Productive Holidays

These holidays weren't quite what I had hoped for and planned. For me there is still an uncertainty about Covid and what is sensible to do and what should be avoided. I know that places have a Covid safe plan, but that doesn't mean that it is safe to do and is sensible to do. Things like the Aquarium I'd love to take the kids to, but it is inside and while they may stagger the entrance, it doesn't stop people building up inside. The Maritime Museum is similar - we still have a voucher which has expired from the school fete last year. A bit annoying but hopefully they will honour it when we feel up to going there. Public transport even is a bit iffy for me. Just this last week someone with Covid caught about 6 different types of transport. I'm just hesitant to expose us to those things. We have done some things though and carried with us hand sanitiser. 

We have been to a few park plays with friends. On the Monday of the holidays we met up with Elise and her kids Hannah, Ethan and Rosie and also happened to bump into Ez and her kids Penelope, Annalise and Hugh. Then as they left we bumped into Sophie and Eve so the kids had a spark of energy again. I didn't get photos with their friends but here are my kiddies have a rest on the swing together.

The next day we had a park play with Eliza's school friend April. We were to go to her place but her little brother had a runny nose so we instead decided to go to a park so it was open air and less risk of catching something. The kids happily rode their bikes, played on the equipment and ate. It was nice to chat with April's mum, Ingrid, a bit. The only stress was that my kids are so good with younger kids, they were getting close to April's little brother, letting him touch their helmets, etc. This increased my stress that the kids would get sick. I didn't want to say 'Stop touching and going close to him' but I was getting very anxious about it all! Other than that it was a nice time at the park and the kids had a blast. They even had a go on April's skateboard. I was surprised at how well Daniel and Eliza could balance on it.

Wednesday morning saw Nana and Poppy pick the kids up around 8am to head to their place for the night and 2 days. This was my productive time! While the kids had a great time on the Ferry to Manly and Pancakes the next morning and a play at Fagen Park...

I was up and ready to do the last bit of painting inside since our roof got done 2 years ago. For the last 2 years we have had these patches on our roof from the boys walking on the roof when they were building upstairs. I had wanted to paint it for ages but school days aren't long enough and the holidays this year have been different to other ones. I needed a night were we could sleep upstairs so that the paint could dry and we wouldn't be breathing in the fumes for the night. So these couple of days worked perfectly.

I sanded and taped up the walls and then undercoated the patches.

Next up I did the first coat of the ceiling. It looked so much neater (funny that). Then in the late afternoon I did the 2nd coat.

At night we headed out for dinner at Trevi Lakeside Restaurant. James found a deal for a 3 course mid week meal and it was really tasty. I forgot to take photos but here was us when we got home. It was so nice to have a chance to sit and chat, to sit in silence, to talk about Malcolm and Grandma and how we were going with it all. It was nice.
 

In the morning we decided that the roof didn't need another coat so it was done!

The rest of the day was spent cleaning, organising, sorting. Always more to do than there is time to do. It was nice when we went to Mum and Dad's for dinner to have Alexander come up and just want to sit on my lap. A bit of a sweet moment.

Other things we have done these holidays have been plant seeds (more of the woolworths ones)

The kids also made a bee hotel to put in our garden wall.

We planted Alexander's bean seed from preschool because it has grown so tall inside. We can't wait to see how it continues to grow and if we will get some beans from it.

Eliza had Clara's birthday party, her first one for Kindy (thanks to Covid). It was a lovely little party where they dressed up as fairies and got to make fairy gardens. Eliza loved making her fairy garden. I loved the addition of the white flowers planted in it. Lani did an awesome job!

James and I had also been productive in the backyard over the weekend. We have put in a compost bin which I'm a bit excited about. No more digging to bury the bokashi compost. Yay! I do want to redo this part of the garden but that time will come.

I painted the down pipe that Dan installed at the start of the year. It now is the same colour as the house instead of pipe white. It was lovely to use the paint pourer from Malcolm. James told me that his Dad didn't normally give random gifts so it was very special that he saw them and bought it for me. And it worked a treat! No more paint drips!
 

James put up a new clothes line. He was very excited that it matches the colour of our roof. He made a really good choice and it now means that we can remove the one up on the back lawn and have that patch of grass for the kids to play freely on. The clothes line looks so neat and the clothes have dried fine on it so far.

James finished off the back wall (I'll do a proper post about that) and it looks amazing! We filled it with soil and Mum and Dad looked after the kids so that we could go to a nursery and pick plants for it. It was a lot of work but we are happy with how it looks. We need to get some more plants for it but this is a start.
 

I really love how this back area is coming together!

We also got a few plants for upstairs. It will be a learning progress to know how much water to put in but it is nice to have some fresh and real plants in our upstairs area.

Eliza and Daniel headed to Kids Catch Up on Thursday and so I got to spend a morning with Alexander. It was really nice. We played boardgames and then he made his own boardgame. I was amazed that he knew how to write the number 4 without any help! Some other ones I needed to do the dots but he is doing really well with his knowledge of numbers and how to write them!

We played the game and (by Alexander's rules) we had to go around the board 3 times before the end to find the winner. Alexander of course won!

We then played some Ooshie battles which is an interesting game with a 4 year old who keeps making up his own rules (thanks to his big brother teaching him). He kept saying 'That doesn't count because...' and 'I get to go again because...' I didn't get anywhere near as many goes or understood each of his exceptions to the rules but I decided that he was having fun and that was the point of me playing with him so I'd just run with his made up rules. Of course, Alexander won.

Being holidays and also daylight savings starting has also meant that we've been able to enjoy dinner outside a few times which has been really nice. A change of scenery.

And last night we decided that the kids could watch a bit of Bluey before bed. It was a bit nice to have my boys snuggle into me for it. I am enjoying the cuddles from Daniel in particular because as he gets older I know that they will decrease (they already have started to decrease). 

The kids were keen to have a sleep over in the loungeroom again all together which would have been fun to do but I have come down with tonsillitis again so I'm trying to rest up to get better. It is annoying being sick in the holidays. I wish that I was better so that we could go and do things that we had planned (lunch with friends yesterday, Reptile Park today and more tasks around the house) but I also know that it's important that I stop and rest up to try and get better. Hopefully this is the end of the sore throats for me. I don't remember them being this painful when I've had it before, but maybe I've just forgotten about the pain from previous ones. I don't know. Anyway, the kids have been pretty understanding and have enjoyed their bikes and playing together (mostly).