Bluesfest Baby!

Yes, yet again…it ‘s that time of the year!

After last years exhausting (but awesome) trip to Bluesfest with a very small Smidge (where we spent a LOT of time in the Kids Club) we decided that we would give this year a miss and enjoy a quiet Easter weekend at home with family.

Of course, at the last minute, after finding out the results of my latest PET scan early (yay, all clear!) I needed to celebrate and decided just to have a quick glance at the line up, and of course, I got sucked right in! After all it was 3 of our favourites all in the one afternoon! We wouldn’t even have to organise accomodation, or camp in the mud- how could we say no? So tickets were purchased and Grandad was roped into an afternoon of Big Adventures with Smidge.

Xavier Rudd was amazing, as was to be expected. Watching him feels a little like you have wandered in the room while he is jamming with his band- it feels quite intimate.

Although being up nice and close made me realise that I am getting a bit too old to be breathed on and pushed up against in a crowd…. hehe, who would have thought I would ever say that!

Next up was Michael Franti and Spearhead. He is such a performer- wandering through the crowd and chatting throughout his set.

He even had a couple come up for a dance… which was code for…a proposal!

And of course at the end of the night, there was the obligatory festival feet shot… My husband JB just can’t cope with dirty feet, he doesn’t understand that I am *being one* with the festival

We arrived home after 3 am to find Grandma and Smidge curled up in bed together- him looking like the cat that got the cream. He had an amazing day with Grandad that included all the elements for an amazing Big Adventure- a drive in the Big Red Truck, seeing a lizard, sharing a chocolate malted milk and chatting to police officers in the city. Toddler Bliss!

Wax Resist Easter Egg Dying

This weekend Smidge wasn’t 100%, he had a temperature and was a bit lethargic. After a sleep in until 2 pm (!!!) we decided to set him up with a quiet egg painting activity. Really, as if anything is quiet with us!

For this we needed:

*Hard boiled eggs

*Crayons

*Food dye in bowls

*Paper towel

We chose colours of food dye, which looked great in the bowls, but just looked so tempting to splash into- I’m surprised that I resisted (geddit? geddit?! Sorry, I couldn’t help myself) much less that Smidge did.

Next we used crayons to draw patterns on the hard boiled eggs. We quickly discovered that the light coloured crayons make the best contrast when the eggs are dyed.

Next, we rolled the eggs around in the food dye, until they were covered in colour.

Dad dried them on some paper towel,

and then popped them in to the egg carton to dry.

As much as Smidge loves collecting eggs from the chickens, he doesn’t like to touch them or eat them, so a lot of the time we had to encourage him to ‘get amongst it’ instead of supervising…

After the eggs were completed and drying we discovered the last one in the saucepan, shell cracked open.I asked Smidge to help me to peel the shell away to see exactly what was inside the hard boiled egg.

You can see the apprehension on his face in this one!

The we delved a little deeper, and Smidge was able to see the 3 parts of the egg- shell, egg and yolk. And no, he didn’t want a taste!

Afterwards came my favourite part- washing the dye out of the bowls.(See, sometimes I don’t mind washing up)

As we tipped them out we got to watch as the colours separated, diluted and faded away.