Holiday Provisions
With the kids off school and Easter approaching, a day at the Albany Mega Centre has all of us ready for the holidays.
Where does the year go? It feels like only a few weeks ago the school year started but here we are on day one of the April school holidays. Two weeks of the kids (and their many friends) at home all day. I lay in bed thinking about what to do to keep them amused these holidays.
Mid-morning, I pile both boys into the car and drive down to the Mega Centre. Clearly, I’m not the only one thinking about holiday activities as the car park is already full.
We start at Warehouse Stationery looking for art supplies. Both boys love drawing and painting and they are both getting really good it. They each get their own A3 drawing pad and a good HB pencil for sketching. We buy a set of Faber Castelle colour pencils, a 24 pack of Crayola Crayons and 12 acrylic paints. I love drawing and encourage the kids to spend time creating art, rather than on their devices.
My encouragement doesn’t last long though, as Noel Leeming, right next door, entices the boys to come in and play with all the newest gadgets. The boys are already fighting over the Star Wars VR experience and asking me to buy it for them. I quickly muster them to the games area and set them a budget to buy one new Playstation game. We finally have some agreement on which game and move on to Rebel Sport.
I’m looking at sports clothes for going back to school but the boys abandon me and head off to look at racket and ball sports. We agree to dust off the table tennis table in the garage, and buy new balls and a new racket to replace the one broken over Christmas. The boys discover the Air Storm Zeno bows on sales and I buy them one each. Hopefully the holiday weather will be good enough to get outside with them.
I take the boys to Burger King and leave them there while I rush down to the Warehouse to stock-up on Easter eggs. I quickly hide these in the back of the car and head back to find the boys firing arrows at each other across a crowded restaurant. What was I expecting – games, toys and fast-food were always going to lead to overexcitement!
We head home. The boys are bouncing around in anticipation of the many things they now have to do these holidays. I feel a sense of optimism that, thanks to the Albany Mega Centre, these holidays are under control. Ask me how that went in two weeks time.