the Goldie, to punish ourselves with the theme parks. Praying I don't need a holiday, from our holiday with kids and a hubby who is a huge kid without a responsible bone in his body. Thankfully we are not staying in school holidays, which will make our visit easier.

Do you go on an annual family holiday? Got any good tips for surviving the Gold Coast theme parks? 

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Five crafty activites to keep kids busy these school holidays

Our school holidays here in SA have just started. Two whole weeks to try and not hate my kids company by the end of it! If the weather is crap I need to be prepared with things for them to do.

All you need to do all of these crafts is a printer stacked with a lot of paper, colouring pencils or textas, glue and your blinders on to the mess that might ensue! 

Busy kids are happy kids I say! Here's a few of the things I am preparing and printing out, so I am ready for when they say "I'm bored". Or in the case of my lovely girls, before they start picking on each other, hair pulling, or stage a fight bigger than last weeks welterweight world title bout. 

LET'S GET READY TO MAKE SHIIIIIIIT! Yes I did just slide that in... or in the case of my kids, who love cutting and making stuff with paper, replace shit with mess. Same diff really.

Fold a doll's house from Kate at Picklebums. I know my girls are going to love this one. This was Isabel's effort over the weekend.

Flextangles from Ana at Babble Dabble Do. This may be the very thing to keep those idle fingers busy these holidays, a certain rival for fidget spinners. It is amazing they way that they work. If you're kids are keen Pokemon fans they will love these  Pokemon evolution flextangles!

Toilet Paper tube puppets is one of my go to holiday activities. Toilet roll tubes are something we have a never ending supply of and there are tons of different designs. How do you like my toilet roll tooth fairy?

Twirly fish by Piikea Street. They really twirl when dropped from a height. If you have a few paper plates handy, these paper plate fish are EASY to make too. 

Over the last christmas holidays I printed out a christmas themed bingo game for the girls. They love it and still play any old time of the year. I have laminated the cards so they last longer. DKTK  have a Bingo card generator so you can let the kids design and print out their own game, which will hopefully keep them busy so you can sit down with a nice cup of tea.

I had forgotten all about the game of paddicks I posted back in 2014, so you get a bonus to keep the kids occupied. 

It involves each person take turns connecting the dots on a page with a line. When a box is formed, the player puts their initial in the box. When the page is full of 'paddicks', the player with the most formed is the winner.There is a printable page available to save you having to draw all those dots!

How do you keep your kids happy in the holidays? I might need some extra ideas!

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