Coloured Vinegar with Bicarb - Kids Experiment

When the kids are bored of doing drawing and painting, try this nifty experiment with them. It uses ingredients most people have at home - vinegar and bicarb soda, and is very simple to set up. It kept my daughter entertained for at least an hour!

You will need the following supplies:

• Tray / Large container (I used an old baking tray)
• Bicarb Soda - enough to cover the base of the tray/container
• Vinegar
• Food Colouring
• Eye Droppers or spoons
• Containers to hold the coloured vinegar - I used a muffin tin, ice cube tray would also work well, otherwise any small container.

The method is really easy:

1.  Spread the bicarb on the bottom of the tray

2.  Mix the food colouring with the vinegar

3. Let the kids experiment by adding the vinegar to the bicarb

4. Watch as the vinegar makes the bicarb bubble in mini eruptions.

By the end the tray was a nice brown mess, and my daughter was mixing it all up with her hands!

We did this experiment outside when it was Summer, but it doesn't really make much mess, so would be suitable as an indoors activity as well.

Fred Jacoby Park, Mundaring

What: Fred Jacoby Park
Where: Mundaring Weir Rd, Mundaring MAP
When: All year - although better in Autum, Winter and Spring.
Who: All ages
Cost: Free
Facilities: Fire pits, Picnic benches, toilets, car park, walk trails.

A lot of the places and parks I take my daughters to are ones that my Mum took me when I was younger. I remember very fondly most weekends (prior to sport taking over our weekends) and on the school holidays we would go to various parks around Perth, always bringing along a picnic. One of the parks I remember going to as a kid is Fred Jacoby Park in Mundaring. I have memories of running around the giant tree, walking along the Kalgoorlie pipeline and finding pinecones to make Christmas crafts out of. So after our visit to Noble Falls, we made a detour on our way home to have a play in the autumn leaves at Fred Jacoby Park.

There is no play equipment here, it is just nature at it's best. It is a great place to make your own nature-based fun.

Fred Jacoby Forest Park is located on Mundaring Weir Road. The access road is sign posted, but the sign is right at the turnoff, so you have no warning that the turn is coming up. If you miss it and reach Mundaring Weir, you've gone too far. There is plenty of parking in the area, both on the street and in an allocated carpark at the top of the park.

The main "attraction" here is the beautiful, large, old English Oak tree. There is a boardwalk built around the base of the tree so that you can truly admire how massive the tree is. The pictures below show the tree in both Winter and Spring. The tree was planted in approximately 1870, making it over 140 years old. There is a path that runs from the top of the park (at the carpark) down to the bottom (where you come in on the access road).

The large English Oak tree in Autumn - full with leaves.

The tree in Winter - no more leaves

Around the base of the tree

The facilities here include toilets, fire pits with barbecue plates, picnic tables and park benches, as well as various walk trails that take you over and along the Mundaring - Kalgoorlie pipeline. There is a creek that runs through the park, which isn't always full of water, but when it is, it provides a fantastic opportunity for the kids to play and explore, as it isn't very deep. Make sure to take along some gum boots!

Fire pit and toilets in the distance

Dried out creek bed full of leaves during Autumn

It hadn't occurred to me before to make use of the fire pits, but many of the families who were picnicking at the park had a roaring fire going - perfect for those Wintery cold days.

All my girls wanted to do was play in the fallen leaves, and boy, were there a lot of them to play in! They had a ball, and it was a struggle to pull them away and continue on our way home.

Playing in the leaves

While I don't think I would specifically make a visit just out to Fred Jacoby Park, there is plenty to see and do in the area, including the Mundaring Weir that is just down the road.

Along the pipeline

Noble Falls, Gidgegannup

What: Noble Falls and picnic area
Where: Toodyay Road, Gidgegannup MAP
When: All year
Who: All ages
Cost: Free
Facilities: BBQs, Picnic benches, toilets, Playground, car park.

There is a bone of contention in our household between my husband and I regarding the seasons. I'm a Summer girl. I love the heat, the long days, the warm nights and all the other great things about Summer. My husband on the other hand loves Winter. He loves the cold, the rain, the thunderstorms, and the chance to light a roaring fire. I have to admit though, there are some fantastic places in Perth (and Western Australia) that are just as nice, if not better, to visit in the cooler months. One of those places is Noble Falls in Gidgegannup.

Noble Falls and picnic area is located off Toodyay road (opposite the Noble Falls Tavern) approximately 40 minutes east of Perth. I seldom get out to this part of the country, and it was my first time to the falls, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Carpark and bridge over the falls and the start of the walk trails

We arrived at the Falls just after 11am, and there were about 3 other cars in the carpark. I couldn't help but think perhaps we had found a secret spot that not many people knew about. I was wrong! 12 o'clock rolled around and the carpark was suddenly full and there were picnickers and bbq'ers everywhere. I'm kind of glad we got there when we did, and got to enjoy the falls and surrounding area in relative peace and quiet. On nice weekends I'd recommend getting there before 12 if you want to have a choice of tables and BBQ's.

Part of the picnic area. Lots of tables, BBQs, bins, shade and space.

The picnic area contains lots of barbecues and picnic tables, as well as a playground and a tree swing. It is also the starting point for a couple of walk trails over and around the falls. There are toilets but they are hidden away and not in the picnic area. To get to the toilets you have to cross the bridge over the falls, and follow one of the walk trails to get to them.

How's the serenity?!

I'm not entirely sure what this is, but we used it to sit on and eat our lunch.

The playground. A little old and run down, but my daughters had fun nonetheless.

The swing on the tree. A little magical and fun for both kids and adults.

We enjoyed taking a short walk around the falls, and it was easy enough for my 3 year old to do. I pointed out some ant nests to her, and she had fun counting and pointing them all out for the entire walk. The falls themselves are nothing spectacular, they are more like rapids or cascades, but the surroundings are beautiful and you can see the Shire has put in a bit of work to make this a great weekend picnic spot.

Part of the Falls

Along the walk trail

  

Upstream of the falls.

Princess Theme Party

Picking the birthday theme for my youngest daughter's first birthday was a no brainer. Her name is the same as one of the Disney Princesses, so a Princess Party theme it was! I really enjoyed planning this party and welcomed the challenge to do it on the cheap and DIYing as much of it as I could. I may have gone a little overboard given it was just a small family party, but hey, she only turns 1 once right!?

Here is the party in review:

The Invite

How things have changed since I was a kid, where you would buy the pad of invitations from the shop and handwrite all the party details on to them. These days there are a plethora of websites offering awesome customisable invitations, all you need to do is press print.

I used a FREE customisable invitation from Printable Invitation Kits. I loved that I could change as much or as little of the text as I wanted.

Fully customized FREE invitation printable.

The Outfit

I searched for many hours online trying to find the perfect princess dress. Most of the licensed Disney costumes are sizes 3 and up, so they were ruled out pretty much straight away. The Disney Baby website provided a lead on a princess onesie available at the US website Kohl's. While the onesie wasn't expensive, once shipping and a forwarding service was factored in, I was looking at >$40 for a onesie I wasn't completely sold on.

There were a few cute outfits on Etsy, but again, once shipping costs were factored in, I couldn't justify spending so much on a one-off outfit. Ebay had lots of suitable cheap outfits, but all were coming from Hong Kong or China, which all have a 6 - 8 week postage time and I didn't want to risk it not arriving in time.

I turned to Pinterest and Google to provide me with some inspiration for a homemade outfit. I found the most perfect pattern for a princess dress over at Parties and Patterns. The pattern is downloadable for $5 and includes a step-by-step tutorial including photos. I am only a novice/very beginner sewer, and I managed to follow the pattern and complete two dresses - one for each daughter. I'm going to toot my own horn here, but I think they turned out fantastic! They were exactly what I wanted and each dress cost only $15 in materials. 

Both girls loved twirling around and dancing in their pretty dresses.

A dress fit for a princess

I used the leftover material for me eldest daughter's dress so it's a bit shorter than it's meant to be. Both dresses were made from the $5 pattern from Parties and Patterns

I made their crowns out of felt using this template. I used two layers of felt in different colours (one larger than the other) to make the crown more rigid, and sewed around the edges to stick them together. For the yellow crown I used elastic around the back, while the pink one had a felt band all the way around.

The Decorations

Trying to decorate a party area can really break the budget if you aren't careful. All of the pre-made decorations from the shops can add up very quickly and before you know it you've spent $100 on a few banners, balloons, and pom poms. I had a vision of how I wanted the party area to look like, but I was only going to be satisfied if it was done cheaply.

I happened upon a roll of pink plastic tablecloth which was 14 metres long for $5 from Woolworths. When I bought it, I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to use it but it ended up being the most effective decoration. I used it to make curtains for our party area. I sewed a pocket/hem (I don't know the technical word for it) in the tablecloth for a curtain rod to fit through, and hung them up between two pillars. It gave the party area a really beautiful pink glow and it made it feel that little bit extra special. I used the leftover tablecloth as table runners for the food table, and party guest table.

Other decorations were tulle pompom strings, a birthday banner, string of photos as well as printable paper doll Disney princesses.

Curtains made from a $5 roll of plastic tablecloth. Very cheap but very effective!

Free printable princess birthday banner from Disney Baby

Another free printable from Disney Baby to make a princess castle table centerpiece.

Pink tulle pompoms, pink curtain, birthday banner and party table. I made the pompoms from two rolls of tulle for a total of $6.

The table setting. More details below.

 The table setting consisted of the following including prices and location:

• White table cloths were $10 from Kmart (These were borrowed from my Mum who purchased them at Christmas time);
• Pink table runner was made from the roll of plastic tablecloth for $5 from Woolworths;
• White paper doily placemats from Red Dot for $2.50 for a pack of 60;
• Large pink stripe paper plates from Coles - $2 for a pack of 20
• Small pink stripe paper plates from Coles - $2 a pack (I'm not sure how many was in the pack - maybe 24)
• Pink stripe napkins from Coles - $2 a pack
• Disney princess party hats (used as centrepieces) - $2 for a pack of 8 on clearance from Kmart.
• 3D paperdoll Disney princesses as part of the table center were free printables from Spoonful

Month by month photos of the birthday girl. I downloaded a free Disney font to put the month on each photo.

The food

I enjoy cooking so tried to make as much of the food from scratch as possible, this also helps to keep the cost of the party down. It does take a bit of preparation and time, so I made up some of the food the weekend before the party and kept it in the freezer until the day of the party. Most of the rest of the food was made the day before, which only left sandwiches to make on the day.

The food table. The food labels were a printable purchased from Etsy for $5. Again used the plastic table cloth as a table runner (Seriously the best $5 ever spent).

On the menu was the following:

• Sandwiches (ham, cheese and pickles, and chicken with avocado) - the initial plan was to use a crown shape cutter and have crown sandwiches, but I ran out of time, so they became just normal finger sandwiches.
• Sausage Rolls 
• Mini pizzas using "princess" cookie cutters to shape the pizza bases
• Spinach & Ricotta Rolls
• Spring rolls
• Fairybread - I tried to make fairy bread sushi, but that was a big fail as they kept unrolling, so it was just plain old triangles.
• Pink popcorn - This was so incredibly easy to make, and so delicious! Brought me back to my childhood and eating the shop bought candied popcorn. I quartered the recipe and it still made a huge bowlful. 
• Fruit wands - grapes and pineapple threaded on a skewer with a watermelon star (cut using a cookie cutter). Simple but effective.
• Jellycups - Made from two different pink coloured jellies. 
• Teacup cookies
• Cupcakes

The Cake

After making the dresses, all the decorations and all of the food, my interest in making a cake from scratch was waning. I cheated with the cake and used packets of cake mix and pre-made frosting. I layered the cakes, covered it in icing and added pink wafer cookies, little marshmallows and musk sticks to make a castle cake. The towers are just icecream cones covered in leftover icing and then rolled in 100's and 1000's. While using packet cake mix did save me some effort, the cake really lacked the tastiness you get from a homemade cake.

Thankyou Gift

Since everybody at the party were adults except my two daughters, I decided to make jars of "Princess" cookie mix as the take home Thankyou gift.

I had a lot of fun planning and preparing everything for this Princess Party. I hope some of these ideas give you some inspiration for your child's next birthday party. Now to plan my daughter's Minnie Mouse themed 3rd Birthday!

Adachi Park, Ascot

What: Adachi Park
Where: Great Eastern Highway, Ascot MAP
When: All year
Who: All ages
Cost: Free
Facilities: BBQs, Picnic benches, toilets, Playground with softfall, exercise equipment, boat ramp, car park.

My increasing obsession with riverside parks (see Bardon Park, Burswood Park and Point Fraser) continued today with a visit to Adachi Park, located off Great Eastern Highway on the foreshore in Ascot.

View of the river with Black Swans included

Access to this park can be a little tricky as it can only be accessed if you are travelling east on the highway. You will need to take the first left hand turn after the Abernethy road set of lights to get to the carpark. I always find driving to new places a bit daunting, so hopefully this information helps someone else mentally prepare for a visit to Adachi Park.

The carpark is located between two parks. Adachi park is to the south and Bristile Park is to the North. While we didn't get a chance to have a proper look at Bristile park during this visit, I did notice it had a lot of exercise equipment through out it. There is also a boat ramp accessible via the car park.

Boat ramp access to the Swan River

Adachi Park has been named after the City of Belmont's sister city - Adachi in Japan. The Japanese theme runs throughout the park via the landscaping and architecture, bringing a certain uniqueness to the park.

The playground is boat themed and covered in soft fall, which I am preferring over sand these days since my youngest is mobile and loves to put EVERYTHING in her mouth. There are enough surrounding trees to partially shade the playground, but be careful if in bare feet, as certain areas are still in full sun. The playground is pretty small, but my daughter enjoyed herself nonetheless , and was thoroughly entertained for the 2 hours we were there for. The downside of this park is how close it is situated to the highway without a barrier between the two, so I wouldn't recommend it if you have a child that is a runner.

There are a few picnic tables and barbecues near by, as well as plenty of open grassed space, with great views over the Swan River. There are also public toilets close by.

If you follow the path South of the playground, you will discover the Japanese garden with archways, bridges and stepping stones. There is also a large gazebo in this area with lots of information about the City of Belmont and Adachi City.

I think this park would be a really nice place to come in winter or spring when the Japanese garden is a little greener and less dried out looking. 

Adachi Park is a perfect place for a picnic on the weekend, a leisurely walk along the river or a relaxing outlook over the river in unique surroundings.