The Easter Holidays are about to start….3 hours to go!
Wahooo!!!
In just a few short hours I will be picking up my three adorable cherubs from school and saying Sayōnara to school life for 2 weeks. I am very excited! If you know me, you will know that I am one of those parents who just loves school holidays. I see school holidays as my opportunity to have fun with the kids. It’s an opportunity to relax and make some memories with the kids. I find it incredibly amusing how many mothers dread the school holidays, I must seem somewhat crazy to these mums – but I love holidays!
Having four kids does make holiday time somewhat expensive, but these holidays I have a plan. Over the last few weeks, I have been giving the holidays some thought.
Last week, I started the process of teaching Chanel how to ride her bike without training wheels. Miss Chanel is six and is doing well with learning to ride her bike, but it is taking a little longer than when Amy and Bethany learned to ride their bikes. The plan over the Easter weekend is to get her feeling more confident in her ability to ride her bike. We have called it ‘Project Chanel: Riding with confidence!’
A friend of mine and I, took the kids last Thursday afternoon after school to the Kawana Lake area to start teaching Chanel how to ride. My friend suggested the Kawana Lake area, as she had taught her daughter how to ride there and found it a good area for such an activity! Thank you Leigh!!! I hadn’t actually taken the kids to the Kawana Lake area before, but it really is a wonderful place to go. The wide pathways allow walkers, scooterers, bike riders and runners to feel as though there is plenty of space to do their thing. There seems to be plenty of green parkland to play ball and relax. It is especially lovely in the late afternoon.
On Sunday afternoon I organised the kids and hubby to take Chanel back to Kawana Lake to do some more bike riding. I didn’t want to allow to much time to linger between the first lesson on Thursday afternoon and the next time we took her out again.
The lake was very busy on Sunday afternoon. I didn’t realise the Dragon Boat racing carnival was on. There were a good couple of hundred people down at the Lake. Chanel did quite well with her riding, but the huge number of people put her off a little, so while the lesson wasn’t wasted entirely, it was a little more difficult going. I was very thankful that hubby had come as pushing a pram and trying to help an emotionally challenged female 6 year old isn’t the easiest when one is on their own! Thank God for helpful hubbies! 🙂
So the first goal is to get Chanel comfortable, confident and happy riding her bike without assistance – or at least as little assistance as possible! This will mean that I can take the girls on a bike riding adventure….I may need the assistance of Nannie if hubby is at work – three kids on bikes and a little boy wanting out of a pram can be full on!
As of tomorrow morning – Good Friday, the Sunshine Coast is going to start to burst at the seems. Caravan parks are going to fill up and many apartments are going to have tenants. Holiday tenants. People love to come to the Sunshine Coast at this time of year. The Coast over the next two weeks will be buzzing. What do the tourists do on the Sunshine Coast? Some go to Aussie World, UnderWater World, go to the beach, use the pools at their holiday spots, but what else do they do. They go shopping! Its probably not a great time to go shopping at a major shopping centre on the Coast over the next two weeks. I know for me I am planning to order groceries on www.coles.com.au. I don’t want to waste time doing such jobs as groceries with four kids and try to do it around tourist season. I have a plan and that is to have as much fun as possible – grocery shopping is not fun!
Its funny because when I was a kid I remember mum taking us on bike riding adventurers. We lived in Brisbane and one of the things we loved to do was bike ride along the esplanade at Sandgate.
In those days (back in the day) we didn’t have those bike stands that screw onto the tow bar – I remember us tying the bikes to the roof of the car. Can you just imagine the sight that would behold these days? Not cool!
Another idea is that I might take the kids to the Sandgate pool. We used to do that as kids as well, and while going to the pool these days can be expensive, you can stay there the whole day if you would like too.
I am a member of the www.Simplesavings.com.au site. There is a huge section in this site about what to do on the holidays without spending a fortune, which is exactly right up my ally! There are many hints and tips on this site to save money. It is a pay for service site, but the vault of information at your finger tips is amazing. I feel that with the wealth of information that you receive on this site – you make your money back instantly, so its worth the initial outlay. I have been a member for about 6 years and each year I renew my membership ($17). I use this site on a regular basis.
Some more holiday fun ideas!
We are going to have a morning tea or an afternoon tea for each of the girls and a few friends. Amy our eldest is 10, so I will allow her to have a sleep over with one of her friends – either here or at her friends home. We have a rule – no sleep overs till each child is ten. I don’t feel that the girls are ready until this age. Since I made Amy wait till she was ten, I don’t think its fair that the other girls have sleep overs before this age. This is an area that I feel that I have to be fair with as I really made Amy wait.
I have been teaching my girls, how important it is to look after their skin. I asked the girls if they would like to have a beauty day, so we will do some hair, facials, nails, I’ll give them a 5 minute massage each and a foot rub, and then we can watch a movie – with popcorn (plain – I am trying to lose weight)!
We have many kids movies at home, so instead of going to the cinema we might have an old favourite that we haven’t seen for a while. Why spend money on movies when we don’t need to. We may have a movie day at home with some of their friends if they would like to do this. Gives us mums a chance to catch up!
The girls would like to make some jewellry as an activity, so I will let them raid our supply box and see what they come up with. I recently saw that one of the art programs on the Coast are offering a jewellry making class. I don’t think the girls need a class as such. Its more having the time to have fun to make some necklaces and bracelets. I am looking forward to the idea of posting some of our holiday fun.
Bethy loves cooking so I will have some time with Bethany at some point to have a baking day. She has been talking about this idea for the last little while, so I have to plan that into the mix. I think this idea and the jewellry making idea will be a great activity on a day when Jaden goes to kindy.
Last holidays they were given a paint by numbers pack each, and I noticed that they have all written this idea on their to do list for the holidays.
We may have some time down in Brisbane. The girls have mentioned that they would like to go to Southbank Parklands.
Apparently there is an art school there and for $10 each they can join in on whatever project is on for that day. We will see about that one. I might check into what some of the projects are and plan it at home. The girls are very arty, but with three arty girls – some activities become a little too expensive, so I am more than happy to do some of these activities at home with them. I may need to ask Nannie to have Jaden on an arty day as he likes to make a mess. This too me is not art – but work. Considering I have to clean it up. The girls are at the age where they realise that if they make the mess – they are cleaning it up! One thing the girls have asked to do, is to catch a ferry on the Brisbane River. They would like a river cruise at night time. We have done this before – and it is fun. They also like to walk through the Queen Street Mall. Every time we go down we have to get a photo of Chanel standing next to the Chanel shop sign.
There is something very special about the lights of the city at night time.
Earlier this year I had a weekend away with my Aunt in Noosa. It was a fantastic weekend away. I had the chance to have 2 full night sleeps – which I must say was wonderful. I hadn’t had a full night sleep in two years, as Jaden does not sleep well. Anyway, since my weekend away, I have fallen in love with Noosa again. So at some point over the holidays I have a plan to take the kids up to Noosa for the day. The kids and I love op shopping and there are some very good op shops up at Noosa.
There is a store in the Noosa Junction area that the girls and I love called Tres Noosa. It really is a beautiful store. There is sand on the floor and candles and homewares. In the middle of the store there is a large table where I recently found out that they run art classes using shells. You can decorate a photo frame or a candle. There are a number of choices and you basically pay for what you use. I love beach themed homes and while we don’t live ON the beach, we are about three Kilometres away from Dicky Beach, I would like to bring more of the beach theme into our home. This may be an activity I can do with Bethany at a time where the other girls and Jaden has time with Nanny. Tres Noosa is a very tranquil store. It has a calm presence about it. A gem of Noosa.
Another idea is to use what we have at home or close to our home. We live close to the beach, so we could do activities on the beach. Another crafty idea the girls are talking about is to do some scrap booking. We have many choices, and the great thing is that many of these choices won’t cost us to many dollars. We just need to be aware and think about what our priorities are.
These are a few of our holiday fun ideas. I haven’t yet checked to see what is on at the cinema, or at the library, but there are usually activities on around the Coast. We will just have to see what awaits us. In between all the fun, there needs to be some down time. I for one am looking forward to down time.
