Holiday Photo Catch-Up!

Hello friends! It's been far too long since I stopped by to share a post with you all  - but I have a good excuse, I promise! We've been enjoying a lovely family holiday in Tasmania for the past two weeks.  Today I'm sharing a very quick photo round-up of our adventure so far. :)

We started our trip near Hobart - after a 6am flight we spent the afternoon in Geeveston at the Tahune Airwalk.  The air was so clean and the views were gorgeous! Our 3 year old slept very well that night after no nap and a 2.5km walk!

We took a steam train ride on the Wilderness Railway, which runs from Queenstown to Strahan.  It's quite a long trip so we had booked the carriage that supplies food and drinks - the girls were entertained with morning tea, lunch and dessert while we travelled!

The scenery was just beautiful.  

One of the days we were in Hobart was rainy, cold weather so the activities we had planned had to be changed.  We stumbled (through Google) upon a small zoo just outside of the city.  Zoodoo was amazing! The girls loved the bunnies (they are a pest in Queensland so you never see them - only very rarely at a baby animal farm).

We took a safari bus and got to feed some animals.  The emus, camels and zebras came right up to the open sides of the bus!!

We also got to feed a lion which I thought was very cool! No safety worries - just a pair of tongs and some steak through the fence! :) I'd never even seen a lion before so to feed one was lots of fun.

One of my 'Bucket List' items has always been to see Wineglass Bay which is in the Freycinet National Park.  I was lucky enough to be surprised with a scenic flight right over it!

We had absolutely glorious weather and the views were just spectacular.

The plane was tiny but we managed to squeeze in...

...just!

We spent a day at Tasmazia - just outside of Launceston.  I'd been looking forward to this ever since I'd seen the photos online.

It was just the cutest place ever! we walked straight into a giant hedge maze, and once through that we found ourselves in Lower Crackpot.  A tiny village with more mazes and miniature townships.

Reese has taken to wearing one of my scarves - it's almost as big as her!

We had a (very cold) but fun time here. :)

The girls have seen more than their fair share of wildlife this holiday! As well as animals we saw at Zoodoo they also saw Fairy Penguins in the wild at Bicheno - no photos from that as we saw them at night and a camera flash would scare the penguins. We wen to Seahorse World and Platypus House while we were in Launceston.  The end of the tour at Platypus House was lots of fun as the girls got to feed some gorgeous echidnas.  Reese was very excited when two almost crawled into her lap!

For a few of the days we were in Tassie we toured around the wine regions.  The scenery is just beautiful.

Riley is particularly fond of Riesling.  Just joking - of course! This winery (Puddleduck) served verjuice and cheese so children were included.  

We're ending our holiday in Melbourne to visit some friends.  They've taken the Riley & Reese to the aquarium so we're doing the obvious tourist things....

...sitting at a riverside bar blogging...

...and researching shares! :)

If you've read this far I think it's only fair for me to share with you that I've got some of my favourite product discounted while I'm away - follow this link to grab some discounted math games!  

It's Currently January!

We're almost halfway through the first day of 2015 here in Australia, and what better way to start the year than by linking up with Farley for her Currently party?

I live close enough to the beach that during holiday time it gets very busy right around my house!  This morning I'm listening to the noise of families walking past and kids laughing in the pools close by as we get set for another scorcher! We've had a few days of glorious sunshine after a cloudy week or so and it has been absolutely perfect for a soak in the sun followed by a dip in the Pacific. :)

Earlier this week I was able to go and pick up the Christmas gift I had made for myself.  I'm loving my green amethyst and diamond ring!

There's still a few more weeks of break before the new school year starts for us, but I've been thinking of all the things I'd like to get done before then.  Lots of organising needs to happen here at home and of course there's the never-ending 'to do' list that we all have swirling around in our minds as we get ready to set up our classrooms and welcome a new bunch of kidlets.  I've been very busily pinning so I think I need to tackle one project each day!

I don't usually make any resolutions for the new year, but there's a few things in my life I'm wanting to change to make sure I start 2015 off on the right foot.  I need to be consistent with planning ahead at school, make sure I'm organised to eat well, take advantage of where I live and spend more time at the beach, and be sure to spend my money wisely! I've made a little subway art print to put in a frame both at home and on my desk at school so hopefully that will motivate me a little. 

As soon as school goes back I'll be wishing I was at the beach so I need to make the most of it while I can.  I think today it will be a late afternoon walk and swim.

Yes: I must do a better job this year of tracking my kidlets' data!  I plan to use Three Ring to help.

Maybe: I've been hemming and hawing about buying a little beachside apartment... I need to look into it to see if it's possible for me and if there's anything on the market that suits.

A wish: Travel! Always. Googling flights has become my hobby. :)

Head on over to the linky to read what everyone else is Currently doing as we celebrate the beginning of a brand new year!

Five for Friday!

I guess if it's Friday that means that holidays are almost over! :( Next week we have student free days, but after that it will be back to the grindstone.  Luckily, today also means that it's time for Five for Friday! Here's my random moments from a lazy week.

Speaking of lazy... I have been spending a lot of time on my couch this week.  Staying up late watching movies, then relaxing with a coffee after a sleep in each morning.  I didn't want to share a photo of my couch (that would be weird), but here's what I spent a good chunk of my time watching just yesterday:

I love, love, love Anne of Green Gables - but she is a real time investment!  Seven-ish hours of serious watching to get the whole story done! :)

I went into my classroom this week, hoping to get some organising done.  FAIL!  I think all I did was make an even bigger mess... and made myself stressed that my new library furniture hasn't arrived yet.  

I ended up piling all the books in boxes (apart from the few you see here) and crossing my fingers that the selves will get here asap!

I did get one thing done - one of my bulletin boards was changed over to display our word family ribbons.

I hot glued the cards from Marsha's word families galore pack onto coloured ribbons and display them on the wall after we've learnt all about each word family.  We move the ribbons around the room as needed during the week's activities before they go on the wall.  The bonus is that they are so easy to pack away and store because they are all glued together.

One of my goals this winter break was to get some resources ready for the start of term - particularly for those kidlets who needed a little extra practice with some important concepts.  I made lots of reading fluency games, some maths activities, and today made up these cute mailboxes and envelope cards for sorting CVC words by medial vowel sound.

My kidlets are going to love it!!  I called this pack You've Got Mail - it's even got a few worksheets to use as a record of student learning.

Winter in Queensland is gorgeous - during my lazy days I've spent some time reading in the sun and looking at this view.

Has anyone seen this show?  Usually I am a huge fan of cheesy reality TV, but even this one makes me cringe.

A bunch of us Aussie bloggers were chatting about how much we would love to be in Vegas this week, hanging out and having fun at the TpT conference.  Every time I check Instagram I have major FOMO, so I've started saving towards next year!! :)  If you're there or going soon, I hope you are having an amazing time!  As for me - I'll stay here and relax on the couch...

Sunday Smorgasbord!

I was going to start this post by saying that I have been such a lazy blogger this week... but then when I thought about it, it seems that I have been a lazy person in general! I'm linking up with Fabulous in First to share a bunch of randomness from my lazy days.

In no particular order...

It's really, truly Winter here at the moment!!  Temperatures often get very cold overnight - but this was during the day! While the sun was out!  Brrr.

My plan for the holidays was to get my eating back on track.  Usually I eat really healthily - lots of fruit and veggies and no lollies or chocolate.  The last few weeks of term I was super disorganised and ended up eating lots of junk so I had planned to avoid treats when the term ended.   See the above photo for an example of how that went!!   Last night in an attempt to eat well I made my favourite, baked salmon!

So easy and tasty - just season with salt and pepper, add a few lemon or lime slices to the top (if you want) and wrap in foil.  Bake at about 180 degrees C for 20 minutes or so, sometimes it takes a little longer if the salmon is thick.

I've also been trying to get out every day for either a walk by the beach or to the gym.  This photo was from a late afternoon walk - it was cold but the views were lovely.

Finally got a new rug for my 'office'.  The photo doesn't do the gorgeous green colour justice.

And since I was in the shopping mood, I grabbed a new teacher chair and some more classroom storage from Ikea.

Spent some time with my precious nephew on Saturday.  Here he is waiting for his 'pet snail', Slimey, to come out of his shell.  (He never did!)

We played 'Turtle Rescue' - he was the injured turtle that we had to save from the open ocean.  My brother does a pretty good impression of Shellington from Octonauts so he was the preferred rescuer.  In this photo he is checking the turtle's fin before attaching a tracking tag and releasing him. :)

I think I can hear the housework calling me... it might be time to get off the couch and get some stuff done!  My plans today include updating my Reading Fluency Card Game Bundle with my 2 new games - when I do that I'll increase the price a little so if you grab it now you'll get the lower price AND the new games when they're added, too! I also need to email the winners of my 'Pin it to win it' giveaway - Sarah B. and Bec!

Have a wonderful day friends. :)

Sunday Smorgasbord! End of term randomness and holiday plans

I'm only three days into holidays and already woke up this morning thinking 'what day is it??'.  Gotta love that feeling of total relaxation... but it does mean that I'm way too late to link up for Five for Friday!  Luckily, the lovely Michelle at Fabulous in First hosts another fun linky that doesn't require me to count. :)

Our last week of term was nice and relaxed - we played lots of games and revisited some activities that were favourites!  (Click on the photos to go see the products in the various stores they are from.)

Stretchy Snake Bingo in the sun - we've moved from the kidlets just listening to the segmented word and blending the sounds together to them stretching the sounds out for their friends. 

Shark!  I put this game away at the end of reading groups and it mysteriously made it's way back out for free choice time.  I don't mind... a bit of extra reading practice never hurt anyone! :)

I Spy the -ap family.

More reading practice, this time with sentences.  I really think my kidlets love to play this game just so they can call 'Arghh!' when they find a pirate.  It's called 'Shiver Me Timbers!'

Our end of term party was 'Frozen' themed - we had lots of fun snacks and watched about half of the movie.  We ran out of time to finish it - but since the kidlets have all seen it about a million times at home they didn't mind. :)

My plans for the rest of winter break are fairly simple - this was the view of the beach yesterday afternoon so I'm hoping to do many more walks to enjoy the sun and fresh air. I have a long 'to do' list, but am hoping to balance work with something relaxing each day.  My main goal for today is to create my first bundle on TpT! I must admit I'm a little nervous. :)

I'm off to get out of my PJs in an attempt to feel motivated... but let's be honest, I could still be here on the couch in an hour! 10am on the first Monday of vacation is surely the best time to veg out?