Summer Holidays Round Up: Week 1

1 week down, 5 more to go! It hasn’t been as painful as I feared it would be either! I was expecting to hear “I’m bored” by now, but having said that, I’ve not really seen much of Lily this week! Somehow she’s managed to keep busy without me!

Let’s start back at the beginning and see what we’ve been up to:

Saturday:

What better way to start the holidays than a birthday party?! Lily’s first point of call was exactly this. We popped into town first thing and bought a birthday present (I know, talk about organised.) Whilst in town we bumped into Aunty Rhiannon who graciously took William for me whilst I dropped Lily off at the party. Once that was done I retrieved William and we had a quick play in the park whilst we waited for the party to finish – which ended up with a few time-outs for him for not sharing nicely. We picked Lily up and decided to visit Nanny and Grandad, where we ended up stopping for dinner. Martin and his brother & a few of their friends had plans to go out for “a pint” so the kids and I had an early night (bliss.)

Sunday:

After Martin’s “one pint” resulted in him enjoying it for 6 long hours (must’ve really enjoyed every last mouthful of it!) I came downstairs to see his brother had followed in tow and made camp on the sofa! After a quiet morning of the two older kids sleeping, William also fell asleep on the floor which left Lily and I to quietly watch TV until someone woke up! Eventually the boys did wake, and Scott took Lily back with him so she could have a playdate with her cousins. (and to keep the kids out of his hair…Feeling a bit worse for wear was Scott!) As it was Martins day off, we took a wander up to B&Q to look for a shower rail and curtain for our bathroom, which was a pointless drive as they had bugger all in. So we went home and popped a film on. Dinner time came around, and as I half expected, I got a phone call: “Mummy…can I have a sleepover at Ellas please?” SURE! (a bit too eager of me?) So we spent the rest of the evening watching films and sprawling out on the sofa.

Monday:

Knowing the girls, I knew they’d want another day of playing so I kind of wrote this day off before I really knew the plan. 8.30am rolled around and I got a phone call again: “Mummy…can I have another sleepover please?” – Aunty Jo scoring all the aunty points here! But there we were, my assumptions were correct. So Lily stayed at Ella’s again. I had initially planned on taking William to the park on this day, but in true Summer Holiday fashion; the heavens opened and it poured down with rain! So we had a chilled out day at home.- It was a pretty uneventful day for us.

Tuesday:

Lily came home today, for all of 5 minutes before she was whisked away to have a playdate at a school friends house! (Honestly, this child has a better social life than I do!) So whilst she was out, William and I popped to grandmas – mainly to get out of the house! Whilst we were there, William fell asleep so I left him there whilst I came home to get Lily back. We then had a few hours of “us” time which was lovely! We changed the bedsheets together (thrilling, I know! But you’d be surprised how much kids like to get involved with house chores like this!) and then we went downstairs and made each other candy necklaces that she was given as a Christmas present. This was a little tricky at times as I had really long nails & couldn’t tie any knots in the string! We finished the day with putting some posters up in her bedroom of the solar system and the world! Eventually William and Daddy returned home and we stuck a film on and had some family time.

Wednesday:

Once again, we said goodbye to Lily as she went off to her mums for 2 days! (See? So far we’ve only had a day and a half together!) so again, William and I were left to amuse ourselves…I was pretty rubbish and again we didn’t do much. (I can’t remember if it rained or not this day??) Either way, we had another day at home, but I managed to get some housework done!

Thursday:

With Lily still away (she went to the zoo today!) We popped out in the morning to a park close by that had a little football field next to it, so we took a ball and went to play there – which lasted all of 20 minutes. But the main thing is we got out of the house!  I went to Nanny’s with William to have my nails soaked off in the afternoon as they were just too long and I couldn’t do much with them, and we stayed there for dinner and Martin joined us after work. I actually got some “me time” today and went to play Bingo with a school mum which was lovely! I even won £15, woo! When I came home, Lily was happily playing Minecraft and William was fast asleep in his bed. 10 points to Martin.

Friday:

Today, Martin had a day off! Hurrah! Last night we’d arranged that he and Lily would have a morning together and have some much needed “daddy/daughter” time. So up we all got, and off they went! They had a great time together, they visited Grandad at his new workshop & Lily got to sit in a fork lift, had a wander round town and got a Subway for lunch! Yum yum. William and I had (another) day in, we made the house a mess and had great fun doing it too! When Martin & Lily returned, I watched them all play rough & tumble, and then William went down for a 4 hour nap! (Which I also joined in with for some of it!) We had a late dinner and then put on another film before bedtime.

Saturday:

This morning, the kids and I actually had an amazing lay-in until 9am! I couldn’t believe it! I’d semi-planned in my head to take the kids to the cinema to watch Despicable Me 3 anyway, but after a glorious start to the day I was 100% going to attempt it now!  Initially, I thought about going to the first showing of the day at 11.15am, but by the time we were up, dressed and fed etc we were cutting it a bit fine to walk into town and get there on time, so I decided to go for the 1.45pm showing instead. We wandered leisurely into town, got our tickets which thankfully I had a few free admission tickets to any film (woo!) and grabbed a meal deal from Sainsburys beforehand.

For those of you who have toddlers, going to the cinema can seem quite daunting: especially when you have an older child with you and its just you. I worried William was going to be unsettled and want to run around and just cause a scene – but I thought ahead! I bought some milk and gave him a bottle just before the film started (as being savvy, I also knew the 1.45pm showing landed right at the same time as William’s nap time!) so wonder-mum over here managed to get William to sleep AND he slept through the entire film!! 

The film itself was really good. Lily really enjoyed it and was still raving about it after we’d seen it! There were some rather funny bits in it too which I’m pretty sure was aimed for adult humour as it would’ve just gone over the kids head (we’ve got to enjoy it too, right?) 

We then hopped on a bus to Nanny’s and had dinner there, and for the millionth time this week, we came home one child less as Lily managed to wrangle a sleepover at Nanny and Grandads!

Sunday:

Which brings us to Sunday. It’s been another uneventful day, with William and I charging about the house making (more) mess. We had a midday bath too as I forgot last night and we’re going out later. Lily’s still round Nanny and Grandad’s so we’ll collect her on the way. Until then I suppose I should make the most of William napping and get some housework done…Maybe…

Let’s see what Week 2 brings! How are your holidays going?

Becky x