For the Life of us

So there I sat, across from a wonderfully wise lady, downloading how tricky I was finding certain situations with my kids. Bedtime was becoming a nightmare with Mr. 6 in particular, deciding that was the time for fun and games. My 'very serious' prayer time with him, became a time for silliness and giggling hysterically at his clever insertion of the word 'poo' into the prayer he was repeating with me. That would end in a warning which would end in me leaving the room which would end in a tantrum and a whole lot of consequences to follow through with the next day.  Just what every parent dreams of putting 3 kids to bed at 7pm at night when all your energy is sucked dry... FUN TIMES! This clever lady nodded sympathetically and asked me, with a smile, "so how much fun are your kids having in your family?" It caught me off guard. Here I thought what was coming was some brilliant advice on how to make my kids more holy, how to make them calm down and do as they...

So, I've had rollercoasters on the brain. We went chasing the sun a few weeks back. A week in sunny Gold Coast was exactly what this cold family needed! We needed some sun and some fun, and what better place to have both than across the ditch. Mum and dad went on ahead and met us there. I must say I maybe slightly underestimated the feat of skill it would be to get three little people to another country, alone... Taking three kids on a NZ road trip is one thing, dealing with passports, boarding cards, plane rides with no inflight entertainment, rental car bookings, luggage and X-ray processes, long queues and lots of waiting and behaving required... well it's absolutely do-able, just tiring. The kids were troupers though and aside from a toileting crisis at the point where we had waited for ages in the customs line, finally reached the front and had to make an emergency dash for the toilet which was nowhere close to us, laden with bags and luggage with no trolley...whil...