Easter Weekend

Posted by Wendy McCarry May 27, 2021

Easter Weekend

Hello again! Welcome to another attempt at keeping this blog updated and alive. Here's a look at what we did over Easter... nearly two months ago already!

Our first term of school in Australia finished at the end of March, right before Easter weekend. By the end of the term we were all pretty shattered. Everyone settled into daycare/school/work quite well, but 9 straight weeks of full-on work and school immediately after returning to the country was exhausting. During term time the kids have long days, getting dropped off between 7:15-7:30am every morning and picked up sometime between 4:30-5:30pm. I had to drag Ella out of bed every morning in the last week of March, and each day she would sleepily ask "is it Easter yet?" in the hopes that I would let her stay in bed longer.

But just as we were all about to collapse, it was time for our two week school holiday. We finished on a Thursday (as the next day was Good Friday) and Andy was able to leave work early to pick up Ella after school and then take her to Ollie's daycare for an Easter egg hunt.

On Friday the weather forecast was 28 degrees and sunny, a very warm day for Melbourne in early April. We made a last minute decision to head to the beach, reasoning that we probably wouldn't get any more proper beach days between now and December. We headed off early in the morning to Half Moon Bay in Blackrock, which is about a 40 minute drive from our house.

We had a fabulous day with the kids. They loved being at the beach, Ella getting into the water immediately despite the cold temperature. Ollie is not as excited about the water yet, he didn't grow up going to the beach like Ella did, and he's especially not a fan of the water when it is cold (I can sympathise). But he loves playing in the sand and got a little braver by the time we left, jumping into the shallow waves by himself.

I like Half Moon Bay because the water is very shallow for a long way out, making it pretty safe for kids. You can also walk to the Red Bluff cliffs, which are stunning sandstone cliffs. The colour of the sandstone against the blue sky was just gorgeous.

The kids also had a good time finding sea stars and mussels attached the the rocks near the shore.

With a fish & chip shop and pier, Half Moon Bay can get quite busy. When we arrived at 10:30am the beach was still pretty quiet, but it was absolutely packed when we left at 2pm.

The next day, with high temperatures predicted again, we headed back to the beach. This time we met up with Chris and Ness and their kids at Sandringham Beach. We had another fabulous morning, with all the kids playing really well together (and with a few other kids they met on the beach). The water was still too cold for me to get in, but Andy and Chris braved the water with Ella and Noah.

That afternoon, everyone was pretty shattered so the kids snuggled on the sofa together. When Ollie is really tired he will lie down on Ella and she absolutely loves it!

Sunday morning was Easter egg hunt time. The kids were so excited that the Easter bunny had come and left them chocolate eggs. This was the first time Ollie had really gotten into Easter, although Ella still finds the eggs much quicker than him. This year she did a nice big sister thing and re-hid all the eggs she found so he could find some. Ah life is so good when your kids are getting along!

It was another beautiful day so we decided to head to the city. I read online that the Easter Bunny was supposed to be a Queen Victoria Market, so we headed over there. I don't know why I thought a family trip to the market would be fun. No one likes a market except for me! We didn't find the Easter Bunny and of course the kids just want to buy all the cool things at the market so that outing was a bit of a flop, save for a delicious juice and smoothie bowl from one of the stalls.

Trying to make up for my poor decision making, we headed to the nearby Royal Park Nature Playground. There was a big hill behind the playground with a nice view into the city.