Gimme Five!

Miss4 powered up to Miss5 this week

There’s nothing like cramming five kids into two bedrooms to make our bus seem roomy.

“You’re on my side of the bed!” shouted Miss5, giving her sister a shove in the back.

Our bus is at the mechanics at the moment so we’re sleeping at Nanny and Poppy’s place. Well, the kids are. Tracey and I are sleeping outside of it, having found sanctuary in their caravan. Meanwhile, two kids are on single beds, one is on a mattress between those and two are sharing a double bed in the other room.

It’s the double bed which has been causing issues.

“It’s my bed too,” Miss9 corrected her little sister. “We’re supposed to be sharing.”

Although she jumped out and headed around to the other side, but by the time she arrived Miss5 was there.

“No,” said Miss5, shaking her head solemnly. “This is all my side of the bed.”

Before the bus Miss5 was quite happy to share a bed with a sibling. In fact, she seemed to insist on it. But now? Not so much. She’s turned five you see.

Five year olds, it seems, can do things like take ice blocks from the freezer without asking, undo their seat belts in the car at traffic lights and decide when they want to communicate with their elders.

Like today, when the kids arrived home after an afternoon swimming at the local pool.

“How was your swim?” Nanny asked her.

“Not now,” Miss5 replied as she trotted past with her iPad. “I’m busy.”

No, she hasn’t gotten away with any of these things, but the fact she’s trying is keeping us on our toes.

“Whatever,” said Miss9, turning and walking back around the bed only to find, you guessed it, Miss5 had wormed over to that side now.

“Wrong again.”

“Where am I going to sleep then?” asked Miss9. “Mummy said we had to share.”

“She said you had to share,” Miss5 told her.

“Well, which is my side of the bed?”

“It’s in the other room,” said Miss5, indicating the way out with a wave of her hand. “You have to go find it in there.”

It’ll be a rough enough year on the road with seven of us sharing a nine meter long aisle with barely a meter space on either side of it – I’m glad they’ve at least got their own mattresses on there.

And while it’s been awesome here catching up with family I can’t wait until we’re having some more adventures. Less than two weeks to go and we’re off again!

This reenactment was basically done by asking Miss9 to jump into bed again. No acting required on Miss5’s behalf.

Miss5’s prep class have given her a buddy to take on the trip and send back photos of in all the wonderful places we’ll be visiting. They’ve also got a map of Australia on the wall to follow our adventures on.
The last week has been spent writing up our submissions for homeschooling the kids this year. I didn’t realise I’d have so much homework to do. 
Kenny fix it? I hope so. Some overheating problems on our 3100km trip to Wonga Beach and back so we’ve put Kenny in for a service at Hi-WAY Gympie and to have some bits replaced – like the radiator core, radiator fan, air filter, fuel filter and all the hoses and belts. Hopefully the only heating up after this will be in the tent after the kids are all asleep.
Gutted. Literally. Because Kenny is nearly 30 years old the radiator core we need isn’t sitting idle on a shelf anywhere handy so it has to be made. $800 for that privilege. On the bright side, it’ll be a bigger unit so hopefully that will help keep things cool.
Speaking of keeping things cool, hopefully we’ll get a bit of a breeze when we’re on the highway (since we don’t have air con until we plug in at a park) now some of the windows can be opened. Thanks Ken. You’re a top sort of father-in-law to have around. Me, not so much. But I mean the tea’s not going to drink itself. 

Raising a family on little more than laughs

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