school holidays Archives - A Little Lyrical

How am I going to survive the summer holidays? This is a question I’ve asked myself a lot in the run up to school finishing.

Yet I have to do it. I have to survive each day when theres just me and three people to keep entertained.

Ive have a few days booked out to see friends, which at least is something.

Hubby is off for a few days here and there too which also helps.

I think the thing that gets to me most is the loneliness. No other adult company during the day. It makes the days long. The hours are ticking by slowly.

I know I should be trying to make the most of the days with the children that I am blessed to have but it doesn’t make it any easier. It doesn’t make the constant ‘mum, mum,mum, mum…’ any less.

I wish I could do more with each of them. My 7 year old wants to play board games. But we can’t usually because the baby is there needing attention or grabbing the pieces. The 4 year old wants to play outside on the scooter or bike but I can’t do that by myself as I need to entertain the baby.

I keep seeing the phrase on facebook that we only have 18 summers with our children. Strictly thats not true, we have lots of summers with them but maybe not all while they are little.

The other prohibitive factor of course is money. Everything we tend to want to do to entertain ourselves costs money. Even a simple lunch outside the house costs money.

I’m trying to be grateful and thankful but its hard. Trying to cling onto the small things each day but it’s hard.

Theres no real point to the post but to record my feelings. If it makes one less person feel as bad as I do. Or realise that maybe there are others fighting their own summer holiday battles then today I’m winning.

We can do it mum’s (and dads).

I’m not going to pretend its easy. I’m not going to be that instagram perfect family, but I do promise to appreciate the small moments. The small victories where they are having fun and enjoying their summer.

We can and will survive the summer holidays.

But for now I have to go as yet again they are hungry……

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!