Birthday Bash at Bribie...

A year ago DH started planning a holiday in May 2019 for the immediate family as part of the celebration of his 70th. Each year his 3 daughters, their partners and children spend a long weekend away with his first wife to celebrate her birthday, and DH thought that sounded like a good way to celebrate this special birthday. Finding a property to rent for our blended family of 11 adults and 5 children turned out to be quite a challenge. But we found a large house for rent which overlooked Pumicestone Passage.

Lovely views from the balcony on the first level as well as from the lounge room on street level.

The family went on lots of beach walks...the beach was just over the road...

The sunsets were gorgeous! 

A few group photos were taken on the beach...

Getting up off the sand after this series of photos was ‘interesting’ to say the least! Lol

One morning the family all walked up to the museum and we spent nearly 2 hours looking at the exhibits. On the Sunday we drove up to where the mini trains run...

How’s this for the cutest little steam engine?




We had visitors one day and we went to the Bribie Island Bowls club for lunch as I’d had enough of cooking for a crowd by then, lol. 

The photo shows the meal one of our sons in law ordered 🤪

This was my more modest whiting, chips and salad lunch...

That same afternoon DH and I met 2 friends for afternoon coffee at the same club. These 2 sisters were at school with DH and I so our friendship goes back a long way. 

On the morning of our last full day, DH’s cousin and her husband visited us for morning tea. By then the young people had all gone home so it was just DH and I. 

I did mention in passing just before, that I’d spent a fair amount of the week cooking meals for a bit of a crowd. But I had a lovely kitchen in which to work. I particularly loved these corner drawers and wished I had them at home instead of those difficult to get into corner cupboards that my kitchen has...

Bribie was a perfect venue for our family gathering as where else would you find a main road named in honour of our family? 🤣🤪

Now the back story of this blog post.

The house he found that we eventually rented was very large...but not large enough. It was meant for 8 adults and 3 children. We thought some family members would be happy to sleep on mattresses for the nights of the weekend when it was planned for the whole family to gather...nup, all expected queen size beds. Some stayed many nights and felt that they should have the 3 extra bedrooms. That meant that the other family members with work commitments felt slighted and one couple would only come for the day as a result. I discovered that adults with young children are hampered from being able to offer much help and meals are delayed by baby needs. 

Every day some of the granddaughters had mega ‘meltdowns’ when it came time for bath or bed. And it wasn’t only the grandies...siblings sniping at each other was also observed. 

My 70th might be different! 😉😄