Shingle Splitters

On Sunday we went to Shingle Splitters for a kids ski day with our church group.  Apparently at some stage there were Casuarina trees in the area that attracted ‘shingle splitters’ or timber workers (who used the trees for roofing) and they used Shingle Splitters Point as an anchorage and loading place.

You can have that bit of history for free.

So many kids lining up for a ride on the biscuit!

On your marks…

Check out the chaos!

running, running, cartwheels, running, running, cartwheels.

Queen Bee!

muscles!

Who’s next?!

We all had such a fun day, even though I was dog-tired.  We got home mid afternoon and the kids MUST have been exhausted because they happily sat around playing quietly together for the rest of the day!

Ahhh, it seems like the end of summer is only a few days away.

shoe tower? yes please.

The Sarah Storage Tower.  It should be called the Leticia Storage Tower.

The F word. Frugal, that is.

So I want to take the kids to Disneyland at the end of this year.  Which means saving every cent.  I want to do it this year, while they are young enough for it to be a magical experience.

I’ve been thinking about how I can save.  I know that being frugal, or miserly can have bad connotations… I mean, who wants to be a cheapskate?  And even fun family trips aside, there’s got to be some kind of middle ground, for my daily living, right?

I found a couple of good ideas while browsing on the internet tonight.  One of them is to make a 30-day list for items that are not necessities.  For example, I see a great dress or a toy for the kids.  So I put the date, and the item on a list, and when 30 days have passed, I am allowed to purchase it.  I think that’s a great way to stop impulse buying.

At the same time, I don’t want to deprive the kids in an unhealthy way.  Of course it’s great to teach them to be careful with their money, but I still want them to have a well-rounded life, with treats now and then.

Any thoughts or website recommendations would be welcomed!

my new favourite thing.

You can try some here.

life in the School Holidays lane

Putting some serious hours into getting the illustrations for a children’s book finished before I have to go back to work and have no time to do them…

Coming to terms with the realisation that I’ll have to cut a custom matt for this print I bought in NYC.  It’s just a really odd size.  Stupid street artists.

Randomly working on a granny square pattern I found here on ravelry.com. I love the mustard they use in the linked pattern but I didn’t have any so I gave it a go with brown.  I love the pattern and I think I’ll wait until I find a mustard I like, and do it in that.

Trying to get the children off the computer and playing outside.  They are addicted to technology.  I wonder where they could possibly have gotten that from?!

Trying to take photos of kittens as they run full speed at me and try to pounce on the camera lens.