Not-to-school picnic

We had our city-wide not-to-school picnic at a beach this year. It was my 5th, but the first one without J-Man (still visiting with Grandma and Poppy).

My dh took the day off work to come with us, which was really nice. We all got up early and got ready for the day. Princess packed gear to stay the night with her friend Z5 (actually she packed the night before, and was terribly excited).

We still hadn't decided what we would do for the evening with only one child! J and M offered to look after Tombliboo so we could go out, but I really don't think he's ready for that yet. Still, it was very exciting to have a night off (sorta).

The picnic site was at least an hour away from our home...first we stopped at the health shop to get some no-nasties sunscreen, then went even further away to pick up a bike for Princess. The two smallest bikes we had which were about to be passed down to the next child were stolen just before Christmas.

Then it was on to the picnic, where we all had a lovely day. There seemed to be even more people there this year, and laods of new faces. We spent some time playing at a playground, and the kiddos went on a flying fox!

On our way back to the picnic site, Tombliboo spied some mud, and as I was about to say, 'Don't jump in the mud Honey", he did. Of course. Then that was so much fun he started really jumping as high as he could, until the inevitable happened- he slipped and landed on his bottom. Not one to stomach clothing at hte best of times, he instantly rmoved his trappings, and ran starkers back to the group.

Then he spied the beach, and that was that- he would not be persuaded swimwear were a good idea, or a towel, or letting Daddy know where we were...and he was "in like Flynn".

I was also in, since he wouldn't let me go- shoes and all.

We got back to our group, and enjoyed talking to old firends and new. Princess and Z5 got busy, and eventually wanted to go to the beach. Z5 had come unprepared to swim, but dove in anyway, and the pair of them happily played quite a way out in the sea.


I met a new friend, and thought I would have to introduce Tombliboo to her 2 year old when he got back from another splash in the sea with Daddy...but i didn;t have to- he found her, and what a time they had of it!


Z5's family had to leave a bit earlier than they wanted to, and Princess went with them. We were down to one little tot. He was busy watchign some boys play with B'Damon type toys. They were 8 and 7, and absolutely lovely with him. He kept asking, "What are doing?", over and over, and they answered without annoyance. They even let him play with the new toys, and he had a blast. Everywhere they went, he followed for a time, as well as spending time squirting a drinking fountain.

Meanwhile dh was taking a loooong work call, and I was chatting away to a bunch of usnchooling mums- bliss.


We packed up at 4pm, and headed home still trying to work out what we would do for the evening. Tombliboo wasn't in the least bit tired-looking which was amazing considering the long day we had had. I wonder if he was enjoying being the only little voice in the car.

We got stuck in traffic, and in time he did nod off, but then woke abruptly (after perhaps 10 minutes) and really, really wanted to get out of the car. He needed to pee, and I think he was fed up with the trip as well, so we agreed to get off at the next exit. We were going to pick up some takeaways, and maybe eat at a park, when we got a call to say that J-Man would really like to come home right now.

He had said from the first day that he was finding the nights hard, even crying himself to sleep- which was just horrible :0( so him phoning and wanting to come home was no big surprise. It meant the end of our speical night, but that was just fine.

Thankfully, dh thought it would be better to drop Tombliboo nad I home, since he would not have done well with another 4-5 hours in the car.

Dh headed off to meet his parents half-way, and bring J-Man home...it was going to be a late arrrival. About 10:30pm, Tombliboo went ot sleep, and Princess phoned crying wanting to come home as well...she was at least an hour's drive from our home, so the three of them got home at around 12:30am.