Strawberry Picking for three

I was going to post about strawberry picking ages ago but got sidetracked by the blog challenge. Mind you, I really enjoyed the blog challenge and I hope people reading found it interesting, insightful and if anything, mildly entertaining.

Strawberries are a household favourite here – probably more mine and Jacob’s faves, though hubby doesn’t quite mind them too. Now that it’s winter, it’s so hard to get flavoursome strawberries at a decent price here.

The last time I’d been strawberry picking was when Dan and I went to Cameron Highlands in Malaysia. We weren’t even married back then – that’s how long it’s been! It’s really funny because when I first met Daniel, I kept cutting his head off when I took photos of him – and I never actually realised til I looked back on our entire Malaysia trip photo albums! Oops!

Anyway, this goes back to the last April school holidays – I’d been bugging hubby to take us strawberry picking at Beerenberg, and we tried to head out there at a number of times but something always set us back (either a sick child or sick pregnant woman i.e. me, or sometimes when we were going to go, the patch was closed).

So, it was nearing the end of the season and I was getting desperate. There was one day that we were able to go but then Daniel had a meeting, and I thought, you know what, I’m going to do this anyway!

Hence here I am with a 2 month old baby and a 2.5 year old toddler, tackling the strawberry patch! We headed into the shop to get our punnet and pay – the lady at the counter advised me to put my bag in the car as it’d probably get a bit too tricky to carry a baby, toddler, punnet of strawberries and a handbag too.

The strawberry patch was across a busy road, so naturally, I freaked out and carried Jacob across cos I was too scared he would do his whole “I can’t walk anymore” thing and crumple into a heap in the middle of busy traffic. This is probably the key to my weight loss – carrying bub in the baby carrier (who was about 6.5kg at that time?) and carrying the 13kg toddler.

We got there and Jacob was psyched! I was half afraid that he would pull the entire bush out but he was keen on picking just the strawberries. I was a bit of a QC baddie and kept telling him “No, not that one! Get that BIG one!” And he kept trying to pick green strawberries as well, so I asked him to try one and after that he decided he would stick to the reds.

We filled our entire punnet and crossed back to the shop to get them weighed and paid for. Before that, Jacob found an acorn tree and added a whole lot of acorns into the punnet too so we had to sort that out as well. Then, of course, it was ice cream time! They have their own ice cream maker where they blend fresh strawberries with vanilla ice cream to make fresh and authentic strawberry ice cream- yum! I was going to get it in a cone but realised it would just be way too hard to contain the mess.

All in all, a great outing but next time, I’ll do it with Dan too! And anyone else who wants to join me! The strawberry patch is closed now but come November this year, we will definitely go again! 🙂

Touch a Truck

I’ve decided I want to take a little break from this blog challenge to share our recent experience at Touch a Truck! I’ll just put the next two challenges into one.

But for now, I just wanted to share this because I reckon I was more excited than Jacob!

So, our local council held an event called “Touch a Truck” where they would have a few service trucks on display for kids to see and explore. The event was held on a Friday morning so I decided to brave it with the two littlies on my own!

We parked across the road and could already see the brightly coloured jumping castles. As we approached, we saw the trucks all set out in the car park.

I put both kiddos in a pram because I figured it’d be easier to keep Jacob under control (he’s the type that runs off). While I got there on the dot, the line ahead of us was pretty long so I was quite grateful that I didn’t have to carry two kids. I also brought snacks – Jacob often asks me for a “blue snack”, whatever that is! I found popcorn in mini packets that are blue so that apparently suffices. Here he is stuffing his face while Jared slept.

A siren went blaring (cue a lot of excited squealing children) and we were allowed to enter the area. There were a couple of street sweeper vehicles and the kids were even able to turn the brushes on – but just as I figured, Jacob was really apprehensive of them! He’s like that with those automated car washes as well – he loves the idea of it but when the brushes come out, he freaks out!

But anyway, next up was a CFS vehicle (a.k.a. fire truck) which Jacob was very excited about. He got to sit up in the truck and was a bit unsure of what to do, but had a good look around and a play with the equipment. Here he is looking pretty impressed. Or not.

The main attraction advertised was the garbage truck – the queue was massive for that and to keep Jacob still, I had to let him sit on my shoulders! Good thing I didn’t have Jared in the carrier or I would have conked out I think. Here’s our good ol’ rubbish man driving the truck.

And of course, before we left, we had to check out the other attractions. Jacob was bugging me to get his face painted (he’s never had it done before) but the line was too long so we just settled for the jumping castles. Here he is having a ball of a time.

And of course, we had to try out the tractor jumping castle, which was pretty much just a slide. Jacob was yet again a bit nervous to get in but after some convincing and also seeing that children were going in and coming out again (i.e. not disappearing in there), he decided to have a go and had a great time.

The outing ended when, as I was putting Jared back into the pram after taking him out for a cuddle (he was tired of sitting there all morning), I noticed that Jacob wasn’t on the tractor anymore. I took another good look and saw him running down the hill (it’s a big grassy patch between there and a main road) so I had to pop everything into the pram and run after him! It was a funny sight (and I knew I’d get to him in time) but of course I didn’t stop to snap a photo. Who does that, right?

Anyway it was a great little outing and I feel I coped pretty alright. The key factors of this success were not trying to over plan the day (basically we did nothing in the morning all the way up to this outing), to bring snacks (popcorn, mandarins, water…) and I’m so glad I brought the double pram to keep both boys in check. What are your outing coping strategies with littlies?

Why Mummy of Dragons?

So, I’ve accepted a blog challenge and the first “topic’ is to explain the meaning behind my blog name.

Funnily enough, I actually blogged about this not too long ago when I started this blog. You can look at THIS blog post to see the full explanation as to why I started this blog.

But I’ll summarize it here. I chose to call this blog Mummy of Dragons because:
– I wanted to actually call it Mother of Dragons but that’s copyrighted by Game of Thrones. And because I’m not Daenerys.
– I am a mummy to two adorable little dragons. I mean children. Of the male variety.
– I think that it sounds cool and is a bit catchy.

Is that reason enough? 😛

~~~

On another note, I am one of those mums who would probably dress their kids in identical clothing all the time if I could. I tried it the other day (including colour-coding hubby too). Don’t they look cute here? (Jacob is giving his death stare)

We arrived early at church the other day and the lighting was just absolutely divine. So I tried to pretend I was a professional photographer and took some photos. A couple came out alright!

And of course, this is how NOT to take a photo of a toddler:

Loving my boys, and loving autumn! 🙂

Goodbye, goodbye.

Have you ever had a moment where you’re not sure where inspiration has come from to write something, but as times goes by, the reason becomes clear? This feels almost surreal to me (and it may not be related) but has become somewhat of a tribute for me concerning recent affairs.

My last post was a relatively “down” one and I was going to liven up the mood with pictures of Christmas/New Year’s frivolity and Jacob in the swimming pool, but right now it feels inappropriate seeing that we are close to the heart of a South Australian emergency with bushfires in the Adelaide Hills.

Yesterday, I saw smoke and thought our local shopping centre was on fire. But no, the fire was a bit further off. It still looked pretty smoky though.

My in-laws live in the hills and shortly after I posted that photo, my mum-in-law shared this photo, which looks even more ominous:

We normally go up to church today but the roads were all blocked off due to fire risk, so we just gathered at a friend’s house for fellowship. We were told that winds were blowing the fire up our way – this picture was taken not far from our house.

Our church is based up in Birdwood (which is one of the towns where people were recommended to evacuate) and we know quite a few people who were on the verge of losing their homes. We are continually praying for them, for the firefighters and for the whole fire situation here in Adelaide.

I wrote this song on the 27th of December – I was inspired by the idea of new resolutions and lasting change as the new year approached, as well as Avril Lavigne’s CD that I got for Christmas. The very next day, I read about the Air Asia flight going missing (and eventually found as a wreckage in the sea). And now we have the bushfires and lives are at stake as well.

Could I please ask that you take a listen, and tell me I’m not imagining things when I say that there are subtle messages in this song that leave hints about these recent tragedies? No, I’m not saying I’m a mind reader or that I’m divinely inspired or something. But I just found this just a bit surreal.

So, please permit me to share another sad post, because it feels appropriate at this time. People have lost their homes, firefighters have been injured and the fire is still burning. One of the saddest stories to me is the fire that burnt through one of the kennels and cattery in the hills where many animal lives were lost.

For anyone keen to help out, here’s how you can assist. We went out to a donation centre today to drop off some non-perishable food and drink for the CFS workers, and it was so heartening to see so many generous people there to help out in any way they could. Apparently, there was so much collected that they didn’t have enough space in their utes to bring it to the distribution centres, so some people offered to load their cars and help transport items as well.

The one good thing I can say about the situation is that it brings people together to unite for a cause. And that makes me smile. Take care everybody!