A Tuesday Ritual of mine

I love living in a small town, sure it has its drawbacks, but generally its pretty great. Its great for children to grow up in a real community and be so 'known', always safe and surrounded by friends. It was one of the reasons I wanted to move from the big city out to the sticks, so when it came time for me to have a family they could spend their childhoods listening to the crickets, walking to their friends houses and seeing their school teachers in the supermarket. 

But as an adult, sometimes it can feel a little....ah....boring? or plain? Sometimes it nice to have the fancy shops or a special place to go. 

So when ASQ bought our little local nursery and butterfly house Skydancers and turned it into a super lovely cafe/nursery/gift shop, I was excited! Its a beautiful place to visit, nice coffee, gifts and plants, it also caters to children with the outside area having games like quoits to keep them busy. And another bonus, the staff are lovely too.

So every Tuesday some of us small town mums (and their preschoolers) get together, we call it Mums on the Move, in the past we have played basketball ( well you know, we gave it a bash!), netball with the Grade 5 school kids, a dance class but most of the time we go for a walk to Skydancers have a coffee and walk back. 

Its lovely to take a couple of hours out of the week to do something social and for ourselves only! 

If your in the area, do stop in for a look, you won't be disappointed!

Here's some pictures of yesterdays visit for coffee

You can check out what butterflies have hatched

and what sort they are...

this is the outside gift shop, the one inside is extra lovely....

My friend Fizzy found a butterfly wing (she wasn't really sad!)

Work by local artist Ben Smith for sale in the garden

room for the kids to run and play

Check out this sculpture.....some people are so clever!

An inspiring nursery to wander through

 If you fancy checking Skydancers out on the net you can click here.

Maybe you can organise a walk with your friends to a local coffee spot, its always nice to have a chat don't you think?

Jacq :)

Our Advent Calender

Just a quick post today as I have *so so so so* many things to do before this market on Saturday!

I wanted to share our home made Advent Calender with you!

 

Its one of those things that can be as simple or as complicated as you feel like. This year we have gone for simple! In all those weeny parcels are a sweet treat, and all are numbered 1 - 24 (actually there are three parcels with the same number so my kids all get one each) and each day they sift through and look for the days number.  There are a few small surprises in there, some Christmas earrings and erasers etc. In previous years we have included little notes telling them what activity we will be doing that night, like setting up the tree, driving to look at Christmas lights, baking Gingerbread Men.. you get the idea! 

Even the tree can be simple, this year ours is just some pine and fuchia branches in a vase! But you could get all sorts of creative, I have thought a big glass vase full of Christmas lights with all the little presents around the bottom would look great!

The smaller the pile of presents gets, the nearer we are until the day :) I think it would be safe to say our advent calender is a highlight of my children's Christmas!

Happy Christmas Days!!

Jacq :)