We survived term 1 (barely) and I could not be more thrilled that I do not have to drop Reid off at kinder for another 2 weeks. To put it mildly, he did not enjoy kinder this term. For the past seven weeks, I have brought him to kinder three days a week (one of those being a half day). He has kicked, screamed, cried, pleaded, negotiated, begged, argued, sobbed, shouted, hollered, cried some more, hid under his bed, refused to put his shorts on, cried even more, hid under the couch at kinder, banged on the kinder door, ran away, laid on the floor in front of the door, hid under the table at kinder and cried some more…all in an attempt to avoid being left at kinder. It has been a rough term and Reid has not enjoyed a single day of it. He has refused to participate in most of the activities, he didn’t play with any of the other kids, he refused to use the toilet there and he would not sit at the table to eat lunch with everyone else. During whole group time on the mat, Reid sat under a table and refused to participate in anything that was going on. Many times I wondered why we needed to continue doing this to him and what he was getting out it. I often wondered if it would ever get better and what was the point of it all! But we persevered, made it through the term and now we can enjoy two weeks of holidays and forget kinder even exists!

Alexis, on the other hand, had a great term but definitely needed a break and was looking forward to some unstructured time with no routine to follow.  For this school holidays, we came up with a plan to explore as many different beaches in the area as possible over the span of the week. We also had a few more items on our Melbourne bucket list that we wanted to get to.

Melbourne Bucket List:

The Children’s Garden at the Royal Botanical Gardens, the Bamboo forest being our favourite.

The National Gallery of Victoria where we went on a scavenger hunt through the gallery.

The fairy penguins at St. Kilda Pier who emerged from the water after sunset to go back to their burrows amoungst the rocks.

Luna Park, the iconic amusement park, where we whirled and twirled until we felt sick.

Beach Hopping:

For the second week of holidays, we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and enjoy the beautiful beaches in our backyard, starting with a day at Point Addis. Our day at Point Addis may have been one of the most perfect beach days we have had yet. Not only was the weather perfect, the tide was out, exposing a maze of tide pools but we were literally the only people on the beach. It was absolutely perfect!

The next day we spend some time at the Torquay Surf beach. Another absolutely perfect day in terms of weather and tide but perhaps the most exciting part of the day was discovering 13 bright red and orange sea stars in the shallow water.

We made sure to spend some time at our beloved ‘Fishos’ or Fisherman’s beach, which happens to be the closest beach to our house and consequently, the one at which we spend the most time. Another perk to Fisho’s is Bomboras, a cafe on the beach offering the best spot to enjoy a coffee or lunch in all of Torquay.

The following day, we decided to go a little further away and take the Queenscliff ferry to Sorrento. Our good friend Glenis came with us to enjoy the day, introducing us to the world famous vanilla slice and exploring the white sand beaches of Sorrento. What a beautiful little seaside town, full of impressive historical buildings, quaint boutique shops and delicious cafes.

Our final beach hopping day, we went for a walk along the Surf Coast Walk, a 44km trail along the coast from Torquay to Airey’s Inlet. We hiked a small section of the walk, my favourite part of the trail along Jan Juc beach.

We ended up at the world famous Bells Beach, another beach along the Surf Coast walk, known for the annual RipCurl Pro surfing competition. We enjoyed the view as well as the unique black sand we found there.

Unfortunately the school holidays were quickly coming to an end. We filled the last few days with days of the park, the skate park, enjoying delicious coffee and playing outside. What a fantastic staycation in Torquay, exploring the beauty of the coast and enjoying the wonderful outdoors!