days out Archives - A Little Lyrical

09Sep 2017

Reflections of our Summer – Back to school and back to routine

Goodbye Summer…Hello Autumn..

Well that’s it the summer holidays are over for another year! Where has the time gone?

We haven’t been away this year, partly because I’m pregnant, partly because we’re saving for our holidays next year.

At the start of the summer holidays the first few days seemed to drag. How was I going to keep them entertained for 6 and a half weeks?

The youngest is still at nursery 3 days a week over the summer holidays. So for some of the time it was just going to be the boy and I. I am lucky that I am able to take some annual leave from work over the holidays too. Not the whole 6 weeks and not a whole week at a time. Thankfully it meant that between hubby and I the boy didn’t need to go to a holiday club this year.

The summer started well. I somehow survived the first week and was soon hurtling towards weeks two. Although I have to admit the first day was long. I think it always is when you don’t have a purpose for the day or somewhere to go!

In the second week I am very lucky and grateful to have been offered help with he boy by my mum. She let him stay at her house for the 3 days that I had to work and the youngest was still at nursery. His holiday started with a carpet picnic. Is there anything better on a rainy day than a carpet picnic on the floor? We picked all the foods and enjoyed a last dinner together before it was time to leave him there. I don’t really get upset when I leave him at mums for a few nights because I know he’s safe and having a ball with Grandma!

They got up to all sorts, went to a model village, went to the beach, played board games, visited a hall and gardens. I get lots of regular updates from my mum and by all accounts he had a fab time!

Birthday Week

The next week involved a certain persons 6th birthday! How did my first baby get to 6 years old? He’s made a modest birthday list and we were quite happy to help him obtain his dreams! At first he’d been asking for a Nintendo Switch which is pretty costly at around £300 so we persuaded him to change his mind and he did. He asked for stationary bits (he loves stationary despite not being keen on writing) a microscope, a cricket set, and a nerf gun.

I always like to take a photo of the present set up so that in years to come the boys will be able to remember special occasions like birthdays and Christmas. It was a good job I did take a photo on this occasion as that lovely number 6 balloon didn’t last very long and was sadly popped not long after they got up by littlest person in the family, I was so sad.

For his birthday daddy took the day off work so we could go out on a day trip, sadly the weather didn’t look great so we changed our plans from Alton Towers to Blackpool attractions as they are more indoor based. So we headed off to Blackpool Tower.

I’m trying to take more pictures of myself with the babies these days. I don’t like pictures of me but I know they will want to look back on them in years to come and I don’t want them asking where I was all the time.

After lunch at Pizza Express we headed up the tower to the very top. The boy loved looking out over the town. Not long after we started to come down the rain also started to come down! We were right to chose and indoor day out. The tower also has a children soft play area, so despite my dislike of those places we let them play there for a while too. Followed by a trip to the circus inside the tower. The circus in the tower dates back to 1894. The boys had a great time, laughing at the slapstick comedy and watching in awe at the amazing acts of skill on display.

In the evening although we got back quite late we made time for birthday carrot cake (as requested by the birthday boy) and candles (compulsory on birthdays!).

On the Saturday after his birthday we held a mini birthday party for him with just a couple of close friends. With a party lunch and nerf guns everyone enjoyed themselves I hope!

Summer Illness

The holidays were all going so well then disaster struck! I think it originated from the youngest after he was sick in the night but then I was ill. Really ill with vomiting and diarrhoea. If you’ve read my blog before you may know that I have emetophobia (fear of vomiting) so this to me is my worst fear! But I coped, with the help of my amazing husband I got through it. Thankfully I was able to hide out in the bedroom as we have an ensuite, lock the world out and just get through it. For 3 days I stayed in there, trying to recover, it hit me hard. Maybe because I’m pregnant it seemed worse?

My fabulous husband left me a care package outside the room which really helped.

The salted pretzels really were the turning point I think. Thankfully the timing of the illness worked out well as hubby was on annual leave from work that week to look after the boys. So I was able to recover in peace and quiet while he took care of everything else. I’m most proud of myself though because I got through my greatest fear and came out the other side, I made it!

Just as I was starting to feel better by day 5 the boy was struck down too. If theres anything worse than being ill yourself it’s when your babies are poorly. So I took him into our bedroom. That I had only just finished bleaching and steam cleaning and looked after him to keep him away from hubby.

Thankfully just like his brother he only had vomiting symptoms and luckily they only last for about 12 hours before he was much better. Another long day of washing everything that wasn’t glued down on a very hot wash. Bleaching the whole bathroom and I think we were finally on the mend. Not what we wanted for the holidays but I suppose the timing fit in well. I have to look on the bright side for that one!

The Final Weeks

Time was flying. A week written off to illness and there were only a couple of weeks left until school started. I tried to arrange some fun things to do but again the weather hadn’t been great. For the rest of the post I’ll use photos for the memories.

Playing in the sand at a food festival Movie night watching Trolls for the first time now that it’s come onto Now TV Afternoon tea at Brookholes Nature Reserve

Playing in the park (with wellies and raincoats!) Donut treat with his Auntie Legoland discovery centre Manchester Sunday lunch on another rainy day!

Walking back hand in hand from the kite festival at Lytham St Annes (in the rain!)

Last night of the Lytham Proms – the wettest I have ever been from rain! (was just mum and I but had to slip in the memory)

Cinema trip to watch the new Disney Cars movie

I hope we made the most of the holidays. I hope the boys will carry some of the memories with them of how much we got up to. Despite not going on a holiday away from home.

I loved writing this post because it reminded me actually how much we did manage to do. We managed to do it all on a small budget. Whilst trying to fit it all in while still working.

Next years summer holiday may be a little bit different with me trying to juggle the 3 of them! Maybe I should start planning now!

28Jan 2016

Geronimo Festival 2016 – We’re getting excited!

by Lyric ⋅ Leave a Comment

I’m so excited that we’ve been invited to be an ambassador for Geronimo Festival 2016. If you haven’t heard of Geronimo and you’ve got children aged 12 years old or under then you need to keep reading! Geronimo Festival is back this year bigger and better than before and the best news is that it’s now has two different venues. Geronimo Festival 2016 is a family event focused on quality family time, something I’m always trying to create more of, so our boys can have some wonderful childhood memories to carry with them for the rest of their lives.

First Time at Geronimo Festival

This year will be our first time at Geronimo and after hearing and reading so much about last years event I honestly can’t wait to attend and take the boys for some family fun. The two venues this year are Harewood House, just outside Leeds on May 1st and 2nd, and Tatton Park in Cheshire on May 29th and 30th. Both venues are home to two of England’s fantastic visitor attractions and have wonderful woodland areas which will be the backdrop to Geronimo Festival. The festival itself will be an exciting array of acts, amazing experiences and wonderful adventures. Our boys will be 2 and 4 years old when we attend Geronimo and from the line up I think my 4-year-old may just explode with excitement! I’m not telling him until nearer the time that we’re going as I can’t face weeks and weeks of ‘Is it Geronimo yet? Is it Geronimo yet?’ (repeat!)

I think one of the things he’ll be most excited about is Cook and Line from Swashbuckle. He absolutely loves watching Swashbuckle on Cbeebies and is always asking me if he can go on the show (I can’t break his heart and tell him no so I usually just say ‘maybe one day’) His other favourites will be at Geronimo too, Mr Bloom is going to be appearing at the Geronostage Zone so that ‘tiddlers’ can pop along and listen to some veggie stories or play gardening games. Andy Day (from Andy’s Dinosaur Adventures) will be performing his Dino Rap show and Alex Winters (from CBeebies) will be hosting the main stage each day.

When I looked at the information on the Geronimo website I did wonder how they could possibly make the Library Zone exciting but it might not be as dull as I thought, it’s actually going to have dance classes with Bollywood, Zumba as well as a gigantic drumming session. I know a certain 2-year-old who loves dancing! We’ll defiantly be joining in there.

There’s just so much to look forward to at Geronimo this year that I’m going to be writing a series of posts in the build up to the festival as more and more of the exciting line up is announced.

Tickets for Geronimo

Tickets for the festival start at just £18.50 and can be bought on the Geronimo website, it seems like a fantastic price for a full days entertainment and fun and if you’re taking under 2’s along they get in free! I was gutted after last years to have missed it, so I’m really looking forward to it this year and can’t wait to blog about it in the build up to the Geronimo Festival!

13May 2015

Blackpool Pleasure Beach – A happy trip with the boy

by Lyric ⋅ Leave a Comment

This past weekend we decided to take a trip as a threesome to Blackpool Pleasure Beach (BPB). As Flixster is still so small my mum kindly looked after him while we went to have some fun with just the boy. The boy rarely gets any mummy and daddy alone time so we thought’s he’d enjoy the attention.

I subscribe to the BPB newsletter and spotted an offer on tickets so I booked the day before we planned to visit. I booked unlimited ride wristbands for the 3 of us and it came to £51. I was a little nervous about the weather but as it was the only day we had free this month and rain wasn’t forecast for all the day we wrapped up and took our chances with the weather.

I haven’t been to BPB in a long time, I have fond memories of days out there during my years growing up. I vaguely remember as a small child going in the fun house that was there with my brother and dad. It lately sadly burnt down.

When we arrived we were directed by one of the many staff outside to the ticket office where we could collect our prepaid tickets. We were attended to very quickly and back outside the main entrance within minutes with a map and ticket receipts in hand ready for a day full of fun!

Once through the turnstiles we headed over to the classic Alice in Wonderland ride. I have many pictures on this very bench over the years and this was my first with my own children! I think its a lovely reminder of the day you go to BPB!

As it was already 11:45 by the time we had been on the Alice ride we made the decision to find some lunch. We are early risers in our house (4:50am in the usual time…yawn!) so an early lunch is normal for us!

A quick look at the map to see what was available and we made our choice to dine at Burger King. The boy has never been to Burger King but just a couple of weeks ago we drove past one and he very reasonably piped up

“Mummy do you have to be a king to eat at Burger King?” I’ve never told him what its called so he read the sign himself. I was so amused by his question that we promised to take him one day and today seemed like the perfect opportunity.

He was thrilled with his cheese burger ,chips and milk, it came with and I spy book so that pleased him as well. We don’t do fast food often so it was a nice treat.

After fuelling up we were back on our way to the intended destination of Nickelodeon Land! The first ride we came across was The Backyardigans Pirate Treasure. Its a boat ride that spins quite quickly forwards then backwards. The boats go up and down on a track. We hadn’t watched the ride before we jumped on so I told the boy it was slow (he says he doesn’t like fast rides). In all honesty I though it would be quite slow……it wasn’t.

He loved it.

All was fine! He even went straight back on with Daddy!

The next ride we tried was Diego’s Rainforest Rescue. It was little hot air balloons that spin (by hand) and go up in the air. I’m not sure why I don’t have any pictures of that ride. It was fun but made us quite dizzy! So what do you do when you’re already dizzy? Thats right go on another spinning ride……!

It was the boys choice to go on the Fairy World Taxi Spin next. It had a button which he loved that made the taxi go up and down. After it finshed we were well and truly dizzy and a bit fed up of spinning rides.

So I took a chance and asked the boy if he fancied the Krusty Krab Order up, its a mini free fall ride. He said he did want to try it. I explained it went up and down quickly about 6 times and it might make his tummy go funny. He was keen to give it a try. I was nervous with this one as he’d been on the frog hopper at Alton Towers last year and didn’t like it. We sat down and got strapped in. He seemed to be fine. The ride started and he was looking the other way, I couldn’t work out how he was so I kept laughing to reassure him it was fun. It turned out he loved it and wanted to go straight back on with Daddy! It was a roaring success!

The next thing we tried was Dora’s World Voyage, I stayed off this one as I’m not keen on the round boat type rides. Daddy took him on. Daddy came off saying it was a bit boring but the boy seemed to enjoy it.

As we had done most of the rides that we could now in that area we chatted about getting a snack as it had been some time since lunch and we wanted coffee too! What better snack to have at an amusement park than some doughnuts. We went for a wander and on the way stopped to ride the Wonderpets Big Circus Bounce. The boy was giggling away on this because of the way it bounced up and down. I’m not sure daddy was that thrilled but he smiled all the same!

On our quest to find doughnuts we can across the big guy himself and his best pal Patrick, we had to stop for photos!

After hunting down some coffee and doughnuts to share (the doughnuts not the coffee!) we set out to explore some more of the park. Since I hadn’t been in a very long time (prob over 10 years ago) there have been some changes. There is now a new (well to me anyway) Wallace and Gromit ride. This proved to be a big hit with the boy. The ride vehicles are designed like slippers and you go through various scenes from the Wallace and Gromit shorts and films. It does feel a little disjointed as its not telling a story but the models are well done and theres a few surprises on the way.

The boy absolutely loved this ride and we ended up going on quite a few times, we even had our picture taken with Gromit outside. He’s not seen most of the Wallace and Gromit films but is familiar with Shaun the Sheep (this has since changed and we’ve watched them all now thanks to Amazon Prime!)

After convincing him to move on, the boys went off to try the cars. The queue seemed short but took ages to get a car as there were only 8 out on the track. I wandered around for a little bit waiting for them to get their turn and returned to watch when they were nearer the front.

It was nice to watch them out driving together but the boy came back unhappy as there had been some discussion about the pedals or something, that I couldn’t understand! So we quickly moved on to another classic ride the river caves. I remember this from when I used to come in my teenage years. The sign says it was originally built in 1904. It predates the pirates of the caribbean ride in Disney thats for sure!!

Another hit with the boy and again we went on twice!

By now the day was getting colder again and the park was closing. We went back to see if I could have a ride on the new red arrows ride but it had already closed which was a shame as I wanted to try it but maybe some other time!

There was just time to ride the carousel and make our way back to the car. We’d had a ball and the boys hasn’t stopped talking about it since Sunday. He loved it. Anyone who will listen is told about the rides in minute detail. It always surprises me how much he takes on board.

The boy fell asleep in the car on the way home and was pretty much un-wakeable upon arriving home. I had to get him changed and clean his teeth while he was asleep. That is the ultimate sign of a great day out!

29Sep 2014

Mummy Mondays…..an extra pair of hands!

by Lyric ⋅ Leave a Comment

Monday, as a day, is my least favourite of the week, everyone is back to work the lovely weekend with hubby/daddy is over and I’m facing a day with two little ones to look after by myself. I love my children with all my heart but with Flixster being 5 months and the boy just turning 3 it’s hard to keep them both happy all day long…alone! So over the last few months on Mondays I’ve either been visiting my mum or she has been to visit us. My mum and dad live near Lytham which is about a 50 minute drive from my house on a good day with no traffic. Where they live is lovely and only a few minutes from the seaside which is ideal for the boy, there are lots of lovely parks nearby too which have been fully explored by us all over the summer this year.

I’ve definitely become closer to my mum since having my babies, I was always close to her but much more so after realising how much she has dedicated her life to bringing up myself and my brother. I now realise how much hard work having young children really is! So seeing her regularly has really strengthened our bond as mother and daughter. I now call Mondays ‘Mummy Mondays’ not only do I get to spend time with my mummy but the boys get to spend quality time with their mummy too….me. Having an extra pair of hands with the boys is fantastic, I get to spend lovely one on one time with the boy whilst my mum gets to spend time with Flixster. When I’m on my own with the boys Flixster takes up a lot of my time as he’s so young still and needs a lot of attention. He’ll only nap on me in the sling so even when he’s asleep during the day I find it difficult to play properly with the boy and I certainly couldn’t spend time on the trampoline or run around with him.

Today it was our turn to travel up to my mums house. I try to time the journey to coincide with Flixster’s nap, if I can get it right he’ll have a little moan in the car then fall asleep for most of the journey. If I don’t get it right he’ll scream in the car which I can’t bare so I have to keep stopping to cuddle him. The boy doesn’t like it when he cries either, he covers his ears, so when I know we are going to be travelling for a while I let him have the iPad and headphones to play with in the back of the car, it saves him from getting upset at his brothers distress. This morning after another bad night sleep wise Flixster was getting ready for a nap around 8:45am, the signs were begining to show, the moaning had begun and I needed to leave quickly to get in the car before the screaming started! I left the house in a hurry forgetting coats for both the boy and I and also forgetting my glasses. Thankfully the weather turned out to be nice and warm, so we didn’t need coats in the park and I was able to wear my prescriptions sunglasses to drive in. We arrived at mum and dads by 10am and soon settled into some coffee, toast and playing with the toys (this is almost always the first thing we do, raid the cupboards, isn’t it what all children do when visiting parents?)

As the weather had turned out to be so nice we made plans to go to a local park called Lowther Gardens, one the boys and I hadn’t been to before. It is only 10 minutes up the road by car so we all travelled together in one car. At the gardens we parked up and I asked mum if she fancied wearing Flixster in the sling as he was due another nap, something she’s not done before. I wear Flixster all the time in a sling so he’s very used to being all wrapped up and close to people. I never thought I’d prefer baby wearing to pushchairs being a big pushchair fan (I have had many and currently have 3 on the go!) but I do prefer him being close and me having my hands free to deal with the boy. Mum couldn’t wait to get him snuggled up and he was asleep within minutes, giving me chance to play with the boy on the play area.

The boy adores being with his grandparents and particularly enjoys time with Grandad, true on both sides of the family. After time spent running around the playground, climbing, swinging and crawling we went for a walk around the gardens, I tried to take in their sheer beauty, even in late September the flowers are blooming and the gardens looks beautiful.

We decided to have lunch in the cafe within the park and as it was so sunny we sat outside enjoying the weather. The boy was desperate for ice-cream and had to be persuaded to eat his lunch before we treated him to one.The cafe had a wonderful old cash register, the kind where the number go round, it as fantastic and made a fab noise.

Before heading home we had another play in the playground and I fed Flixster sitting on the park bench, something I would never have done with confidence when the boy was small. Breastfeeding Flixster has been a totally different journey than the one I took with the boy.

We headed back to mums before heading home ourselves, thankfully Flixster slept most of the way home, I thought the boy would have fallen asleep as well but he was so engrossed in his Cbeebies game on the iPad that he stayed awake. I don’t know why Flixster doesn’t like the car, but if he’s awake in there he’s usually screaming, if anyone has an ideas how I could stop this I’d be very grateful!

Lyric x