Good Friday - the BEST Friday

I love a good day at my parents house in the country. Today was the best one I can remember in years, because all of us were there together. All their kids and partners and all the grandkids except for one. It was so loud. It was loud when we were kids, but this was next level. Yelling, laughing... full blown riot. You couldn't wipe the smile off my parents faces for the entire day and I loved it.

I brought along a cookie decorating kit that my best friend sells for Easter and Christmas from her cookie business @baked.on.benrua on Instagram and all of the grandkids got right into it.

The older kids were hilarious, scoring each others creations and commenting on them, oh that's the Gucci of Easter eggs, ooooh that's a Chanel. Nope, that one is The Reject Shop. Oh check out that David Jones!

Ben's was a solid Myer.

Joseph was so proud of his and was thrilled to pose for a photo with it.

Jonas loved his too. Look at that little smile!

Marshall was all smiles today too. Such a cutie!

The Chanel of cookies according to the judges! Baha.

Love it!

I love watching all of these guys together. They have the best time.

So, Aaron and Katja put in their order yesterday for a Banoffee and a Pumpkin pie for desserts today. Once mum heard that she said she wasn't making any dessert at all as that was more than enough, especially when I turned up with cookies too!

The last six grandkids in a row in our family have been boys. The girls are totally outnumbered, there are twice as many boys - and there hasn't been once since Madeline arrived! Watching the younger boys (Joseph down as Madeline can somehow slot in with the older ones even though she is 3 years younger than Emma) was hilarious. They were the noisy ones!

There was plenty of laughs amongst the siblings and partners and a whole damn lot of cheating from Jared while we attempted to play Uno. Honestly, every single turn he played he was throwing down cards that didn't belong. Nut job. Dad did always say the biggest cheaters names start with J.

Alex as usual marched himself down to the monkey bars as soon as no one was watching and climbed up out of reach. I swear that kid has a death wish and he was promptly dragged back down to the ground and brought back to the supervision of his older cousins.

And as always, the highlight of the day was Uncle Isaac's quad bike train. All the kids loved it and had the best time. The carriages just live at my parents now and the bike gets brought up for family days and parties like Alex's last year.

There you have it. 10 out of 12 grandkids. That's a damn lot of noise in one shot.

This was the best Good Friday of all.

But here was the very best bit. Getting all my siblings in one place. Here's all the boys with dad.

My favourite human...

and the best thing that has happened to me in years. Finally getting my boys back

and all in the same place.

 I love them so much it hurts. Even if I do want to punch them on the daily. ❤

 

A visit to mums

We took a quick trip up to mums for an op-shop run at the York Salvos, then a sleepover at Nanna's followed by breakfast at Dome in Northam and a visit to the Northam Aquatic Centre with their cool waterslide setup. The kids were completely wasted by the end of day two and slept like the dead... so much so that when Alex woke up in the night and had a fit then parked himself between Madeline and I, she didn't even stir. In fact, come the next morning, she was still fast asleep with him laying practically on top of her. That pretty much defines their relationship. He wants to be two centimetres from her at all times and this was no exception. Alex loves Maddie 3000% and there is no doubt about that.

 

country kids

this is life in the country. my dad is part of the local lions club and often drives their "train" (a ride on lawn mower towing rainbow carriages made from old barrels) at public events. with that, comes the perks of sometimes being able to bring it home for your grandkids and their friends. hahaha.

and that's what we did today... started our day hanging out at aunty jenny's house - then moved the party to my parents house where the train rides went on all afternoon and the kids thought all their birthdays and christmases had come at once.

i mean seriously, look at these happy little faces!

joseph was even more stoked after grandad let him sit on the mower and pretend he was the driver

he and his "best friend" jacob had the best time!

it's the country life for me!

such a cute little setup too!

my kids were even more stoked when they got it all to themselves the next day when the rest of the squad had gone home and it was just the kendalls...

hanging with the grandies

it was the best! i love that maddie has nannas hat on here too, it looks so cute on her.

and to top off our visit, i made a birthday cake for my nephew declan who will be visiting tomorrow with his parents. hopefully he loves it!

hoddywell archery park/ toodyay

robin hood time! alex is safe and sound at nannas house so i can spend a little time with the older two at another place that we had a ton of fun at as kids - hoddywell archery park!

hoddywell is about 10 minutes up the toodyay-clackline road from my mum and dads place and i was thrilled to see the kids loved it as much as i did. they very quickly got right into it and did really well!

it's nice to have some time with just the two of them as alex always needs so much attention!

joseph especially blew me away with his efforts, i wasn't sure if he would be that keen, but got right into it and had awesome aim! he was always hitting the target and getting it right near the middle!

we really had an awesome time together and i'm really glad we did it.

robin hood himself! i love it when this kid surprises me. ❤

and miss madeline didn't do too badly either, but it did make me laugh, because she is generally so good at everything that when joseph was beating her, she got so mad! i had to keep reminding her that it was his turn to shine.

afterwards we went into toodyay and had a look around. the kids love that there is a christmas store that is open all year around.

and an old fashioned phone box!

we also had a look in the old church on the main street...

and went into the museum at connors mill which i haven't done since i was around madeline's age!

they loved having a look around, although got bored very quickly and decided it was home time. 

another day out in the wheatbelt. i love being able to share my childhood with my kids. ❤

toodyay fairytale farm

we took a trip to the fairytale farm in toodyay today with our cousinbesties the niupalau kids. i have seen a few friends recently visit and show pics off and i thought it would be a fun day out.

oh was i right. the kids had an absolute ball! all the bright colours and nursery rhymes and fairy tales scattered about the place had the kids smiling and giggling...

there was fun things to do and see - like these nutters posing for lols. 

the entire time we were there i kept thinking there was something so familiar about the place, like i had been there before, which was impossible as it didn't open that long ago. but once we went into the little shop/museum, i found out it used to be enchantmentland that was an attraction in glen forrest when i was a child! well that all makes sense now.

i loved all the animals and we had such a good time watching the kids having fun around them.

we (including me!) fed the goats... i love goats. all that was missing was my beautiful goat loving friend emily parsons to share the goat moment with.

they were just so adorable with their faces and their little noses! 

then we cuddled with some guinea pigs...

someone needs to get madeline one at some stage... i'm so against getting a pet cause they are such a pain, but she loves them so much! look at that happy face!

they literally had a full scale cuddle line with all the animals and it was the cutest thing i've ever seen!

they also had a mini golf set up

and croquet! just like in alice in wonderland!

they even had a mad hatter tea party set up too and the kids thought it was the coolest thing ever posing with the tables. it was the best day and everyone has such a good time. i love watching the kids just getting to be kids.

we will definitely be back at some stage... we love the country!