First trip to the Zoo

Our family was privileged enough to share a wonderful day together at Australia Zoo not so long ago in August.Okay I hear you, it might of been a while ago but better to blog later than never...and trust me it's well worth a blog post.

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It was the first time both Declan and Thalia have got to experience the Zoo....although there are many times that I'm sure we live in the Zoo in the very walls of our own home :P

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We spent most of the day and somehow managed to take a peep at most of the animals, Declan simply loved everything about the Tigers and Thalia was more taken with the Elephants (go figure, I just think she might eat as much as one!).

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I brought along 'safe' food that I had packed earlier for snacks/morning tea during the day but thankfully we were able to buy 'safe' lunch.

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I rang the Zoo the day before to see what we would be able to eat if anything on the menu's, they rang back later that day with a list of foods, one of them being hot chips...yay.

I knew Declan and Thalia would enjoy a treat of hot chips so my mind was at ease and off we went without Mummy having to pack all the lunches..phew

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It came to lunch time at the Zoo and we headed towards the food court, I proudly told Declan he would be able to have safe chippies for lunch. We got in line and as I reached the serving station I let the lady know Declan's allergies to nuts and eggs before I ordered just to double check.

The staff member let me know that the chips wouldn't be safe after all, even though the chips themselves didn't contain eggs and/or nuts they would be fried with other things that were not safe, hence making the unsafe :(

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A very upset Mummy who had a excited toddler looking forward to his chippies was not happy! I let the staff member know that I had phoned and been told that the chips would be safe - after waiting a fair while and having staff members having quiet 'chats' about the situation I was greeted by the lady who I spoke on the phone to.

She was very nice and apologised and showed me a list that she had worked out would be safe for Declan, so it ends up that the kids had Cheese pizza and sausage rolls for lunch.....thankfully the kids we still chuffed and Declan understood when I explained that the chippies were not safe for him.

Definitely an experience to make sure I really do my research and double check before eating out.

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We all had such an enjoyable day and because we went in August we got a free pass for the rest of the year due to a special they had on at that time.

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So we are now looking forward to more trips to the zoo, looking at the things we didn't quite get to see, visiting the animals we loved and exploring all the different aspects that make the Zoo experience!!! :D

Here are some of my favorite pic's from the day:

Thalia's favorite animals of the day, the elephants - showing us how to be a team and link together with friends to find our way :)
although this photo is of poor quality,I love it.

Declan showing Mummy how he is just like a Tiger !! ROAR

Decaln chillin with his Kangaroo buddy


Thalia showing her true colours- life of the party :P

Exploring the Big Crocodiles teeth

King of the Croc's

Declan lapping up his time with the snakes....following in Mummy's footsteps :)

Glorious Garden Goodness: Poppy's Corn

Corn Corn glorious Corn! but not just any corn...

it's Poppy's corn!! :D

Since moving house late last year onto a property that had an established orchard, fruit trees and lots more potential our family has embraced the way of growing our own food where possible.

There is nothing like going out into the garden and snapping of a snow pea, pulling out a carrot, twisting off an orange of the tree, picking some herbs, smelling the mango's

growing and all the things we now get to experience before we eat our own produce.

When my parent's moved onto the property earlier
this year they brought with them the wisdom and knowledge that comes along with 'a veggie patch'.- something that was lacking somewhat in our garden.

My mum grew up in the small country town of Stroud in NSW where her father (Pop) grew all manner of garden goodness...Pop has such a passion for garden life
and many look to him as master of the garden.

I may be a little bias but Pops produce was 'THE BEST' and simply could not be beaten, he shared the fruits of his garden with locals, family, friends and always gave to the local nursing home.

One of the things I always looked forward to when visiting Nan and Pop was to follow Pops footsteps around the garden as he tended,picked, groomed and showed me how it all works
.Nan simply was the icing on the cake as she magically turned Pops garden to a feast for your eyes and music to your mouth as the food headed towards the kitchen
Every meal was prepared with love from the seed, then harvesting, the food preparation and finally becoming a melody of tastes before you at the table.....taking every step on it's journey with the utmost care.

Without a doubt my favorite thing that Pop grew in his garden was 'Pops corn' - known my many ...I'm sure that if you asked anyone that had at least one cob of Pops corn "So what was it like?"...an instant warm smile would appear on their face, remembering that unique sweet juicy taste they will simply never forget.
Sadly Pop doesn't get out and about in the garden anymore as he is now a resident in a nursing home and Nan has moved house into a retirement village, but believe me the memory lives on.

I remember the last time I had Pops corn was on a visit to Newcastle in March of last year....Mum, Dad, Andy, Declan and I were seated at the table for dinner and mum in a soft voice announced that we were about to have the last of Pops corn, instantly I was excited, sad, happy, salivating and not wanting dinner time to end.

Excited: that after quite a few years living in Brisbane without such a treat :O
Sad: that Pop could no longer get his hands dirty in the garden :(
Happy: to share the experience that is 'Pops corn' with my hubby and toddler :)
Salivating: at remembering that very distinctive taste

These memories will always stay with me and the experiences very dear to my heat.
I hope to create similar experiences of garden life in my own children, planting, watching the garden grow, the excitement of harvest time and having fun in the kitchen with our own food.
The garden is such a great place to get dirty, explore, create, design, teach nutrition and learn about the world around us.
So far this year my children have really grown to share the passion of the garden and love going around observing and actively helping in the garden.

Since Dad, their own Poppy has moved and created the veggie garden- they have dubbed him Teacher of the garden.
Poppy's garden (the veggie patch) grows all manner of yummy: zucinni, carrots, lettuce, beetroot, beans, capsicum, snow pea's, tomatoes, broccoli, shallots and many more to come.
The munchkin's always ask when dinner is served if it's Poppy's broccoli or Poppy's zucinni and so on...I must say that their is a little disappointment when the answer is no.

Mum seems to have taken on Pops passion and way of garden life...everything has to be done the way Pop did it back in Stroud, the seed packets have to be placed on the wooden stick standing at the end of the row of seeds, the wind must be verbally abused at when it blows of the blossoms of a fruit tree while the shaking of fist is practiced and so on
It's beautiful to see Pops passion living on through my own parents and passing on these experiences to my own children.

This morning Mum called on the intercom letting me know that a very excited 'Pop' would be coming up to our house soon to collect the munchkins for a good corn picking....knowing that Declan just looooves his corn on the cob Pop felt it very important that Declan be present when the picking was done.
When Pop arrived at the back door and told the muchkins what was going on I don't know who was more excited, the kids or him...lol

Off they went with Mummy in tow with camera...they picked the corn along with some other goodies munching a few snow pea's as they went.
On Nana's request Poppy then showed Declan how to strip the corn of it's husk to prepare for steaming, Declan was filled with excitement and happiness that I'm sure the next block in the neighbourhood would have heard :P

Tonight I added 'the corn' to our dinner and the kids just loved it, Declan finished his off and just kept rotating it hoping to see another kernel magically appear. On seeing that Daddy had left a few kernel on his, Declan gave Daddy a big smile and slyly asked with him puppy dog eyes if he may have it...Daddy handed it over and Declan made sure it was all gone.
At the end of dinner a gorgeous phone call was made to Poppy himself Thanking him for the yummy corn!!!

It seems my own children will have a very similar love of corn as Mummy does, but with their own special Poppy!! :D

A peek into my pantry

Welcome to my pantry!!!

I thought since I was going on a mission to clean up and clean out as most people do from time to time I would take some pic's to share


....you know the clean up days where you think "okay, this time it's going to stay organised and clean so everything is easy to see"

...lol well it never seems to work but at least you might find some exciting food that was hibernating at the back of the cupboard or have a few minutes, hours or days of that contented feeling of being somewhat organised

...that is when and until the hubby or child moves everything around and finds a oh so wrong place for what seems like every item!!!


enough of my ranter :P

The reason I wanted to share was to show what a pantry of family with severe allergy's looks like.


Living with a child who has anaphalaxis towards eggs and nuts isn't easy...every shopping expedition becomes very interesting.

Diving into a world of "may contain......" or "made in the same factory as.." can be somewhat frustrating and expensive.


Needless to say 1 3/4 out of my 6 pantry shelves are dedicated to baking alone.

It's been over a year since we found out about Declan's allergy's and it has changed our family's daily life in more than one aspect. We are very fortunate to have a few friends that also have allergy's in their family's and can understand, share recipes, brain storm how to convert that oh so yummy recipe to make it safe and so on.

We are also blessed that their are company's out there that make safe food for people like us...."HALLELUJAH!!!"

Yep, I'm that crazy woman standing in the isle of your local food store who smiles quietly to herself and does a happy dance while pure happiness, excitement and relief flows though her veins....over a new found safe ingredient or product. :)

There are also some very good benefit's of all the jazz that goes with living a allergy life.....baking (a forgotten skill and activity for all ages in past years), knowing exactly what's in your food (preservatives, chemicals etc), becoming more aware of your surroundings and probably much more that I can't think of at the moment.

On decluttering my pantry over the last few days and emptying boxes I saved 2 empty boxes for a specific purpose.
A bit of background information: For part of Thalia's Christmas present she will be getting some play food and play kitchen items and then for her birthday in Feb. she will get a play kitchen to go with them.
The play food we have brought has pretend eggs in it which made us think...do we let them play with it? should we take it out of the pack? leave it in?

After a few chats with some friends we have decided that yes we will leave the egg's in with the presents for the children to play with as a educational tool.
Obviously Declan isn't allergic to a plastic egg, we know that but we were worried at the age of 3, Declan might be confused with the whole concept that it's safe to pretend but not safe to eat the real thing etc..

So the egg will be their to show our children what an egg is,what it's used for, where it comes from, that other people can eat them etc
then as an addition to the play food I will place the 'orgran no egg' box pictured above for the children to pretend to use when they are "baking a cake" to make it safe etc. The no egg box and the safe biscuit box will also show and hopefully educate the children when they are a little older how to read labels and identify safe foods.

Well that's a day in the life of my beloved pantry....

remember eat, live, love and learn :)
ox

The Dino-mite party!

I loooooove planning party's for my munchkins, creating a theme based on a obsession or subject of interest to my children...okay okay I confess I'm a children's party addict! lol

This post is a quick look into Declan's 3rd Birthday party last month....after much commiserating with Mr 3 and leafing several times through the much loved cake books he picked his theme...

It should be no surprise that our Dino loving Declan decided on a roaring dinosaur party.

So the planning commenced, invites made, loot bags put together, sparkly play dough made for the dino's to stomp through, the munchkins loved creating dino art and crafts for party decorations, mummy found some dino print outs for colouring, dino footprints cut out for following, balloon's blown up, party treats baked.....and lastly the Mr Stegosaurus cake was completed!! phew

all in time for our friends to come on over for a roaring good time in dino land :)

Here are some pic's of the day

If you look through the screen door you will see a very excited little man waiting for his friends to arrive

footprints left by the dinosaurs for little feet to follow :)

the lovely wall art that my munchkins and I had great delight in creating

the play dough that sparkled! can't really see the sparkles in the photo but the green play dough was riddled in green sparkles and the blue play dough in blue sparkles...the children thought it was a bit special :P

our little man and his good friend Mr Brachiosaurus

Thalia queen of the food table

play dough fun

a thorn between 2 roses opening the present of the day in Declan's eyes.....his special T-Rex dinosaur...very much loved!

Great grandma helping at the drawing table

opening his puff the magic dragon book and CD

cake time!!!

Mr stegosaurus cake before he got butchered

Creating Dinosaur land

Dinosaurs as I have mentioned before are one of the very extra special creatures that encompass all that Declan loves.
Our house at times looks like a scene from a prehistoric world...Declan's owns many different sizes of plastic dino friends that participate in going potty, sitting up at the dinner table to watch, having a tea party, dancing along to the wiggles, reading books and many other day to day activities...okay you get the point he is obsessed to the max!!!

When the dinosaurs are not being man handled by my munchkins ( Thalia too now is quite fond of our Dino friends) they are stored in a see though plastic box with the exception of Brachiosaurous who often sits proud on Declan's Big boy shelf in his room or tucked in bed alongside Declan.
Other than outdoor play in the garden and the use of imagination our dino friends didn't have a "home" of their own. Hence the Dinosaur land project commenced.

I sat with Declan about 2 weeks ago and showed him a big shoe box (that my new big black boots came in :D) and we discussed about making it into a dinosaur land. After lots of idea's and identifying just what the dinosaurs needed according to Declan we set out on our task at hand.

On the list of requirements was listed :

• A Volcano
• Water
• trees including a "Nickle Nackle tree" :P
• rocks
• hills and mountains
• grass

We came up with a collection of old "junk" from around the house such as boxes of different sizes, a drink holder from McDonald's, a cardboard baking paper roll, newspaper and placed them in the box in different positions until we were happy.
Declan helped glue them in place and I made some paper mache glue and while Declan was alseep started the process of paper macheing over the boxes to convert them into the listed items. The paper mache glue only consists of flour, water and a touch of salt (the salt helps to preserve the glue and when used in hunid climates it prevents the project from moulding).
When Declan's older cousins arrived from nsw on school holidays I asked them to join us in the making process....Jess helped me finish the paper mache process and added a cave to the project which myself and Declan are now very grateful of. Both Josh and Jess helped Declan and myself paint when the paper mache had dried and the finishing touches were made.
With the help of a cheap packet of small river rocks ($2 from choice), some different colours of felt from a craft/art store ($1.80 a piece), a small dinosaur bag packet from The Warehouse ($2.95 i think) containing small plastic dinosaurs and trees we glued in the finishing touches (with pva glue). Just before finishing Jess yet again came up with a great idea...quickly ran outside in the freezing cold I might add, and gathered some sticks to glue in for a nest. why did I not think of that.
We all enjoyed playing with it for the first time when the finished product was revealed and I'm sure it will be very much loved and used.
This project just goes to show how cheap something so special can be, the process is just as special as the product and it was lots of fun to do!!!! It took imagination, concentration,collaboration, skill, use of fine and gross motor skills, thought, the art of mixing colours and much more to create.
The finished product gives the player/user an amazing sensory experience with its vibrant colours, unique shapes, soft felt, sculptured trees, bumpy rocks, textured paint and pure invitation to play. .....and the look on Declan's face every time he sees it is worth every minute.
the photo's that follow will explain the journey...