The Top 10 Highlights from Nannie and Grampy's visit

In early February my parents came for a six week visit - just two short months after they left us in early December. We felt incredibly fortunate to have them back so soon after their last visit - made possible due to a timely Air Canada seat sale! You would think that having them around would have allowed me to have more time to keep up with things like this blog, but we managed to pack a lot into their stay at the weekends, thus there was not much time to sit around on the computer. 

Here are my top 10 highlights from their stay!

1. Beach days

We had lovely summer weather the majority of the time my parents were here, perfect for numerous weekend beach outings. We bought a stand up paddle board and full face snorkel masks for the kids, and these two items have really changed our beach visits. Andy and Ella spent hours paddling and snorkelling at the various beaches around Port Philip Bay. Ollie is less keen at this stage, and in fact we usually spend the first hour our two of our beach day listening to Ollie complain that he hates the beach and wants to go home. Despite his initial protests, he inevitably ends up having a great time, as do we all. Having four adults and two kids was a great ratio - it means that everyone got their share of chilling out mixed with playing with the kids. 

Here are the main beaches we visited:

Half Moon Bay - one of our favourite beaches to visit. We love it because there is shallow water, a food kiosk, changing rooms, and red cliffs for exploring when the water or temperature is cooler. 

Ricketts Point Marine Sanctuary - a new favourite, this is the best place for snorkelling we have found. We've seen starfish, stingrays, and even some small reef sharks! There is a really nice café here and and rock pools to explore. This is less of a swimming beach, there is a lot of seaweed because it is a marine sanctuary, which meant it was a lot less busy than other beaches... which was really nice for a change!

Williamstown Beach - this beach is on the other side of Port Philip Bay (so west of the city) from the beaches we usually go to. We headed here one day that was on the cooler side, but that didn't stop the kids and Andy from having fun in the water!

2. Ollie starting prep

This year Ollie started school, and the transition has been very smooth. No doubt this is partly due to the fact that he was able to ease in to his school days. While my parents were here the kids didn't have to attend any before or after school care, making their days shorter than they are now. Ollie was also able to do his "homework" every night with my mom or dad - the homework is daily reading of the "learn to read" books, and I'm pleased at how well he is doing with his reading so far. 

For the first four weeks Prep students don't attend school on a Wednesday, which would have been a real pain for us if my parents weren't around to watch Ollie on those days. I remember when this happened with Ella when we first moved here in 2021. She ended up having to attend daycare with Ollie, poor thing!

Below are some picture from Ollie's first day of school, with his best friend Johnny.

3. Tuesday nights at The Harp

There is a pub up the road from our house that we've recently discovered has a kids night on Tuesdays. Kids eat free, there is a balloon lady who makes some seriously impression balloon animals, and the kids also get a little goodie bag. On top of this, they have a senior's menu where $20 gets you a main course and a beer or wine. So every Tuesday my parents took the kids to The Harp, leaving Andy and I free to do what we pleased! Sometimes we went out for our own dinner, I went to yoga, and sometimes we even joined in the madness that was Kids Night at The Harp. Whatever we did, it was a relief not to have to think about dinner every Tuesday night!

4. Boroondara Pool

Continuing with the water theme, a favourite after school activity on hot days was for my parents to take the kids straight from school to one of the local outdoor pools. This is a great spot as it has lots of shade and three pools: the standard 50 metre pool for laps and older kids to play in, a smaller pool that has a depth of 90cm, so Ollie can stand up, and some high diving boards for more adventurous kids, Ella being one of them this year. My parents would usually pack a picnic dinner and stay until it was time to come home for bed.

5. Dinner

My mom did A LOT of the thinking and prepping of dinner, for which I am eternally grateful! It was so nice to have someone other than myself thinking of what to have for dinner every night. Also cooking with someone is so much better than cooking on your own!

6. Our weekend away in Metung

I wrote about this in my last post - it was a really epic long/birthday weekend!

7. St. Kilda Festival

Last year we had a really fab time at the St. Kilda Festival, a weekend music festival that takes place in February each year. This year the festival took place the same weekend that Taylor Swift was in Melbourne, and for anyone that was in Australia it seemed like her time here dominated everything happening in Australia. For that reason, I think, the festival seemed less busy than usual. 

This year we spent quite a while in the kids area, where the kids made masks and had their faces painted. 

We only stayed here for a few hours - Ella had a Taylor Swift themed party to attend in the afternoon… the kids have busier social lives than I do!

 

8. After school activities

We are entering a stage of extra-curricular activities for both kids now that Ollie has started school. They are both in swimming lessons, and this year Ollie is playing soccer and Ella is continuing with netball. Both sports consist of one practice and one game every week. This requires getting home from work in time to take them to their various activities, so again while my parents were here it was very helpful to have someone else to take them if we needed to work late. 

9. Relaxed weekday mornings

It was so nice to have relaxed mornings for the first six weeks of the school year. When my parents are not here we are out the door with the kids by about 7:30am every morning. That means we run a tight schedule in the mornings, with a lot of rushing around! I like to get in a 20-30 minute work out each morning, though with my parents here I could even extend this to an outdoor run - not possible now that they are gone!

10. Watching the kids continue to develop a strong relationship with their grandparents

This was by far the highlight of having my parents stay! I feel very blessed in that despite the distance between us and parents, Ella and Ollie still have a very close connection to their Nannie and Grampy. This is due in large part to the fact that my parents are willing to put their own lives on hold for months at a time while they visit us in Australia. I cannot express enough how grateful I am for that. 

My parents left two weeks ago and it was sad to see them go. They had an early morning departure and we had a lot of tears from both kids as I drove them out of our driveway and to the airport. Luckily though there are only 12 more weeks until we visit Canada and see them again! And in between that we have a holiday in Thailand… I’m actually sitting in the airport waiting to board our flight as I finish off this post… I’m rushing as we will board soon so please forgive me if there are a lot of typos!