not going to be little for long

Something that is really important to me is making time for my kids. I study full time, which is a huge job with a house and a family to look after, but taking time with each of my kids individually is a big deal to me. They won't be little for long (if you ask them, they already aren't little anymore) and I want to cherish the time that we have together before I am too uncool to hang out with.

My little man Oliver is getting so big so fast. He is so excited about starting school next year and it is still six months away! He loves to count and do sums. He is also learning to read on reading eggs now which he thinks is just ace. I think it is exciting that he is filling his mind with understandings about the way the world works. He thinks so too. 

Thursday is our day. Usually, Oliver and I head out to do the grocery shopping, but today we opted for a pyjama day, cleaning the house, changing the beds and walking to get Ruth from school in the afternoon. 

To Oliver, walking to the school is a grand adventure. He makes up stories that we are walking through the jungle and where the path has cracked and there is a deep hole to jump over or else we will fall in. The roads can be raging rivers that we have to pretend to swim over. Everything is full of monsters and danger and adventure. I love it.

We will take time to sit on the benches along the path because we need to re-charge our compasses (the strings on the beanie that point the way). And when it's time to go again there is a spring in our step and a smile on our face.

We do our exercises on the equipment that is set up along the path. Usually this is because we have been challenged by a evil king and we need to do the exercises or they will keep our princess captive.

Best of all, we hold hands most of the way and that reminds me that one day I will be too uncool to hold hands with. For now I am cool enough though, and it makes me feel so proud to have such a gorgeous, caring, intelligent boy holding my hand as we go on our adventures. This just makes my day.

oat flour

Yesterday, being Thursday, was a very busy day around here. On Thursdays I tend to get the majority of my errands out of the way. I head into Highpoint or the Market and get lots of fresh food for our house and then I come home and prepare any meals that need preparation for the week. 

When I was out yesterday I decided that I would try to get some Oat Flour. 

I am pretty keen on keeping my food "clean", keeping our bodies healthy is a huge part of what keeps me and my family happy, but we all need cake to keep us happy too - so I make healthier, nutrient packed, versions of these treats so that we don't need to go on diets and miss out on yummy stuff to keep our bodies healthy.

Anyway, I digress, I saw the price of Oat Flour and I thought.. yeah, I think I am going to DIY that one.

I know you might be thinking...

 But it is actually a 15 minute process that you will be grateful for. No one wants to pay $10 for a tiny bag of oat flour when you can buy a 750g bag of rolled oats for $1 and grind it yourself.

 

 

I just pop the rolled oats into my mini food processor and buzz it til its nice and fine. I should note that this is much coarser than "normal" flour you can buy. You can sieve and re-buzz your flour until its nice and fine if you like, or if you have a thermomix I hear they are awesome for this (but I don't). I don't find that the texture you see here is a problem in my baking, so I leave it like this, put it in a container and pop it in the pantry. That's 750g of preservative-free oat flour for a fraction of the cost.

Oliver and I were so proud of our savings that we went and spent it on a cup of tea afterwards.

adventuring

Saturday turned out to be a beautiful day here in Melbourne. So after calisthenics photo morning finished up for Miss-R we packed a picnic and headed out to Werribee Open Range Zoo for an afternoon in the sunshine and fresh air.

I love that the zoos here in Melbourne are all about promoting animal conservation and fighting extinction rather than just putting animals in cages for people to stare at. This teaches our kids to value the animals that we have and look after them for the future. They even have a project where you can recycle your old mobile phones to help save the gorillas. A good idea for all of you who have just upgraded to the iphone5!! I have a few envelopes around here that I intend to fill. It gets rid of all those old mobile phones laying around too!!

We enjoyed eating our picnic lunch out on the grass and the kids loved the fact that there were lots of other kids willing to play with them. Apparently everyone else had the same idea as us and the carpark was actually full when we got there. The zoo staff are wonderful though and were parking cars in a field close by. Even though there were lots of people at the zoo, it didn't seem crowded which meant I wasn't stressed out all afternoon about losing the kids.

We went on a safari after lunch. For those who haven't been to Werribee Zoo, they have all of the animals in BIG enclosures sorted by their country, so there's an arabic enclosure, an african enclosure etc. This is included in your ticket price and they book you in at the gate making it very family friendly, no massive pushy lines and no extra money to fork out for safari bus tickets.

Miss-R noticed as we were going through past the giraffes that one of them was licking his nostril. She tells me that this is because he has no fingers to get out the boogers. (SO CUTE!!)

There are a lot of endangered animals at the zoo and the zoo does have lots of breeding programs to try to build up their numbers which is great.

The zoo also has an area set up called the village dance party. There's a big screen, music, dancing and pots and pans to play. This was lots of fun for the kids after our safari. 

We also got to look for dinosaur bones.

All in all, it was a great afternoon out and with the zoo not being far from our house it wasn't a long drive and I am considering becoming a member of the zoo so that I can take them more often not only to Werribee zoo, but also the others around Victoria.

Do you like to go to the zoo?
What is your favourite animal to visit?

Sunday Snippets

 

playing along for sunday snippets with tinniegirl

a sunny saturday

Well at least that is the forecast... so today I plan on taking my kidlettes on an outing to the zoo.

 source

On weekends and school holidays the kids get in for free, so it's really quite an affordable adventure (and its just down the road too!). 

I'm sure I will have many photos to show off tomorrow too.

What are you up to today?

Do you have any awesome school holiday activities?