Top 4 Family-friendly Destinations For The Ultimate Animal Encounter

Nothing is quite as memorable as when you can experience the wonder of Australian wildlife with your family. Fortunately, there are some family-friendly destinations which provide fantastic opportunities to have the ultimate animal encounter, if you know where to look. Here are the top 4 that are sure to impress the whole family.

Meet the Dolphins

The opportunity to meet wild dolphins in a stunning and pristine natural environment is a truly magical experience. Monkey Mia is one of the world’s best places to interact with wild dolphins, and is located approximately 800km north of Perth. For over 40 years, dolphins have been visiting the shores of Monkey Mia, and make daily trips for feeding.

Researchers from around the world gather here to study these incredible animals. With shimmering turquoise waters and stretches of pure white beaches, Monkey Mia is a truly beautiful place to take your family for this unique experience. Best of all, this amazing opportunity is entirely free!

Great Barrier Adventure

Treating your family to a spectacular animal adventure is guaranteed when you travel to the Great Barrier Reef. Listed as one of the natural Wonders of the World, the Great Barrier Reef is comprised of almost 3000 individual reefs and 880 islands. It is teeming with an abundance of wildlife, including over 1500 species of colourful tropical fish, as well as a collection of marine turtles, sea snakes, flocks of birds and more.

It’s a great place to see the wonder of natural diversity first hand, and is home to over 30 individual species of whales and dolphins. To make the most of your adventure, consider the option of taking one of the many tours in Great Barrier Reef, it’s a worthwhile investment to truly explore everything that the reef has to offer. Great Barrier Reef

Up Close and Personal

Taking a trek to Australia Zoo is a fun day-trip for every family. Made famous by the late Steve Irwin, the likeable Crocodile Hunter’s family have done a wonderful job with keeping the Zoo a vibrant and educational place to visit. Their passion for wildlife is evident in all of the shows, and in the immaculate enclosures and upkeep of all of their animals. If you’re visiting the Sunshine Coast, taking a detour via Australia Zoo is definitely worth the effort.

Island Retreat

If you’re planning a trip to South Australia, you simply must take a few days to explore the iconic Kangaroo Island. Some of the local island animals include kangaroos, echidnas, goannas, koalas, possums, bandicoots and more. Your children will love the chance to stand on the boardwalk merely metres away from majestic sea lions as they cavort on the beach in huge colonies.

Taking a tour is highly recommended, particularly since most of the island’s inhabitants like to come out at night. You and your family will be taken to special tour-only access areas, and will be able to share your guide’s expert knowledge on everything to do with Kangaroo Island’s diverse animal population.

Sometimes seeing the best when it comes to wildlife often means trekking to exotic and diverse places, many that simply aren’t suitable for families. These 4 great destinations are guaranteed to be fun and family-friendly, and all will allow you to get up close and personal with some of Australia’s most amazing animals!
Written by Jasmine Poole
Jasmine has travelled across 30 countries in the last 18 months with her 10 year old girl. She is currently in Darwin, Australia.

13 Weeks 2 Days

This morning, I had my monthly baby check with my OB to see how things are going with Baby Joey. I’m still nauseous all the time and still struggling with keeping food down but apparently that hasn’t affected baby or my weight as I apparently gained 14 pounds in the last 4 weeks. Dr is thinking something is off on the scale or my anti-nausea meds have my severely constipated because my entire last pregnancy I gained 14 pounds. So, in the meantime I’m enjoying some laxatives and monitoring what I eat, which actually isn’t a lot because nothing tastes good to me right now.

Dr K. tried to pick up fetal heart tones with the doppler but once again, we struggled so I had a quick ultrasound and was able to peek in on baby!!

Here are two pics of Joey from this morning at 13 weeks 2 days gestation.

I’m thinking girl.

Man Cakes {Recipe}

Today and tomorrow, Alex is participating in a SPAM Cook-Off Challenge at work. The rules of the challenge are that every dish MUST include SPAM. Now, we are HUGE fans of SPAM so we were definitely up for the challenge. For weeks we debated on what he should make and the other night it was decided and the Man Cake was born.

Yes, a Man Cake….a cupcake for men!

So here they are….Man Cakes!

Chocolate beer man cakes with candied SPAM inside topped with a Vanilla Stout Beer Frosting and garnished with candied SPAM.
They are delicious!!!!!

You can make your own delicious Man Cakes using this recipe!

The Man Cake

 

Cupcake Ingredients:

12 tablespoonsunsalted butter
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup Vanilla Porter, poured and settled before you measure
2 large eggs
1/2 cup full-fat sour cream
1 & 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 & 1/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 cup candied SPAM (recipe & directions below)

Directions

First you will need to make the candied SPAM. You will need 1 can of SPAM and 6 tablespoons of brown sugar.  Start by cutting SPAM into 1/8 x 1/8 inch cubes. Measure out 1 cup of cubed SPAM. Next mix the SPAM and brown sugar in a bowl and evenly coat the SPAM pieces. Once the SPAM is coated spread out on a Silpat on top of a cookie sheet and bake in oven at 300* for 30-45 minutes.

While the SPAM is in the oven, it is time to make the cupcake batter!

Step 1:

In a small saucepan, melt the butter over low heat.  Remove from heat and add cocoa until smooth.  Stir in the beer and set aside to cool for about 10 minutes.

With an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sour cream until smooth then add in the cooled chocolate mixture and beat until combined.

Step 2:

Add flour, sugar, baking soda and salt and beat on medium speed until combined.

Step 3:

Add ¾ cups candied SPAM to the mixture and combine with ingredients.

Step 4:

Divide the batter into the cups, filling about 2/3rd full.  Bake for 15 minutes or until the cupcakes bounce back when lightly pressed with a finger or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Frosting Ingredients:

8 TBSP softened butter
1/2 cup Crisco
7-8 cups powdered sugar
6 TBSP Vanilla Porter
1 teaspoon vanilla
Pinch kosher salt
¼ of remaining candied SPAM

Frosting Directions

Beat the butter and Crisco on medium until combined and fluffy.  Add the powdered sugar, beer, vanilla and salt, mix on low until incorporated, then beat on medium-high until nice and fluffy.

Once your cupcakes are cool and your frosting is ready, frost your beautiful man cakes and top them with some of the remaining candied SPAM, then sit back, relax, eat a Man Cake and enjoy a beer!

 

Alex busy frosting his Man Cakes.

 

5 Ways to Promote Your Local Mothers’ Meet Up Group

*This is a guest post*

Being a parenting is both a wonderful and trying experience. You want to share the joys and the difficulties with other people who are in the same situation; therefore, you have either started or joined a local mothers’ meet up group. What are some of the ways you can promote your group?

Through the School
Even if your children are only in their toddler years, they might be going to a pre-nursery school program. Posting advertisements here promises that you are quite literally reaching your exact target audience. Be sure that the program is not in competition with the school’s program though. If they are, you’ll likely be unable to post.

Through Your Church
Another place where families tend to gather is at the church. Whether you have very young children or slightly older ones, you probably attend mass together as a family on a weekly basis. You may already have some friends at the church, and you can guide them toward the signs about your mothers’ meet up group. They will likely be delighted to have another activity in which they can participate on a regular basis.

Be Clear Who The Group Is For
A mothers’ meet up group could have a couple of different meanings. For example, it might mean that the mothers and children get together once a week or so to sing songs, make artistic works, play musical instruments and so forth. However, it may also be a group designed to allow moms to get a little bit of a break. They could chat about books together, go out for a glass of wine or two or participate in a cooking class together. Being clear about the details of the group promises that you’ll have better success.

Choosing Appropriate Days and Times
Your promotional efforts are going to fail if no one is ever available for any of the sessions you’re offering. A lot of mothers work during the day, so it is not always the best idea to have such a program in the middle of the morning. Try to get a sense of what the general work situation is for mothers in the community, and base the meet up schedule around that. Of course, both stay-at-home moms and working moms want to have some sort of social activity in their lives, so you could have success with either endeavor.

Show Pictures
When looking at promotional ads, people want to be able to visualize for what they are signing up. Post pictures that show the mothers and/or children participating in adults. Before you post any pictures, however, you absolutely must have the permission of the people in the photos or the parents of the children in them.
These types of meet up groups can really be a lot of fun for individuals. In order to get people involved, use these aforementioned tips to promote the group.

Written by Charlie Wesley

Charlie is an expert in small business marketing and runs his own consultancy in Sydney Australia. He offers the best priced services in leaflet delivery Sydney has to offer.

How to Ensure Your Family Home Has Room to Grow With Your Kids

*This is a guest post*

You may be looking to purchase a new home and land package, or buying an established new home off the lot. Regardless, you are searching to buy a home for you and your partner, currently family and potential family in the not too distant future, right? If so, you may want to consider the type of home you purchase initially that will best suit your expected family size. You don’t want to be making family decisions down the track, solely based off the size of your current home at the time. You’ll be asking yourself, how many kids can we have? Is the house suitable for the amount of kids we want? Is the neighborhood suitable to raise kids? Etc., Etc., Etc., Here’s a few tips for you to consider when buying your new home to ensure there is room to grow with the growth of your kids and family size.

Plan Ahead

If you are in the midst of discussing family size with your partner, you must have some general idea of how many kids you plan on having. Sure, your original ideas will change based on the path that life decides to take you. You may receive job promotions, move overseas or come into some poor health (let’s hope not), regardless of the scenarios, you’ll have a general indication of eventual family size. So you can plan around that.

Buy a Home to Accommodate Your Expected Family Size

This could be a little more expensive initially. However if you plan on having a certain number of kids, you should buy a home to accommodate all at once. This may be a little extreme if you plan on having 10 kids and only have 1 at the moment. Based on a more respectable scenario, if you plan on having only a couple kids, buy a home with 4 bedrooms opposed to 2. This way your family will grow into the home.

Use Spare Rooms for Other Purposes

With the unused spare rooms you currently have, you can utilise these for additional guest rooms, living rooms or play rooms. You can get the most out of the free space initially, then once more kids come along, you can simply create a room to accommodate them.

Buy in a Suitable Area

If you are buying a home in a selected neighborhood, do your research to discover if there are respected schools, parks and other suitable facilities that will be required with the growth of your family. It would be pointless to buy a home in a residential area that doesn’t have any nearby schools or shopping centres. These will be used constantly once your family grows and the closer these resources are, the more convenient it will be in the future.

Planning ahead to buy a home to accommodate for your non-existent family isn’t easy. You can only plan to the best of your ability and follow these tips to buy a home that will be house your intended household. When choosing off house plans, do the best you can to select a plan that will best suit your expected family size.

Written by Keith Hensley

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