Camping Trip–Chapter 1–Maroochydore

I have managed to cull the 1178 photos to 224….. but it’s hard to get it less than that. So guess what. You get to see them all!!

Our trip began on Friday 22nd October – 6am. We woke the boys, changed their nappies and put them straight in the car that we had packed the night before. We were driving our the driveway at 6:15am. We had a LOT of stuff to take with us, including the tent, esky (ice box), camp chairs, beds (porta-cots for the boys) plus all our linen, clothes and kitchen stuff. It was an effort to fit it all in the car, but we managed…. just!

 

Back of the car.Pod on the roof of the car. (sorry it’s a bit blurry – iPhone photo)

The day before we left I was busy packing, and came into the kitchen to find this sight. This is Ethan, cleaning up the coffee granules that he spilt all over the floor. I’m not sure what he was doing with them, or how he spilt them, but I was amused to find him cleaning them up!! Unfortunately for me, I did not get to take much coffee on my holiday. Thankfully it’s easy to buy more!

And so the trip begins….

The first day we drove from 6:15am till just after 7pm. In that time we made a fair few stops, including one for 2 hours to visit a friend for lunch in Tamworth. We did do about 8-9 hours of actual driving and made it to Warwick, just over the QLD border. Whereis.com tells me we drove 755.3km (470miles) that day. The boys did great and watched DVD’s in the car most of the day.

The next day we drove to Maroochydore, and got there a little after lunchtime. We set up our tent and the camping began

For those who don’t know, we have never camped before (as a family). Tracie and Sal did some camping as kids, like you do, but have not camped together, and have not camped as adults. Of course, the boys had never been camping before either. I am thrilled to report we all LOVED camping, and can’t wait to do it again soon. We had a wonferful relaxing time and spent a lot of time playing with our boys, visiting local attractions and just spending time together as a family. It was a perfect holiday

 

Our tent, with Ethan and Tracie enjoying the peaceful morning.

The view from our tent. We had the whole camping field to ourselves. It was wonderful and quiet!

Ben – chocolate face!

Ethan – chocolate face

Mumma (Tracie)

Ethan

Ben and Ethan – early morning bike ride, before getting dressed!

We did make a few day trips (more about that later) but the following pictures, are of life in the caravan park.

Goofing around, playing with a ball, running, chasing and having fun…..

At the playground within the caravan park….

On the jumping pillow. A bit like a cross between a trampoline and a jumping castle. GREAT FUN!

Another day - Back to the park

Feeding the ducks (and eels) in the caravan park pond/lake.

Walking back to the tent.

Our car and tent, in our quiet little corner of the field. Bliss!

Ethan getting some water. We bought a big water from the shops, and it soon became an addiction to the boys. They insisted upon getting a drink of water – all by them self of course – and drinking it….. and repeating. Sometimes they would spill it, or tip it out on purpose, then have to go back and get another drink!! Terrors…… but they had so much fun with the water.

On our trip, “Sam” came to visit... Remember Sam?? He’s the turkey that comes into our back yard at home. Well, we saw “Sam” a lot during our camping trip. Almost everywhere we went, we saw “Sam”. One day we left our bread rolls out when we went out for the day. We came home to discover that “Sam” likes bread rolls!!! HAHAHA – The boys though it was funny

Ben driving a matchbox car on train track
Ethan trying to get into the car. Playing in the car is a great game for him -  not so great for mummy when I turn on the car the windscreen wipes go like mad, as do the lights and blinkers (indicators). I have also found coins “posted” into my AC vents, and CD’s taken out of the CD player…… little boys are no longer allowed to play in mummy’s car!

From where we set up our tent, we have to walk across a small bridge to get to the bathrooms. From the first day, the boys called it the troll bridge. (In fact, most foot bridges are troll bridges if you ask B&E). Anyway, one day, Mummy (Sal) started a game and pretended to be the troll. “Who’s that walking on my bridge”. The boys would scream and run off the bridge, and mummy would chase. It was a great game that they played over and over and over and over, and till mummy and mumma were so very sick of the troll bridge game!

Then they worked out they could play it together. Ethan’s the troll, Ben runs the bridge.

Ben the troll.

”Don’t cross my bridge Ethan”

Ethan runs away

Ben

Mumma  (Tracie) cooking dinner.

Dinner. – Flat bread on one side, and salmon on the other. (plus veggies boiling out of sight) Yummmm

Camp life was so much fun.

Firsts–Toilet Training Twins

There have been a lot of “firsts” lately, so I have done a few posts about “firsts” for our little (big) boys….

Today we officially started toilet training!

Benjamin has been ready to toilet train for about 2 months now, but as we went on a camping trip, we decided it best to wait until we got home…. long drives, camping a distance from the toilet and things like that. Since getting home (4 days ago) we think Ethan is showing signs of readiness now too. He is more willing to sit on the toilet, and even told me “doing wee wees in my nappy” 2 days ago. So the adventure begins……

Yesterday we went to the shops and bought some cardboard (boys chose their own colours) and stickers to make our toilet training sticker chart. This morning we made and decorated the charts. They get a sticker every time they do a wee/poo in the toilet or potty. Once they’ve done 5 (shown by the star), they get their first prize (a toy they chose yesterday). Then they continue on. Another prize at the next star, and at the moon. We will add more ‘prize points’ as they get closer.

 

Ethan showing his underwear by the chart….

Ben showing his underwear..

Both boys have done very well. It is currently nap time (and I think by some miracle they are actually napping today!!) and they have been toilet training for 4-5 hours this morning.

Ben has done 5 wees in the toilet and already collected his first prize – a Roary the Racing Car torch (flashlight). He did not wet his pants all morning (yay for Ben), but he did he did do a poo on the bathroom floor, without pants on after he had done a wee in the toilet . We put it in the toilet, but he was a bit upset about the poo, but we tried to make a positive out of it and hope he will try and poo in the toilet tomorrow.

Ethan has done 3 wees on the toilet this morning and is well on the way to collecting his first prize. He has had two accidents. One was a poo/wee together and the second just a wee. The second time he was in a ‘time out’ (for not playing nice with Ben) and crying his little heart out about the fact that he was in trouble, then suddenly he stopped crying and said “oh, wee wees coming” and there he was sitting in a puddle on the floor. It is a good thing that he recognised that he was weeing, and he was praised for that and cleaned up.

We are trying to make this a very positive experience for the boys, and so far they are doing well. They love their sticker chart and all the praise they are getting. I hope it continues….

Just for my own records, we are using pullups/training pants for day time naps and initially for day time outings, though we are trying not to go out for a couple of days. We are also using Huggies change mats for them to sit on in the car and pram, just in case of little accidents while wearing underwear. At night we are using Huggies “Nappy Pants” – similar to a pullup, but a little more absorbent (as far as i can tell). We have completely gotten rid of any kind of nappy (diaper) that involves them laying down to put it on. They are now all under pant style pull up type nappies.

Such big boys  

Firsts–First time sleeping without sides on the cot.

My little boys are growing up and turning into big boys

2 days ago we took the sides off their cots. They are now 2.5yrs old and we figure they are ready to sleep in a toddler bed. They have coped extremely well. Nap times are a disaster, but that’s normal for nap time. They hardly nap anymore, we are lucky to get 1-2 naps a week. Night time has been excellent for 2 nights. They get into bed independently and fall asleep like normal without too much fuss. We are pleased at how well they have made the transition, and hope our luck continues!

Poor little Benny as fallen out 3 times. Twice while goofing around and not sleeping at nap time on the first day, and once in the early hours of this morning while half asleep. We haven’t put up those bed sides I know the local baby shop sells, we want to give him a chance to get used to it. As you can see in the pictures below, there is a small rail to stop him rolling too much, so I hope he will get used to this soon. He is low to the ground, and doesn’t hurt him self if he falls out, just a fright – poor baby

We have moved both cots onto the far wall, and this has really opened up their small room and given it more space. We are planning to decorate it with a jungle/animal type theme soon (as you can see in the first picture, we already have the rug in place). Stay tuned for pictures when it’s finished.

Firsts–First time making cookies with Nana

We went to Nana’s house the other day, and the boys got to make cookies. They LOVE going to Nana’s house, and had a great time making cookies.

 

Ethan (in red) and Ben (in grey) stir the mixture

Ethan

Ben

Stirring

Ready to roll it out

Rolling

Nana helps Ethan cut out the shapes

Ethan rolls more, Ben cuts out a star

Putting cookies on their trays

Nana’s dog Cassie watches

Putting icing on their cooked cookies to finish them off….. and smarties too! (In Australia Smarties are like M&M’s, but made by another company). They got to choose their icing colour. Interestingly Ben chose green, and Ethan chose blue. This might not mean much to you, but these are the colours we have always assigned to each boy since birth so we know whose is whose. Eg, green cup for Ben, blue for Ethan….. and bath towels, and their blankies and a few of their toys. Not everything….. but a lot is done this way to keep us getting mixed up!

Ethan’s finished product

Ben, tasting his hard work.

Firsts–First Bubble Bath

There have been a few “firsts” lately, so I am doing a series of “firsts” posts….

First bubble bath!!! Hard to believe that we got to 2.5yrs old before we gave them a bubble bath, but with Ben’s sensitive skin and eczema, we did not want to irritate his poor skin. He’s now getting much better, so we thought it time for a bubble bath. The boys had a great time playing with the bubbles and with their new bath time cups. Below are some bubble bath pictures…

Ethan has darker hair, wearing the neclace. Ben’s fairer.

Benjamin took his bubble bath and pouring water in the cups very seriously. We know he had fun – he HATED getting out!

So much to blog about…

We are home from our trip and are happy to report that we had a FANTASTIC time!!!!!!!! Our best family holiday ever. We all LOVED camping, and spending time outdoors together as a family. Priceless!

As I write this, 1178 pictures are uploading from my camera to the computer, so I have quite a bit of sorting to do before I upload my favourites.

Things are good in other life, we have a few “firsts” to report for the boys, but that can wait till a later post.

I’ll leave you with our only whole family photo from the trip, and go sort all those photos. I’ll try and post more in a few days…

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Both boys love the song Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Ethan is getting very good at it! Ben is helping Mummy with the video, so has a little commentary in the background.