Farewell to Summer: our beachy weekend in Wells

Making the most of the later start of school for the Reception intake, we went away for a long weekend on the first weekend of September, to Wells-next-the-Sea in North Norfolk.

This is a part of the country we'd never visited before; we've always automatically headed to the south west, to Devon or Cornwall, so it was quite exciting to try somewhere new.  We stayed in a caravan park, right next to Wells beach.  After a really good journey, broken up with a pub lunch and a run around the adjoining soft play area, we were delighted that our caravan was really luxurious and spacious.  M insisted on opening every door and exploring our new home first, and was so excited to be there. It felt really cosy, so we didn't mind that it was raining and blustery outside.

On our first full day, we rode the little train that runs along the estuary into Wells, where the locals had put on a pirate festival.  The atmosphere was fantastic; there were loads of people in costume, greeting each other with 'AAAAaaaarrrrrrr!' when they walked past. We had a lovely pub lunch in the company of a room full of raucous pirates and then a wander through the high street with all its quirky little shops before heading to the stalls and bouncy castle laid on for the pirate festival.  F finally fell asleep in the pushchair, so I had a lovely bracing walk along the estuary back to the caravan, whilst Two Boy Daddy returned on the train with M.  It had been a lovely day, but we were really hoping that the wind would die down and that we'd see some sunshine on the Sunday, because we had hired a gorgeous beach hut for the weekend and were desperate to try it out.

Going for a stroll along the estuary

On the little train.  (Yes, I am wearing a very similar coat to my boys!)

How cool is this little dude?!

Well, Sunday didn't disappoint! We were so lucky to have the perfect blue sky and lots of lovely sunshine all day long.  We spent the whole day at the beach, paddling in the chilly sea, making sandcastles, playing boules, and just enjoying our cute beach hut.  I've wanted to hire one of these huts for ages, and this one was the perfect choice.  It was equipped with everything you could need for a family day at the beach, with lovely stripey deckchairs and windbreaks, balls, buckets and spades, a kite, binoculors and loads of other fun stuff.  And I enjoyed playing house making cups of tea on the gas stove.  Even F thought it was so comfortable he had a little nap on the padded bench!

Boo! Hiding in the beach hut storage cupboard

Ahoy there!

A quiet cuddle with Daddy

We fetched a picnic from the Beach Hut cafe and munched it behind our windbreak, feeling a little smug that, for once, we were the ones with all the nice equipment (we're usually the family who forgets the towels and brings the wrong clothes!).  I had a whale of a time snapping away with my camera, and got some nice shots that capture our lovely day.

It really felt like a day to mark the end of the summer, and the end of an era, before M started school.  One of those happy days that you know you will remember forever.  That bluer than blue sky and the tang of the sea air really was good for the soul, and I made sure I drank it all in before we headed back home to start school and Autumn.

Us four

All snuggled up in the Mei Tai

Beachcombing

 

Just us

 

Sunflare behind Beach Hut 66

Our little gang

Summer holidays bucket list

So, we're nearly at the end of the first week of the summer holidays. Our first summer holidays in fact, as last summer M was still at his childminder's and so he was cared for throughout July and August.

I am very conscious that these seven weeks are the last ones I will spend with M before he becomes enveloped in the next chapter of his life as a school boy.  And I want to make some memories while we get the chance.

There are lots of things I want to do this summer, both as a family, and also just with M.  Here's my summer holidays bucket list.

1. Go and visit some lavender fields.  I've always loved the sight and scent of lavender, and would love to see a real lavender farm, where you're surrounded by all the aromatic purpleness.  I'd love to get some lovely family photos of the four of us with the lavender as a backdrop. I think the nearest farm to us is Cotswold Lavender, but we need to be quick, as I think they'll be harvesting soon.

2. Visit Warwick Castle.  This is an amazing castle, and I'm hoping to visit again as a family this summer.  M is really into castles, and I think he'll love this one.  I'm going to see if we can use our Nectar points to pay for tickets.

3.  Spend a day in a beach hut. We are off to North Norfolk in early September, to have one last family adventure before school starts.  I'm hoping to hire a gorgeous little beach hut, something I've always wanted to do.  I have my eye on one in Wells-next-the-Sea

4. Visit Gulliver's Kingdom again. We had such a great time at Gulliver's Kingdom for M's birthday, that we bought return tickets at a discount, so we can go back again before the end of September.

5. Have a cinema date with M.  I think he wants to see the new Thomas the Tank Engine film.  He's gone off any films with a 'baddie' in them, so we have to be careful what we pick.

6. Go for a walk in Dovedale in the Peak District. This is such a beautiful part of the world, and I'd love to go back now that M is old enough to negotiate the stepping stones over the River Dove.

7. Have a picnic in the park.  There's nothing nicer than a picnic on a beautiful summer's day, is there?  Hopefully, the weather will pick up a bit to allow us to tick this one off!

8. Organise some playdates for M.  7 weeks is a long time to be without your friends, so I'd really like to organise for him to play with some of his pre-school friends and other little people we know.  I'm a bit nervous about more than one four year old racing round the house, though!

9. Enjoy some more family barbeques.  Our garden is a bit all over the place at the moment, as G is building a large climbing frame for the boys, but once that's done, it'd be lovely to have the family over for a barbeque.

10. Introduce M to gymnastics.  He's always practicing his yoga poses, and demanding that we watch him while he leaps all over the furniture, so the other evening, I took him to observe a gym class for little ones, to see if he thought he'd like to do it.  He was VERY keen, and I put his name on the waiting list.  In the meantime, I'm looking into some ad hoc classes that he can get involved in over the summer.

What's on your holidays bucket list this year?

Me and Mine {March 2015}

Oh dear!

This is a bit late!  Somehow, I've had a month off blogging. I don't really know why, other than that I've just been too exhausted, once the boys are in bed, to even think about writing anything or editing photos.  I am annoyed with myself as I wanted to keep up with at least the photo projects I've started, and the longer the hiatus has gone on the more difficult it has seemed to get back into it.

But here I am tonight.  Two Boy Daddy has gone out for the evening so it's just me and my laptop. And I want to do a bit of catching up before it becomes insurmountable.

So, March.  It seems quite a while ago now, but we did have a pretty nice month. We went on our first holiday as a foursome, and the weather got nicer, meaning it felt like we'd been let out of the house for the first time since October.

Here's our Me and Mine family photo for March. It was taken when we met up with some friends in Cornwall on Mawgan Porth beach.  I think we look really happy.

Our first holiday as a foursome

We've just got back from our first family holiday as a foursome, little F's very first time away.  We went to Cornwall, one of my all time favourite places, and stayed at Retallack Resort and Spa, near Padstow.

We were pleasantly surprised at how luxurious our lodge was. The beds were so comfy, there was plenty of space for M to run about, and the kitchen was really well fitted, with every utensil provided and the luxury of granite worktops.

Mummy and Daddy's bed was sooo much more comfy than my travel cot!

We had plumped for a lodge with a private hot tub in the decked outdoor space, and this didn't disappoint either.  We used it most days, and M absolutely loved splashing about in it.  This was how M and I spent Mother's Day afternoon.



Guarding ice creams against the greedy seagulls at Padstow

Catch of the Day at Stein's Deli

As the weather was pretty kind to us (although it was still quite chilly, being March), we managed to spend a bit of time exploring the local beaches.  We bought M a bucket and spade and a fishing net and went off to Watergate Bay, to build sandcastles, kick footballs, furtle about in the rock pools and climb the rocks.  It was a little too cold for F, so we couldn't stay out too long, but it was great to get some sea air in our lungs. 

We had a great meal at the Watergate Bay Hotel one lunchtime.  What an amazing hotel this is!  I've definitely got this one bookmarked for some time in the faraway future for me and the Two Boy Daddy.



Delicious food at the Watergate Bay Hotel

Aardman's various animations are a real favourite in our house so we went to Land's End for the Shaun the Sheep Experience.  It was fun to see some of the real props and sets, and to get some silly photos next to the characters.


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We also tried out the King Arthur exhibition (which was not pushchair friendly and very scary for three year olds!) and the 4D film about dinosaurs.  F was a little unsettled and I was trying to breastfeed him while my cinema seat was lurching about, air was being puffed up from the floor and bubbles were landing on us.  Talk about extreme breastfeeding!  We had to leave the other two to it.  M was a little difficult though on this day (I think we'd left it too long before we had lunch), so our visit to Land's End ended with everyone feeling irritable, but we soon got our holiday moods back on.

We also spent some time in St Ives, which is a special place for me and the Mr, as it's where we spent a lot of time on our very first holiday together.  We retraced our steps and salivated at all the restaurant menus where we can now no longer visit! M bought a cuddly Elmo with his holiday money, and was most proud when he handed over his money to the shop assistant.



St Ives: our special place

This holiday saw F take his first dip in a swimming pool.  As we expected from his enthusiasm for bathtime, he really enjoyed the pool and being led about in his yellow boat.  Two Boy Daddy and I got a treat: we had a massage each included in our holiday booking.  I asked a firm massage, and my goodness, I had to stop myself from squealing out, but it did feel nice to have a bit of pampering.

On our last day, we met up at Mawgan Porth beach with some friends of ours who live in Cornwall.  They have a little boy who is 16 months younger than M; the two of them really enjoyed spending some time together on the beach.  We all had a lovely lunch together afterwards.

Holidays mean different things when you have children.  They're not about relaxing, as you still have to entertain, sort out meals, wash up, bathe and clean them, and you don't have all your usual resources at your fingertips.  F did not sleep very well all week, so we were pretty tired.  But we will have some very happy memories of our first holiday as a foursome, and look forward to visiting Cornwall again before too long.