Hot Cross Buns

We decided to make Hot Cross Buns for Easter and sell them to our friends and family. I made a chart and went across the street and sold buns to our neighbours. We also emailed other friends and rang up our family. We sold a total of 216 buns. We then made a list of all the ingredients and how much we would need. The recipe made roughly 20 to 25 buns so we had to make 10 batches. Oliver helped to work out how much of the ingredients we would need. He then looked on Coles Online and found out how much it would cost. On Wednesday the 31st of March Mum helped us make all the buns. We then deliver them on the 1st of April. It cost us $43.50 to make them and we sold them for $92.50. We made a profit of $49.00, so we got $16.33 each
By Ruby and Mum.

Our New Baby Sister

Georgina Sally Dean

Born February 5, 2010

Calvary Hospital Hobart, Tasmania

Weight 3.67kg

Length 52cm

All happy and healthy!!!!

Tomahawk Island Tasmania

More Tomahawk Island

Tomahawk Island Tasmania

December 2009 while we were camping at Boobyalla Tasmania, we decided to go to Tomahawk Island. We watched the tide for a couple days and decided that Wednesday would be a good day to walk over. We waited until 4 pm when the tide was low enough to walk from the beach at Tomahawk over to the Island. We stayed for about an hour exploring part of the Island. The rocks were amazingly flat and the sandstone base had been smoothed away by the pebbles and rocks. The kids all had a great time collecting their favourite rocks.

My Lizard made from rocks

When we came back from Tomahawk Island we brought back these amazingly flat rocks. Tom and Dad decided to build a lizard with them. It is fabulous and Tom was so proud of his lizard.

Spiders at knocklofty

On Monday 4th January, Oliver, Ruby Charlotte, Tom and Erica all went to an excursion at Knocklofty Reserve. We learnt all about spiders. We played true and false games. Survival of the fittest game, and the Ant game. They were great fun. We then went on a hunt to find spiders. We found a wolf spider carrying her sac of eggs on her back. Some little red spiders and a big black one. We also found loads of webs. We then got out all the craft supplies and made spiders and put them on some string with a stick. Emma and I made a spider habitat, with a web and some eggs. It was a great day. By Ruby Dean

Looking after the Guinea pigs.

One day the guinea pigs water container had moved too far back for me to reach and refill. Erica being the littlest helped me by climbing into the cage and getting the water container. While I filled it up, Charlotte and Tom decided to join her and they all climbed into the cage. The guinea Pigs obviously decided that there was no room for them and retreated to the bedroom.

Soccer - The Zebras

Oliver played Soccer for the Zebras this season. He trained hard and played well. He got 5 goals though out the season, and the team won nearly all their games.

Moss Gardens

Ruby, Charlotte and Oliver made moss gardens. They collected trays from under pot plants, moss from the garden, some rocks, shells, sticks and water. They designed their gardens to have bridges, waterfalls, rockeries and even miniature trees. They spent a lot of time thinking, being creative and using their imaginations. They looked wonderful.

Pumpkin Seeds

At the beginning of the year we counted how many seeds were in a sunflower and were quiet amazed at how many there were. We were making pumpkin soup one day and decided to find out how many seeds were in the pumpkin. First we all estimated / guessed how many we thought were in it.

Ruby 204 seeds

Charlotte 354 seeds

Dad 464 seeds

Mum 521 seeds

Oliver 488 seeds

Tom 100 seeds

We scooped the seeds out with a spoon and then picked out the rest with our hands. They were very slimy. We put them into ice cubes in groups of 10 to count them. We had 366 seeds altogether. Charlotte was the closest.

We made our pumpkin soup and had it with bread for lunch. It was yummy.

Written by Charlotte and Mummy

Face Painting

Early in July we went to kmart to buy some club penguin cards. When we got there they were have a promotion for safety checks on cars. We had a free sausage sizzle and got balloons and a show bag. Ruby and Charlotte both decided to have their face painted. Charlotte is very shy and usually would not have anything to do with public events, but today she decided, on her own to get her face painted. She waited patiently until it was her turn then went up to the lady, told her her name and what she wanted. She talked about her favourite colours and had the most beautiful butterfly painted on her face. She was very proud and so were we.

SLIME

What you need:

• Plastic cup and spoon
• PVA glue
• Water
• Borax
• Food colouring

What to do:

• Put 14g of borax in a jar, add 250ml of warm water. Put on lid and shake until dissolved.
• Measure 2 tablespoons of PVA glue into plastic cup.
• Add 2 tablespoons of water, a drop of colouring and mix.
• (you can use other quanities just make sure it is 50/50 PVA to water)
• Now the tricky part. Add the borax drop by drop until the mixture starts to become sticky. Don’t put too much in as it will become too stiff.
• Seal in a zip lock bag when finished.

What We Saw:

The first time we did it, we made it too stiff and it just broke into crumbly bit. The next time we did it we added the borax slowly and watched it as it slowly started to become sticky. It was amazing to watch as the mixture became more and more gooey. We got it out and squished it between our fingers. I was loads of fun.

What happened:

The polymers in the PVA reacted / bonded with the Borax (sodium bonate).

Written by Mummy and the Kids

The Strange Little Creature

I was walking in the deep dark forest I could see a huge scraggily tree and a parrot coloured nearly every colour. It early in the morning and was misty. It was kind of warm and kind of cold.

Suddenly I heard a huge scream. I froze and looked around and there it was a small creature with head like a mouse, budgie wings, legs of rabbit, tail of a possum and body of a dog. I slowly walked closer and then I noticed its tail was stuck under a rock. When I came close enough I said “hello, do you want that rock off your tail?” I slowly took the rock off, as I took it off, spikes came up and it squealed.

I reached out to touch it, it liked me patting it. It felt soft like a pillow. It told me where it hurt. Its tail was bleeding. I picked it up and unzipped my jacket and put him inside. He wriggled a bit.

I took him home and wrapped his tail in cloth. I made him a home and a bed he said he loved it. I asked him what he ate. He said “Bugs.” I went to Pets Domain and got 10kg of slaters, beetles, spiders and other sorts of bugs. When I got back he was asleep. When he woke I filled a bowl of maggots and he ate them all.

The next morning I checked on him and it was alive I asked him if he would like to stay for ever and he said yes. I named him Squeak.
The End

By Oliver Dean

Going Green

On May the 31st Dad and I went to the Tasmanian round of the v8 super cars at Symmons Plains. This was my second trip to see them. It was cold when we got there. We found some space along the main straight to watch the action. Firstly the utes were racing, and then came the special invitation cars. It was then time for the first race for the v8 cars. The one thing that surprised me was how fast they go and how quickly they can slow down.
The other main difference between the two visits was that the cars did not smell the same or put as much fire out of their exhausts this time.
Dad had a special pass for us to go and have a look around the pits where the cars are prepared for racing. I was lucky enough to have my photo taken with Steven Richards who is one of the top Ford racing drivers.
Behind the pits we found the long trucks that carry all of the team’s cars and equipment. On the side of one truck there were a lot of details about something called Ethanol E85. I found out that Ethanol E85 is a special blend of fuel which is cleaner burning and better for the environment and is being used in all v8 super car races this season. The Ethanol is made from the leftovers from sugar production so that even the waste is useful. The cars still use some petrol but only 15% the other 85% is the new Ethanol fuel. It is hoped that by using Ethanol as a fuel in racing that people will realise that they can use it in their own cars and reduce the nasty gasses that their cars produce.


Oliver Dean

Rocket Science

We had an idea from the Extrementals show to make a rocket.

You Need:

• 1 Cup of Bicarbonate soda
• 1 cup of Vinegar
• Camera role cut in half
• Paper towel
• Empty soda bottle
• Cork

What to do:

• Wash soda bottle out.
• Then shake it dry.
• Sticky tape camera roles on sides
• Add one cup vinegar
• Roll bicarb soda in paper towel and lower it carefully in to bottle.
• Put cork in and turn upside down and thread on to wicket quickly.

What we Saw:

The bottle sort of exploded – the cork came off and the bottle flew up in the air like a rocket. It was very exciting.

Conclusion:

There was a chemical reaction between the vinegar and bicarb soda. There was so much pressure in the bottle that the cork blew off and the bottle flew up in the air.

Written by Oliver

St John's First Aid Certificate

Mum, Oliver and I went to St John's Ambulance to learn how to look after people in an emergency. We learnt how to bandage people up, what to do if they are having an asthma attack and how to do CPR. It was very hard and lots to learn. It was also a very long day. We got a certificate at the end.

By Ruby

Sunflowers

We planted our sunflowers last year around show day in October. First we planted them in egg cartons until they had germinated. Then we transplanted them into the garden. They grew very tall. By January they were as tall as me and by March they had flowered. They were taller than me then. The tallest one was 1m 22cm tall. Oliver, Ruby and I tried to guess how many seeds were in the sunflower. I thought there were 100. Ruby thought there were 270; Oliver thought there might be 350. We started to pick them out. We got to 100 really quickly and still had lots to go. Ruby changed her estimate to 380 and Oliver changed his to 510. We kept picking the seeds out. Soon we had over 300. We eventually finished and we had 464 seeds in the sunflower. Oliver was the closest. We were amazed that there were so many. We have kept the seeds to plant later this year.

By Charlotte

Our Garden

When we came back from the farm we brought with us some of our favourite rocks. We thought about building a water feature but we don’t have power to the backyard. We went to the library and found a good book of water features and found a page about a dry river bed. Dad and I cleared the garden and started to build it. We got some river pebbles from the garden centre and then used our special rocks on the top. It looks spectacular and it only took a day’s hard work. We replanted the irises and daffodils around the side.


We have two apple trees in the back yard but the possums always eat the apples. This year we helped dad net them so we can have some apples.


Dad helped us build a vegetable garden. We have planted lettuce, parsley, beetroot and garlic.


We planted seeds for our sunflowers last year. We put them in egg cartons until they were big enough to plant in the garden. They are taller than Tom and Erica. They are starting to flower now. The flowers are really big. We love them. They look great. We are going to collect the seeds to replant next year.

The Don Railway

During the Holidays we went to the Don Railway. We saw a real Thomas he was really cute. We also saw a train that was only 95years old and they called it Baby and it had a dummy with it. We saw how they restored the trains and the tools they use. One of the workers talked about all the work they do. Our friend Bob Foulkes had his photo there. He was a volunteer for the Don railway. He dressed up as the Fat Controller on special open days. He looked just like him. We then went for a ride one on the trains. It was really bumpy, smelly and hot. Tom loves trains but he didn’t like it and fell asleep instead. Erica fell asleep as well. When he had to swap carriages Mummy and Daddy had to carry the sleepy babies.