Board Games for a 4 year old

Now that baby boy is a bit older, we have been able to play a few board games with him that we can all enjoy, and it has been really fun.  My favourite place to find board games and puzzles is the op shop/thrift store.  I have found some real classics there, that are so well priced you are happy to buy them just to try them out.

My best find was this great one (picture above) Camelot Jr.  It can be played with one player (or more to help) and is a strategy game using different block sizes and combinations to save the princess.  The beautiful wooden pieces make it so nice to play and use.

Our other family favourites suited to pre schoolers (ie. no reading involved) are:

The aMAZEing Labyrinth

Dragon Chase

Spot It!

Tumblin' Monkeys

Snakes and Ladders

We are always looking for more suggestions?

My Dishwasher

I really do love having a dishwasher, and particularly remember this whenever we have people over for dinner.  Sometimes I get sad when I realise that for my mothers entire life she never had a dishwasher.  Well, I feel very blessed to have one…and have been thinking lately about all the things I can wash in it.  Here are a few of my favourites:

• The washing up scourer and brush (I just put them in the cutlery basket)
• Toothbrushes
• Kids Drink-bottles
• Kids toys (not the ones with little holes where water can get trapped though :-)
• Jars and takeaway containers (I am really in love with using jars for storage at the moment)
• And of course, ALL my dirty dishes and plates

A financial spring clean out

Spring is here!  I love spring and all it brings with it: warmer weather, early wake ups, and just a hint of  of holidays with christmas around the corner.   Last week, spring motivated me to take stock of our finances, and get back on track.  So I started early friday morning with my to do list:

• Cancel some subscriptions I wasn't really using anymore
• Shop around for a better health insurance deal
• Get a re-quote on our car and house insurance
• Consolidate our debts into the one place

By the end of the day I had saved our family $180 a month.  Quite an achievement I thought :-)

I can highly recommend the re-quote of house and contents insurance.  I didn't realise that our insurance was automatically upping the value of our house and contents each year we held the policy.  And as much as other peoples antique furniture might increase in value...My super amart couch will not.  So just getting the policy put back to my original value estimations from when we started the policy gave me a $20 a month saving.

(The picture above was taken on the free ferry that travels our beautiful Brisbane river.  A perfect spring adventure!)

Winter warmers

I finished the scarf! Baby boy was so excited, and used it for a scarf for about an hour and a 'rope' from then on :-)  It did motivate me to make a few more though, so am hoping to finish some new projects for my nieces before they move to a colder climate.

We also made cupcakes for baby boys best friend (his cousin) birthday.  The little bee's were a hit, and we loved giving them to such a little cutie.

Projects

I feel like I have so much stuff going on at the moment, and can't seem to find the time/motivation to finish anything well.  So how do I solve the problem...start something new :-)  Baby boy picked out some rainbow wool for me to knit him a scarf  (its been a while, so thankyou Youtube).  Hopefully finished product can be blogged about in the not so distant future!

Family finds

Our little family discovered geocaching about a month ago, and we have been having great fun.  It's a perfect family activity that involves all of us; we get out in fresh air, find treasure and make use of technology that is always in out pocket.  Baby boy calls it treasure hunting, and loves to be in on the race to find what we are looking for.  

My new saturday ritual

The big 2 grocery stores have really been grating on me lately.  It feels like every time I go in to shop a product that was on my shopping list has now been replaced by a store brand version, or they make finding the product I used to buy 'difficult' to find.  Once you start looking for it, it really is sad to notice the tactics that stores are using to 'encourage' you to buy their brand only...one day I literally had to kneel on the floor to find the ham I usually buy as they have made all the shelves chest height and only put their brands on the top two...grrrrrrr!  Anyway, I have sent off a few emails to the stores and got a lovely written reply about 'just doing what the customer wants' and other similar statements I couldn't really believe. 

It all got a little depressing until about four weeks ago a local farmers market started up in the suburb next to mine...literally five minutes down the road, and it is on a Saturday!  Day one was wet, rainy and cold, but I was determined to go and found some beautiful products and loved hearing 'we picked it yesterday' or 'our farm is not far from here'.  So my new saturday morning ritual is to get up early and go to our farmers market (with my shopping list in hand), and as a bonus I usually find a beautiful warm treat to bring home to my beautiful sleeping boys.

Night and Day

We celebrated Earth Hour this year by reading our bedtime stories by candle light.  Baby boy and I talked about how lucky we are to be able to turn on a light switch when we want to because not all children have that blessing in their lives.  In a time when it seems our kids have access to and can get all they need and want, its good to teach them that it really is a blessing and one that we should be thankful for each day.

We visited Nan at Mount Tamborine this week.  I love looking around her garden and admiring her beautiful gardening skills.  The mountain air and green grass always cheers us up (at least from the drive to get there anyway).  

Valentine's Day

I am growing to love valentine's day more and more as I get older.  I have ignored the commercialisation and present side of it, and have been embracing the love and sharing side.  This year baby boy and I made sugar cookies to share with work and kindy friends- I knew it was a success when we got a write up in the 'What we did today' section of his class kindy book :-)  I also woke up on valentine's morning to a pathway of cut out hearts down the hallway-ending in a love note and turkish delight chocolate.  (my other half leaves for work before I wake up).  It was a beautiful day that we shared with family and friends.  No expensive gifts needed.

My sugar cookie recipe was from the 'Lion House Classics Cookbook'.  I have a great memory of eating there with my mum and dad on my very first visit to Salt Lake City.  I found an online version of the recipe here.

having

 

I love these thoughts and sentiments.  

My baby boy turned four years old, and I am grateful that he and my husband can be enough.

I am grateful for 2013, and all that it has the potential to bring, whatever that is.   



(image found here)

Gifting

I thought I would try something a little different for extended family presents this year, and decided to pot up some bulbs from my garden.  I don't know the name of the flower, but they are huge and pink and no matter how many times I neglect them they keep appearing in my garden, so I thought I would share the joy and dug up about 7 bulbs to replant for Christmas gifts.  It was pretty easy and best of all free!  For other family members I gave jars of jam and honey from (this guy), and close family received personalised uno cards, which turned out really nice (but customer service from the company was really bad so I don't feel the need to promote it :-).