Kids Big Day Out

The holidays had nearly passed us by and we were yet to hang out with our Cool Cousins in what has fast become our holiday tradition. I wasn't sure if it was going to happen as Kangaroo has become quite sick since last weeks visits to the water park, coughing and spluttering and now sneezing and wheezing. Kookaburra too has caught whatever nasty illness this is and has begun the deep wet bark that according to the Doc is croup. It would have been nice if she had of diagnosed that in my younger son last week rather than three doctors visits later. Unfortunately my wee men are now taking steroids and ventilam to end this horrid bug. But I digress. Our holiday tradition is to have, what I've coined, 'A Child Led Day' or in their terms, 'Kids Big Day Out'.

The gist is that the kiddos take one supervising adult and mosey on into town, usually on foot, with their backpacks on containing plenty of water, morning tea and pocket money - enough to buy odds and ends from the op shops, cheapy stores and pool their money together enough to buy some lunch. They have the option of going pretty much anywhere they want - the pool, park, museums, cinema, shops, lolly store, op shops, garage sales, river, anywhere they can calculate they can get too and still be able to get home. This is a fledgling idea that is still developing. The first time it happened was brilliant! The kids dressed up as ladies and gents and played tourist through our little town visiting the museums and even stumbled upon a workshop for some foreign dancing (I don't recall which now *such a terrible memory sometimes!) which they had a ball participating in. The following occasion we were down one crew member due to illness and then the kids independence was impeded because of torrential down pours and unfortunately, in my opinion, it became a bit of a bargain hunting spend fest. Great for their math but not really the point of the exercise. I want them to discuss and make decisions and eventually be able to, very independently of me but still with supervision, be able to leave home, plan together what they'd like to do with their day, problem solve on the way and then find their way home, whether it be by foot, bike or bus. I'm giving them a chance to safely practice their independence.

And develop their special friendships.

So we headed off this morning on foot to meet the Cool Cousins in town who, like us, had a doctors appointment to attend (this was before it was figured upon that my boys have croup).

There was, of course, the mandatory lolly store stop. Two dollars goes a long way if you're careful! Then Princess Calamity managed to split the bottom of the sole of her sandal so we needed to purchase new sandals before continuing on - she's my sweet Clam' for a reason! Lots of chatting and lolly munching followed. These guys were so happy to be out and all together. The poor doctors surgery was inundated by my crew and my doc was bemused at least with four children sitting on her consult rooms floor whilst she examined the fifth. The nattering noodles go off at tangents discussing the random things that children talk about to the point where our Doc has joined in too. With the croup now diagnosed - I have my doubts though but don't really know what to do :( - we left for the chemist across the road to fill our scripts and chose to kill some time at the cheapy shop. Naturally :S. A few dollars later and we have the best buy of the day, I feel, Princess Calamity's two dollar fifty pair of sunglasses which had me laughing for the remainder of the excursion. Too cool for her own little socks this kid.







They ate pizza in the park and watched a maggie feeding her baby.




But we were still sick and we really couldn't sustain the pace any longer so we all thought home on the bus to watch a movie would be just perfect.




What does Princess Cupcake get excited about?...... 'No Seatbelts!!!!!'

uh, okay :)






It really warmed my heart to see these guys holding hands.





It was still a bit of a walk from the bus stop home and they decided they'd like to call Grammy Bear from the public phone booth for fun.



and as the nursery is just around the corner from our home, we made it our last stop before home. The plants are a surprise for Sunday. Secret squirrel okay.

Before we made it in the door everybody had to say hi ya to our little green tree frog who resides in our mail box.

A movie and a little play and then it was home time. We love our cousins and are so lucky to have them live right here in the same little town.

So that's our Kids' Big Day Out. Independence and new experiences, and beautiful memories. Hopefully, next time, we'll all be well and the sun'll be shining bright on us again.