Free Fun Friday

Welcome to the first edition of 'Free Fun Friday'. Here we hope to bring you some great FREE fun ideas, for the family and for mums alone. Today's 'Free Fun Friday' idea is.......drum roll please......a whole family fun activity........... Geocatching!! 

The three of us are always up for an adventure in the great outdoors, whether it's the beach, the woods or the lovely countryside around us. When a few months back we stumbled across the idea of geocaching we just HAD to give it a go. What in God's name is Grocaching I hear you ask? : Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location. Sounds great doesn't it!

We downlaoded the app  from here, found a geo catch nearest to our house and got ready to set out to find it! 

Dad and I were very excited about at the prospect of a real life treasure hunt, we both loved them as kids! However...we weren't convinced DS (Darling Son) would share our enthuaism....we needed to step this treasure hunt up a notch. 

Out comes good old reliable pintrest, where I found super ideas. I loved the kids treasure hunts ideas I found so I mixed and matched a few ideas and Ahoy there Maties to a super piriate loving treasure hunt. Similar one found here.

Off to a near by woods we headed, armed with a checklist of items we needed to find,a telescope, a compass,  a sword, welliies, a crayon, the geo caching app and bucket loads of enthuasism!

Having found the geo cach quite easily we concenrtated on ticking off our treasure hunt requirements, after a great walk in the woods, lots of games and make believe we emerged with our treasure! The only thing left was to bury it!

Off to the beach to bury the treasure! A big hole was dug and in went the treasure (all bar two sticks), covered it back over, got the sticks and DS very proudly placed them as 'X' marks the spot!!

This was a super fun afternoon of adventure. I was so glad we had made it fun for all three of us. The geocaching app is great for adults and the pirate themed worked briliant for our son. And the best thing of all....it was completely FREE!! We have since gone on many more geo catching adventurous both at home in Cork and around the country. So heres to many more geocach pirate adventures.

Why don't you give it a go this long weekend? 'Don the wellie boots and pirate eye patch and off you go! If you do we would love to hear how it goes! 

'X' marks the spot of the buried treasure 

If your around the Cork area and feeling like a little more refined 'Free Fun' this weekend be sure to cheek out The John Saul Picnic and Vintage Fair at the Castlemartyr Resort. Kids are free as is parking, adults are €5, but I believe proceeds go to a local charity. It's on Bank Holiday Monday and if last year's is anything to go by, we are in for a treat. It's a super family day out. We shall be there, picnic at the ready, if you are there be sure to give a wave and say hi. 

Have  a great weekend everyone xxxxx

Love Kerri and Orla xx

Bringing the Buzzzzzzz back....

Hello!

Today I am blogging about our wildflower garden.

As our house is newly built and garden just recently finished we didn't have many bees and butterflies around to pollinate the garden. We decided a wildflower garden would be a great and beautiful addition to entice the wildlife in and benefit the garden.  A wildflower garden creates a wonderful display and is of great benefit to conservation and wildlife.  Bees are on the decrease and they are reliable for pollinating over 80% of crops so it is vital to provide them with plants to feed on i.e wildflowers.

So how we went about it. We picked an area of our garden that is a bit away from where the girls normally hang out in the garden i.e the playground area. You don't want the wildflowers being hit and deheaded by a ball etc.  You want the wildflower garden to reflect reality, so think of where these flowers would grow in the wild i.e shade from trees and along banks. Next decide what types of wildflower you want to grow, ask yourself what flowers do you see growing wildly locally. Visit a local nature preserve for inspiration. Next you need to buy the seeds. We bought packets of wildflower mixed seeds online and in Aldi. Prepare your soil. Remove any vegetation. Rake the soil about 1 inch. Mix in some potting soil to enrich soil. Plant the seeds in the spring when danger of frost has passed. Sprinkle seeds evenly to get good coverage. Press seeds into soil by walking gently on them. Water yours seeds but don't drown them. They should start sprouting after about two weeks!

Advantages of wildflower garden?

Looks amazing and less mowing. It's a very practical labour saving approach for small gardens!

Enjoy!  I love my Wildflower garden!

Anyone ever plant wildflowers? Any favourite flowers? Would love to hear x

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Bolognese With A Twist

Today I made a new dish for the girls, it is Spaghetti Bolognese with loads of vegetables. It went down a treat with my crew, not a spoon left in each of their bowls. I normally make Spaghetti Bolognese with carrots, celery and vine tomatoes but today I used Aubergines and mushrooms for a change.
I batch cook for my children and freeze in Advent containers then label them using my label maker. From the below recipe I received 15 dinners. I take my inspiration from the Annabel Karmel book 'New Complete Baby and Toddler Meal Planner'.

Here are the ingredients;
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
1/4 garlic clove, peeled and crushed.
Vegetable oil for frying
450g of lean minced beef
2 tablespoons tomato purée
1 can of tomatoes
1/4 teaspoon of mixed dry herbs
2 tablespoons of plain flour
450mls of chicken stock
1 aubergine peeled and sliced small
100g of mushrooms, washed, peeled and chopped small
300g of brown spaghetti

Method;
Sauté the onions and garlic in oil until soft. Add the meat and cook until browned. Add the can of tomatoes, tomato purée, herbs, flour and stock. Bring to the boil then simmer for 45 minutes. Fry the aubergine and mushrooms until soft then drain any excess oil. Add them to the sauce. Cook the brown spaghetti as on instructions. Then add to the sauce. Put each dinner portion in container, label, let cool and put in freezer.

Family Fun in Limerick

Today as a family we visited the park/playground and Riverside Restaurant in Croom, Co Limerick. It is a fantastic new amenity to the Limerick Village.  The family friendly restaurant is overlooking the playground. Today we just got take away coffees to have whilst playing in the playground with our children. Good coffee at a good price. The playground is lovely. Very natural with the use of a lot of wood and even some really beautiful tree sculptures. There are two climbing frames with slides to suit the younger and older child.  There are swings, roundabouts, seesaws and even some very cute hedgehogs and squirrels which you can rock on (loved by my 17month old).  It is kept very clean. The playground is in a natural park which overlooks the River Maigue. There are Tarmac pathways leading all around the park. Today I saw these being enjoyed by walkers with dogs, people with buggies and children on bikes. At the bottom of the park is a wild flower area. It hosts a large insect house. Beautiful wild flowers surround the area including poppies, fox gloves and Daisy's to name but a few.

It was a lovely few hours we had there with the babies before they had to go home to nap and it only cost what we spent on coffee. The next time we will go for Sunday lunch and enjoy the playground and park again. The restaurant told us it is better to book on Sundays to avoid disappointment as it gets very busy. If you are traveling near the area or want to visit a real gem in County Limerick be sure to stop by, I highly recommend.

Orla Xxx

https://www.facebook.com/riversidecroom

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Maigue
            

Chef'n 'Herbsicle'

Afternoon from a very rainy Ireland :-(

My babies are both napping and that gives me an opportunity to inform you about this amazing product. I find it extremely beneficial. It is the Chef'n 'Herbsicle' the frozen herb keeper. It enables you to freeze and preserve your fresh herbs.

As we grow our own herbs it lets me have them in this product in the freezer and on hand when I am cooking. All you do is fill it with fresh herbs, replace the top and secure, freeze for 24 hours then when you need the herb in a recipe just twist the handle to reveal frozen herbs.

I can freeze a lot of the herb and have it regrowing outside again!

I love this product!

Any other products out there like this for cooking that you just couldn't live without?

www.chefn.com

About us

Hello :-)

Two mums here, Kerri and Orla. We have decided to join forces and create a blog and one stop shop for all mums! We are going to blog about family fun activities, days out, recipes, home and garden inspiration, parenting survival tips and of course fashion for mum and her troupes!

Orla is a Limerick based mum of two girls under 3. She lives with her husband and Standard Schnauzer in a newly built passive house on a large garden where they grow fruit, vegetables and willow trees for their stove. Her interests include fitness, fashion, beauty, cooking for her girls and likes to knit!

Kerri is a Cork mum who lives by the sea in East Cork. Having grown up in a house with her 3 sisters, she now lives in a male dominated home!!  Kerri lives with her boyfriend and their 3yr old son. Loving to embrace countryside life, discovering fun family activities, dabbling in drama and loving theatre trips, trying out recipes and walks on the beach are some of Kerri's  many interests.


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