Tag Archives: Holidays

15Apr 2018

Easter Holidays 2017 – Reflections of the family and Christening

Well I can’t quite believe the Easter holidays are already over! Part of me was dreading them to begin with. Three boys on my own for two weeks was always a daunting prospect. As it turned out we had the most fantastic time with friends and family. We made plans for each day and thankfully hubby managed to have some time off too.

Christening Time

It started on a high with Roo’s Christening which was on Easter Sunday at our family church. It was a beautiful day spent with family and friends. After the service we came back to our house for some food and drinks. By 6pm everyone was gone again and the house seemed early quiet after such a fantastic build up to a wonderful day. In some ways sad for me as it’s most likely my last baby and so in turn is the last Christening celebration we will hold.

Roo behaved beautifully and when the time came to have him Christened he didn’t cry and was lovely.

During the later part of the service I was grateful to his wonderful God mummy for taking him outside to settle him to sleep as he was getting tired and moany.

The main man himself wore a lovely outfit I bought 7 years ago for the boys Christening. The outfit has been worn by all of the boys for their special days and I’m not sure now the best way to display it. I need to do some research and see what inspiration I can get (all ideas welcome) as I don’t just want to put it in a box and leave it for years to come.

I wore a dress my mummy bought for for me from Monsoon and although I haven’t got back to my happy weight yet I felt good. My shoes I wa thankful to find in the recent Next sale and they went so well with the dress.

The dress wasn’t breast feeding friendly so in order to be abel to feed Roo before and after the service I wore a vest top under the outfit so that I could unzip the dress and lift the top to feed whilst keeping myself covered (for my own dignity as I don’t like to show my tummy etc)

The other two boys wore matching shirts form Next which I bought last year for a photo shoot with some dark jeans.

Back at the house I got to sip some wonderful champagne (keeping the cork for my collection) and was a bit tipsy by bedtime! I had even made his Christening cake, and for a complete novice like me I was quite proud of my work!

When bank holiday monday came I was a bit hung over so thankful for our house to hang around in and not get up to too much!

The Rest of the Holidays

Since the christening the rest of the holiday s have been a bit of a blur. I didn’t want to do a day by day list so will do some highlights.

During the first week hubby had to go away for work and so my mum came to stay with us. This worked out well as it was a day we’d been planning for a while anyway. We went out to a local country park with a great adventure play area. It did rain for a while which cleared the playground off but it didn’t dampen our spirits!

The following day mum took middle boy out with her early and I got to enjoy some time with the original boy (and Roo of course). I needed to pick up a package from a shop so we went together to the Trafford Centre. It was nice to just enjoy some time together. I treated him to a coffee (well not a coffee for him but you know what I mean!)

Easter eggs were abundant in out house despite us not buying many ourselves we are lucky to have such lovely family and friends who gave the boys eggs, my favourite was this chocolate chicken, sat on chocolate eggs with an edible basket! I’m pretty such it’s from Lidl.

There was time spent at St Annes pier and beach on a sunny day, and another afternoon at Blackpool Zoo.

Towards the end of the holiday my middle baby turned 4, how have 4 wonderful years passed so quickly?

He got what he’d asked for, a batman car and a Spiderman outfit! My little superhero loving dude. We spent the day at Cheshire Ice Cream Farm. Another wonderful day out if you’re ever in the area. Free to get in and you just pay for what you do.

And so we are at the end now, the last day. Back to normality tomorrow. Back to school and nursery. There are some exciting things coming up in the next few weeks. Thins to look forward to. I’m trying to enjoy every single day of maternity leave that I have left. Knowing it’s my last time. Here’s to the future and many more happy memories made. I am as always grateful for all that has passed, it has been amazing.

Thank you universe.

09Sep 2017

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

by Lyric ⋅ Leave a Comment

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!

03Feb 2017

Walt Disney World – Trip Report

by Lyric ⋅ 2 Comments

As some people might already know we are a family of Disney lovers and we are very lucky to also be DVC owners (if you don’t know what this means in simple terms its a property investment in Disney thats very flexible and suits our family) We love to visit Walt Disney World in Florida and are very lucky to have been quite a few times.

Memories in our Special Place

Walt Disney World hold very many special memories for us as a couple. It was our first holiday together back in 2005 (although I had been before) The place hubby almost proposed……..almost……

We took our honeymoon in Walt Disney World.

Thomas’s first holiday abroad holiday was there.

Felix’s first holiday was there too.

We’ve been with friends and family, although I’d still love to be able to take my mum, maybe one day!

Trip Report Introduction

Last year we were lucky enough to be able to spend 3 sun, fun and family filled weeks in the beautiful Walt Disney World resort making incredible memories. Although it was last August it’s taken me this long to start writing about it. We stayed one week at Coronado Springs Resort followed by 2 weeks at our DVC home resort Bay Lake Tower. We flew Thomas Cook airline (another first as we have always flown Virgin Atlantic in the past) something I was nervous about as I’d read mixed reviews. I will go into detail about the flight later.

I am going to break up the trip report into parts or it would be too long for one post!

Despite having been to Walt Disney World many times, there were as always lots of ‘firsts’ on this trip, which I want to write down for the boys. Also lots of familiar things which we have very much missed having not been since 2013.

It’s quite hard to explain when you haven’t been to Walt Disney World just how magical the place is. The staff (or cast members as they are known) go the extra mile to make you feel welcome. Nothing is too much trouble, they make you feel welcome everywhere you go. The whole resort is clean, and not just clean, spotlessly so (or so I have always found). It’s welcoming to everyone, young, old, those with and without children with them. There usually sunshine at some point each day and it’s generally warm (I did have to once buy joggers and a blanket, not this trip though!)

So the first part of the report will be travel day. I look forward to sharing our trip with the blog!