Award time

The perfect way to ease back into blogging, with an award ceremony and a bit of linklove for my friends who have sent me love while I’ve been sick.

Although to be honest, I’ve been considering letting the whole thing blow and eloping with my pillow.
We’ve gotten to know each other really well in the last 3 weeks.

I’ve got a few awards to hand out before I do that though, so don’t write me off just yet.

So, to The Smile Award. Because I’ve really needed some smiles lately. Thank you to Tonya for choosing Kidzarama for this award.

Tonya is an Aussie Mum living in California, and currently visiting famiily back here in Oz at the moment.

Hope you’re having a great time, Tonya!

I hereby nominate:

1. Willow at Apron Strings and Angst, for her lovely comments, tweets & emails over the past few weeks.
2. Trish, because she’s been in need of smiles lately. ~ And shares them so readily herself.
3. Lauren of Can You Be a Part of My Life?, for her sense of humour and support.
4. Mummified x 5’s Tina, because she gets our weather before we do and it’s good to have someone to commiserate with.
5. Kate at Picklebums, another Aussie mum. I just love the name of her blog, it gives me the giggles every time.

Thank you all for your patience and lovely words while I’ve been so ill.

The kidz were kind enough to bring home a nice virus each and shared them with me last week, but it looks like we’re all on the road to recovery finally.

We’ve still got out kitty~camper in the back yard, and I’ve been spending some time laying in the sun with her.  She has a very gentle, healing energy, and it’s perfect timing that she’s turned up just now.

But more about that later…

Here’s the rules for the Smile Award ~

1. The recipient must link back to the award’s creator (http://www.thebabblingsofmere.blogspot.com/)
2. You must post these rules if you receive the award.
3. You must chose 5 people to receive the award after receiving it yourself
4. You must fit the characteristics of the recipient of the award, as posted by Mere.
5. You must post the characteristics of a recipient.
6. You must create a post sharing your win with others.
7. You must thank your giver.

Characteristics for the Smile Award ~

1. Must display a cheerful attitude. (not necessarily at all times–we are all human)
2. Must love one another
3. Must make mistakes
4. Must learn from others
5. Must be a positive contributor to blog world
6. Must love life
7. Must love kids

Craft Round Up

I thought I’d do a list of some of the best craft posts that I’ve found over the past week.

Hope you are as inspired by them as I was…

Lusi at Fiskars Craft had a fantastic indoor treasure hunt with her 3 children, which would work well outside, too.

She and the kids created treasure maps and various special destinations in the house to trek through on their way to ‘discovering’ the buried treasure.

Nan posted about some lovely woollen pieces that she’s been working on over  at Nannybird Crafts, including a dish~cloth dress, and a cute “tie one on shawl”.

Makes me wish I could crochet or knit or something. ~See? I’m not even sure which is which.

Over at Crazy Stamp Girl, Jen has come up with a cool 10 rubber stamping ideas for children. We don’t actually have any stamps, but it’s definitely on my wish list to get a small collection of cute ones.

Chris posted a list of great butterfly crafts at Kid Crafts Magazine, that her 5 year old daughter enjoyed. I thought that the butterfly flier was especially creative.

I also found a new blog, Simply a Mom. Hope has written a great post on putting together a rainy day box.

This box and Lusi’s treasure hunt would have been perfect for our last school holidays, as it rained 13 days out of 16.

We were extremely waterlogged, and Wren & Mr Bump both had severe cases of cabin fever.

Luckily, these holidays have been very different.

We’ve had a night away in Newcastle to see Disney on Ice, ferry trips, an archaelogical dig (more on that next week), sleepovers and Grandma’s and visits to lots of different parks.

Plus they both seem to have gone through an “emotional” growth spurt and are treating each other much more nicely nowadays.

Which makes all the difference, doesn’t it?