Well, that was quick

Ok so it’s day one of Term 3 and apparently the holidays are over? Not sure what happened there, I blinked and suddenly had to get up this morning and pack lunches and shine shoes and deliver children to school in gale force Arctic winds. It almost felt like we’d never left!

I guess it didn’t help that I was struck down with a virus of some description the entire time the kids were away in Queensland, leaving me buried under mountains of blankets watching endless episodes of Britain’s Best Home Cook and, for some reason, Coronation Street. By the end of my convalesence I was upset Eileen was moving to Bristol and wondering how Johnny was going to come clean to his wife that he’d been pashing the manager of the pub after Aidan’s funeral. I was in deeeeeeeep.

The final week of the holidays were very quiet, lots of inside time with books and games – so quiet they all merge into one long day in my head and I’m not sure which was which. We did have a brief National Incident when a Beanie Boo was left at the shops one day, and I know another I was struck by a cleaning demon, wrestling this dusty old shoebox into submission, but on the whole it was pretty relaxed.

Saturday we packed up the car nice and early and headed out Gippsland way for a night at the RACV Inverloch, which was super-fun. The kids loved the playgrounds and the jumping pillow (who doesn’t really? I even got on one a week before I gave birth to Smalls, I must have looked QUITE A SIGHT). We had a much-needed Devonshire Tea before heading out to see the penguins come home to bed at the Penguin Parade on Phillip Island. They were quite tardy and it was very late before they showed up, and by then our feet were numb. They’re pretty bloody cute though, and we watched them waddle about the place without a care in the world. Back to the resort for a extraordinarily pleasant dinner (the kids can ACTUALLY DO THE ACTIVITY PACKS NOW AND THE WHOLE THING IS TERRIBLY CIVILISED dear toddler mum stacey one day you’ll finish your food in peace I am from the future and it is bright) and settled down in our cabin (I say cabin but it was the size of the Titanic and had glorious views) for the night.

Yesterday we woke to the ocean AND cows, pleasing everybody, and a bit of a lie-in. The way home was dotted with stops for ocean-viewing and coastal exploring before a pub lunch and a visit to Udder and Hoe in Kilcunda. We got back later than we intended, but there was just so much to see! I don’t get out that way nearly often enough.

The holidays were finalised with a Complete and Thorough viewing of recipe books and a list of tea cakes to be made for Term 3 lunchboxes and afternoon teas was drawn up, the nit-shampooing was conducted, and a mandatory viewing of Masterchef rounded off the evening. A very pleasant situation all round over the last two weeks (virus omitted) and despite the house looking out of shape and today’s weather being very grim, it is almost just as pleasant as holidays to be getting back to routine. And I woke up to official Louis christening photos with a Cath at Wimbledon chaser. What a treat.

Did you survive holidays? Still on them? Have no children and are horrified at the nit situation? Welcome.