{places we've been} scitech

We had a really busy weekend, two full days of being out of the house for pretty much the whole day. I need a couple of days to recover now ha ha!

On saturday we took the kids to Scitech as they currently have a dinosaur exhibit called Explore-a-saurus.  We had wanted to go during the school holidays but I had heard it was crazy busy and the line was out the door to buy tickets so thought we'd give it a miss and go once school was back. We arrived after lunch at about 2pm and it was pretty busy inside but not insane thankfully. We didn't have to wait in line to buy tickets so it was easy breezy. 
The dinosaurs are animatronic - very cool. They are in 'enclosures' so kind of like a dino zoo. 
They move and make sounds and are really quite realistic! But not very scary.

Of course there is a T-Rex - this was Noah's favourite.

There is a sand pit where the kids can do their own dino digging to see what kind of work a palaeontologist would do when finding dinosaur bones as well as an area that shows you how dinosaurs and other animals use camouflage to hide.

The Explore-a-saurus exhibit will be at Scitech Perth until 21 October, 2012. And in addition to all the neat dinosaur fun, there is also a heap of other things for the kids to do and see at Scitech. We watched a baby chick hatch out of an egg 

and also had fun flying the RAC helicopter, changing formula one race car tyres, launching a hot air balloon, playing with some magnetic pvc pipes to make a maze and much more :o}

Hope you had a lovely weekend!

{printable} folded paper dinosaurs

Cute little printable paper dinosaurs that can stand up! 
They are super easy. I got the idea from this great kids craft book a beautiful friend gave us.  Instructions said to fold an A4 sheet of paper in half and draw a dinosaur. I really don't like when I have to draw stuff. I wish I could have just traced it out of the book but no such luck. I'm not great at drawing and I am a perfectionist and have to do it about 50 times. 

I finally got two shapes I was happy enough with, and thought I would share them with you, too! {just in case you dislike drawing as much as I do}. Your kiddos could use these for pretty much anything you like. Make these folded standing ones, or just colour them in or use for any other dino-tastic activity you come up with!


click to download Dino 1

Dino 2

Print out your dinosaur onto A4 cardstock. They will print on one side of an A4 sheet so that you can fold them. {that's why their backs are flat in the pictures above, as they become the fold} Cut out your dinosaur - if you want it to stand up be sure you don't cut the top and leave that as the fold. 
Decorate with bits of tissue paper, shapes, mini pom poms etc or colour with crayons if you don't feel like getting glue out.

To stand him up - put a little glue or double sided sticky tape in on the inside of the folded dino's head and tip of his tail to keep him together. 

When dry, slightly spread the feet apart so the dino can balance while standing up.

Cute or what!?
Have fun!

x  

As always, these printables are free for personal and classroom use only. Please do not use for commercial purposes.

They are © 2012 - a little delightful.

No derivatives of this printable are permitted. Please do not alter these and share them as your own.

Freebie printables are offered 'as is' and cannot be changed without incurring a personalisation charge.

Please contact me with any queries regarding this {or other} printables.

I am more than happy for you to share these, but please link to the original post {this one} and not to the direct download file. Thank You.

{winner} breville fast slow cooker

I am so excited to let you know who the winner of the Breville Fast Slow Cooker is, but first I wanted to thank you all for entering, and wish I could give you all a Breville Fast Slow Cooker because I really do think they're awesome and every busy mama needs one of these. 
But alas I only had one to give away!
and so it goes to ....

Congratulations, Danya! So happy for you! Please contact me within 3 days with your shipping details so I can forward them on to the most lovely people at Breville. Thank you Breville!!
Thank you again everyone - I was blown away by the response and also so glad you liked my review!
x

{recipe} beef and vegetable ragu with pasta

One of my kiddos' favourite meals is this slow cooked beef and vegetable ragu with penne - it is my variation of a Curtin Stone for Coles recipe from last year sometime - I thought I would share it with you since so many asked when I posted about it on facebook a while back! I have been cooking it for a year, more often in winter, and it has changed a lot from the original as I've adjusted it to suit us, and of course added more vegetables. I usually don't follow a recipe {except if I am baking!}, but just go with how I'm feeling, so writing a recipe down for you wasn't as super easy as I thought it would be {hence there aren't a lot of these kinds of recipes on the blog}. But yesterday I double checked what I wrote here and cooked this for dinner and it was delicious. :o}
Ingredients:Lean Beef Steak {I usually use a 300-400g beef round or rump steak}2-3 carrots, chopped2 stalks of celery, chopped1/2 a zucchini1 tin of tomatoes or 2-3 fresh tomatos, chopped1 onion, chopped1 clove of garlic, chopped2 tsp Italian herbs1-2 tsp paprikasalt and pepper to tastefresh parsley if you like itstock if you use it {i always just used water as I don't like store bought stock and found it to be just fine without - now I make my own}
Method:
1. Add all the chopped vegetables {onion, carrot, celery, garlic, zucchini} and the tinned or fresh tomato.2. Add the herbs and spices, we like Italian herbs and paprika and sometimes a little fresh parsley. Add some salt and pepper.3. Add some water or stock. Enough to just cover the vegetables.4. Place your beef steak {whole piece} on top of the bed of vegetables and slow cook 6-8 hours. 

5. Once cooked, remove the beef from the slow cooker - it will be very tender. Shred with a fork and set aside.6. Blend the remaining contents of the slow cooker {all those lovely vegetables + the juices they cooked in} until smooth. If it looks like there is still a lot of the stock/water, maybe leave a little out - you want the sauce to end up thick and not too soupy.7. Add the shredded beef back to the now blended sauce and serve with al dente pasta {we love it with penne or rigatoni} and steamed vegetables. Maybe a little garlic bread, too.
This is really a favourite in our house! Kids gobble it up every.single.time. I hope you like it!
Edited to add: We usually get two dinners for the four of us out of this meal - I freeze the sauce and meat together, but don't freeze any pasta as I prefer to cook this fresh on the night we have the second batch. Sometimes I will spread it out into smaller amounts that are just kid dinners - for when they're tired and life hasn't gone to plan that day - this is a sure fire dinner I know they will eat.
x

{review + giveaway!} breville fast slow cooker

Hello lovelies!!

My little blog is nearing 3000 likers on facebook and I am maybe a little impatient but really wanted to get this giveaway going, thanks so much to Breville who have yet again been so generous and are letting me give one away to one of you!!

I have been using our fabulous Breville Fast Slow Cooker for a while now and I absolutely love it. It is a Slow cooker and a pressure cooker in one! You can slow cook for 6 or 8 hours in it, or pressure cook and have dinner ready in a fraction of the traditional cooking time. It is 2 machines in one - and when you have limited cupboard + bench space in your kitchen like me - this is a major plus! 

Another major plus for our house? Once it gets up to pressure - it makes fluffy fluffy white rice in 4 (FOUR!) minutes! This is using the pressure cook function - and getting up to pressure takes about 7 minutes - so all up it's just over 10 minutes for the fluffiest white rice. Trust me when I say the rice is good - I grew up in Asia and have had good rice all my life. This does not disappoint. 

fluffy basmati rice

Another plus? It sears in the pan - so you can brown your meat and saute your onion before slow cooking a beautiful stew, pot roast or casserole in the one dish. I was a little sceptical as to how well it would really brown - but it does a great job, lovely browned meat and deliciously caramelised onion all done in a non stick insert {if you are worried about non-stick items releasing harmful toxins into the air or your food the lovely people at Breville have confirmed that their Fast Slow cooker is free from PFOA} - yet another plus! 

onions + garlic, about half way through the 'browning'

It can also be used as a steamer for veggies.So actually, it's like 4 appliances in one really - a rice cooker and a steamer too!

And it's easy to wash - I have lost count now of the pluses. It was also a winner in the Choice 2012 Awards!
I have tested all of our favourite slow cooked meals in my Fast Slow Cooker now specifically so I could be really sure about how much we love it. Our old slow cooker and also our rice cooker have found new homes because this one does the job so fantastically. 

I love popping the slow cooker on and having very tender melt in your mouth beef curry or stew especially during winter. A pressure cooker is not something I've ever had before but I tell you, making rice that fast and that perfect I am totally in love. We also did a pot roast in there - and I can't believe how quick it was and how beautiful the result. I am one of those people who would love to do a Sunday Roast every week but the honest truth is we are so busy on Sundays we are either out all day or I forget and it's too late to roast for a couple of hours. But 15 minutes? Can do!
The first few times I used the Fast Slow cooker the new appliance smell was pretty strong - but I have experienced that with many new appliances. It didn't affect the taste of the food and after a few uses the smell was gone. It is so easy to clean. We have made curries, stews, our favourite beef + vegetable ragu {recipe to come}, pot roasts, rice, chicken stock and have also steamed our veggies in our Fast Slow Cooker. It can also stew apples and pears, makes custards and puddings and risottos and soups and comes with a little cook book filled with yummy recipes. 
This giveaway is now closed, thank you!
Breville are generously giving away one Fast Slow Cooker to a very lucky {a little delightful} reader!! :o} {RRP: $199.95}
Entering is easy - please use the Rafflecopter widget to enter! You can earn up to 4 entries, but only one is mandatory :o}The giveaway is open now and runs until midday Sunday 29 July 2012.




The winner will be announced at 8pm WST on Sunday 29 July 2012 and will have 3 days to contact me to claim their prize!Sorry, open to Australian residents only.
Good luck!This giveaway is now closed, thank you!

a Rafflecopter giveaway 
Thank you for all of your support over these last two years. I really never thought I'd still be blogging, let alone celebrating nearly 3000 likers and over 400,000 page views and growing everyday. Your support, emails, comments and messages all mean a lot to me.Thank you! x

 



*disclosure - I was given a Breville Fast Slow Cooker {RRP: $199.95} to review and all opinions written here are my own and are shared honestly.

{playdough} dino playdough!

Super fun and super easy dinosaur fossil play!

You can use this to illustrate how fossils were formed for older kiddos. For younger kiddos, they just like playing with it!

You can make dino tracks, too!

The kids have fun squishing the dinosaurs into the 'mud'

You can check out the cooked playdough recipe I use here. I coloured this batch brown obviously so it would look like 'mud' but you could do what ever colour you like! :o}

x

{printable} colour cards

Currently, Chloe absolutely loves colours and is always asking me what colour things are.  So a little while ago, I decided to make these colour cards for her.

I made it super easy for myself - and just made them into 6x4 photo sized jpg's that I could print at Big W. Yep - no cutting them out :o}

I did however round the corners. Why not. Since I am so behind in project life currently - I was itching to round the corners on something ... 

I then laminated all the cards using some 6x4 laminating pouches I bought from Kmart. I love them! Again, no cutting!

I also hole punched them at the top and added two metal rings to make the cards into a little flip book.

We sit on the couch and go through her little colour flip book together - she loves it!

 And because we punched them and put them on those metal rings, we can take which ever colour cards we want out to use for other things, like this colour sorting activity. This has been a favourite activity around here for a few weeks now. 

 Easy, educational, fun and very useful! 

 You can download the zip file with all the jpgs here - just bring them to your photo printing place and print them as 6x4's :o}

For those that would prefer to print at home using A4 paper - I have included a zip file with pdf's of the colour cards as well - they will be smaller than a 6x4 photo though, but would work just as well :o} You can download those here.

They are zip files - hopefully they work. Please let me know if there are any problemos!

I would love to see any other uses you have for these cards if you make them for your kiddos! :o}

x

As always, these printables are free for personal and classroom use only. Please do not use for commercial purposes.

They are © 2012 - a little delightful.

No derivatives of this printable are permitted. Please do not alter these and share them as your own.

Freebie printables are offered 'as is' and cannot be changed without incurring a personalisation charge.

Please contact me with any queries regarding this {or other} printables.

I am more than happy for you to share these, but please link to the original post {this one} and not to the direct download file. Thank You.