To infinity, and beyond! or, The Great things about cardboard

My 5 year old is an inventive type kid.

I struggle to keep up with his "Mum, lets make a....." and "Mum, I want to be a ....." and "Mum, how can I....." and "Mum, lets do....." and so on and so forth.

His ideas are waaaay ahead of his (and my) abilities usually, although my hubby often manages to come up with the goods, or at least a good approximation of them.

So perhaps I should say hubby and myself are inventive types. 

So, presenting, Buzz Lightyear: 

Cardboard boxes to the rescue again.

(Although his wings will not actually fly through the air, which was what he wanted....every small boy's wish of course, but he was temporarily distracted from that fact by his wings being an exact replica of Buzz's. They have now been painted to that effect. 
What started off this latest "Must fly!" obsession was watching a documentary on Rocket Man, who has since flown across the English Channel on his jet wings. Refer to the above ideas/abilities comment...) 

The wings even come in size 2... 

The cardboard was from some old packing boxes hubby had folded down and stashed in the garage, knowing that at some time, we'd wish we had some large sheets of sturdy cardboard.


The wings are held on by being threaded through the straps of a backpack, before the backpack goes on the back.


Don't forget the value of cardboard when it comes to kids, it's good for many things.

Even if you can't attach jet engines to it and fly it across actual, physical bodies of water... 


 

More toy library love

I LOVE our toy library!

Check out our latest finds:

Some heavy machinery 

Stepping stones

And this funky looking red....thing

And that's just the outside toys!

Toy library for us is $60 for one kid for a year, and only an extra $10 for a 2nd kid. 

So to be able to borrow 8 toys every week if I wish (usually we go every 2nd week) it costs our family $70 a year.

Well worth it in my opinion, as at the end of 2 weeks (and often earlier) the kids are 'over' whatever it was that was the 'Best thing ever, mum!' and I am so glad it can go back and not sit around in our cupboards or garage forever.

Do you have a toy library available to your kids?

Please 'scuse my hiatus

Wow, it's been nearly a month since I posted on here, what has been happening?

Well, we spent two weeks house sitting a mansion over the school holidays, but it had an extremely crappy internet connection, so no blogging there. 

We all had a great time though, it was actually the perfect way to take a holiday, which was completely unexpected.

We had every modern convenience ('cept the net) at our fingertips, a kitchen that Nigella or Donna would have been envious of and everything indoor and outdoor for the kids including immense amounts of space. 

And only 20 minutes from home. 

There was a pool....

And a fabulously equipped playroom

And, two lovely canines.

  

Then it was straight back into pre-school, swimming lessons, gymnastics and tossing up whether or not to keep the boys in one day of day care. Which we've kept up for my sanity; we have no family nearby available to give any relief and these boys are FULL ON.

But, we've let the daycare go. 

It was a combo of the boys seeming to not really like it anymore, and a few issues I was having with the staffing and policies.

So we will save money there and it frees my oldest up to do swimming or gymnastic intensive 'camps' during the school holidays, which I'm sure he'd love.

Overall, that's cheaper than having both boys in daycare one day every week of the year.

How much we'll ultimately pay out in psychiatric care for myself has yet to be determined.......

The other reason I haven't blogged my green and thriftyness for a bit is because I've been feeling a little bit like a hypocrite....

I know at this mansion, the tendency is to use the dryer..........so that's what I did too.

I kept a lot of lights on at night, especially when hubby was out because the place is sooo huge it would freak me out just a little, so keeping lights on all over helped with this.

I bought bread instead of making it.

I nearly resorted to using disposable nappies, which would have been just silly seeing as I had a washer, dryer, washing line and huge indoor drying rack suspended from 16 ft laundry ceiling. So I kept with cloth.

But you get my drift.

Overall the owners run the place in a fairly green fashion for what it is, but still, I realise how much the convenience factor can pull you in.......

However, it's onward and upward from here; happy to be back!