On A Brighter Note ...

The girls are having an absolute blast with their Grandma.

This is the first time we have sent them up there by themselves for any length of time and I think all parties are loving the experience.

It gives Grandma a chance to bond with them on a totally different level to that when the parents are around. And being that Grandma lives in the country, it gives the girls a lot of experiences they would not normally get a chance to partake in.

Like watching a re-enactment of a train robbery at one of the train stations over the weekend. And milking cows at a nearby dairy. Feeding the calves in their raincoats made out of garbage bags. I so hope there are photos.

And apparently the Wee One and Grandma get their own special bonding time when she is the first one to wake up of a morning. They sit and have breakfast together and then go off to feed the horses.

And I just think. What lovely memories for my girls to have as their very own. Not something read in a book or heard about from other friends but their memories. Ones they can keep for a lifetime.

We have decided to make this a more regular thing. Providing Grandma agrees, of course.

But I think secretly, although Grandma will be extremely tired after kid wrangling three tinies for the best part of a week, she will miss them terribly when they are gone.

Funnily enough my own memories are of being at my Grandma's for a week too. Although not quite as far away, it certainly seemed just as far back when I was a kid. We would go and hang out at Grandma's for a week and she would take us shopping and to the movies and we'd eat strawberries that had been covered in sugar and left to ferment in the fridge overnight and she'd buy us our favourite cereals and make us milkshakes every night.

And we would play shopkeepers and bankers and go and explore in the strawberry garden behind the house and tinker in Granddad's shed - although I can't remember him as he passed when we were very little. Actually my strongest memory of him is him sitting in his chair with his bonds singlet and brown trousers on, drinking tea - and we'd walk down to the park and catch three buses to get to town.

And Grandma would catch three buses to get to us if we couldn't visit her. A trek that today would take about 30 minutes tops must have taken her at least an hour. But she would come and buy us icecreams and lollies and then catch those three buses home without uttering a single complaint.

I loved staying at Grandma's and I loved her coming to visit. I miss her incredibly and those innocent childhood days where life was just perfect.

So I am glad that my girls have a Grandma like that too. Because that is what I hoped for my children. To have a Grandma who would be a safe place to fall and have hugs at the ready. And to top it off, they get the added bonus of farm life to add to their experiences.

Happy, happy days...

I am off to pick them up this morning after a few tears last night on the phone. They're ready to come home and I can't wait to see them.