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

Me and Mine {August 2015}

The first of September already!  I can't quite believe it.  August has been a good month on the whole: I've spent a lot of quality time with my two little boys, we've had a lot of days out and I feel we really made the most of the summer, despite the rather gloomy, rainy weather.  This month, the blog has taken a back seat while we just got on with having fun.  To be honest, the school holidays have worn me out to the extent where finding the energy to edit photos and write posts in the evenings has been beyond me!

I do feel that we've packed as much as I possibly could into this summer, which is exactly what I set out for us to do.  Just over a week to go and the school holidays will be over for us, and we will be entering a brand new routine as a family.  I'm looking forward to it, but also know that I will probably miss the more carefree, let's-not-worry-too-much-about-late-nights kinda days.

So, here's what we've all got up to in August.

I have:

*been enjoying the start of the Great British Bake-Off
*been catching up with some friends for playdates and much-needed school holiday morale support!

*enjoyed a day out at Carsington Water with the family, and a particularly beautiful sunset on the way home

*bought a lovely new yellow raincoat from Joules

*been having mixed feelings about the approach of school for M

*loved hearing M tell me he loves me so much
*loved taking some family shots at a lavender farm in the Cotswolds

Two Boy Daddy has:

*officially started in his new job, and has been enjoying getting paid!
*enjoyed going out for a steak at a new place in town

*had a night out with the lads (although he came home early as he was sleep-deprived!)

M has:

*loved his first sleepover at his Granddad's house

*started to practice his 'American' accent

*a new habit of saying 'Excuse me' before saying anything!

*had a great day out with friends at Drayton Manor Park

*tried pizza for the first time and loved it!

*been getting excited for the start of school

*loved our family movie night where we had sweets and watched 'Over the Hedge'

F has:

*enjoyed trying some new cereals for breakfast
*loved playing with a soft ball in the house
*started to listen more to stories, with 'Snuggle Bunny' being a particular favourite
*started to say 'No no no no!' and 'Mummumumum!'

*found a new place to explore - under the kitchen table

*enjoyed pushing cars along the carpet


Our photos for August were taken on the last weekend of the month, on a visit to Carsington Water where we met up with my mum and step-dad and my auntie and uncle, who had taken their caravans for a weekend away. We had a great day with lots of walking, messing about on the edges of the reservoir, and then topped off with a BBQ.  The boys both had a lovely time.  Here's our Me and Mine photo, followed by a couple of outtakes!

Our adventure in lavender

A couple of weeks ago we ticked off one of the things on my summer bucket list, and had a day out to visit a lavender farm. This is something we've never done before, so I was really hoping to get some great photos of our family with the purple fields as a backdrop.

We went to Snowshill Lavender near Bourton on the Water in the Cotswolds. It's a small lavender farm, but it seems to attract people from far and wide: when we visited there were lots of Japanese tourists, who were captivated by F, and gathered round us like he was some kind of baby celebrity! I took the tripod, which I've never been brave enough to use before, and it was great to get some shots of the four of us without having to balance the camera on something or asking a passerby to help.

The lavender was so beautiful - that deep purple was really intense and the scent was heady. We had a lovely little wander around and through the fields, bees buzzing all around us and M giggling as he explored. It felt like summer captured. We sampled one of the gift shop products, lavender fudge, but it was only M who actually enjoyed it! It was a bit too flowery for me and G. On the way home, we stopped in Moreton in Marsh for a mooch around the toy shop and a cream tea.  A lovely family day out, and something I'd like to repeat next summer.

 Here are some of the photos from the day.

Mummy & M date number 1: an afternoon at Thinktank

 

I feel like time is slowly counting down to that date in September when I have to deliver my little boy to the gates to begin his school days.  It excites and scares me in equal measures, to know that he is on the cusp of such an exciting and hopefully happy part of his life.  He has so much ahead of him to stimulate his clever little mind, and will be influenced by so many other people than his immediate family.

I suffer from the well documented 'mummy guilt', brought on by the fact that I cannot spend as much time giving him my full attention now that I have two children to look after. I spend my days feeling completely torn between the two of them, and it's nearly always M, whose needs are less immediate, who has to wait. It's been getting to me a little bit, hearing 'just wait a minute', and 'in a bit' come out of my mouth as often as they have been lately, particularly since F is now mobile, and needs constant supervision.

With the long summer holidays upon us, I've decided to carve out some time each week just for M and me, when we can go somewhere fun, and do something just the two of us, like we used to before F was born.  So, I've planned six Mummy and M dates to look forward to.

This week's adventure was a pretty exciting one: we spent the afternoon at Thinktank in Birmingham.  I think the train journey would've been excitement enough for M, who was so enthusiastic about everything he saw along the way ('What's that, Mummy?' 'It's a cooling tower.' 'Oh! I love cooling towers, they're my favourite!'), and who made the other passengers smile with his sheer joyfulness and his lack of reserve in telling the lady opposite us all about where we were going and that he was starting school in September. 

There were a few grumbles on the rather lengthy walk from New Street Station to Thinktank (it was raining, and M was quite hungry), but when we arrived, he was captivated.  There were machines to watch, huge robot arms to control, water wheels, pumps and waterways to play with, a steam engine to marvel at, and so much more.  M is particularly interested in the human body, so was absolutely over the moon to find a model of the digestive system, complete with food moving through the intestines, and a button at the end he could press to make a poo sound.  That was right up his street!

Outside, in the garden there were more contraptions to have a play with, water to splash about and levers and handles to pull and turn.  He was in his element, and I felt like I could really concentrate on being the mummy I want to be to him.  We were both shattered when we got home, but I think we'd both reconnected somehow.

I can't wait for next week's adventure!