Beekse Bergen

The husband and I have raging head colds at the moment ...add to that a sleepless night thanks to fireworks (it sounded like our house was being shelled by Sherman tanks) , but the thought of sitting home all day with bored kids was unthinkable so we dragged ourselves out to Beekse Bergen Safari Park in Tilburg.  The weather was very cold but sunny and so quite pleasant to be out and the park itself was quiet being New Years day.  I think the kids enjoyed the outdoor play area more than anything and another highlight was a giraffe eating leaves off our car.  Some of the animals we saw were cheetahs, tigers, lions, hartebeest, gemsbok, zebra, giraffe, reindeer, red pandas, ostrich, rino, eagle, cranes, gorilla and various other small monkeys.  Apparently in mid 2014 they are getting crocs and hippos. You can go on safari here by car, bus or boat.

Jumping on the south African flag

 A delicious apple cake and tea at the restaurant...we were quite dutch and had a car picnic of sandwiches and crisps as well.

and NO, I don't think we call the loo Vroukies Kakhuis in south Africa...we are not that rude and spelt wrong too...funny though

Some beautiful habitats for the animals.

Clay Snowman

We have been doing some snowman crafts ...the first was an airdry clay snowman, which we air dried in the oven at 200 degrees celcius for 30 mins and then painted with acrylic paint and modgepodged.

 

 

 

Below is Cricket's snowmen at night picture

Egg Carton Bird Mask

Last few days of school holidays and the kids are bored.  They want something to do 24/7 which is impossible and yes, at times they are playing and doing their own thing, but mostly they are bugging me to do something with them.  I found this cute craft on a website called picklebums.

A school Christmas craft

I wanted to put this on because the crafts that come home with Tiger from school always delight me.  This nativity scene will be kept for a long long time and hauled out every Christmas to go on a shelf and be admired.  It is quite simple but sweet.

Painted insect houses

We went to visit the new kinderboerderij in Reeshof, T' Valleike.  It is small and there is not a huge amount of animals there, but it is beautifully done and they are growing vegetables and herbs in like a cottage garden there.  Being just around the corner, it is a nice small outing to fill some bored corner of the day.  In the veggie garden, I noticed kids had painted small pots as insect houses.  They were painted like ladybirds - red with white spots, but I think they are more likely for earwigs.  They were filled with straw and just plonked on the ground and looked really sweet.  I think the more traditional method is to hang the upside down pot on a stick in the ground and stuff with straw.  Whichever way, the kids were thrilled with this small activity.

Painting with pine branches

It is New Years Eve and tomorrow our Christmas tree comes down.  I have been wanting to paint with the kids as we haven't done that for ages.  Looking on "the artful parent" website I got the idea to try painting with pine branches.  Might as well make use of the tree for something before it is gone.

The kids decided they wanted to do fireworks instead of a Christmas tree

Old fashioned jars

Today Cricket and I wrapped some gifts for his nursery teachers.  I found some old fashioned jars with heart lids and sweet almond Christmas cookies to go inside...here they are.  I found them at Blokker for about €3.50 each.  Need to rush back and get for myself...in love with them.