Easter Books

My children love Easter books. It is very special and poignant to read Christian stories about Easter with the children, but I also like them to have a little fun also with Easter eggs and bunnies.

Scholastic gifted us some very fun books.

Where’s the Easter Bunny – Louis Shea

Where's the Easter Bunny

Hands down, this is Jonty and Trent’s favourite of the Scholastic books this year. Just quietly, it is not mine. Don’t get me wrong, I was very excited when I first saw it, truly, I was. But that was because I know that this would be a hit with my kids, the illustrations were bright and even though there isn’t much text, there is still enough for the children to engage with and become familiar with words as they search for the clues. But, I really don’t get excited with search and finds and waiting for the children to find the hidden pictures. Alex is great at it, so I’ve now made a rule that Daddy does search and finds and Mummy only does books with stories in it. I know it’s a bit mean, but at least they aren’t missing out altogether.

Plus, they read it themselves a lot also, so they haven’t missed out trying to spot over 500 things! The boys love hunting through the hilariously detailed illustrations to find the Easter Bunny and other characters on every spread – they more they look, they more they laugh. And it’s always the sweetest thing to see two little heads bent over a book and laughing.

Those Pesky Rabbits – Ciara Flood

Those Pesky Rabbits

 

This isn’t really an Easter story. It just has rabbits in the stories. So that classifies it as Easter at this time of the year, but it can remain a favourite for the rest of the year as well. I would be in favour of repeat reading of this story. Those bunnies are such lovely bunnies. (Quite unlike bunnies in real life.) The book tells the tale of a family of cheerful rabbits who make their neighbours life unBEARable!

Old bear is a bit of a hermit and wants to be left alone but his rabbit neighbours don’t get it and keep trying to engage with the bear. Eventually their unselfish kindness wins and bear ends up making some wonderful friendships. A great story bringing out beautiful themes such as being a good neighbour, generosity, community, friendship, togetherness and consideration for others.

Little Barry Bilby Had A Fly Upon His Nose – Colin Buchanan and Roland Harvey

Little Barry Bilby

Ok, so once again, this isn’t an actual Easter book, but this time is about Bilby’s. Which in the real world are far more preferable to bunnies. It’s become very Australian to include Bilby’s in Easter celebrations and as a farmer’s daughter, I can see merit in this. Rabbits can be so destructive to crops and land. Bilby’s on the other hand are little natives who are far more likeable.

This book is set to the classic Little Peter Rabbit song, performed by Colin Buchanan. The book comes with a CD. Also very Australian is that Barry Bilby and his friends Peter Possum, Colly Cocky and a few others get absolutely attacked by Aussie bush bugs. (I winced when one character had a tick on his tail.) Roland Harvey’s illustrations (as always) are perfect. This is a great Aussie alternative for children at Easter. (And the rest of the year.)

Ten Easter Eggs

Ten Easter Eggs

A friendly board book for children, the triplets particularly loved this little counting story. A great introduction to subtraction. The illustrations are sweet and the plastic eggs are so touchable.

 

So, if you are looking for some stories to read over the Easter weekend, these all have my hearty recommendation.

Do you buy chocolate bilby’s at Easter? Do you enjoy reading search and find books, or do you prefer to leave children to their own devices and search independently?

 

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Easterfest Day 3

Easterfest 2014 is all over. If you missed it, watch below for an action packed re-cap.

You can also read what our family did at Easterfest on Day 1 and Day 2

I’m not sure whether to be sad or a little bit relieved. Sad because Easterfest is a fantastic festival, great artists, so many things to do and fun. But I am relieved we didn’t go today, because as much fun as it was, gosh it was so tiring doing it with five kids under seven – and in particular, you guessed it, the three two year old triplets.

When we were home from the festival, the triplets did sleep well, let me assure you! Alex and I my parenting strategy is just to get in and do things and deal with the fallout afterwards. So Easter Monday was officially devoted to going slow and recovering. Don’t tell the triplets, but because they were fully zonked out and taking an extra long nap, they have missed out on a post Easter egg hunt with some friends at a local park. The big boys were happy to go along though – not that any of them needs extra sugar, but that’s another story.

Talking of which, sugar is exactly the way Easter Sunday began, with Trent, our living alarm clock, running in and letting us know that the Easter Bunny had came! He then specifically came over to me and made a point of saying, “The Easter Bunny has given me chocolates, not you. Just the Easter Bunny.” We tell him every year that the Easter Bunny and Santa aren’t real. (Just our choice, no problem with those who don’t) It doesn’t matter. He simply refuses to believe me. At least he can never say I lied!

Little did he know that after coming in late from a watching the jazz at Easterfest, (See ) I had stayed up late not only filling their Easter buckets with chocolate, but also loading a new game onto their leapsters/leap pad so they had something to distract them at the concert on Sunday night.

The triplets normally are locked in their bedroom in the mornings. (On account of their super powers of destruction if they get up before us.) I didn’t trust them enough to leave chocolate in their room with no supervision. They were pretty happy to find the buckets at the door when they woke up!

Small girl emerged without clothes on. She defies fashion trends and has decided she hates onesies.  It is an ongoing battle between her and I at the moment…

Of course there was chocolate for breakfast.

There’s only one day of the year you can get away with chocolate for brekky!

Anyway, onto Easterfest. We headed to Mainstage for the church service. As usual it was a brilliant time of corporate praise and worship. Our church traditionally runs the Easterfest service, and there is always a big crowd from Easterfesters and particularly the campers. We were so proud of one of our great pastor’s Nat Spary preaching the sermon. Nat shared his testimony about growing up in a dysfunctional home. He was so poor “that we couldn’t afford the R in poor and that just left us with poo.” Because of the Resurrection that we were celebrating on Sunday, Jesus has set him free from a life of hurt, pain and addictions. He learned that God’s love had the power to heal and to save. These days Nat runs an awesome ministry called The Base which ministers to the poor and disadvantaged, to kids who are in a similar situation to him.

This is Nat and his incredible wife Tiff. I had run into them in Kidsworld the previous day!

After church we went home and settled some very tired triplets down for a sleep. The big boys and Daddy kicked back and watched a DVD, so I took advantage of the peacefulness and escaped back into town to watch Jars of Clay at “The Palace” (tent!) It was so nice just being out on my own and enjoying the music. I had to run away a bit early, but I couldn’t resist ducking in to have a quick look at the Lifeline tent after hearing such great things about it. I picked up a cute shirt and dress, complete bargains. Yay!

Once I was home I discovered the triplets were still sleeping, (they clocked up a three hour nap, thanks to Easterfest exhaustion!) so I raced madly around the house packing things, particularly warm clothes, (Toowoomba is chilly at this time of year), so we could go out as a family to the final event on MainStage. We were a bit nervous about how we would go with all the kids. As always, we decided to plunge in and just do it. We always have an “Abort Mission” clause that we’ve agreed to if things aren’t going well. A few times, a very few at that, we’ve aborted missions. But for the most part we find that we get through things, and we would prefer to be doing stuff rather than sitting safely at home and missing out on the fun.

Minus one child in the pic Sunday night.

Having said that, it may be that the people sitting behind us were wishing that we aborted the mission sooner. There was certainly a lot of movement from our little patch on the grass! Thankfully no one seemed to notice or mind the strange attire and state of our
kids. Because we had whipped them out of bed and into the car, there were dirty faces, crumpled clothes, Jayden was wearing a girls hat that he refused to take off, the identical boys refused to wear shoes, so ran around in their socks and later in the night, Imogen refused to wear her coat, despite it being freezing. And when she finally gave in, it took her half an hour to get it on because she then refused to accept help. Ah, the joys of toddlerhood! We made it through most of the evening, even if we arrived later than we wished and missed out on Alabaster Box and Jimmy Needham, (I really wanted to hear him!)

Getting towards the end of the night…

Dami Im was brilliant. I loved seeing how genuine and passionate she is about her faith, and she really has the Wow factor as well as the X factor when she belts out a tune!

I was so impressed with how the OC Supertones worked the crowd. They had everyone up on their feet and participating. Even my kids listened and obeyed! (I wonder if they do house calls) As the kids danced around, raised their hands and clapped to the songs, I was so glad that we made the effort to come as a family.

A presentation by the crew from Yes He Is was truly inspiring.

New Empire also rocked the stage. Towards the end of the set, it was apparent that it was time to take the kids home. It would have been good to stay for the Worship Party finale, but this is just the stage of life we are at.

Altogether, I am very grateful that the organisers of Easterfest giving us tickets. It has been a pleasure to share with you about this well organised, fun, inspirational festival that is full of talent, passion and faith. To be honest, it hasn’t been easy taking five kids to the festival every day. We were absolutely exhausted by the end. There are a lot of moments I just wanted to give up. When we came home at lunchtime I felt like bawling while the kids were all crying, I had a sore back, I was tired and I was worried because our dog had run away since Friday night, (Thankfully our neighbours on the other side of the highway found him at their place when they returned from camping.) But after a little sniffle (such self control!) I just pulled my big girl pants up, thanked my God for my blessings and kept pedalling like mad, because it’s a glorious ride this life and I want to make the most of it!

Just to remind you as I say this, I’m under no obligation to say anything but my own opinions here. Easterfest hasn’t sponsored these posts or all my social media contributions over the weekend. I just really want to heartily endorse and recommend Easterfest as a great event for people to go to. As a family, we had a blast. Sure we don’t get to do as much as we might like, but everything we did do was awesome. (Cue Lego theme song… Everything is AWESOME!!!)  Kidsworld was so good at keeping the younger ones engaged, it may not feel you are getting value for money when you are stuck in the sandpit, but like my sister said as she hung out with me there on Saturday, “I come here when the kids are young because I want to support this festival in the hope that it will still be here when my kids are teenagers.” Her family got a one day pass, but her 11 year old eldest daughter loved it so much her and her father came on Sunday as well.  For families, if you have kids who are in their pre-teen and teenage years, I think they are the ideal age to enjoy the full benefits and value of the wide range of music available. Of course it’s ideal for young adults as well if we are talking more than families, but everywhere I looked there was people of every age group. There were a lot of grandparents sitting up the back with us at MainStage also, and they certainly looked like they were enjoying themselves even if their mosh pit days are over!

The big announcement of the festival was that Switchfoot will be there in 2015. The news hot of the press is that until April 30 you can get discounted tickets online for 2015, so it’s definitely worth checking out, or letting someone know if you think they will enjoy it. Hop over to the Easterfest and click on the tickets button.

But in the meantime, I loved it, but it’s time to take off the festival wrist wear and get on living the life that glorifies that God we spent the weekend proclaiming.

Linking with Essentially Jess

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Easterfest Day 1

Easterfest 2014 is a good one. The children particularly have had an absolute blast! Kids World is amazing!  To be truthful, I haven’t even scratched the surface of what’s there, but hey, that’s to be expected if you take 5 kids to a music festival – especially when said festival caters for the kiddos so well. You’re bound to stay in that corner!

The Accountant was very adamant that the lawn needed to be mowed this morning.  It rained while we were away, so the grass was long. He did have a point. After all, I didn’t want tigers that have hidden in the grassy pasture of our backyard jumping out of the long tufts and devouring our children.

And so he was out on the ride-on this morning, doing the obligatory rides for each child. Thankfully, once each child had their turn, he was happy to give it a break since the lawn was heavy with dew this morning, so it wasn’t easy to cut.

So, we headed into Easterfest. Perfect timing really, we got to line up with my bestie Belinda from BBeingCool.

Belinda has crutches at the moment because she had an ankle re-construction. The poor thing had to explain this repeatedly throughout the day, and I suppose she will be explaining the whole time she sports a moon boot – which she wore with flair, I might add!

Because she is such a lovely person, there was no pretence she didn’t know us while our children dropped to the ground repeatedly and did their toddler thing.

Once we got our tickets (Thanks Easterfest!*) We had to deal with the toddler fallout. The two year old identicals did not approve AT ALL to having ‘bracelets’ put on. Mammoth two year old tantrum was thrown. You know the type where everyone turns to see what the heck is happening.

(Of course, Immy had no probs with the bracelet, thought it was the perfect accessory for the occasion. Look at her showing it off to her little friend that she bumped into at the animal pen later in the day!)

(I do hope she wasn’t rubbing in the fact that we had a premium upgrade though!)

We made it as quickly as possible over to Kids World. The boys didn’t want to be distracted from their very important tantrum, but within three minutes they gave in. Honestly, resistance was futile with the myriads of exciting activities therewithin! At that point I blew The Accountant a kiss and raced down to “The Forum” to listen to Nanalew, Meekakitty, (awesome you tubers, search them, so cute!) and the dude behind yesHeis (can’t remember his name, but he was seriously inspiring) and our very own Toowoomba blogger, The Crafty Mummy.

After that finished, I returned to Kids World. The Accountant was slightly frazzled, but still in control. Seriously, my husband is a legend. I know for a fact that there are many Dads who wouldn’t stay on their own with five kids for an hour and a half in a public place. Or Mums for that matter, to tell you the truth the thought scares even me. Alex ran out for a little bit for a look around, and I was very grateful the kids were happy eating some lunch and watching the SU chaplains run a  SUPA club. It was so good seeing the kids engage with the Gospel message.

After SUPA club, we did a few more fun things like play in the giant sand pit, merry-go-round, pirate boat rides, knock-it-down games, petting zoo and a giant shark slide.
Oh, and I shouldn’t fail to mention, we met Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber! Christian vegetable royalty! 
With the triplets at first…

I hadn’t noticed the duo at first. Toby kept pointing and saying, “Look!” I finally noticed that he was pointing to a person dressed as a tomato. I just commented, “Oh yes, a big tomato.” I thought it was really random that they decided to have a tomato walking around the grounds when there was a pirate theme! (In my defence, Bob was standing side on and I couldn’t see his eyes!) The boys kept getting excited and watching the tomato. Then Larry walked out and I finally got it!

Then the big boys saw his and joined in. Having grown up on a cucumber farm, I have soft spot for good ol’ Larry.
So, altogether a really fun day. Oh, except for the walking out bit. Which was much like the walking in bit. Toby was objecting loudly because he didn’t want to leave. Then he screamed blue murder while we buckled
him into the stroller. Unfortunately the mega you tubers were right next to us conducting an interview on camera. I don’t know why they decided to interview them in Kids World – although I’m glad they did, while they were waiting for the interview to begin, I had a chat with them while I was in the petting zoo. Nothing like shaking the hand of a famous You Tuber with around a million subscribers while a goat is pooping next to you. (The goat had no social graces.) Anyway, to leave we wheeled a screaming two year old through the crowd and went home. Hung clothes on the line, had fish for dinner, put tired triplets to bed, read a devotional with the big boys and said some prayers remembering Christ’s sacrifice on this Good Friday. 
The Accountant went in to see the night time action at Easterfest while I’m looking after the kids. I’ve received a text from him. “Jars of Clay playing some good tunes. The Flood – old classic. Music not to loud so I’m not too old yet!” 
Meanwhile I’ve been sitting here looking at all the #easterfest2014 hashtags on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and reflecting how awesome this event is. If you live in Toowoomba, or even nearby, seriously it’s not too much of a drive for those who live in Brisbane and other nearby South East Queensland areas, you really should consider making a spontaneous decision and coming, you can buy a one day ticket at the gate. 
I’m going to indulge in a little editorial at this point.
The tickets aren’t cheap. Especially for families. Some of you really couldn’t afford it, and I get that. There have been years that we have not come because of the money also. However, if you do have the funds, consider coming if for nothing else to support the cause. Because how seriously awesome is it that there is an Easter event in Toowoomba, in Queensland, in Australia (because this is the biggest Christian music festival in Australia) that there is an event that proclaims God’s name into the supernatural realm of our town/state/country? It is the type of stuff that by just by the amount of worship that comes out of this event, darkness is pierced. 
You might have a family like ours, or be an older couple. I get it that you don’t want to spend all that money to sit in Kidsworld or don’t have a connection with the majority of the artists. But can I encourage you, your children pick up something of that spiritual dimension just by being in the place. You will pick something up. Just being here allows God to work in your spirit. Just coming is stating that as a family, we support this cause because we want God’s name proclaimed. The reason Easterfest tickets do cost so much money is there is soooo much funds that are required to run a festival of this magnitude. If you’re just not into this type of thing so you think that it is not value for money, think of it as a donation and think of the value this event is to our nation. If you have tweens or teens, it is excellent value on all accounts. This is absolutely quality music and a super fun venue.
So stay tuned to my Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts as I track our movements at Easterfest 2014. We are feeling the Crazy Love**! 

Jars of Clay playing at the concert I missed out on tonight. (sniff, sniff) Glad that Alex is enjoying it! Photo taken from Easterfest’s Facebook page.
Are you at, or have been to Easterfest? Favourite moments there?
What type of music is your type?

* Easterfest gifted a family pass to us, and another pass as a giveaway. But everything I have shared about the event is my honest opinion. Because a liar liar pants on fire is something I’m not.
** This years theme for the event!

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Easterfest GIVEAWAY!!!

This competition is now closed. Congratulations to lmaree. I hope your family has a blast at Easterfest! If you didn’t win and don’t have tickets, consider purchasing them as soon as possible, this isn’t a year you want to miss out!

In my city of Toowoomba there is an annual festival celebrating the true meaning of Easter. As a Toowoomba Christian I am very proud of Easterfest. I love that at Easter, the most important event in the Christian calendar, our city is literally pumping out good vibes and there are people everywhere singing and talking about Jesus. Literally, there is music everywhere you go. And not only is there music, but the shops are overflowing with happy customers, (the shops are within walking distance of the festival), as are the nearby restaurants and cafes which are a perfect place to relax especially since most have live music over the weekend. There are free events everywhere.

However all the best action happens within the ticketed area in Queens Park from April 18-20. Once again, it’s not just about music, but music there is plenty of, in every possible genre you could imagine from Heavy Metal – not my thing at all, but The Accountant doesn’t mind his music heavy on occasion – to Easter Jazz – it’s new this year, and totally my thing! There’s plenty of rock music but also worship music, punk and soul and even music to bush dance to! (I believe there will be a bush dancing world record attempt…)

But like I said, it’s not just about music. There are show rides, a sports zone, live streaming, dancing and more traditional Christian elements such as church services on Easter Sunday and the Stations of the Cross.

Most importantly for families there is a kids zone. The Kids World is fenced in, so there’s less chance of wee ones escaping and there is sand to play in, singing, games and craft amongst other things. We go to Easterfest regularly, but we haven’t been since the triplets were born. Not just because it’s a bit daunting taking them out in crowds, but also because The Accountant grew up leaving the city at Eastertime and he still likes to escape to the beach some years. I do like to support Easterfest though. Even though the tickets aren’t cheap they really are good value. For those of us who are Toowoomba locals, it’s also about supporting the cause, although the kickbacks for supporting the cause are pretty impressive! If you really enjoy Christian music and live out of town, it’s well worth the visit. If you want to save money, there’s even a camping option on the site! (For those who are happier campers than I am!) I should note that a lot of people who just enjoy music and aren’t in on the Christian music scene come along and enjoy it and are pleasantly surprised!

The last time we took the kids, they loved the kids area. Especially the giant sandpit. Luckily there are plenty of chairs to sit and supervise the kids and even a coffee stand nearby for those coffee addicts. (I’m a tea kind of girl, but The Accountant will make full use of the coffee stand!) I do warn you, it can get a bit boring sitting and watching the kids play in sand when you can feel the great vibe pumping all around. Mind you, I had found out the day before that I was expecting triplets, so I spent a lot of the time sitting wondering how on earth I would survive. However in the moments I wasn’t panicking about living with triplets, we found the perfect solution was to join up with other families and rotate the parents who remain on playground duty while the other parents race out and take advantage of the other festival excitement. I will be studying up the schedule before we go this year so that I know exactly the times I want to escape Kids World. My friends BBeingCool and The Crafty Mummy are going to be around so I might work out which are good girly gigs to watch and which would be good ones to see with hubby. Mind you, I expect we may have some timetabling clashes, so we might have to do paper scissors rock to determine who gets to see some of the acts.

I have to admit, I’m not up to date with all the artists, (I listen to far too much Colin Buchanan and The Wiggles around here), but top of my list at this stage is Jimmy Needham, Jars of Clay, Alabaster Box and The Idea of North. Oh, and Dami Im. I loved her on The X Factor last year, she just seemed so nice and whoa, killer voice! I might do a bit of research and get more familiar with some of the other artists, so this list may change. Hello iTunes!

Now, here is the really exciting news! I have a family pass to giveaway to my readers! Yes, that’s right, you can jump up and down a squeal if you like! (Or at least get your kids to do that for you!)

You just need to leave a comment below answering the question below. (I’d also love it if you would “like” Easterfest and Caitlin’s Happy Heart pages.)

If you would like more chances to win, head over to BBeingCool and The Crafty Mummy and enter their competitions. They also will each be giving away an Easterfest family ticket. Yes! You actually have three chances to win!

If you were at Easterfest 2014, what would be the top 3 “Must Do/See” activities or artists you will put on your schedule for you and your family?



The Fine Print:

  • Only one entry per family.
  • This is a game of skill, not chance. You must answer the question for a valid entry. Judging will be on creativity and originality.
  • The prize is a 3-Day Pass for a Family of 4 as described on the Easterfest Tickets page: http://easterfest.com/tickets/prices/
  • The ticket covers entry to the festival only. The winner is responsible for their own transport, meals and accommodation.
  • You must leave a valid email address for a valid entry.
  • Only open to Australian residents – apologies to my overseas readers. 
  • Entries open with this post on Friday 29th March 2014 and close on Friday 11th April 2014 at 8pm Brisbane time.
  • The winner will be chosen by an Easterfest representative from the valid entries and contacted via email as soon as possible after choosing. Names will be removed from entries so that they are anonymous for the judge to choose.
  • If the winner does not reply within 48 hours of the email being sent, a new winner will be selected.
  • The tickets will be sent via email to the winner from the Easterfest team. I can’t take responsibility for any issues in the delivery process. 


*Disclosure: My family has been gifted a family pass to attend Easterfest this year. I really do fully support Easterfest and of course all thoughts and opinions I have written above are my own.

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Easter 2013

I hope everyone had a great Easter. Just like last year  we travelled to my parent’s beach house.

On our way!

This year we shared Easter with my brother and my sister, her hubby and five kids. Yep, 10 kids in a house with only one living area. My brother has since declared that he is never having kids. Which I find quite distressing because A) I want him to get married and give me some more nephews/nieces. And B) it’s concerning that my kids could have that effect on someone.

Admittedly 10 kids 10 and under is a bit intense. Especially when 6 of those kids are 4 and under. (Although I don’t know why he would complain that much. I had the youngest six on my own for a morning and it was a perfect little holiday, we had a lovely time!) I did try to explain to him that the likelihood of him having more than one baby at a time is highly unlikely. And it didn’t help that the triplets are cross teething, which was responsible for three little grumpy bums running about who would not hesitate to drop to the ground and have a nice little scream session on a frequent basis. I have learned to quite often ignore them when this happens, but I perhaps should have considered that it is more grating on a single man’s ears! The poor little one year olds were also running fevers and snuffles.

Alex’s favourite aspect of going to Bundaberg, more specifically, Bargara, (a little beach town just outside of Bundy), is the beach. The Bundy beaches are just right for children within our age brackets. Because the Great Barrier Reef begins offshore from Bundy, the surf is very minimal. There also lots of inlets with shallow or still water which is great for the children, especially toddlers to safely play in. Just to prove that being with his nieces and nephews wasn’t all bad, Uncle Gregory was a super uncle playing with the babies on the beach. He built sandcastles for them, dug holes which they loved sitting in, especially as he kept filling them with water. Toddler heaven.

Meanwhile the bigger kids were exploring around the waterhole with Daddy and Aunty Katrina.

After so much sunshine and physical activity, the triplets had a good sleep afterwards. Jayden was so tired that he completely flaked out on the grass while the rest of the kids ate chips.

Easter morning was full of chocolate deliciousness. Because my parents were not staying with us this year, Alex and I stayed in the very large master bedroom with the five children. The triplets weren’t feeling well, so this was challenging at times, since the triplets took advantage of the knowledge that we were close by and requested parental services at ungodly hours (oh, the memories) and moaned, cried and snuffled in their sleep. However, I did love hearing all the kids wake up on Easter morning and discover their Easter buckets.  (Alex had no sentimentality about such things, rolled over and kept his eyes shut throughout the whole proceeding!) The delight of children discovering little treats always warms my heart. I let them eat a chocolate straight away. It did mean there was chocolate mooshed everywhere, but hey, you got to let them do special things every once in awhile, there’s only one day of the year you can get away with chocolate before breakfast!

First thing Easter morning. Sorry for the blurry photos, I tend to get a bit excited sometimes and click before focusing! You can particularly tell that Toby was sick. He konked out before even finishing his egg! 

It wasn’t long before all 10 children were up, and more chocolate was consumed. Although this time, the children were very civilised and went and ate at the table without even being told!

We went to the local Catholic church with my brother. The last time I was in that cathedral was for an end of year mass back when I was a teenager and a student at a local Catholic high school. Unfortunately getting out of the house with five kids to attend a service at 8am is not easy. (Especially when I thought we were going to a 9 o’clock service) Consequently by the time we arrived, 5 minutes late, there was only standing room in the church. We stood in the doorway of one of the side doors, and the five kids kind of rolled, toddled and crept around the floor. Until they inevitably started wanting more space and the littlies started crying. At this point, it was great being positioned so close to the door. We didn’t quite make it to the end of the service, which I think disappointed my Catholic brother, but The Accountant was getting frazzled, and I’m not sure that Jayden’s wailing from the footpath wasn’t still interrupting the congregation within. Everyone was made happy again with a post church visit to Maccas!

My kids plus one. Trent declared, by the middle of the service, that this child was his best friend.

The kids really loved their little tin buckets I got them this year and hunting for Easter eggs. The triplets look so cute toddling about with them.

The big boys are super enthusiastic egg hunters. We did a hunt with the cousins on the Tuesday, just before leaving. Plenty of chocolate for a sugar high on the way home. The kids also went hunting in a nearby park before Easter. I think it’s so sweet seeing excited children tearing around the place full of hope, expectation and determination to succeed!

So, that was our Easter. Altogether, a delightful family time, and there was even some chances to catch up with all school friends, which is always delightful. It was just great having the cousins play together and developing bonds with my nieces and nephews. Even if I think that my niece displayed a little bit of one upmanship. Trying to outdo me with quads. Hmmph.

I would love to know what you did over the Easter weekend. Please share in the comments!

I’m linking up with Essentially Jess for IBOT today.

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Easter 2012 Finale

To continue my Easter report. I’ve already told about the drive to Bundaberg. Then I shared what we did on Good Friday. I thought I’d better finish the tale about Easter before Christmas is here.
Easter’s Eve we decided to visit my Dad’s farms within the area. It was a good chance to catch up with staff we haven’t seen in quiet some time, check out some new equipment in the sheds and see a new variety of cucumber in the greenhouses.
The triplets first perusal of the farms and packing sheds.
After the pack shed, we went across to the greenhouses. J Boy received a growing cucumber tutorial from Grandad. (Look out for “Qukes” in your local Coles and Woolworths stores. They are mini cucumbers – ideal for in kids lunch boxes!)
In the afternoon I hung out with my BFF again. This time we went with my parents and sister to her parent’s house for afternoon tea. Our families grew up together, so it was lovely to catch up with everyone.
Flashback: Hanging out with Kylie and some friends at my 10th birthday party.
Current day: Still friends – despite wrinkles!

There’s always a special bond with old friends. There’s years of stories tucked away that make you laugh. So that’s exactly what our Mums did.

That evening with a rich sense of expectancy, the kids sat down with Grandma and made Easter baskets so the Easter bunny had somewhere to deliver his sugar laden treats. They were only simple, made with pretty paper and fun stickers and adorned with little chicks. The kids loved it and I know these are the little simple things can create great memories.
Of course the bunny did deliver.
To be truthful, as much as I would have liked to, I didn’t hang around to see the children discover their full baskets. I chose sleep. Alex was up, there were lots of people around to hold babies, and I had finished feeding in the early hours of the morning, so I kept sleeping. It was lovely.
By the time I awoke, much chocolate had been consumed and The Pocket Rocket was just starting on a giant choc rabbit.
Look at her. She’s already tipsy from chocolate.
My little trio also enjoyed their first Easter. They got into the bunny groove and totally rocked their ears.
The boys and Alex went for a bike ride to the beach. It was an hour round trip, so J Boy did really well keeping up the pace. Especially the trip home after boogying on the boogie board at the beach. T-Star supervised from the toddler seat on the back and made sure Dad kept on the move. Especially through the pouring rain. When it started to rain, I sent my brother-in-law to look for them in the ute. I was worried particularly that T-s

tar would be upset, he left in a rather grumpy mood. He’d been partying too much with his cousins in the backyard tent the night before. Somebody had to pay.

As it turned out, my Mummy radar was in total girl mode. The boys were having the time of their life. Their cousin was rather jealous watching them return home. Rain to boys. It increases the adventure.
On our final day we rushed around throughout the morning packing up. It was a good thing that the rest of the crew left a week after us. That way they could retrieve and return the myriads of things I still managed to leave behind.
We did manage to take the triplets to the beach before leaving. Didn’t seem right to be staying across the road from a beach and depriving their first visit. So cute. They didn’t mind sand between their toes and having a splash in the water.
Poor old T-star didn’t make it. He was catching some serious zzzz’s thanks to another night in the tent. I’m just thankful that the triplets and I stayed inside. From all reports T-star made his way to the parental air mattress and proceeded to wiggle every which way and sleep on every angle, all the while the air mattress slowly decreased in volume.
The trip home went smoothly. I did feed two babies with my arm stretched behind reaching into their capsules with the bottles. But they coped admirably, accepted the milk and pushed on. Little troopers. That way we only had to stop to breastfeed one baby and change them into warmer clothes as we approached our cooler climate, and there was one other stop to change a nappy. Awesome effort.
It was wonderful getting out of the house. Truly wonderful. Sometimes it really is worth the risk of doing crazy things like travelling with multiples. It’s even more of a pleasant experience when it’s better than expected.
So, can you remember way back to Easter? What did you do?
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Easter 2012 – 2012 – Good Friday

The fun being about being in Bundaberg over this Easter was family. We stayed at my parents house in Bargara. They were there and my 2 sisters were there and our brother joined us late Saturday night. Of course my kids were overjoyed that all of their cousins were around.

On Good Friday we went down to the river and had some fun with my brother-in-laws boat.

I came down for a few hours in between the triplets feeds. Just long enough to go for a ride on a giant shoe with my two sons! One loved it, one didn’t! Can you tell which was which?

After I left and went back to feed the tiny hungry mouths I understand that the Accountant had a lot of fun. At least that’s how I interpret the photos.

It was Alex’s first time on the knee board. He came home itching to ski – a pastime he is rather fond at, although rarely has the opportunity to indulge in. I suspect that when the kids are old enough we’ll be able to convince our Accountant to become a boat owner. Nothing like being able to get out on the water for a bit of fun and family time.
Because look how precious time with family is. J Boy spent the whole time plastered to his older cousin’s side. In PNG they have the term, “cousin brothers”. I think it’s an apt description for these two.
Sadly I had to leave the crew at the river and return home to feed three tiny mouths.
Not so sadly, I got to hang out with one of my very best friends throughout the afternoon and evening. Kylie and I started year one together many moons ago. The saying that the old friendships are the golden friendships is so true. Love hanging with my BFF!
Kylie was pretty comfortable hanging out with my family. Here she is holding a bub with my sister. She was very disgruntled that this baby vomitted over her, she thought she had been so good at avoiding spew all afternoon. Don’t think you can hang around me for any length of time and not go home with vomit on you somewhere…
Oh and we had some very delicious barramundi for dinner. Yum. Yum.
OK. Will continue the weekend in another installment!
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Easter 2012 Update – Part One

We had a lovely Easter.

The triplets did their first family road trip. We went to Bundaberg. I spent over two years of my teenage life in Bundy, and I still have a great fondness for the place. My parents have several farms there, so we are still frequent visitors.

Bundy is almost 5 hours travel time from our house. I’m proud to report that we did it with 5 children, including three (3) babies in 5 1/2 hours. It took us the same amount of time on the way home. We were so proud of the babies. They did such a good job. On the way up we stopped at the little country town of Wooroolin. I sat in the park and breastfed two babies, Alex bottle fed the third. The big boys played on the playground for 10 minutes and then T-star pretended to drive the car and J Boy sat on top of the trailer we were towing (because we can’t fit anything apart from people practically in our 4WD). We could have sat on the side of the road anywhere and the big boys would have been happy. We changed all their nappies and were on our way again.

Here are some happy snaps from along the way.

Big Boys in the back.

The Daddy

The Mummy

The road.

The babies

I’ll leave this as a to be continued. It’s getting late. Chook has been sick the last several days and has interrupted me, it’s very late and I’m tired.

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