Weekend in Rosebud

A few weeks ago our friends invited us to their beach house for the weekend. Steve and Michelle both work with us at school, and have a daughter (Gemma) who is 5 days younger than Ella. Gemma and Ella are pretty good friends now, and are always very happy to see each other. Michelle is on maternity leave now with her second, a little boy called Archie. Hanging out with them is like getting a glimpse into our future. Archie is a pretty chilled out baby, so we’ll be pretty lucky if our future is anything like that! 

We headed to their place in Rosebud on the Mornington Peninsula after work on Friday. I had to work late that evening so we didn’t arrive until about 7:30pm. As we drove up Gemma was very excitedly waiting for us (or for Ella rather) on the front lawn. The two girls immediately started playing with each other which was so, so cute. The only hiccup for us was bedtime. Gemma is like a model child going to bed at the moment, saying good night and happily chatting or quietly playing in bed on her own until she falls asleep. Gemma sleeps in a “big girl bed” now, while Ella is still locked away in her cot at home. Steve and Michelle had set up a small foldaway bed for Ella that was sandwiched between the wall and a double bed. A bed without bars on it was a new experience for Ella, so it was pretty hard to get her to sleep. It was nearly 10pm before she finally dropped off, and in the end I had to lie down with her and pretend to sleep. To be honest, by that time I wasn’t really pretending to want to sleep anyway!

The rest of the adults had some snacks and quite a few drinks outside. Steve and Andy love to lead each other on when it comes to drinking, and my dad is not long behind them! Everyone was feeling pretty relaxed, being by the beach and away from the city for the weekend.

The next morning we woke up and Steve cooked us all an amazing breakfast on the BBQ. We then headed down to the beach where we spent the rest of the morning, until it was time for Gemma and Ella’s naps. The beach was quiet, being the off season, so we had lots of space to spread out all our beach gear. The beach in Rosebud is perfect for young children as it is shallow and filled with sand bars for a long way out. With so many adults around there was lots of time for everyone to have a bit of kid-free time, and the girls had an absolute blast. Ella has learned that she is allowed to wee in the water at the beach which she thought was hilarious. (She has since asked if she could do it at the pool, which was a firm no! I’m impressed that she thought to ask though, and realised there is a difference between the beach and the pool!)

Returning to the beach house in the early afternoon, we again struggled to get Ella to nap. Exhausted from her day on the beach she finally gave in and fell asleep at about 3:30pm, which meant we then had to wake her up at 5pm to go for dinner. We headed over to the newly opened Jetty Road Brewery in nearby Dromona, for something to eat. They have a back garden with space for kids to run around and a little cubby house, although when we went there were a lot of much older kids running around which I think intimidated Ella a little bit. Her and Gemma did play outside there for a little while though, coming back to our table to check in every few minutes. The food was bistro pub type fare, and a tapas style sharing menu, with some optional big dinner plates like steak and fish. We opted to do lots of little sharing plates of things like sliders, tacos, pork belly, etc. which was pretty good. I didn’t sample the beers but the guys seemed to like them!

Sunday morning Michelle and Steve had to leave early to get back for a birthday party, so the rest of us headed down to the beach again for one last play. It was beautiful weather, not too hot but clear and sunny, and we had another relaxing, fun morning. We walked down to the end of the pier and got to see some huge stingrays which are very common in the water here. 

Before heading back we had a pizza lunch at Jetty’s Restaurant near the pier. It was very average beachside fare, but they did have ice cream so we treated ourselves to one before heading back home. My parents also ordered an iced coffee, which they thought was just coffee over ice. They got a pretty big surprise when this turned up at our table:

All in all it was a super fun and relaxing weekend. We’ve been invited back over the Easter holidays which are in three weeks so hopefully the weather is still nice by then!