stepping out

i remember when i was pregnant with my second child, loads of mum's told me that it's much easier second time round. mmm... that hasn't been the case for me. so not the case. the last 12 months has been a long road, adjusting to the multi tasking of two beautiful children and a household, myself and a small business. i am one super organised person, and it has even caught me off guard and disorganised. it takes me approximately 2-3 weeks now to respond to a text. and only today, almost 12 months after my second baby came along, do i feel like i've caught up on the washing. the washing. one small child has thrown the washing regime waaaaaaaaay off track. but today i've caught up. i'm not even going to go there with the gardens (ha-hum, weeds)...!

my bestie goes out for a coffee every day. sometimes twice. truth be told, sometimes she even goes three times, depending on her day! it might only be a takeaway, or she may sit in. but this is her thing, the thing she likes to do for her. and sure, she no longer has a baby in her arms, her babies are walking and talking, more independant. and right now, for maybe quite possibly the first time yet, i miss my own independance. i miss me, i miss real coffee, i miss "having the time".

so i decided that one day a week i would go exploring this beautiful city i live in. get myself out of the house for an hour, away from the nursery and the routine, away from the chores and abc 4 kids, and into the fresh air. to go and find a place i have yet to visit. somewhere new, somewhere different, somewhere hidden. somewhere that might brew coffee, so i can skip my usual nescafe that day, and sit with my little people, sipping on awesome espresso, people watching and exploring. meeting and greeting.

so i started doing this a few weeks ago and thought i would blog about the places i have visited, and share my finds with you. i've got three to catch up on, stayed tuned...

hot spot : little kickers gold coast

i like to take summer to the occassional activity lesson. i don't like to fill her week with activities, there's plenty of time for a social life once she gets a tad older, i'm sure! she currently goes to swimming lessons, and more recently she has joined little kickers.

what's little kickers? play not push - a fun and imaginative introduction to soccer for children aged 2 years to 5 years. devised in the uk in 2002, little kickers has arrived down under to benefit our little aussies.

it's so much more than kicking around a ball. the idea is to use soccer as a fun medium to help the kids learn social skills like listening, sharing, taking turns and teamwork; practice learning skills like colours and numbers; and fine-tuning their basic balance, agility and co-ordination skills.

it's heaps of fun, and although it's not just all about kicking soccer balls and scoring goals, this does happen and let me tell you, there are some champion goal scorers in our group! i have to tell you about one of the little kickers... in one of our first sessions, he was scoring goals and then doing the whole lift his shirt over his head and running off with his arms in the air thing. seeing a 2 year old do this had me in stitches, what a legend!

we sit in circles at the beginning and end of the lessons and say hello and goodbye to each and every player. we pass the ball around the circle, putting all of those above mentioned social skills into play yet again.

and... they even get stickers and stamps to go home with! can't get much better than that!

the coaches are awesome. our coaches at southport are coach amanda and coach dane. coach abbey {in the middle with summer} and hubby coach brad are the ones who have brought little kickers to the gold coast.

sound cool? sound like something you'd like to take your mini me along to and check out? well your first session is a free trial session, so why not! for us gold coasters, there are currently sessions on saturday mornings in southport and pac pines. classes are at 8am, 9am, 10am and 11am in both locations. you will need to contact abbey on 07 5574 9027, 0457 602 219 or goldcoast@littlekickers.com.au to reserve your free trial spot and to find out more information. little kickers gold coast have also recently started up a facebook page, so if you're on facebook pop over and like their page to keep in the loop and up to date with classes and little kickers goss.

check the little kickers website for other locations accross the nations. i noticed there are loads of nsw locations to choose from.

let's get physical {physical}

do you ever look at your child and think, wow, you used to be in my belly and now look at you! it's been over 2 years since this little moo has been in my tummy and only now have i decided to get into a bit of exercise and start paying some attention to my body. better late than never, right? in my defence, my god that 2 years has gone so quickly! the first 6 six months of summer being born just flew by, gooing and gaaing and filling in the baby book after every new trick she had done, emailing monthly photo's to our family down south. then i brought yummy mummies and the next 18 months of starting a new business mixed with the learning curves of parenting, has also just flashed before my eyes! life is busy, there's no doubt about that.

i started my baby boot camp this morning with missfit pt. it was great. it was a really relaxed atmosphere, there was none of that out of place feeling like you get when you go to the gym. i don't think i'm completely alone when i say that gym's are intimidating! instead, our location was down at my local, the gorgeous burleigh beach. we all done a fitness analysis as our first session, jotted down some measurements, took some before photo's and asked questions. next session will be all systems a go and straight into the serious training. and we thought we were buggered after today's session!

so what is baby boot camp? it is a pram based health and fitness program for new mothers. it is run over 6 weeks and includes 2 or 3 group training sessions a week, depending on what package you decide to go with. they take everything into consideration and in class today we touched base on things like breastfeeding and exercising, the importance of drinking water especially when you are exercising and breastfeeding, and nutritional plans. within 8 weeks of having your baby you can sign up to baby boot camp. you get trained by local female personal trainers who have done it before and are successfully teaching others how to do it. i look at it like a mother's group where you get fit!

today marks the start of the next gold coast course, however if you're really keen to join in from our next session, i'm sure it won't be too late to slot into the group, just give kate an email on kate@missfitpt.com.au. this is only the second 6 week course that has been held on the gold coast, missfit have been successful in brisbane for a while now, and have finally decided to come down and share the love with us gold coast mum's! for any brissie readers, the next course there starts on the 4th of october.

if you think baby boot camp might be fun, yes it is! i've got links all through this post to direct you to the missfit pt website and you can click on the banner above or email or phone kate directly. there is also the missfit facebook page too. grab your mum friends and sign up together. and always remember, it is never selfish to do something for yourself. you will find it easier to meet the challenges of motherhood when you are fit and healthy. when mummy is happy, the whole family benefits!

hot spot :: creative craft centre

last week we met up with some friends for a morning of craft with the little ones. you remember my super star friend, keeley from savvy mama, well she finds the best places around town to meet up. i always have my mini me with me as she doesn't go to daycare, so meeting up at child friendly places is a blessing.

the creative craft centre in west burleigh is the coolest place, and done hardly any damage to my wallet. what it is, is a walk in sit down craft centre. so you literally can walk in any time during the day, no pre arrangements needed, and sit down and get crafty. we were there nice and early, when the centre opened at 9am, and let the 3 little crafterina's stimulate their minds and imagination. around the walls of the room are over 200 craft activities to choose from, so you pick your activity and take it back to the tables and start decorating.


it was heaps of fun, we were there for about an hour and a half and the whole morning only cost me $6. summer picked out a hanging board that has 2 pegs on it so we can hang up her future artwork (and other very important 2 year old stuff), then we sat down and started painting it. we don't normally get paints out at home, i find summer just a smidgeon too little yet to actually want to do paintings. we draw with pencils, play play-doh and do other craft things, so it was good for her to get down and dirty with the paints and it made our visit that extra bit special because we don't do much of it at home.

after we had finished with the paint, we sat them down in front of the fan to help them dry out, then we decorated it with all sorts of lovely bits and pieces; shells, silver and gold stars, fluffy pom pom thingy's, glitter... you name it. when i sent a picture of the finished product to summer's grandma later on that night, the reply was "what the hell is it?". hehe.

fun was had and we highly recommend the creative craft centre if you are gold coast based. for the little ones, for the scrap bookers, for the mum's and dad's, for everyone. an excellent spot to take your kids to over the school holidays too!

can you tell which one summer's is...?!

hot spot :: gov's espresso

last week we met up with local super star, keeley from savvy mama. we tried out the newest hot spot on the gold coast, gov's espresso, for a cuppa and a chat, little ones in tow. i always love hanging with keeley, not only is she all over what's happening around town, but she is an absolute crack up, always making me laugh.

gov's is a big ol' house that's been converted into a meeting spot that oozes in vintage style. you can relax inside with a game of chess or sit and read your current novel. sit in the rustic courtyard at the front by the fountain. book the studio room for a baby shower or the private room for your business meeting. or how about organising your next mother's group in the back sunroom or yard! we sat out in the backyard in the morning sun so miss addi and miss summer could draw on the big chalk boards or play in the cool boat in the sand pit (even though they preffered to play grown ups and sit with us and sip babycinos). my favourite was the old bed frame in the yard to lounge on (the vintage day bed, love it). there are also lots of collectables available for purchase in the front collectables room.

with loads more additions being added, including a new big chalk board along the back fence and story time for the kids aged 2-5 on mondays, gov's is a great place to meet with friends, no matter what the occassion. they are open every day from 7am - 3pm and are located in mermaid beach at 2457 gold coast highway. i recommend!