The looooong drive home

Part One

Friday night I sat on the computer, knowing I had to pack for our weekend away. A lovely friend of mine was having a blessingway. If it were just Hubby and I the trip would take approx 4 hours. Add in 4 children and a baby who loves her booby feeds and you are adding about an hour or so.

The suitcase was on the table, mocking me as I tried to ignore it. I think it was about 1am when I couldn't put it off any longer so I gathered the clothes and packed them all.
I also wrapped the presents for my daughter who was turning 4 this day.

In the morning we did the tradition of sneaking in the birthday child's room and waking them up. This proved a bit harder with our daughter as she could not be woken up, even with lights on and us tapping her, then pulling the doona off her, then rocking her a little. Finally I said loudly we have presents! Up she jumped with a big smile.

From this moment on everything was about her and her birthday. You have to do everything as the birthday child wishes. For her, this is not different to every other day of the year.

We managed to get away withing 20 minutes of our estimated 'go' time. A record for us.
We stopped 4 or was it 5 times? Toilet, petrol, toilet, booby feed, drinks, toilet etc

Here is the birthday girl with her new headphones. (Note how clean the windows are behind her? I remember being told off for doing that when I was younger, and couldn't understand, lol The swirls looked great to me.... back then!)

On the way there were tears, laughter, squealing, jumping around on the seats, whining, and at one point I thought my head truly would explode if I heard "How much longer" one more time. Some people laugh and think those sayings only happen in the movies. No, they happen, every 6 minutes in our car.

Hubby had packed his Ipod in the car and at one point motioned for me to get it from the glovebox. I laughed and said "No way buddy, we are suffering together"

On and on we drove. Listening to CD's of children's songs. Oh yay! What sucks about them is they are all about a minute long at most. So they repeat pretty quickly. At first you don't mind so much, then slowly it starts to get painful, then you turn it off only to have the children yell out to put it back on in a really nice polite way (sarcasm)

The 2 year olds turn of the headphones!

So it goes back on and the cycle continues. I am still, 5 days later singing "I'm going places in my new shoe laces, winning lots of races in my new show laces" out loud.

When we arrived the children did the mandatory running around the cabin, opening cupboards, doors, jumping on the beds. I remember doing the same thing when I was little. Running in the room trying to beat the others to pick the 'good' bed, lol

We brought in the suitcases and bags and headed off to my friends house.

Bubs and I stayed and the other dad's and munchkins went to a very cool park nearby. I was hoping at the least they would not a) get sand all over them, hence in my car and b) get wet

I had a lovely time blessing the way with friends, eating yummy food and talking birth and babies.

A couple of hours later the others came back. Yes, BOTH happened. Sand and water. They did a good job too. My son who was wet did it properly, by falling in the water. I know I was only told half the story and he no doubt was coerced closer to the water by his father.

We said our goodbyes and went back to the cabin and ordered Pizza. And wedges. For me. Mmmmm wedges.

After Pizza we sang Happy Birthday to our now big 4 year old and had very, very sweet ready made cake from the supermarket. With glow in the dark candles!

When cake like that you know the children were not going to bed any time soon! So we watched some TV, and wound down a bit. Finally some of the troops started to get tired, yet the children were still wired, lol

Hubby fell asleep on the fold out, ever-so-comfy (not) sofa with bubs. I left them and got the others in bed, and back in bed, then back in bed again, several times and about an hour later after playing musical beds the older 3 were finally asleep. Leaving the 2 year old and Mummy awake. The stamina he has is amazing! Not wanting to go to sleep, as he may miss something exciting.

Somehow we all managed to sleep soundly for about 5 hours. Then slowly, one by one we were all up, dressed and eating breakfast. We were doing great for time and things were looking great to home in the early afternoon. I was looking forward to a Nana nap in my own bed before cleaning up and unpacking for the second Birthday cake with friends and family.

One, two, three, four, five, all in, let's go!! Hang on, mummy needs to go to the toilet, again. Hey, I've had 5 children, averaging 10 and a half pounds, give me a break!
OK, NOW we are on the road. Home here we come......



Stay Tuned for Part two!