5 Simple Rules for Staying in Caravan Parks

I love camping, I really enjoy caravan parks and how easily you and your kids make friends. I love living outdoors and having dinner around the bbqs with a bunch of other families. Camping is pretty cruisy and relaxing and you just go with the flow. Caravan Parks have such a great atmosphere... most of the time. But, there are some things that people do that really,really irritate me. Some people are really inconsiderate of others around them. They seem to forget that we are all living in pretty close quarters, and some of us have canvas walls and others are just thin plywood.

So because I'm camping right now, and these things are at the forefront of my mind, here is what I think are

5 Simple rules for staying in a Caravan Park.

1. Camping is not the time to teach your baby to sleep using the 'cry it out' method. For the last two nights half the caravan park has been kept awake by a baby and bloodcurdling, distressing crying sessions in the middle of the night. The baby goes on for well over an hour, with no apparent parent attention... What the? As a Mum I totally understand that sometimes kids cry and there isn't a lot you can do, but, you have to do what you can, and if that means driving around at 2 in the morning so you don't disturb other campers, then you just do it.

2. If you want to party until 1am, rent a house, don't stay in a caravan park. Granted its mostly teenagers, and yes I'm sure we've all been there. I was a culprit too, and now I seem like a grumpy old woman (I am going to be 39 this year). But nobody wants to hear your drunken screaming after 10pm quiet time. If someone asks you to quiet down, don't try to fight them, chances are, they know most of the other people in the caravan park.

3. Don't sit right next to someone else's campsite and light up your cigarettes. The smoke wafts inside tents and caravans and sticks around. I don't want my child breathing your second hand smoke. I don't venture out to the great outdoors just to smell your cigarette smoke. Be considerate and go where nobody else is.

4. Follow the speed limit. My Mumma bear instincts come out in this area in particular. I have not problem with yelling 'slow down' to people driving fast through the caravan park and shooting them dirty looks, It scares the daylights out of me, because I have a fast toddler with limited road sense. The speed limit is 8km/h or walking pace for a reason, there are so many small kids around its just so dangerous to go any faster.

5. Clean your gross food residue off of the BBQs after using them. Just annoying.

This has come off a bit more ranty than I intended, but let's go with it shall we.

I guess I just don't understand some people and how inconsiderate they can be. I feel like I make a big effort to camp in 'harmony' and think about and respect others. Some people it seems are just on a whole other wave length, and it drives me batty.

I hope this doesn't put you off camping, it really is one of my favourite things to do. I just hate these things!!

What are your camping pet peeves??

Karen xx

Linking up with Jess from Essentially Jess for #IBOT head over and check out some other great posts!

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Early Morning Surf Check

What do you do at 6.30 in a quiet caravan park when everybody else seems to be sleeping and you have a loud toddler who is desperate to escape the confines of the tent?

Early morning walk to check out the waves and the pristine ocean! With a stop by the swing set because you pretty much don't have a choice in the matter.

Doesn't really get much better than that!!

Don't mind the banana in the 3rd picture, it is a morning essential for one little dude.

Linking up with Trish at My little drummer boys for Wordless Wednesday!


Karen xx

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Stuffed Capsicums and Brown Rice

We've been having an awesome time camping, the weather has been great and Ezra has been his usual active, adventurous self, good thing he has lots and lots of people to give him all the attention (and food) that he wants!!

Sometimes when we are camping I start feeling like we have an overload of meat and potatoes, the easiest thing to chuck on the BBQ is steaks or sausages, at home we only eat meat a few times a week so having so much meat makes me feel kind of gross. So tonight we tried something we have done in the oven before but never in the BBQ.

Stuffed Capsicums (Otherwise known as Stuffed Peppers for the North Americans)

They were delicious, and such an easy and light meal to make when your camping.

Here is the recipe, we served them with brown rice and sweet potatoes, that is what you can see wrapped in foil in the picture. We used 7 capsicums, and this is the rough amounts of ingredients, it fed 6 adults and 1 toddler with leftovers, I would suggest just making it to taste though.

Ingredients:

Red Capsicum (Red Peppers)

Spinach (250g bag)


Ricotta (1kg)

brown Mushrooms (large handful)

Onions (one medium)

basil (two stalks)

Pine nuts (100g)

Tomato

Salt

Pepper

Method:

It's really simple, you halve the capsicums and then finely chop the spinach, mushrooms, onion and basil and stir it in with the ricotta. Then add the pine nuts and salt and pepper to taste. Add a slice of tomato to the top of each and place them on a tray or rack in your oven or BBQ on medium heat. You know they are done when the capsicums (peppers) are nice and soft and the ricotta seems cooked and not runny.

We have a Weber Baby Q which is perfect for these meals, but any BBQ with a cover would work!



Of course I am linking up with the lovely Jess at Essentially Jess for #IBOT today too!!

Karen xx

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Camping or Glamping?

Today we are heading out on our yearly holiday. I can't wait, I look forward to this holiday all year. I've been camping at this same caravan park every January for almost my whole life (Except for the time I spent over East and in the USA, and was so sad to be missing out). My folks have already been down there for two weeks in their caravan, and we are booked in for the next two weeks. It is one of my favourite places in the world, and has such amazing beautiful surroundings! Unfortunately this year because of Joel's recent job change he doesn't get to take the whole time off, so he will be with us for long weekends. But, it isn't like i'll be solo-pregnant parenting, that would be a nightmare! I have my family and friends around, so it will hopefully be more relaxing than being at home!

The worst part about camping is the first and the last days! Ugghh, Packing/ Setup and Pack down/ Unpacking. Ever since I can remember my Dad had a camping list, THE LIST... I now make a similar list. Everything gets crossed off, and we leave happily knowing we did not forget any essentials. With a toddler, the list has gotten a lot longer. We will be packing both cars FULL to the brim. Yeah I call it camping, but to some this is definitely Glamping!

Here's our list... it is long, and I'm sure I probably have forgotten some things... at least I know that my Mum has everything under the sun in the caravan so I'm pretty safe!

I wont be blogging too much while were away, but I'll do what I can!!

Karen xx

17 Weeks: Prego Style

Yesterday I reached 17 weeks. I haven't even had the chance to buy one thing for this new little Dandy Baby. With all the craziness of selling our house, I haven't had much time to think about anything else. 

Also, how awkward is it to take photos of yourself using a remote? I have no one else's energy to feed off of, so it is a bit more difficult to look 'natural'. I hope I get better at this because these squinty eyed, frowny faces aren't really what I'm going for. Whilst trying to look somewhat decent, I hit the remote, to no avail. I then squint, frown and try hit it numerous more times until it works, but by this time I've forgotten my original pose. So this is what you get! A slight glimpse at the growing bump (that I'm sure is bigger than the first time around- the stretching is obviously easier this time). 

Top: Sportsgirl (on SALE 50% was only $12, I should have bought more)
Shorts: ASOS Maternity (unfortunately they don't have maternity shorts right now, I'm so sad, these are from my first pregnancy)
Necklace: Sportsgirl
Shoes: Havaianas

I like checking out other peoples outfit posts, and I have been thinking about starting to do some for a while. It also gives me an excuse to buy new clothes!! So this isn't the last of this kind from me!

Karen xx 

This happened quick

Yep, so this is happening.... eeeek!!! Bring on another massive life change: we're moving out!
3 weeks on the market, and 4 home opens in 10 days.
Here's another post I did about the big move: Home is Where You Are

Karen xx

Linking up with Trish at My Little Drummer Boys for Wordless Wednesday: head over and check out some more great posts! 

A new dislike for bedtime

Recently Ezra has started getting quite upset when we leave his room in the evening and say Goodnight. For months he would just roll over and curl up in bed and fall asleep. But now as he is becoming more and more aware what bedtime is all about, he stands up and screams as we leave the room, and wants us to stand next to his cot while he falls asleep, he has never done this before. Maybe he is just experiencing more separation anxiety as he is becoming more aware of the big world around him. That is parenting for you I guess, once you feel like you have one thing sorted out, something new comes along and gives you another challenge.

Last night he got so upset when I tried to take him off to bed, he snuggles in really close to Joel on the couch to try to get away from me. Then he screamed, flailed around and had a mini tantrum as I took him to his room. I think part of it is that he misses his Dad during the day, and has a hard time when he only gets a couple of hours with him before bed. It could also be teeth related, but it seems that for the last year everything has been seemingly teeth related.  I really hope this isn't the beginning of a complete hatred of bedtime.

We thought that perhaps a solution would be to set up a night-light in his room. So we bought one for him, and well it doesn't really help, because he just stays awake because he loves the night-light so much and  is looking at how cool the light is. It will probably be more effective once he gets a little older, and once he gets over the novelty of a cool glowing light in his room.

I'm excited that we bought it for him though because we are going camping next Saturday for two weeks, and I think that a night light for him in the tent will really help, I hope, we took him camping last year at this time, but he was so young, and would sleep anywhere, I have a feeling this time may be a bit more challenging.

I also wanted to share about this night light as well because I love it (I bought it myself and thought I would share because it is awesome!). It is by a company called Kinder-Glo and it is in the shape of a T-Rex (you can get other shapes and animals too). It has some cool features, like it isn't hot to touch, it is cordless, bpa free (Ezra likes to put it in his mouth) and it changes colours. Ezra carries it around and makes "ROARing" noises at it, it is pretty darn cute.

Karen xx 

Healthy Chocolate Truffles

For Christmas we made healthy Chocolate Truffles for the family. Courtesy of The Healthy Chef : Click HERE for the recipe. So easy, and really yummy. They give you that sweet kick you're craving without being full of sugar (or condensed milk). Great to have on hand for a daily treat!

Try them, they will be a big hit for sure!

Karen xx

Linking up today with Trish from My Little Drummer Boys for Wordless Wednesday: head over and check out some great posts! 

Who remembers Bloomers?

Do girls at school still wear bloomers these days? Or is something that finished with my generation?Does anyone else remember wearing bloomers? Maybe it was just a WA thing. They look just like underwear, but we used to wear them over our underwear and that is what we would do school sport in. They were a little bit more modest than underwear, and you could feel pretty secure that they were going to stay where they were supposed to. But, none the less, they were still basically underwear. If you have never heard of them I bet this is sounding pretty strange right now.

I was reminded about bloomers this weekend when we were catching up with friends and somehow we started talking about them. I remember specifically that when I played Basketball as a kid, the rules at our stadium were that girls were not allowed to wear shorts, they had to wear bloomers that corresponded with the team colours.

So here I was, skinny little short kid with chicken legs, in huge 90's style sneakers (probably my awesome LA Lakers or the Reebok Pumps that were too big for me that I inherited from my older brother, but thought they made me play soooo much better)  and just bloomers and a basketball tank top. I must have looked pretty ridiculous, but then again, so did everyone else.  By the time I became old enough to be self-conscious and aware of the fact that it was kind of weird to be playing basketball in my underwear, they had changed the rules and I got my very own brand new pair of basketball shorts. But, there were girls who were in their late teens playing in bloomers, just recently this has struck me as being kind of strange. Why were they so adamant that girls couldn't wear shorts or even skirts like tennis? So, so weird.

To prove that I'm not making it up, here is a picture. I'm the one with a big fringe and my hand in my mouth, second from the back, trying to be cool while my Dad takes my picture.

I really want to know if bloomers were an Aussie wide thing, or just something us Perthites did? 

Linking up with the lovely Jess at EssentiallyJess for #IBOT

Karen xx 

Home is where you are

The last month has brought a lot of changes and developments in our lives, and one of these is the decision to try to sell our house. I have pretty mixed emotions about it. I am really excited, because we will be building a new house, the one that we really want, and that we can walk to the beach from! I cannot wait to have a shiny new house that we get to choose the colour schemes and all the fittings.

But, at the same time I'm a little sad. This old house has things that frustrate me, and that I wish I could change, but its grown on me, I love this cottage, it is full of character. It looks like a very different house to when we bought it 5 years ago. The paint was horrendous, the backyard was a pile of dirt, the kitchen was SOOOO irritating and had no storage, the room, we now call the study (and that I am sitting in an typing right now) was technically part of the sleep-out with only a screen door and screen window. We have put a lot of sweat, tears and tender loving care into this house, and I will miss it.


Still, it feels like the right thing to move on, I know we are making the right decision. It is right for our growing family. The last couple of weeks has been a flurry of activity. Preparing for home opens with a very, very active toddler is a mission. It is so hard to keep him from flinging everything around the house. I've spent most evenings cleaning and doing our best to make the house look as presentable as possible. The encouraging thing that keeps me motivated is that we have had a lot of interest.

So here is to hoping that soon somebody else who has fallen in love with this house, like we did 5 years ago will get to start a new journey with this cute little cottage!

Here are some of my favourite parts:

Love my little dining room. But especially love my Kitchenette! Lucky that is coming with us. Our table was Joel's Grandmas, and the vintage dining chairs are from Ebay.

I wish I did more with our room, but I do love my quilt on our bed! 

This room used to technically be a back porch. Now it is our office. 

Some of my favourite things, including my Nanna's old Singer Sewing Machine.

This is half of our kitchen, that we renovated just before Ezra was born. I'm going to miss the big oven that can fit two large Turkeys. The little table my Mum picked up for me from a garage sale. 

We just put the railing on the deck, because we have a little boy who has no fear, and would just walk straight off the edge of the deck.

Karen xx