12 kids, 6 parents, 1 nana, 1 great grandpa & a fish tank splashback. Part 2

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So having finally secured a holiday venue that could contain us all safely (albeit that not everyone was sleeping over), where we could have an 8 year olds and an 87 year olds birthday celebration, we were pretty darn stoked.

The pool…

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Immediately upon arrival the pool was swamped. It was unbelievably hot on our first day and much to our surprise there was a bloody gale blowing on the Surfers Paradise canals. So while the pool water was lovely and warm because of the extremely hot day, if you stuck your body out of the water the wind was a wee bit chilly. Actually, it was freezing!

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So the dash from the pool to the ‘Fun Room’ was fast and frantic, but then you encountered the air con which was also freezing. Thank heavens we had 4 bathrooms with lots of lovely hot water.

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Unfortunately the kids soon discovered that beautiful big bath tub was really a waterslide incognito…. It was slippery and slidey and once the water started going up one side and down the other, a whole equal and opposite reaction thingy started to happen. Goddam physics!

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Still a fantastic bath time was had by all and no children were harmed in the bathing and no water damage sustained, however, there were a lot of very, very wet towels and one very, very cold soggy Nana!

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In need of some of that lovely hot water I retreated to the master suite and that very spiffy looking ensuite, still shivering a bit because of the drowning I received in the pool and the bathroom and the air con.

No problem I reached out turned the tap around to hot and stepped back waiting for the water to heat up and come out of the shower rose directly in front of me. Yeah, not so much. No where in the vast list of features had my wonderful hosts mentioned the rainfall shower!!!

This marvel of plumbing and engineering is set into the roof and pours a vast amount of water directly onto the top of your head, which when you have it set at the right temperature and you’re expecting it is absolutely wonderful.

But when it is freezing cold and you’re not expecting it, produces an emission of air from the lungs that brings most, if not all of your family members running. Did I mention there is no door on the ensuite!!! Talk about family bonding... You will all be extremely relieved to see that there are no photos…. Moving on.

Our first evening in Surfers Paradise we celebrated the 8th birthday of Miss Z.

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As you can see we may have mislaid the candles. But big sister Miss J is always there to help out with a little extra hot air if needed! While little brothers Master A and Master L just want to get their hands on the cake...

As it had been a big day for everyone, some of us had travelled long distances, others not quite so far but had partied hard, played hard and swum hard (suffered hypothermia), not to mention consumed an alarming amount of food, sleep was required all round.

Bedtime routines...

When bedtime comes around for the little ones, the 8 year old and over girls (and sometimes the boys) like to help out, by putting their baby and toddler siblings and/or cousins to bed.

The birthday girl Miss Z, snuggled up with Miss 1(her cousin) gave her a bottle and put her to sleep. Then being the born little mother she is, she then hopped in bed with Master 5 and Miss 3 (also her cousins) to tell them a story.

At some point we noticed Miss Z had not returned. This was when we discovered she had fallen asleep in bed with Master 5 and Miss 3. “There were 3 in the bed and the little one said ‘Roll over, roll over’” insert appropriate melody here…

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Action in the Master Suite…

The plan had been because it was her birthday, that Miss Z would sleep with Nana in the master suite and she had been really looking forward to snuggles with Nana.

But trying to lift her out from between two soundly sleeping children was simply not an option. So Nana got a bed all to herself, well for almost all of the first night.

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About daylight, one by one grandchildren came creeping through my bedroom door and climbing into bed with me (my room was closest to the kitchen and that huge TV) ‘Nana, what’s for breakfast?’ ‘Nana, when can we get in the pool?’ OMG the poor neighbours!

So about 6:00 am when the body count in my bed hit about six, me and five grandchildren (bet that’s the most action that bed’s seen lol), I finally crawled out from underneath the squirming, giggling mass.

I then attempted to regained control of my iPhone from Miss 3 and Master 5 who were engaged in a tug-of-war over it, herded them all towards the kitchen and started feeding them lots of high sugar foods.

Once they all had their mouths full and were fixated on the TV I snuck back to bed while no one was looking, leaving a couple of parents to deal with the consequences…. Ah, my work here is done!

While the huge TV and the ‘Fun Room’ were hugely popular ultimately the pool won out (the weather was beautiful) and there may have been some slightly over cooked children, notwithstanding the application of large quantities of sunscreen.

However, it wasn’t so much the sun as the pool chlorine levels that triggered most of the next series of events including but not limited to:

1. the master suite becoming an impromptu emergency room;
2. my needing a new room because my master suite was no longer available;
3. a toilet shortage on the 1st floor because the patients in the master suite prevented
   people using its ensuite toilet (remember no door);
4. a warming oven with no intelligible instructions (not even on the net) and me
   needing to warm dinner for 20;
5. the same 5 kids from this morning's bedroom action sitting on top of me on the sofa
   while we watched ‘Zootopia’ on the big screen after dinner; and
6. we discovered that the shortest dishwasher setting ran for 3 hours! Really…

So with those tantalising issues still to be explored, I will leave you all hanging until Part 3 (before this post turns into ‘War and Peace’), when all the sordid details will be revealed (unless my word count gets out of hand again and we have to go to Part 4 lol).

Thanks for reading!