We all had fun on the school holidays. It's the first school holidays during the year, that I have got to spend the entirety with the girls (not including the Dec-January school holidays). Normally they go back to Goulburn for a week with family and then spend some time in a holiday camp. This term, as I am studying and I had a term break I got to do lots of activities with them - and Dave also had the first week as annual leave as well.
Week 1 - School Holidays
Monday - Ten Pin Bowling with the Holloways. It's been ages since we have been bowling, so we purchased an unlimited games pass (I think it was about $16.90 each), and it included five tokens for the gaming machines afterwards. We booked two lanes, and played two games each, by this time our arms were all aching!
Eliza basically tried to throw the ball down the alley....
whilst Jazz dropped the ball and expected it to roll down the alley - LOL even I found the balls heavy!
At least all the boys looked like they knew what they were doing (and Tilly who beat everyone first round) ...
They had a variety of arcade machines - I've never been game enough to try the dancing ones, but Cam and his girlfriend Tilly did:
Dave and I gave our tokens to the girls, so they had 10 tokens each, Eliza used most of hers on the grabber machines, surprisingly she didn't get a stuffed animal (*sarcasm*).
Tuesday - We started the day off at home, and decided it was such a lovely day that we would put on our sunnies and walk down to the lake and feed the ducks:
Lucky we had lots of bread as the ducks and black swans came for miles!
The swans were definitely not afraid to get up and personal!
The girls love to play Troll games on the play equipment in the park on the way home. You have to answer three questions correctly before crossing the bridge.
Wednesday - Dave spotted an advertisement in the Westfield Newsletter for a cupcake decorating workshop at Jazz Apple Cupcakes in Belconnen Mall. So I took the girls to the class, while Dave went and saw the Lego Movie (which the girls had already seen with some friends). Afterwards we took the cupcakes around to Jeff and Fiona's for afternoon tea, there was no way we could eat 12 large cupcakes ourselves.
Jasmin did the top cupcakes, and Eliza did the ones on the bottom. I thought they did an excellent job of piping the icing on and creating their decorations!
Later that day, after dinner, we decided to watch some video footage of the bowling at the bowling alley from Monday.
So why are we watching it upside down you may ask? Dave filmed it that way LOL! (He claims if I had transferred the footage from his iPhone on a Mac it would be the right way up.)
Thursday- Most of the day was spent packing for a long weekend at Long Beach (on the South Coast - 5 minutes out of Bateman's Bay). After packing we dropped by Costco and the supermarkets to pick up supplies and drove to Long Beach arriving at about 5:30ish. We enjoyed a BBQ with Mel and Kate after they arrived at around 7pm.
Friday - Monday - The Easter Long Weekend at Long Beach. Mel organised this excellent house for us, it is called the Captains Cottage, and includes a lighthouse on the side. Lovely quaint house - Dave's only complaint was that the TV was not big enough! It was just a walk out the back door to the beach. The house already had some boogie boards and sand buckets and shovels which was very convenient since we can never fit any of this into the car after packing linen, clothes, food and entertainment stuff. The water wasn't too cold so the kids (and Dave and Mel) enjoyed a few dips in the ocean. The kids had a great time digging holes on the beach as well as burying themselves up to the neck in the sand. The best thing about the beach was coming back to the house to enjoy the hot spa on the deck of the house.
This layout summarises our weekend nicely - I did a little watercolour painting across the middle of the layout.
Week 2 - School Holidays
Tuesday - Back to work for poor Dave.
On Monday night Amanda came for a sleepover, and we looked after her on Tuesday. We decided to go and watch the Muppets Movie at Hoyts, and then have lunch at the food court, before dropping her at home. We also picked up loom bands for making bracelets - the latest craze. Charlotte showed the girls at the coast using a set we bought from a toy shop, and they made more bracelets with Amanda on Monday night, so we picked up more bands whilst at the shops. Even I enjoy making a loom band or two.
Wednesday - I took Jassy and Eliza and two of their school friends, James and Jacob (brothers) to Cockington Green. It's been a couple of years since our last visit.
Thursday - Aaron decided he wanted to go Go-Karting as his present from his parents, so we joined them at the Fyshwick Go-Carting for a bit of fun. Eliza had her own go-kart for the first 10 minutes, and then decided she would like to go with me for the second 10 minute session. The steering was just too heavy for her to control the kart properly - she actually thought go-karting was more scary then doing the jet-boating in New Zealand! Jassy had a fantastic time, and zoomed around the track, not afraid to overtake anyone, and "fang" it around the corners LOL!
Afterwards we picked up Dave from a work farewell and went to Legends Spanish Restaurant in Manuka where we had the Tapas Banquet, followed by some delicious desserts.
Friday - our only day at home!
Saturday - back to Goulburn for some visiting, ordering and some partying.
On Saturday we had morning tea with Nan Bo, Gen and Dom. Jassy showed Gen how to make a Loom Band.
Afterwards we visited Aunty Marg and then headed over to Les and Julie's to do the ordering for the video shop, we even caught up with Anthony and Naomi that night over Pizza at Julie's.... we had to give Anthony his birthday present.
Sunday - We celebrated my Mum's birthday and Aaron's birthday with an Italian lunch. We each made a dish and brought that along. It was a lovely spread, and much nicer than getting pizza or Chinese from the takeaways which is what we normally do.
I was lucky to get to spend so much time with the girls during the holidays, I will miss doing this when I go back to work.
Di :-)
