Rosebud

What with one thing and another, I haven't really recorded our Mothers Group holiday the other week.  We had a great time.  Three families: ours, Astrid's and Jenny's, crowded into a 4 bedroom, two-storey beach house in Rosebud.  Noisy!  Well, when the kids were up, it was anyway.   Especially when they ran round playing their favoured game of Harry Potter, shouting Expelliarmus! or Petrificus Totalus! at the top of their lungs.

Whilst in Rosebud, our group (in various permutations, depending on preferences) explored the many op-shops in the surrounding areas, got to a beach at least once a day (usually the Rosebud beach, but also the Sorrento backbeach at low-tide for the rockpool action and also the stunning Point Nepean where the dangerous rips meant we could only paddle, but the views more than made up for it), did some fishing and bike-riding, played boardgames, read books, celebrated Pea's 10th birthday, cooked fancy meals for those who would eat them (and plain pasta for BP and Cherub), played Lego and Polly Pocket, knitted and crocheted, took the Age Summer Quiz each day and other puzzles as the mood took us, drank tea at home and coffee when we went out, visited the Rosebud funfair and the Ashcombe Maze and tried to keep everything dry in the very wet weather.  Oh, and Cherub lost his first top tooth.



I started up Miss Caroline's Hair Salon for the girls because long hair is very annoying when you're swimming a lot, and also because let's face it, the boys never let me braid their hair.

We had a backyard party because Astrid's firstborn turned 10 while we were there...



...and all the kids got party poppers.



We also made the Big Kids and the Middles do the downstairs dishes, which went off without any whinging or breakages...



... although the Bigs got a bit silly with the bubbles.



We ended up sleeping all the children downstairs (except for the very youngest who tried one night in with the chatterboxes and decided, sensibly, that he needed more sleep than the rest of them were having), in the loungeroom and the front bedroom, while Jenny and her husband bravely took the middle room and helped with early morning breakfast making.  (Jenny volunteered, saying she is an early riser anyway).  None of the kids could agree on who would sleep in the coveted front room so they drew up a fantastic roster, rotating themselves through the various beds: Lounge I, Lounge II, Kitchen, Front Room.  And because they'd made the roster together they also stuck to it beautifully, with no arguing even when they got the squeaky mattress.



In short, a good time was had by all, and I hope the kids will always remember it as a great fun summer holiday.  Full photo set here.