Why you should make the effort.

 Emirates Stakes race day at Flemington was splendid.

We headed off around 10.30am, picked up my friend and her daughter, buckled in extra car seats (three Maxi Riders at once do not fit well in a Tribute, but safe, they were), loaded up prams and bags and parked very close to the race track thanks to the networking of our mothers group, who secured us with a car pass for the day (see Mrs Woog, mothers groups are very handy!)

We settled on the grass right at the track fence with our collection of blankets and bags and a group that ended up consisting of six kids under six.

The girls were entertained by a lovely balloon man first, then we spent a little too much time in the Camp Australia tent, drew pictures, painted plaster, got their arms painted with butterflies and flowers, played a giant game of connect four, played dress ups and had their photo taken in a mini Emirates photo booth.

They raced to the fence for each race and screamed for the horses, any horse, to go faster.

Immy, bless her white painted cotton socks, slept in the pram for an hour.

Popps was allowed to have an icypole - how much do you think for one Calipo? $2, $3, $4 nope, $4.50!

They picked a hundred roses and made petal hills before throwing them in the air and running around, someone walking passed commented that our area looked like a wedding had just taken place, it looked beautiful where we were.

Being prepared, I did what I often do and packed my Nutrimetics (thank you big sister) pencils in my bag. I was using these to draw rainbows, flowers and butterflies on each of the kids, and also my phone number up their arms, just in case I lost one (or two) I was not looking my most glam, squinting up to the sun in the crouched position when the Ch Ten news cameras landed in my face with the question "You have come prepared, tell us what you are doing?" Me: "mumble, mumble, mumble" and out came something, my previous media training was of no use at all. If anyone did see the footage...I was not drunk.

And we stayed til after the last race, loaded up the buggy again, I wore my Walnut Melbourne flats (they are on sale for a few weeks) for the walk back to the car and arrived home for baked beans on toast at 6 pm.

It couldn't have been a better way to spend my anniversary, unless SS could have joined us.

Did you see me on the telly?