my life lately from instagram

 1.

 2.

 3.

 4.

 5.

 6.

 7. 

 8. 

9.

 10.

11.

 12.

 13.

 14.

15.

Explanation:

1. Sam and Eli are growing up so fast! I am finding as they grow older, that they are starting to look more and more like each other.  I simply adore the way they go for the comb-over when they do their own hair. They have a lovely relationship with each other and make me laugh every day.

2. We took the big 4 cherubs out to the movies and because there was only 4 of them instead of 7 we were able to splurge on slushies...Ssshhhhh! Don't tell the others! They might not look happy in the picture above but they sure were excited to get those slushie drinks.

3. One of the first things I did to go sugar free was to clean out our snack cupboard. This cupboard is normally loaded with snacks for lunch boxes and treats and now looks like this. The kids, well...they are taking it hard!

4. I took Eli out on a lunch date to a place of his choice - McDonalds. We had a lovely time out together and he is growing up into such a wonderful young man. 

5. I have a new iphone case. Love it. Just to add a little glitter and sparkle to my life :)

6. Eli and Liberty have been setting off on a few adventures lately. I love how they pile up the skateboards on the back and have a totally innocent look on their faces. Some of the adventures they have set off on have not been so innocent!

7. Liahona and I have been trying out a few new hair styles on her hair lately. I received some extra mummy points by creating this look for free dress day at school. 

8. Small happiness pleasure for me lately has been these cute shoes. Stripes and a little red bow. Thank you Target for such a great find.

9. The tooth fairy had a bit of work out lately visiting our house several times as Sam and Eli lost teeth around the same time. Both boys are currently feeling very rich with the price of $2 per tooth. 

10. I am installing a padlock, bolt and serious security system in our house as my girls start to look more and more gorgeous as they grow older. This is Harmony who is simply stunning and I love that she has absolutely no ideas just how gorgeous she is.

11. I have been trying out a few new hair styles myself lately and love how easy it is to plait the front of my hair and then go about my day. New favourite hair style.

12. I watched Nathan run in the District Cross Country race and while I was there I saw a young girl run that has changed my own running technique forever. Nathan did a great job and next time I think he will remember it is good to actually practise before you run in a race.

13. The kids had a sleep out in the lounge and Liberty slept through all of the noise and antics that took place. That girl sure knows how to sleep!

14. Cleaning the bus is a serious endeavour. Harmony and Liahona recently took on the challenge and had an awesome time getting drenched and attempting to clean the bus. All I can say is that the bus became wet but not necessarily clean :)

15. Seeing as I spend so much time in my kitchen I have now added a plant and a stereo. I am hoping that the plant stays with us for more than 2 weeks but with my previous track record I am thinking this will be short lived.

You can follow me on Instagram HERE.

Mum, what did you do all day....nothing?

Keeping a house clean every day can be extremely depressing. It is often monotonous work and becomes even more so when you have a family who does not appreciate or notice what you do each day. With a house full of many cherubs there is always a lot of work that needs to be done and even though my kids help me out, they still don't realise just how much work around the house I actually do. 

A lot of the work I do happens when they are asleep so I really can't expect them to be thankful when they have no idea what I have been up to! But Hey! They are kids...they simply don't notice everything that is going on around our house when they spend so much time playing and having fun. I want them to have fun, I want them to play but I also want them to appreciate what I do. 

Lucky for me, we had a little lesson is appreciating Mum recently and I don't think it is a lesson that will be forgotten! A couple of weeks ago as we came home from school, walked in the front door, a certain child walked up to me and asked... 

"Mum, so what did YOU do today?"

Before I could answer, the said child proceeded to look around the house and announce...

"Looks like nothing!'

I smiled to myself and decided this was the perfect moment to explain exactly what I did do during the day. 

We went off to the bedroom to have a little chat and I informed the said child that tomorrow Mum would be taking the day off from doing all of her jobs. Then I explained that waiting for the said child would be a list of jobs on their pillow of all the things that I did not get to do during the day. 

The timing all worked out wonderfully for me as I had a Mother's Day event at the school and then went off to watch another child run in the District Cross Country Race. By the time I went to pick my cherubs up from school I had been out all day and had done none of my normal jobs around the house. 

When we arrived home my cherubs asked where the afternoon snack was. I simply informed them I was taking the day off and they had to find one themselves. Insert stunned silence! Then I took the said child into the bedroom and shared with them the list waiting for them.

Job items on my list included: the dishes, sweeping, washing and putting away clothes, vacuuming, cooking dinner, tidying each room, mop the floors, clean the toilets and food shopping to name a few.

I then asked the said child to take over doing my list as I was taking the day off. Insert more stunned silence! Unfortunately for me, the said child is a little too young to take over doing all of these jobs on my list but I did let them sit in silence for a while pondering over the magnitude of taking over Mum's list before I informed them that I would be helping out. 

I had a delightful day taking time off from doing my normal jobs around the house and after this little adventure I am thinking it needs to happen more often! Needless to say, I don't think the said child will be asking me what I did during my day and then pronouncing nothing anymore. Since this time I have been receiving a little more appreciation and love and the lesson was totally worth it.

dates with your kids

I love spending one on one time with my cherubs and recently took Liberty out on a lunch date to the park. It was blissful. Sunshine, trees, a lake, plenty of green grass to run around on and ducks. It was lovely to get out of the house, to break away from the routine and to just sit and talk. I find when I plan in the time to take my kids out for a one on one date our relationship becomes closer, we connect and my children feel happier. I see them start to help out around the house, hug me more and want to spend time with me. When I become too busy and we stop having dates together they are more likely to not listen to what I have to say and distance themselves from me. Making time for dates is worth the effort to have the kind of relationship with my kids that I want and it is total fun!

Do you go on dates with your kids?

10 natural play tips for children

Guest Post from Fiona Robbe

“Access to outdoor natural play spaces is critical for a child’s healthy development and overall wellbeing. Creating a more imaginative and natural environment within the home space is easy and inexpensive. There are plenty of ways to create a fun, imaginative play space for kids in your garden, your backyard or inside the home to suit any budget and any child.”

10 tips to encourage creative and natural play for children:

1. Place plants and sensory objects around your environment. Immerse your child in plants, and include plant choices with as much seasonal variety as possible such as deciduous plants, plants with pods, flowers, fruits, herbs, scents and barks that shed. Give your child the opportunity to take care of plants by watering, feeding and weeding. Collecting herbs or freshly picked fruit or vegetables for family meals is a joy to most children. Remember to include sensory stimulation in your play areas. To encourage smell, touch and sight senses use scented plants, interesting textures, seasonal plants which can change colour. For the taste sense, plant orange trees or tomato vines and use wind chimes to encourage hearing.

2. Provide a play props box. It’s great to have a play box full of balls, ropes, nets, racquets, bats, marbles, hoops, cones, outdoor toys, spades, buckets, watering cans on hand for children to play with. This box or shed should be readily available for use.

3. Provide a smooth area on which children can draw. Chalk boards, white boards or large sheets of paper are a great way for kids to express themselves. If you have an outdoor pavement area where chalk can be used, encourage outdoor games such as handball and hopscotch that can be regularly drawn and then played. This also keeps them active while using their imagination.

4. Include ephemeral elements in the play area. Adding elements that can be changed or frequently transformed is very important to sustain and hold children’s interest in playing in a space they know well. Place ephemeral elements such as a collection of shells, bark, pine cones etc. in an open basket which the child can freely interact with. Keep swapping materials for play.

5. Use natural materials and encourage loose natural objects. Provide as many natural materials in the space as possible such as grass, sand, water, mulch, ropes, rocks, timber and plants. The more variety, the better. Provide loose natural items that children can manipulate and build things with. These may include sticks, stones, sand, water, leaves, petals and ropes for kids to work with in any way they like.

6. Provide children with a scrapbook to record their outdoor adventures. From an early age it is invaluable to reinforce what is important to children and why. Provide scrapbooks and paste pictures or photos of their garden, animals, outdoor play and adventures in these books. Doing this together reinforces the value of play experiences for children and often gives them an extensive vocabulary and emotional reference to nature. Include photos of your child playing with other children to really place value on friendships and moments of play.

7. Challenge children’s balance and co‐ordination. Challenge children’s physical prowess and development with items such as swings and slides or provide access to things they can climb, such as a tree with a knotted rope to get you up to the first branch. Challenge their sense of co‐ordination and balance with logs and stepping stones.

8. Stimulate imaginative play with creative play settings. Stimulate imaginative play by providing open‐ended play settings where children ‘complete the scene’ you have set using their imagination. Some examples include draping a sheet over a tree branch to make a cubby on, making a sandpit an interesting shape like a boat and suggest your kids “go on an adventure and sail in your boat.”

9. Provide challenges that stimulate problem solving. Provide challenges that stimulate cognitive connections and problem solving i.e. ask your child “how many snails are in the veggie patch – can you count them?”, “how about you make a house for your teddy” or “what does this plant need to grow?” In addition, provide items such as tree branches or balls to encourage children to spontaneously invent games and activities which involve problem solving and creativity while being active.

10. Provide social opportunities for children to play with other children or with adults. For many children, play is a social experience so the design of their play areas needs to accommodate groups of children and needs to be sized accordingly. For example, a sandpit should be big enough for about five children, rather than one. A cubby should be spacious and allow for at least two children inside. This allows kids to share their special play moment with another person, doubling its value. Children also benefit enormously from the comfort, suggestions and inspiration that a caring adult can bring to play, so include seating, edges and internal spaces in cubbies or tunnels to accommodate an adult.

Fiona is an authority on natural play spaces and has specialised in the design of outdoor children's environments. Fiona's commitment to design of quality playgrounds includes daily advocacy for the rights of children of all ages and abilities to play outdoors safely, regularly and imaginatively. She is also an ambassador for The Natural Confectionery Company and worked with them on a project to inspire imaginative play with the Sydney community of Blacktown to rejuvenate the Kookaburra Playground at Nurrangingy Reserve. 

I hope you enjoyed Fiona's tips and it will inspire you and encourage you to have some more fun in your own backyard!

easy chocolate chip coconut bread

Coconut bread is a regular after school snack in our home. It is an all time favourite bread of our family and delicious treat of mine. I love that it is easy to make and hits the right spot when you are looking for a little something sweet to nibble on in the afternoon. The difficulty is stopping at one piece! So after many years of making coconut bread for our family I decided to make it my own by adding some chocolate chips and taking it to a whole new level of yumminess! 

Chocolate Chip Coconut Bread

Ingredients

2 eggs 

300ml milk 

1 tsp vanilla extract 

375g (2 1/2 cups) plain flour 

2 tsp baking powder 

2 tsp ground cinnamon 

220g (1 cup) caster sugar 

2 cups shredded or desiccated coconut 

(you can use less coconut but I use 2 cups because I love it!)

75g butter, melted

1 packet of chocolate chips (any brand)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line a 21 x 10cm loaf pan.
2. Lightly whisk the eggs, milk and vanilla in a bowl.
3. Sift flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a separate, large bowl. Add in the sugar and coconut and stir until just combined. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and gradually stir in the egg mixture until just combined.
4. Add the melted butter and stir until mixture is just smooth (do not over-mix). Then add in the packet of chocolate chips. Once again do not over-mix.
5. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
6. Set aside in the pan for 5 minutes to cool, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Serve in thick slices and enjoy.

I make one of these coconut breads and it feeds my family of nine. We have one slice each and love it! I first found the recipe here and I made a few changes to make it my own. Enjoy x

just us

words can't describe how much I love these people pictured above

they absolutely drive me crazy and absolutely make my heart burst

they test me and they try me

they uplift me and they inspire me

they are the reason I get out of bed every morning

they are the reason I work so hard to be the kind of mother they need me to be

they are my life

I love that no matter what anyone thinks

no matter what anyone says

we are just us

and that is enough.

{image by Georgia}

large family budgeting tips

Nine hungry mouths to feed every day involves a heck of a lot of food. It also involves planning, budgeting and wisdom to make it work on a one income family. Over the years I have developed some great tips and tricks on how you can afford to feed a family of nine and to make it a little easier as a large family. 

I always knew when planning a large family that it would cost a lot of money when it came to food but I really had no idea just how much of a challenge it would be to make it work. Often when I speak to people about having lots of children, one of the questions they always ask me is about food. How can you afford to feed a family of nine? Thinking about laying out nine plates every meal blows them away and they cannot understand how we can afford to feed our family and cope with the amount of cooking that is required. 

I have learnt that we need to do things differently in our house and I am constantly searching for ways to reduce our food budget. On days when I am not in a cooking mood I really have to pull myself together and just get on with it because it is way to expensive for us to go out to dinner on a regular basis. 

Some of the ideas that have stayed with me are: 

I scan the food catalogues and look out for specials and buy in bulk (about 10 at a time)

I mainly shop on the ends of the isles in the supermarket where specials are

I buy my meat in bulk from a meat market 

I divide my meat up into portion sizes, place in snap lock bags and freeze

I shop at Aldi's to save money on basic items 

I buy my fruit and vegetables on line so I avoid spending extra money at the shops

I chop vegetables up and put them in the freezer immediately 

I shop late at night to buy bread that is reduced and fill up my freezer with supplies 

I buy home brand items that I know our family likes whenever I can 

I keep several overflow or food storage cupboards to supplement supplies 

I cook most meals from scratch 

We own chickens for an egg supply

I keep a stock of basic cooking essentials so I can create any dish we feel like 

I plan ahead what meals we will cook for the month 

I keep in bulk items such as rice, flour, sugar, oats and water 

I stock up on items in season so we can enjoy them all year round 

I have a check list of all my food items that I use that I run through before I go shopping

I keep a 3 month supply of food on hand for emergencies 

I keep a few treats on hand for when things are getting tough and we need some fun! 

I normally cook the evening meal for the day in the morning to avoid the crazy hour stress

I also cook an after school snack in the morning and make a double batch for lunch boxes 

I use long life milk for baking

We eat a lot of fruit and vegetables and not very much fried food

We eat simple and often do not have a plate of seconds

Matt and I both cook to ease the pressure

This is an example of one of my overflow cupboards.

Now I know for some of you this may sound exhausting but for me it has become a way of life. It is a necessary part of my routine to make the budget work and to feed my family so that is what I do. We generally spend $300 a week on food {which is a big chunk of our budget} and that covers everything such as: food, toiletries, cleaning products and any other household product I need to purchase.

I am sure a lot of other families follow these guidelines and use them in their homes as well. There are now so many great blogs and websites out there to help families who are looking for creative ways to reduce their budget and to save some money. I enjoy looking over them to find new ideas and chatting with other families on what they are doing in their homes as well.

Do you have any other tips or tricks you follow to make budgeting easier?

teaching my kids life skills and my kids job chart in our home

I am a big believer in teaching your kids to work and to help out around the home. I believe a family should work together as a team to help make a home function and work. I also believe that as a mother of a large family that my children should not be doing all the work and that I should still be doing a lot of the housework around the home. So Matt and I have set out to find a system that works well for us.

In the morning my kids mainly focus on getting ready for school. They do the normal jobs like: get dressed, make beds, brush teeth, clean bedroom, pack school bag etc. I do not have an assigned list that they follow for the morning but do sometimes give them extra jobs to do. So, if I do need help with something I ask one or several of my children to help me out and they generally do. 

After school and after dinner time is when my kids do most of their jobs. We have a job chart in our home that we use to rotate jobs. We change the job chart at the start of each week so the kids focus on their assigned jobs for one week at a time. We have tried doing it for 2 weeks or even 1 month but have found that keeping assigned jobs for one week works well for us. 

The older four kids rotate certain jobs and the younger three kids rotate certain jobs. For the older kids they rotate: Sweeping the floor, Loading the dishwasher, Unloading the dishwasher, Cleaning the rumpus room and Cleaning the toilet. For the younger kids they rotate: Setting the dinner table, Clearing the dinner table, Emptying the wash baskets and Cleaning the loungeroom. Matt and I work on helping the kids learn to to do these jobs properly and the rest of the housework around the house Matt and I take care of. 

Along with the assigned jobs that they have every day we also work on training them life skills. We teach them how to cook, how to answer the phone, how to make an appointment, how to type, how to shop etc. We have a chart up in our home with age appropriate skills we want our children to learn. It looks very much like this chart below I found on Pinterest with thanks to Freja. I have to also add that I do not follow this list exactly and I use wisdom in how we teach our children. 

For example: I do not get my three year old to wash walls but if they have drawn all over a wall with crayon you can bet I get them to help me scrub it off. I also don't get my kids to make their lunch box every day but if I am ever sick they do know how to do it themselves. So in creating a list for your family it is important to plan what you feel comfortable with getting them to do.

By taking care of a lot of the housework myself it gives my children more time to develop talents and to play. They have time for music practise, sport, to play games together and to learn new skills from the list we have created similar to the one above. I really want my kids to be prepared to be independent and to survive in the real world when they leave home so we have starting training them young. We teach them how to do certain jobs, how to learn life skills and also role play on how to respond to certain situations they might be in, such as what to do if someone asks them to take drugs.  

Teaching life skills and jobs to kids does not need to be complicated. Keeping it simple and working out a plan that works well for your family is the key to success. If your kids see you working around the home I believe that is the best example to give them and understanding that they are not going to do a job like an adult will save you a lot of frustration.

entrance way of my home

Home tour: entrance way of my home

I get a lot of emails from readers asking how I keep my home organised. So I thought I would start a little home tour and begin with the entrance way of our home. I like to keep my home organised and my decorating simple. As we have a lot of people in our home I like to buy furniture that has some type of storage associated with it. We need all the storage we can get as a large family.

I also like my home to reflect what we believe as a family. As soon as you step inside our door you can see what our focus is. The flowers, although very dead, make me smile when I see them. Memories. 

I picked up this sign on ebay and adore it. It reminds me to work hard in my mothering role. The windows I love as I enjoy flowers and I love when the sun shines through and casts a coloured flower shadow in my entrance way.

In our home the children take off any shoes that they are wearing and put them in the shoe basket as soon as they walk in the door. They then grab them from the shoe basket when they are heading out the door as well. Wearing no shoes on in our home has stopped a lot of dirt and mud being trampled all over our carpets and therefore less cleaning for me. I have found keeping them in a basket is much easier and more pleasant looking than a shoe rack as my children never take the time to put them on a shoe rack properly.

The wall in our entrance way I wanted to keep simple but also reflect a family focus. The heart shape is a collection of Instagram images that I printed out and arranged into a heart shape. I wrote about it here: http://www.sevencherubs.com/2011/10/how-to-make-instagram-heart-wall.html I also wanted a storage unit and it had to be something that my children could sit on to put on shoes if they needed to. This unit works well to fill both roles. 

I found this storage unit at Target and it has been great to help keep us organised. The baskets in the bottom row I use to store hats. The first basket on the left if for school hats, the second for girls casual hats and the third for boys casual hats. Keeping hats at the front door in one place means we are less likely to forget them when we go out to the playground or on another adventure. 

In the top row of baskets starting from the left I keep candles to be prepared for a black out. I have a variety of different choices as we have a lot of storms here in Brisbane and you never know when you are going to lose power to your home. In the second basket I keep aprons for cooking. It might sound like a weird place to keep them but I simply do not have any room in my kitchen and this way they are all kept together. Most of them are aprons I have been given for doing blog work. In the third basket I keep the green style shopping bags. I placed them here to remind me to take them with me shopping. Of course I forget more times that I remember!

At the end of my entrance way I have a corner that I have simply decorated with items that I love.

I found the table at Ikea and I actually think it is supposed to be a bedside table but it fits perfectly in our entrance way. I like a white, fresh look when I walk into my home and keep it simple so I can fit keys or any other items I need to remember when I am walking out the door on the table.

I love this flower arrangement as Matt gave it to me for a wedding anniversary. It has the right flower and metal combination to represent all of the years we were married at that time. I love that he went out of his way to find this combination to give me as a gift. 

Above the table I have a large mirror. I picked it up in Ikea as well. I have it in the entrance way for those last minute mirror checks before you walk out the door. As the mother of four daughters I thought it might get some serious use!

Running for Cherubs and Angels

I am a big believer in dreaming big, setting goals and going after them.

I also believe in living a life that is inspiring to others, especially your own children.

I have small moments where I feel like I am achieving those two goals but many, many moments where I feel like I fall short. Such is life. Lately I have taken on a new goal, a mission, a purpose and a new determination to reach a goal I have had for a long time. You see, it is a goal that seems absolutely impossible in my own mind and for me to achieve it I need to face a lot of fears and misconceptions I have about myself. It is going to test me in ways that I am terrified of facing. I am scared of failing and therefore have many times put off even starting. 

My goal is I want to run a 10K marathon.

For many women running 10K is nothing. Easy even and a daily part of their routine. Running for me is not easy. I am not a runner and when it comes to running I am more of a couch sitter. I much prefer to walk and I do not have a good running style. I am not fast, I run slowly and when I run I feel like it is awkward, uncomfortable and not natural for me. In fact, I remember people laughing at me on many occasions when it came to running as a younger child.

So to help me achieve my goal I have been spending time running nearly every day. I have now finished the Couch to 5K running program and can slowly run 5K. I run on my treadmill at home as I am too embarrassed to run outside and my time for running the 5K is not fast at all but I can keep running until I hit the end. I am still amazed by it and have been thankful for the lovely support from other bloggers and readers as I have shared a little of my journey on twitter and facebook.

Now that I have achieved the first goal of being able to run 5K I am working on the big goal of making it to 10K. I knew it would be hard but I am finding it a lot harder than I thought. 10K is a really, really long way. So to help me get to the end I have come up with a plan to help motivate me and to help raise awareness at the same time. 

You see, I always wanted to have 10 kids and have finished having my children at the number 7. I have decided to let the 10K represent 10 cherubs. The first 7 for each of my kids and the last 3 for those mothers who have lost children and who have angels in heaven. The reason for this is that I really think that if I push myself I can run 7K. The last 3K I simply don't think I have it in me to make it myself. To make the distance I need to do it for someone else. I need that to motivate me to finish. 

Therefore, the first 7 will be for cherubs and the last 3 will be for angels.

So as I start to step up this journey I want to blog about it to help raise awareness for an organisation that helps mum's who have lost cherubs. I have a lot of friends and even some family who have lost sweet cherubs and it has been heartbreaking to watch. I do not know what it feels like to lose a baby. What I do know is that my heart will never be the same after hearing Kristie read out a blog post about losing her dear Avery. Her grief, her pain and her deep, deep sorrow was life changing for me. I have not stopped thinking about it since I heard it. 

Running for me is painful. Exercise and pain do not mix well for me. I am too weak. I stop when it starts to hurt and I give up. In thinking about this I keep coming back to the fact that it is nothing compared to what many women face when they lose a baby. You have no choice when it comes to facing pain when you lose a cherub. You have to face it, you have to immerse yourself in it and you have to live through it to move on. 

Every time I get on the treadmill, I feel weak and I don't feel strong enough to achieve my goal. I think of those women who have lost cherubs and I try to push myself through the pain. Most of the pain is in my own mind and not in my body. It is a battle of self belief that I can do it and make it to the end. I think about this small dream that I have and of all the lost dreams that mother's have who lose cherubs and then I start to run. I run and I cry.

I can't begin to tell you how many times I have started trying to achieve this goal and failed to make it past this stage. This is the longest I have ever tried for. I also have to say that I am really scared about putting this out there and not being able to do it. I am so not a runner and am really scared about failing.

But, I have decided it is better to try and to give it a go and to see where it takes me and to see if it is possible to make it to 10K. I am currently up to Week 4 of the Couch to 10K program and I am hoping I can make it to the end of the program.

One organisation that I know has been of great help to those who have lost cherubs is Heartfelt. 

{Heartfelt is a volunteer organisation of professional photographers from all over Australia dedicated to giving the gift of photographic memories to families that have experienced stillbirths, premature and ill infants and children in the Neonatal Intensive Care Units of their local hospitals, as well as children with serious and terminal illnesses. Heartfelt is dedicated to providing this gift to families in a caring, compassionate manner. All services are provided free of charge.}

I personally know Fiona and Carissa who are heartfelt photographers and love that this is a free service to provide beautiful memories for families who are dealing with grief and loss. The many images I have seen of families and cherubs is inspiring and also heartbreaking. I am hoping that as I run and blog about my journey that I can raise more awareness for those sweet angels who did not need to spend much time here on Earth and for those families who are left behind.

A day at Australia Zoo

As a family we love packing up our bus and heading off on an adventure together. We especially love a trip to the Zoo and were delighted to get an invitation as a family to attend Australia Zoo to help celebrate the release of Lion King 2 & 3 on DVD and Blu-Ray. 

We have been to Australia Zoo before as a family but snapped up this chance as we knew they would have a day of fun planned for us and how could we pass up an opportunity to see the Irwin Family in a Croc show!

Australia Zoo clean, well set out and a lovely place to visit and walk around. Sure Croc's are not the most exciting creatures to look at as they do not move much but there are a lot of other animals there and the Zoo really is a top place to visit.

Our visit to Australia Zoo happened to come right at the end of our holiday and we were all exhausted but excited to have one last day of family fun together.

My cherubs started out by having their faces painted to get into the Lion King theme. All of mine decided to get the same! 

Crikey! What a bunch of cherubs and bloggers!! We all gathered together for a photo shoot and then headed off to watch a Lion King movie in the Crocoseum.

We all piled into the Crocoseum for a private viewing to watch Lion King 2 complete with popcorn and drinks.
The kids all loved it and so did the parents!

We were then all ushered into the special VIP Seating area in the Crocoseum to watch the Croc Show with the Irwin Family. Last time I came Russel Crow was sitting in these seats so we were all feeling pretty special with the lovely treatment we received.

The show started with a big puff of smoke and then out came who my cherubs were dying to see!

The Irwin family. It was lovely to receive a special greeting from them and to hear Terri Irwin talking about how awesome mummy bloggers are and the great influence and power we have as a voice. We even were shown on the big screen to a packed out Crocoseum and my older kids were a little shocked by the special attention.

We were delighted to see Bindi feeding a massive croc. Pretty cool shot hey!

After watching the show we headed off to a private elephant feeding experience.

Hello! Totally spoilt!

My cherubs all jumped in and had a turn feeding the elephants. Seriously, how often do you get the chance to do that! 

It was wonderful to be so close to such magnificent creatures.

After the elephant feeding we were free to go off and explore the rest of the Zoo. I loved this large picture of Bindi and would love to have such a massive picture of my cherubs in my home.

We stopped to check out the new Africa section of Australia Zoo and well, I just couldn'tt show you pictures of what that is like as that would spoil it for you when you go visit :)

We had such a lovely day thanks to Disney Australia and Australia Zoo. I have a giveaway planned to go with this post but will add it separate as this is quite a long post!