Holidays, Floriade and Captain Underpants....

Ma is my mum's mother and she lives about 8 hours drive away in a nursing home in country Victoria. It has become a kind of tradition for me to go on holiday each year with just my mum and the kids to go visit her. We stay on my uncle and aunts farm and have a wonderful time exploring and playing. I love these trips, they bring back great memories from my own childhood and it is so special to see my children enjoying time with family and experiencing a lifestyle that is so different from their own regular daily routine.



This layout is from our trip these last school holidays. My journalling says "These school holidays, Gran, Mum and you 3 kids left Canberra striaght after school finished and drove all the way to George and Marg's farm. We visited Ma and had lots and lots of fun playing with 2 week old lambs, calves and ducks when we went out to lunch. You big kids had a great time riding on the 4 wheel motorbike with Marg and exploring the farm. It was such a lovely way to spend the start of the school holidays."


This next page is about our first visit for the year to the annual flower festival, "Floriade" that is held in Canberra each Spring. Floriade is amazing! I really look forward to going along each year and typically go 3 or sometimes even 4 times to admire the beautiful flower displays.

This year Will's preschool class had an excursion to Floriade so I thought that Lizzy and I might go along to enjoy it with them. Well, it turned out to be a disaster! Poor Lizzy fell asleep on the 10 minute trip there and did not appreciate being woken up. She did not want to ride in the stoller and she did not enjoy stopping for morning tea or waiting while 44 kids used the toilet (i can't really blame her there.) So less than 30 minutes after we arrived we were heading home again......which took another 30 minutes as she thought she might like to puch the stroller herself rather than ride inside it! (Sometimes I think the 'terrible twos' have arrived early for my darling girl)

The journalling reads: "Our trip to Floriade with Will's class did not go so well. You were too tired and didn't last an hour"

Thank fully, our second and third trips were much more fun - apart from the Ferris Wheel, which both Lizzy and I did not enjoy!

This last page is for my current "Stash Stomper" challenge at ScrapBoutique. The idea is to use up some old chipboard product from your scrapbook stash. Those chipboard letters and the crown and loveheart would probably have been sitting in my collection for over 4 years! Check out this link here for details on entering this months challenge.

My page records Lizzy's current obsession with William's underpants. She sees a pair and points "Hat, hat!" Then she grabs them and pulls them on her head. She not fussy about them being clean so we have to be extra vigilant when he is getting changed and make sure his jocks go straight in the laundry hamper rather than on his baby sister's head! She steals them from his drawer and from the clothes basket when I'm hanging them out or bringing them in to fold. She thinks she is hilarious and pulls them up from over her eyes and calls out "Boo, boo Lizzy!"

The journalling reads "Look out Will, there's an underpants thief around and she appears to have a distinct preference for your undies! She loves to steal them and wear them as a hat!"

And so we shall call her Captain Underpants! Funny kid!