Going Against the Flow: April School Holidays: Week One ~ Birthday Celebrations

School holidays are officially upon us. Even though we cancelled school early, we still felt the change with the beginning of the REAL holidays. The whole atmosphere of life is just more relaxed and we all enjoy the time to unwind and recharge. The addition of the Easter long weekend means that this two week break has a deeper meaning to it than other holidays within the school year as well.

I started this week with some work on my Facebook Photography Challenge assignment ~ 100 Steps. This particular theme meant that you could only photograph something that was within one hundred steps of your front door with the usual allowance of three submissions for the theme. Before I went outside I had an idea of what I wanted to photograph - not realising just how restrictive the 100 step rule was going to be. I wasn't able to go very far away from my house at all... but with some extra thinking I was able to come up with three submissions. Of the above two photos, I submitted the LEFT photo to the challenge, but included the RIGHT photo on the blog post because I liked how it turned out...

My second submission to the Facebook Photography Challenge was this shot of the beautiful paper bark trees that grow across the road from our house in the Montessori school yard.

My third, and final submission to the challenge was a shot of the beautiful Aboriginal dot painting that was done on the side of the Montessori school buiding.

Although the La Nina rain is set to continue into May or even June, we are slowly getting some sunshine and dry weather in between the blocks of rain. I take EVERY opportunity I can to get outside and pound the pavement as I miss my daily walks when it is raining.

This was the original photo I wanted to submit for my 100 Steps Challenge but this house is EASILY at least 400-500 steps from the house. Those are passion fruits growing on lattice above the driveway and it just looks absolutely beautiful. One of the HUGE positives of COVID has been that I have met so many more people in our neighbourhood when my daily walk shrunk to just the block we live on.

Munchkin enjoys school holidays because it means the boy next door can play a lot more than he can during the school term. Here they are sitting on our front veranda playing a game together.

No school holidays is complete without a chess game with dad...

School holidays events at the library were on again. They started very small, just ONE event each week for the two weeks. This first week only Munchkin attended because it was a wind chime craft event. A very simple craft that the two older boys were not the LEAST bit interested in.

Wednesday was a bonus birthday celebration day! A dear friend of ours was travelling back in February when Monster turned 16 so we arranged for her to come over for a special afternoon tea and combined birthday celebration for Monster and Munchkin. As you can see from the two photos above, Monster was thrilled with his magazines that he received from her - one about scientists and one all about how things work.

Then it was time to open a combined gift that she purchased for all three of them - a collaborative board game called Hacker.

Another shot of all three boys opening gifts... each had their own gift.. but they all received a similar gift (Star Wars puzzle) so she wanted them to open them together.

Finally it was Munchkin's turn to open his presents and he thoroughly enjoyed getting a couple of presents two days early.

Thursday was all about birthday cake preparation... so I helped Munchkin bake his own cake. Really all I did was put the cake in the oven and take it out when it was finished baking. He took care of all the other details and I simply took photos of the process.

Friday morning (Good Friday) started bright and early with church and a lovely visit with some dear friends who haven't been able to attend church regularly for awhile. These two beautiful boys are brothers and I LOVE photographing them whenever I get the chance. The older boy is almost exactly one year younger than Munchkin, and the "baby" is nearly 18 months old. We are looking forward to the time when they will be able to attend church much more regularly so we see them more often.

Pancakes and bacon were on order to brunch when we returned from church...

Once all the pancakes and bacon were eaten it was time to open gifts.

The traditional birthday photo taken as close to 12:26pm as we could make it! I'm not sure how in the world it is possible that my baby boy is TEN years old!!

We found a visitor in our shower when we were getting ready for church. We left him to hang out and were pleased to discover he had barely moved when we got home from church. Hubby caught him in a plastic container and I walked him down the road to the creek. He is a juvenile Huntsman and while he was small (only about 8 centimetres including the legs) if you release them in your yard they are likely to come right back in the house. So I always make the extra effort and walk them several hundred metres away from the house before I let them go.

Munchkin and Monster had fun playing an online computer game together for part of their afternoon...

Meanwhile, I took the opportunity to get a bone broth (chicken) going in Phillip as I slow cook my bone broth for 24-48 hours.

While I worked on cooking Munchkin's birthday dinner, he got busy with the important task of decorating his birthday cake. First the whipped cream in the centre, then the chocolate icing on top...

Then the various and sundry decorations...

He was very pleased with the outcome...

Candle blowing shenanigans...

We ended the night with a family game of Exploding Kittens. All in all it was a GREAT day celebrating Munchkin and he declared at bedtime that it was the best day ever!!

Finally, on Saturday afternoon, as the boys enjoyed their computer play time, I got busy with some school planning for Term 2. After the dramas of Munchkin's medical issues at the end of Term 1, my plan is to be super organised for Term 2.