Almost over

We've just got back from a few days in Deepest Darkest Rural Wales - where my Mum has a little cotage near the sea - and this morning I took down all the "days" from our summer countdown calender. Sadly I'm faced with the fact that I have only 16 days until the time we designated as "getting ready for school" hits us :-(

Why are the summer holidays NEVER long enough now I'm a Grown-Up?

As a child I remember long days of playing in the garden (it must have rained, but I don't rememebr that!) of wqalking over the fields to the next village where my Grandma lived, and spending afternoons with her baking. I remember our family camping trips where we spent days on the beach and sight seeing (I think I've probably visited almost every church in East Anglia! Lol!)

So WHY is there never enough time now?!
The days seem shorter, the days become weeks so much more quickly! Just a few days ago I was thinking about a trip I took to meet up with an old friend. It was before I fell pregnant with my middle daughter - who is now 5!!! Eeekkkk!

Ho Hum!

As for our trip to Wales? Well we had an absolute whale of a time - spending many hours on the most gloriously sandy beach. I'd post photos, but I was too busy building sand castles and paddling with the girls to take any!
But you can use this link to see where we were!
http://www.cardiganshirecoastandcountry.com/poppit-sands-beach-cardigan-bay.php

But here we are on the beach in Yorkshire the week before!

After a loonnnggg drive home yesterday, I've still got the car to unpack and sort out properly - and a daughter to go back and collect! My 5yr old decided she wanted to stay on a little longer and have her first "adventure" without us!
I'm glad she's having the same fun in her summer holidays that I remember in mine, but I'm really NOT relishing the thought of that drive to go and fetch her on Monday!
AM

Splashin' Good Fun!

Yesterday was an "odd" day.

I had to be up at 04.30 to get my eldest daughter, her friend (another Guide) and an older lady (a former Guider) to a coach waaayyyyy accross town for a 6am pickup.
They were travelling to Yorkshire to a HUGE one day Festival to mark the Centenary of Girl Guiding in the UK (around the rest of the world the centenary is happening over the next couple of years)

Despite them leaving late, I was still home by 7am and found the house still quiet, neither of my younger 2, nor my husband had stirred.

BLISS! :-)

I caught up on some blog reading, checked out routes for a trip we're making next week and read a few posts on Facebook (where I've discovered a lot of my old classmates hang out, it's good to catch up on life "back home" now I've been gone over 20 years...eeekkkk!)

Both girls surfaced within minutes of each other, with DH in hot pursuit downstairs to make breakfast (that's a novelty!) so we headed to a neighbouring town to the playground at the park (which is SO much nicer than anything we have locally!)
Because it was still quite early and the weather was not the nicest - warm enough but quite overcast - they had the WHOLE playground to themselves for almost an hour. AND I'd thought to take an old beach towel with me to wipe the swing and slide so they didn't get a soogy bum! (Mind you, CJ in her impatience DID sit on the only thing that hadn't been wiped, but she'll learn!)

ON the way home we decided to stop at McD's ...... and eat IN, (smallest was MOST impressed! hee hee!) so by the time we headed home it was only just after 1pm and we'd done everything! Whoo Hoo!


Then the Heavens opened, Oh Boy did it RAIN!!!!!!!

It was so wet as we pulled onto the drive that DH refused to get out of the car and sat reading the paper that we'd got on the way home until it stopped raining! (What a wuss!)

Not so the smalls. Oh no!
Mummy was dispatched to open the boot and find the raincoats and wellies left over from our trip north on Sunday - oh yeah, it's OK for me to stand there in just a T-shirt getting wet through, but the girlies want their kit! Lol!



Luckily we also keep a GINORMOUS golfing brolly in the boot, so I didn't get too wet, and it was worth it to watch them having fun!



Although I wasn't too impressed when they decided to catch the rain in their hands and then sprinkle it all over me!

Snow Day!

As everyone knows, we've had a ridiculous amount of snow over the last week - well, a ridiculous amount for round here anyway! (The picture above was taken on my phone at 6am as I got up on Thursday 5th)

Schools have been closed (much to DD12's disgust, she likes school more than playing with her little sister!) roads have been impassable (due to insufficient grit apparantly) and people have alternately moaned and thrown snowballs!

So, in an attempt to liven up my blog (because I'm an amature who sits in awe of all the fantastic all singing all dancing Blogs with downloads and fancy backgrounds I've been reading recently!) I thought I'd try and upload some of the photos we took of the kids enjoying the snow!

You'll have to bear with me here, it will be an extended intermission. you'll have time to boil the kettle ad make yourself a brew!

This is DD4 attempting the Cresta Run on big sisters 'spoon'!

Meanwhile DB (dear Baby!) 18mths, can't see what is so exciting. - I think she looks like a Jelly Baby dressed like this! lol!


Mind you, with performances like this to watch (DD12 landing in a heap!) I'm not suprized DB was nonplussed!

We all had fun though, and isn't that the main thing! Lol!