In past years we have sent books to friends, continued a perpetual book and donated books to the Ronald McDonald House in Melbourne.

This year we wanted to try something different. Inspired by the Free Little Library in our local area we wanted to anonymously drop books for strangers to find and read. So we set about organising our own book-drop.

We created parcels of books, wrapping them in plastic to protect them from Melbourne’s torrential downpour.

Attached to our parcels were instructions, which we wrote onto little heart shaped post-it notes (it was Valentine’s Day after all). We also included official bookmarks and bookplates, which we downloaded from the IBGD website.

After filling our car boot with the books, we set about our day, leaving behind us a trail of books.
We left books in local playgrounds

…on park benches and malls (Cammy quite enjoyed trying to go unnoticed by members of the public)

…and at bus stops, cafes and shopping centres.

We were excited to take part in International Book Giving Day and loved the nature of our choice of giving. However, we didn’t quite expect the thrill and anticipation that we encountered. On our route back home from lunch at a local cafe, we drove past a bus stop and noticed that the books we had left there had been taken. It planted a seed of curiosity and we began to re-trace our steps in search of answers. We wanted to know if our books were being claimed by new owners, and we were excited when we discovered that some had.

Funnily enough, we discovered that some of the books had been handed to a shopping centre cleaner as lost property and realised that our notes could have been a little more direct; Though it was also heartening to realise that there are many good people in the world who have no desire to take what isn’t theirs.

If you’re looking for a way to take part in International Book Giving Day in 2016, we highly recommend a Book-Drop, but there’s nothing stopping you from dropping some books tomorrow.

You’ll see that our backyard is really quite simple but it inspires wonderful play and provides opportunities to engage in play-based learning.

Let me take you on a little tour of our backyard space:

Santa built this cubby house for Cammy a few years ago. It is a mini replica of our little 1950s weatherboard home (I might have given Santa a few specific design instructions- wink wink!), and I just love it- so do the kids!  It is certainly the hero of our backyard. Sure, I enjoy being up there with Cammy and Ike, but I also love getting a glimpse of it as I hang the washing on the line and every now and then, when I’m shutting up the windows and door, I’ll steal a few extra minutes to sit up there by myself. It is just so tranquil and innocent.

Books are important to us so they have certainly influenced the décor in the cubby house.

I made a beautiful Possum Magic bunting for Ike’s first birthday party, but it was such a windy day that all the flags just gathered into a little bunch, and it sort of went unnoticed. So as not to waste this beautiful piece, it now hangs proudly  in the cubby house.

The walls are adorned with some of the kids’ own artworks and gorgeous illustrations we cut and framed from the My Little Bookcase 2013 calendar , along with the Ikea spice rack bookshelves that Cammy proudly painted herself. We rotate the books seasonally.

In the cubby house there are a few specific spaces:

A reading corner

We rotate the books seasonally.

A play kitchen

The play kitchen is filled with a mismatch of unused furniture and surplus toys.

A Dressing table (that doubles as a writing desk)

A round table set

This table used to be in our home before we re-organised the writing station for the kids, and then it was moved into the cubby house. It is sometimes used as a dining table here and other times it becomes an art desk.

At the beginning of every season, we like to give the cubby house a bit of a spring clean: a dust, a window clean, and a wash down of the toys. We rotate the books in the reading corner and add a vase of fresh flowers from the garden.

At Christmas we enjoy jazzing it up with some seasonal decorations.

I specifically asked ‘Santa’ for a double story cubby house to create extra space in the back yard. We haven’t really created a specific use for the space under the cubby house,  other than adding a few nails in the structure to hang pots and pans and a swinging sign for Cam’s Cafe (which we converted from a piece of Cammy’s artwork). It’s a great place for the kids to create mud-kitchen recipes and run little pop-up cafés though (Print your own mud kitchen recipe book template for outdoor cooking).

Cammy loves creating all sorts of concoctions (which is where I got the idea for a mud kitchen recipe book- you can download and print a template here).

It’s been five years since our extension and we still haven’t planted flowers in our garden beds, which is okay because Cammy likes to use them to create fairy gardens. We’ve got quite a few around the place. Fairy gardens provide a wonderful opportunity to build an interest in writing.

The back fence is a canvas for all sorts of art- I simply provide a bit of chalk, paint or mud.

and the generous grass area provides space for gross motor activities, impromptu play and planned outdoor literacy and book-inspired activities.

MORE BACKYARD AND OUTDOOR INSPIRATION:

Check out some more of my favourite Australian backyards and cubby houses.

Children’s Books Daily: A cubbyhouse that became an art studio

Mummy Musings and Mayhem: Easy recycled pallets for outdoor play

Adventures at Home with Mum: A marvellous mud kitchen

Happy Whimsical Hearts: A magical children’s garden

Learn with Play at Home: A simple mud kitchen

Suzie’s Homeschool Adventures: A DIY outdoor kitchen

Be a Fun Mum: A makeshift tinsel tent for drawing

Octavia and Vicky: Tissue box traffic lights

Mother Natured: Spider Web Obstacle Course

Also visit Childhood 101 for a host of inspiring outdoor spaces

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I don’t think I need to say too much about this classic book filled with adventure, repetition, prepositions, onomatopoeia and a catchy sing-song rhythm.  I’m sure you know it very well. Personally, I can’t believe it has taken me 25 years to add it to our little family library.

That’s right! We’re Going on a Bear Hunt has been in print for 25 years, and we have three copies of the 25^th Anniversary Edition to give away.

Thrilled to finally have a copy of our own and with it being read on high rotation at the moment, we were inspired to go on a bear hunt of our own.

WHAT’S INSIDE THE BEAR HUNT PICNIC BOXES?

I recently purchased some picnic boxes for my own birthday picnic. They were a huge hit and I couldn’t wait to use them again. Not only are they adorable and easy to decorate, but they are perfect for creating individual picnic boxes for your little ones. These ones were decorated simply with stamped tags and fluffy ears.

Of all the book-themed foods I’ve baked, I think the menu for our Bear Hunt Picnic Boxes has been the most fun to create. It featured simple, easy, affordable foods that were a hit with the kids.  There were a few treats in the boxes, but I also tried to include some fruits and vegetables. Below is a little run down for you.

Colour melted white chocolate with green food colouring. Dip mini grissini sticks into the melted chocolate and sprinkle with green edible dust flakes. Once set, stand the grissini sticks in a piece of cantaloupe.

Fill a jar with forest berries and top with a child-friendly version of Donna Hay’s Cheat’s Chocolate-Hazelnut Mousse. Simply stir ¼ cup of Nutella through 300ml of whipped cream. This will make four jars of thick oozy mud. (Hint: You could make normal chocolate mousse or chocolate custard instead).

Fill a jar with a dip of your choice (we used hummus) and top with upright green veggies E.g. celery, cucumber, broccoli and snow peas (I lightly steamed our broccoli and snow peas).

Stir a 85g of popped corn through one block of melted white chocolate. Spread onto a tray lined with baking paper and sprinkle with blue and silver edible glitter. Leave to set. Once set, break the popcorn apart and add to a clear cellophane bag. (Hint: White chocolate is not necessary but it is delicious. You could simply add the edible glitter to the bag of popcorn)

Use a cookie cutter to create bear shaped sandwiches and place into a paper bag. Puff the paper bag a little and secure with ribbon to create a cave.

OUR BEAR HUNT PICNIC:

We fuelled ourselves with picnic food before embarking on a bear hunt. Usually Cammy helps me in the kitchen but I was excited for these picnic boxes to be a surprise. The kids were thrilled to discover the contents of the boxes.

I read the book, while the kids nibbled away on their food. Cam insisted on eating the foods in the order they appear in the book; Ike enjoyed the opportunity to feed himself independently; and their cousin, Charlie, had fun shaking her popcorn bag to create a snow storm.

WE’RE GOING ON A BEAR HUNT:

We visited a local sanctuary, which resembled the setting in the book almost perfectly. We contemplated crossing the lake, found some mud (even during the summer), and stumbled and tripped in the forest.

I also planted a bear image on one of the trees. To be honest though, Cam was quite disappointed that we didn’t find a real bear.

FURTHER IDEAS FOR EXPLORING WE’RE GOING ON A BEAR HUNT:

Small world sensory play (At Home with Ali)

Make your own felt book (Just for Daisy)

Indoor play (Learning 4 Kids)

Paint scenes from the book (Learn with Play at Home)

MORE BOOK-THEMED FOOD IDEAS:

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Tomorrow is Library Lover’s Day.

To encourage you to visit your local library tomorrow, I am re-issuing a challenge from our 2012 Little Book Adventure. The challenge to ‘spread your love of books’ received such wonderful feedback the first time around, I thought it would be a great way to show our library books some love again. You can see the original challenge here.

I often wonder too, whether the little notes and pictures we left in our library books were ever found!

LEAVE A MESSAGE IN A LIBRARY BOOK.

How to play:

• Choose your favourite book from your current library book stash

• Download and print a copy of our letter head (or use your own stationery)

• Use the letterhead to write a letter (with or without parent help) to the next borrower of the book. Examples include:

-Describing what you enjoyed about the book

-Describing your favourite part of the book or your favourite illustration

-Describing how you are similar to the book character

-Recommending another book that is similar to this one

-Drawing your favourite part of the book

-Drawng a picture to show how the book made you feel

• You don’t need to disclose your full personal details, but it would be nice to make the letter personal by writing your first name (or nickname) and age at the bottom of the letter

• Slip the letter inside the pages of the book

• Finally, make that special little trip to the library to return the book.

Ike turned one in December. He had such an unusual but extraordinary first year and I wanted to celebrate that with a special party. I do love a good party, and I admit I sometimes go a little overboard with my party planning. But the reality on this occasion was that Christmas was also around the corner, so I was looking for a theme that would be simple but clever to implement.

I was initially planning a train-themed birthday party for Ike, but Cam’s suggestion of a Possum Magic party, after seeing the stage musical, was too enthusiastic to refuse.

Possum Magic, by Mem Fox and Julie Vivas, is a brilliant book in which to base a birthday party.  Cam was able to play a huge role in brainstorming and planning her brother’s party because she knew the story well and was also able to refer to the illustrations, which both provide wonderful party ideas and inspiration.

I’d love to share Ike’s Possum Magic party with you. It was a fabulous morning. The weather was incredibly kind to us. Guests were relaxed and, second to talking about how healthy Ike looked, the Possum Magic theme and food were the talk of the party. I’m thankful to my baby sister for taking these beautiful photos for me to share. Feel free to borrow or adapt any of our ideas for your own:

• Possum Magic birthday party of your own
• Australia Day celebrations
• Follow up reading activities

POSSUM MAGIC PARTY INVITATIONS

I wanted the invitations to act as a keepsake for Ike’s party guests. So, I chose to keep them simple and included a special birthday pavlova recipe for guests to keep.  I have made the recipe available for you to download here too, a great dessert for you to try on Australia Day.

POSSUM MAGIC PARTY CLOTHES

In Cam’s mind, a party isn’t a party unless you dress up.  Despite my efforts, I was very unsuccessful in finding possum costumes, so I decided to create themed t-shirts for the kids to wear to the party.

This is done quite simply by photocopying pages from a book onto t-shirt transfer paper and then transferring the image onto the t-shirts with a hot iron.  I edited Ike’s t-shirt image before printing and added a number 1 to Hush’s tummy. It’s important to know that you are breaching copyright if you are doing this other than for personal uses.

Cam and I also found some glittery star material. We used most of it as table runners, but my sister made her a Grandma Poss apron with the scraps. We also made her a possum tail by filling pantyhose with scrunched-up newspaper.

POSSUM MAGIC PARTY DECORATIONS

We chose to have the party in a park rather than at home, giving us the opportunity to find a park with a bush setting, and lots of gum trees.

I really tried to keep the decorations simple, letting the natural setting speak for itself. There were a few elements we took from the book and used in decorating the party: stars, gum leaves and Grandma Poss’ bike

On the picnic tables, I used rolls of brown packaging paper and fabric that featured glittery stars.

I decorated the park shelter with gold stars and Possum Magic buntings. I cut flags from book pages I had photocopied, but because I can’t sew, I punched holes in the flags and threaded them onto some string. This is an easy and effective way to make buntings, but they didn’t stay in position with the wind. The buntings now hang with love in the cubby house.

I collected lots of gum leaves (with the help of author and illustrator, Karla Strambini) and used these as food and lolly bag labels.

I had planned on laminating the gum leaves to create bookmarks, but my laminator didn’t like that idea at all!!

The lolly bags were also quite small and simple. In each bag was a Cadbury’s Furry Friend, gum leaves (spearmint leaves), and snakes. All tied together with ribbon and a gum leaf.

One item Cam really wanted at the party after seeing it on stage at Possum Magic musical was a bike. I borrowed my sister’s bike and filled it with pumpkin scones. I know it’s not exactly the same as Grandma Poss’ but we thought it was a great touch.

POSSUM MAGIC PARTY FOOD

Planning a party menu had never been easier. There was no need to consult my piles of recipe books. Everything we needed was right there in the pages of this iconic Australian picture book. I made reference to the book by citing quotes from the books on the food labels.

The book and the food were great talking points amongst the guests. Guests were either reminiscing about reading the book when they were children, or they were enjoying iconic Australian foods that they hadn’t eaten for years.

She made wombats blue….

I had planned on making these lamington wombats, but chose to dip them into blue jelly instead of chocolate icing to create blue wombats.

They ate Anzac biscuits in Adelaide….

We love to make Anzac biscuits and recommend the recipe linked in this post.

….mornay and Minties in Melbourne…..

To represent the mornay, I made a salmon dip by mixing smoked salmon and dill through a sour cream and cream cheese mixture. The salmon dip was served with vegetables, cheese sticks and spinach wraps cut into the shape of gum leaves.

….steak and salad in Sydney…..

My mum made these delicious steak and salad rolls. She filled the mini rolls with roasted beef, tomato, lettuce, mustard and mayonnaise.

….and pumpkin scones in Brisbane.

My mother in law made these soft pumpkin scones, following a Lady Florence  Bjelke-Peterson recipe.

It was there, in the far north of Australia, that they found a Vegemite sandwich.

Later, on a beach in Perth, they ate a piece of pavlova.

My Nanna made two pavlovas for Ike’s party, and  I topped them with Ike’s favourite fruits. You can download and print the recipe for this pavlova here.

“Here We Go Round the Lamington Plate” till early in the morning.

Instead of making lots of little lamingtons, my mum suggested a large lamington cake for Ike’s birthday cake. I dipped the sponge cakes into chocolate icing, using this recipe, and filled it with a raspberry jelly disc and whipped cream.

I decorated the lamington cake with a mini bunting that, again, I made from photocopied pages of the book and attached to two straws.

POSSUM MAGIC PARTY GAMES

For the children, I set up two easy activities under the shade of some beautiful gum trees.

Magic painting (with candle wax and water colour paints)

On a table:

• Paper
• White candles
• Watercolour paints
• Paint brushes
• Water

Decorate a pavlova with playdough

On a table:

• Printable playdough mat
• Playdough (I made chocolate, red, green and yellow)
• Play dough utensils (e.g. rolling pin, cookie cutters etc.)
• Buttons, glitter or other decorations

You can download your own pavlova playdough mat here.

And, of course, there was a playground to keep kids happily entertained.

POSSUM MAGIC GIFT IDEAS

I like to give my children themed birthday gifts. On the day of his party, we gave Ike the Possum Magic 30th Anniversary Edition, a Possum Magic Numbers board book, a Possum Magic Animals board book and a jigsaw puzzle featuring iconic Australian foods from Make Me Iconic. All of these gifts were placed on a picnic rug for the children to enjoy during the party. See the end of this post for links to buy the books featured.

More Aussie ideas

Australia flag puzzle by Adventures at home with Mum
Little Lamington Creatures by My Little Bookcase
Books About Australia by My Little Bookcase
Possum Magic Pavlova Mat by My Little Bookcase
Anzac Biscuits by Phil Cummings Book Review and activity by My Little Bookcase
Come In Spinner – An Anzac Game for Kids by My Little Bookcase
Our Family Hour: Food Books Games and Australian Animals by My Little Bookcase
Bake Sale Idea Wholemeal Anzac Biscuits by Danya Banya
Bush Critters by The Craft Train
Nature walks with kids by The Craft Train

Buy the books:

Possum Magic 30th Anniversary Edition
Possum Magic Numbers

Possum Magic Animals

We have a very big Christmas book collection. We have books left over after wrapping 24 of them for our Christmas Tree Advent Calendar, and our books don’t all fit on our art gallery ledges.

So we had to get creative and think of other ways we could enjoy our beautiful books. You can read about our full list of fun ideas here, but creating a reading corner was one of them.

Over a year ago, I saw these kid-painted bookshelves on Buggy and Buddy and featured them on My Little Bookcase. I loved the idea so much, and immediately dashed to Ikea to buy some spice racks.

I love giving Cam a licence to decorate her cubby house to her heart’s content (even if that means lots of pink!). So letting her decorate and paint her own special bookshelves for her cubby seemed fitting.

The painted spice racks formed the basis for the reading corner.  Cammy chose some of her favourite Christmas books from our ledges to display in her cubby house instead.

After many, many months, we finally convinced Daddy to install the bookshelves,  and we added some extra Christmas touches to the cubby house. The gorgeous bunting you see in the images was made for me by the girls at We Heart Books. It has been made from the pages of a A Little Golden Book.

I’ll let the images speak for themselves. I don’t think I need to explain just how much time has been spent in the new reading space this week (I’m just a tad disappointed that the photos don’t really do the space justice).

If there are any books that take your fancy, you will be able to find them in one of our Christmas book lists.

In fact, even Baby Ike quite enjoys the space and the access to the Christmas books while his big sister is at kindergarten.