Up up and away!

I have to share this activity, I saw it in a magazine and just knew it was written with my boys in mind.

If you want to see the original article, it's in the latest Donna Hay kids magazine, which also has many other things in it worth drooling over. In fact, I no longer have a subscription to Donna Hay mag (which I was gifted by a good friend) but I may just have to order this issue specially.

We all know kids want to fly, don't we? 

I'm sure it's not just mine, fairy wings and super hero capes lurk in many a dress-up box.

Well, check THIS one out:

The Coolest Rocket Pack In The Whole World

(and maybe in the whole Universe too)

Very easy to make, let me run you through it.

You will need:

2 x soft drink type bottles

(don't drink the stuff yourself, it's rotten for your health! Scrounge them from someone else, as I did ;)

mirrored cardboard

(I bought mine at a major office supplies store but really, any large sheet of cardboard will do, it does not need to be mirrored) 

masking or gaffa tape

crepe paper

elastic

(for shoulder straps)

sticky tape

 Trim your cardboard so that when you wrap it round your bottle, it will come past the bottom of the bottle.

Wrap it round the bottle, leaving the cap end of the bottle sticking out slightly. 

Like so.

Fasten the card to the bottle with double-sided tape. 

Or with whatever you have, we tried the glue gun but found that regular tape folded back over itself to make double sided tape worked better.

Now, lay out a decent sized length of gaffa or masking tape, sticky side up. Or any other wide sticky tape.

Cut differing lengths of yellow/orange/red and blue (blue for super speed!) crepe paper and fix end of each piece of crepe paper to the tape.

Like this.

Now roll the tape around the cap end of your bottle.

Then you have this.

(Mr 2 takes modelling very seriously)

Now do the other bottle in the same fashion, and fix the two together, side by side. 

Regular sticky tape was good for this.

Lastly, attach some thinnish elastic at the top of each silver tube and attach the other end of the elastic to the bottom of the silver tube. We used staples for this. 

This makes the straps for holding the rocket on the back of the Rocketeer.

You can see the straps here.

Then, go outside and take off!

If you like, you can go for the stream lined model, as per Mr 5. 

So fast, you can't even see the flames!

And when your little Rocketeers are tired out and tucked up in their beds, you might even sneak in to give them a kiss and find this. I'm sure I didn't tuck him in with his rocket pack on...

(Just so you know, they don't sleep with the light on, I was able to turn it on and they didn't even stir)

Flying is hard work...

 I wonder what they dreamed about?

Everyone outside! Introducing, The Swinging Thing

I've been struggling this week. 

Last week, and the one before that, it seemed like I was on a natural high, nothing got me down.

This week, I'm doing it all with gritted teeth.

The boys are picking at each other every given opportunity, the weather is cold, windy and grey, we're in a small house and, and, and.......I'm just on edge and crabby.

Yesterday, I walked the boys up to pre-school and dropped off my 5 year old. 

Then I had to run back to one store to retrieve my wallet I thought I had left there.

 It wasn't there, which lead me to unpack the double jogger of blankets, wheat bags, snack for 2 year old and a few groceries.

 My wallet was underneath it all. Of course.

20 minutes later we were ready to trek back home and I had to race back to where I had unpacked the jogger earlier to retrieve one of the kids blankets I had left on a shelf in the store. Right.

Today we went off to swimming lessons only to realise while in the pool and still about 20 minutes from lesson time, that lessons are actually on TOMORROW.

The same day of the week that the lesson was on LAST week. And the week before that. Duh.

And yesterday afternoon my 5 year old developed a peculiar eye-rolling tic, which appears to be involuntary and is just a tad worrying. Off to the Dr and chiro for him tomorrow.

Sooooo, getting the boys outside is a hugely important part of my day, even more so this week, for the sanity of all, to get us some sun (hopefully), blow out the cobwebs, burn off some energy and get my head on straight again.


Enter, The Swinging Thing.

Take some old pantyhose or stockings and cut one leg off at the knee.


Ball up some newspaper and shove it down into the toe.

Tie a knot in the stocking just above the newspaper.

Wa lah. You have made a Swinging Thing.

See it?

There it goes!

Now see how long it takes them to throw it on a roof.

But seriously, these are cheap to make and great fun.
 Perfect for open spaces and if you play a game of see-how-far-away-mum-can-throw-it, you'll keep then entertained for hours.

Certainly long enough to blow away my cobwebs. Phew, what a week!

Need a book? Try Booko! (.com.au)

It seems here in Australia we get rorted sometimes in regards to pricing.

Take books for example.

If I ever buy new books, which I sometimes do for gifts, I wait until I get an internet coupon through my email for Borders online store. Usually I can find a coupon for 25 - 30% off and that includes free shipping.

So, I was buying a few books two nights ago with specific recipients in mind. The deal was 30% off and free shipping of course.

I was after a particular book: The last great adventure of Sir Peter Blake.

Borders have this book for $71.95 Aus. Ouch. Even with 30% off. Ouch.

Amazon US have the same book for $35.83 Aus, plus shipping of $11.19, making a total of $47.02 Aus. 

Booko.com.au sourced the same book for me for $32.49 Aus, plus shipping of $4.45, making a grand total of $36.94 Aus,  from the OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD.

Booko also found this book in five other locations around the world, all being cheaper than buying from Amazon.

And the top two most expensive places to buy this book? The two biggest book store chains in Australia.

What Booko does, is go out to the internet and look up book and dvd prices, it works out the shipping, and then gives it all to me in Australian dollars.

Wow, so easy!

Now, why on earth do we here in Australia get charged such extraordinary prices for books? Granted, we are a little further away from the rest of the world, but I don't think that accounts for all the price difference.

So really, I have no idea.

However, I do know how I will source any new books I desire from now on.

Booko.com.au.

Check it out.

Extending the life of kids clothes

I sometimes look at my two little boys and mentally go over what they're wearing, partly to take delight in my frugalista mama ways.
You see, nearly all of their clothes were bought second hand, which is such a great saving that I wonder why anybody anywhere would buy their kids clothes new.

Lucky for me they do, otherwise I wouldn't be able to buy them second hand, would I?

Why do I love buying second hand clothing for my kids?

• All the extra dyes and chemical stuff have been washed out already.
• It is a form of recycling.
• It is a GIANT money saver.
• My kids wear good quality clothing brands that I would not otherwise buy.
• Wearing clothes that I bought for $1 per peice means I am not precious about their clothes at all. Want to wrestle with your mates on the muddy playing field? Go for it. Need to splash your way through those calf-high puddles? Knock yourself out. I'm not sure I would say that if they were wearing a new $25 pair of jeans and $19.95 top, but $1 per piece? I'm comfortable with that.

The issue I'm finding now though, is that as boys get older...and maybe girls too but I have no experience there..they tend to wear their clothes out. Particularly their jeans.
As in, wearing them until the knees are threadbare and the hems are raggy.

So it's harder finding jeans in that size at all and often if I can find some, the knees look like they might last just one last wrestle. But then if the rest of the garment is fine, adjustable waist, plenty of pockets, good length, no stains or holes....for a couple of $$, I'll take 'em.

And patch 'em.

Just cut some heavy fabric to size, cotton drill or cord work well, fold the edges of the patch under, pin and sew. It is a wee bit awkward and you need to take the platform thingy off from around the foot of your machine, but it can be done.

I used to use those small stick on/sew on patches that come in shapes and characters, but then the knee would wear through above that and I'd need to re-do the whole thing with a bigger patch. And those little suckers were expensive too!

These ones are just a wee bit big for Mr 2, they're a size 4, see where the knee patches are?

I've also cut jeans off and hemmed them into shorts
and, if you have a girl, you could try this:
(In fact, I wish I had a girl JUST so I could try this!)

(Image is from youcanmakethis.com)


You can get the pattern for this in e-book form at You Can Make This.com or if you're crafty you can probably figure out how to do it yourself.

And this link has excellent how-to instructions, including pictures, for giving a favourite but outgrown tee shirt a new lease on life.

It does help to have a sewing machine but that doesn't need to be expensive either. I found mine on ebay, one of my favourite places to shop, cheapie that I am!