Our Week with O'Shea

Last week I was truly blessed to have my gorgeous grandson O'Shea staying with me for a week. He lives about eight hours from me so I don't get to spend a huge amount of time with him or his little brother Finn. So I thought now that he is six and at school, it was the perfect time for a holiday with Granny Dave. After meeting up in Marlo and get in a bit of fishing it was time for O'Shea and Granny Dave to head to Melbourne. 

Marlo,Victoria

Clohesy family having a bit of a fish - O'Shea 1 - Daddy 1

My daughters two girls Clare (6) and Mikayla (4) were also looking forward to having lots of adventures with O'Shea, so Rachel and I planned a few activities. As it turned out it was an extremely busy week. 

Monday was a day at Melbourne Museum in Carlton. I have been to the Museum with Clare and Mikayla before and we just knew O'Shea would love it, as he did. I knew the kids would love the indoor play area, but I was totally surprised just how much two six year olds could enjoy a Museum. On the way home they said how much they loved it, but their favourite was the big crystals. 

O'Shea and Clare were pretty impressed with these Pygmy Blue Whale Bones

While O'Shea smiled for the camera,
Clare was just checking out those ants couldn't get to her

The both loved the crystals. 

Tuesday was a quieter day until we headed off to the movies to see The Emoji Movie. After lots of popcorn, candies and a Mexican dinner it was off home for a good nights sleep. 

Movie and Popcorn time

A bit of craziness at dinner

We spent a fabulous day on Wednesday at Werribee Open Range Zoo. Opened in 1983, this zoo covers around 560 acres and has some major exhibits with Hippopotamus, Lion, Zebra, Giraffe, Meerkat, Ostrich, beautiful Silverback Gorillas, African wild dogs, numerous antelope, Rhinoceros, and Australian animals. 

Such a magnificent animal these Silverback Gorillas are. 

O'Shea's favorite were the snakes. 

At the end of the day it was time for icypoles. 

Thursday was a day to head down to Somerton to Dinosaur World. The three kids enjoyed looking at all the moving dinosaurs, so from a kids view it was fun but from an adults point of view it was not as exciting. 

Oh how I Love these smiles

After such a big week it was time for some quiet time watching Trolls on the telly

While waiting for his Mum, Dad and brother Finn to come down to collect him it was time for O'Shea to have one last play date with his cousins. 

Overall we had a fantastic week and next time little Finn will be old enough to come for his first holiday from home. 

My Decluttering Cleansing Challenge

Last month I have been challenging myself and others with a 30 Day Decluttering Cleansing month.  I must admit I put the challenge out there for totally selfish reasons. I find that if I put it out there to others it makes me more accountable. Hence when I'm accountable to others I usually am successful with my challenges. But that wasn't always the case. Years ago I had a bit of a hoarding problem but with lots of work and soul searching I was able to get over it. Here's  how I made myself realise that I just didn't need all the stuff I had.

I think my issues started when I went through a divorce and was left with lots of stuff from my past. For a number of years my two kids and I lived with the clutter until after a bit of a revelation I realised that all the stuff that I was keeping from my past was stopping me from moving forward into my new life. At first I didn't know what to do and I found it very difficult to part with anything.
So to start off I set up some boxes in my lounge room and I labeled them throw away, donate, keep, pass onto owners, and don't know. At the end of each week I emptied the boxes to where they belonged. I only tackled one area at a time eg. one draw at a time, one tiny area at a time. After a lot of soul searching and positive self talk to myself  I had mostly everything under control but there were still a few issues.
After quite a number of years the time came for us to head off for twelve months in our camper "Myrtle". I had to put a lot of stuff into storage and my incentive was "Do I want to pay for this to be in storage?"  So once again I got the boxes set up and promised myself to be a lot more ruthless.
My clutter issues are pretty much under control now although I must admit I do still have some issues with my craft room. With that in mind this month I am going to challenge myself with all the craft supplies, half finished objects, instructions and incidental things my craft room holds.

If you would like to join me in this challenge please let me know. I'd love to have you along for the ride.