Day 269. Airlie Beach

A day of play for the girls.....

Scarlett moved onto her next 'map' with her Reading Eggs program this morning. She hasn't been doing it that long, but she has picked it up very quickly, and now enjoys doing her morning school work. She completes two lessons every morning before being allowed to go outside to play, and with her new friend Bella here, she can't wait to get it done and out of the way as the kids love playing together. They are practically spending the whole day together - from after breakfast and school time, to dinner time each night.

Needless to say that as soon as Scarlett's school work was completed this morning, she disappeared and went to play with Bella. This morning they spent hours playing playground and bouncing on the big jumping pillow together. Afterwards, Bec took them both over to the pool area, where they continued playing and swimming for another couple of hours.



Bec and Bec - watching the girls swim between reading stories in their magazines

I took the opportunity this morning to 'duck out' for a short time to get some essentials from the local hardware shop, and look around the local shopping centre. I returned in time for lunch (as if I would ever miss a home cooked lunch!), and then spent the early afternoon escaping the midday heat with Bec and Scarlett watching the latest Captain Jack Sparrow adventure - "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides".

The movie hadn't even finished and Bella was back asking Scarlett to go back outside and play. They rode their bikes around the park, and spent time playing barbies and dolls over at Bella's van. They are so alike, that its scary - but somehow they seem to get on like they've known each other their whole lives. It's something Scarlett craves - friendship and attention, and being on the road has certainly made it that much harder to get. So when she finds someone who wants to genuinely play with her, we are more than happy to have some down time and let her play.

Once the heat had died off a little, I took the two girls back over to the pool again for another hour or so of swimming and playing. I even jumped in and cooled off a bit, before relaxing beside the pool and reading my magazine. The kids loved the water, and were burning off heaps of energy.

Bec took this time to go to the shops herself, where she grabbed some groceries for dinner. When she returned, she had a surprise for both Scarlett and Bella; new notepads for them to write in, draw in, and somewhere to put all their stickers. They were both over the moon, and immediately got stuck into more craft and decorating - on and in their books!



Can you get that camera out of my face.... PLEASE!

 Thanks mum!