We had a great time at the beach – sketching at the cliff was a major highlight for all of us. So peaceful and awe inspiring.
You should come with us next time – campfire cooking (we made scones in our camp oven on the fire and also made a delicious one pot soups), fishing (Rob caught an Aus Salmon and a Benito and smoked them in his fish smoker), we also went snorkelling and caving and walking and swimming. So much to explore – so much MORE to explore next time. Great place for little kids too!
The campground at Mystery Bay is quite spread out – lots of space to roam and explore.
Summer is here – the school holidays are about to begin – endless days are ahead. If you are lucky enough to be by the beach then your summer is already planned – days swimming, fishing, building sand castles and finding treasure are at hand. You might be planning on spending a week or 2 at the beach (like us – can’t wait) but what about the rest of the time? what will you do with the kids over the summer?
Here are 10 things I have planned for me and the kids (school age kiddos) (after we get back from the beach) over the summer break…
1. bike riding in the pine forest – taking our bikes and a picnic and heading into the forest for some adventure.
2. another bike adventure closer to home – doing a bike tour of all the parks and play areas in our neighborhood – and there are few – again snacks are essential – as is a trip to the shops for icecreams on the way home.
3. speaking of icecream – we will be doing our share of making some these holidays – a new icecream machine will make this even easier than ever. The kids love to spend time in the kitchen – so I will be letting them have it with minimal supervision.
4. the kitchen is a great place for experimentation but so is the outdoors – and after reading George’s marvelous medicine (by Roald Dahl) recently the kids have been making a few concoctions of their own – just stay out of my perfume please!
5. reading naturally is big on our list - the fave books of the moment are: the classics – Faraway tree and the enchanted forest by Enid Blyton are going through a revival in our house, but the kids are both obsessed with Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton’s books – ‘the bad book’ is on the christmas list and ‘the just’ series of books which are hilarious and terrible all at the same time.
6. bug collection is pretty big in our house at the moment too – the kids both have a pet spider they feed occasionally by catching flys for them – we have a worm farm we need to repopulate and an ant farm which might get another go as well.
7. you may have noticed there are not many outings on this list – I am a bit of a homebody and like to stay put in the holidays especially if its just me and the kids – we will visit some friends of course – but the only outings are likely to be to the pool or to the adventure park – we might even make it to the museum – but more than likely its into the city for a ride on the merry-go-round and a giant iced chocolate.
8. this one is for the dads – I am not big on fishing but the kids love it – and it does have its meditative and exciting moments – so rob is planning on taking the kids fishing to the river or lake a couple of times – might even put the canoe out and make a day of it with the family.
9. a girls weekend in the city and a boys weekend in the country. Yup thats right – separate excursions for some quality time – I am going to take my girl for some shopping, sightseeing and gallery going for the weekend to Sydney and Rob is going to take the boy camping in the bush – some rabbit snaring, fire lighting and star gazing is on their agenda.
10. Crafts, boardgames and drawing are also on our agenda – we love to play cards, do jigsaw puzzles and play blokus (our new favourite game) – then there is lego and science and electronic kits (we love to make fake blood and dress up), and play cluedo. We also have an ever growing craft box filled with glue, glitter, recycled cardboard boxes and toilet rolls, paints, sticky tape, beads, string, wool, scissors, fancy scissors, icypole sticks, wire … the list goes on – we get this huge box out and just get making – it usually ends up in some sort of puppet show at the end – lots of fun. And drawing too – this can be quite meditative and personal or can turn into a huge group project – we have rolls of butchers paper which we sometimes unravel on the floor or kitchen table and make a huge mural piece all together.
Try some of our ideas or tell us what you will be doing – we would love some new ideas too.
