Holiday Catch up

I have a fair bit of catching up to do. I've hardly been near the computer, except for a quick peek at emails each day and haven't had time for any dedicated blog reading so am way behind with everyone's news.


Before I do start wittering on I would like to say a MASSIVE thank you for all the lovely comments that were left on my last post about our wardrobe make over. As I'm sure you gathered I am thrilled with the end result and it was wonderful to receive so many messages saying that others liked what we had done too.


Along with the general busy-ness of the school hols I have been somewhat distracted as our sweet Melvin went missing from Saturday night to Monday morning. He has never done anything like this in the 18 months we've had him and due to his very timid nature we did fear the worst. We were over the moon when he came home on Monday, but then he did the very same thing again and wasn't seen from early Wed evening until very late last night. We're now thinking he's found himself a second home to visit when the fancy takes him.






So now to catch up with the school hols we have to go back to Sunday 14th and into the town centre for the family Sky Ride.

We didn't take part in the first one last year but everyone was raring to go for participation in this year's.

Lots of roads were closed off and so thousands of cyclists had a traffic free route through the city centre. G said the best bit for him was being able to cycle through the fruit terminal at the docks, somewhere you don't normally get to go.

An extra surprise to our day was being spotted by Clare whilst we were sat lounging around listening to the live music in the park, meeting her husband and having a quick chat before they cycled off.

Monday was very quiet for me as the children had both been invited round to friend's so whilst they were away I did a bit a couple of very small decorating jobs I really wanted to get sorted.

Tuesday we went to the cinema and saw Cars 2. They both loved it but I think I preferred the first one.

Wednesday we were back into town but for slightly less adventurous time task of school shoe buying and optician appointments.

Then in the afternoon we hopped on the train to Fareham to meet G from work. Since he moved office the children have been very keen to see his new place of work so after a quick scout around and introduction to his new colleagues we went to a local pub for something to eat.

The place we chose was a converted church and it was so beautiful inside. The picture below doesn't really show the interior decoration very well, but it was busy and I didn't want to use the flash on my camera and draw attention to myself!

You can see the pattern much more clearly in this photo. T and S picked this spot for us to sit in in the middle of the room. A huge curved, high backed booth which could have easily seated another few people

and right above us was this chandelier.

Thursday poured and poured with rain but we still ventured out as I needed to buy T's school jumper from a specialist uniform shop which tied in incely with a visit to friend's we had arranged a couple of weeks ago.

Friday afternoon was our turn to have a full house as T and S both had a friend over although as you can expect their chosen activities were very different!

We had a fairly lazy on Saturday (I even had time to bake some banana cakes and make use of my new cake stand)

as on Sunday we had arranged to go out with friends down to Bournemouth for the Air Show. I have to say I was in two minds about going after the dreadful accident involving the Red Arrows pilot.

But go we did and I have to say the skill of the pilots gave us a show which was nothing short of spectacular. And the girls who do the wing walking on the Breitling bi planes were utterly amazing.

I don't have any photos of the planes just two lions which are part of a Pride in Bournemouth art initiative.

As soon as we arrived at the beach and S had eaten her lunch she was in the water, followed shortly afterwards by T. They spent practically the whole afternoon in there playing and swimming which I think was probably the reason why S didn't wake up until 10.45 on Monday morning! With nothing planned I was quite happy for her to sleep in and catch up on her rest.

We did go down to the park in the afternoon where a game of T and S pretending to be babies got out of hand and I ended up soaked from the contents of T's water bottle but for once it was a hot afternoon and I didn't mind too much.

The weather threatened to ruin our plans for Tuesday but thankfully it didn't. Clare had invited us over to see her and although we didn't get to go blackberry picking or full the full walk she had planned for us in the New Forest we did manage to squeeze in cake eating, lots of chatting, a sit inside their fabulous camper van, a tour round her beautiful garden and I got to see her totally gorgeous patchwork quilt in all it's splendour. It really is an absolute stunner and she is extremely talented.

We did manage to squeeze in a little wander down a lane before it was time for the train, although we cut it a bit fine with our timing and had to run a fair way back in order to not to miss it. Goodness me how unfit I am! It took me the journey back to Southampton to recover!

Thank you Clare for a really lovely afternoon and for our jar of homemade raspberry jelly.

Seeing S's smile I really should mention that there has been siginifcant tooth loss this summer hols. 3 teeth have fallen out and so the tooth fairy has been finding this summer quite an expensive one!

Speaking of teeth another reason I haven't been on the computer much these past few days is a headache and jaw ache which progressed to an infection and swollen gum and toothache for which I now have anti biotics. Ugh, not nice.

Nearly there and if you're still here well done, but as this blog is (hopefully) a diary for the children to look back on one day, I want to make sure I get down as much about our time during these holidays as possible.

Wednesday was a trip to Netley Abbey with a friend and her 3 children. We have been going there together during the hols for a few years now and the children always play together so well and enjoy each other's company, it's a delight to see.

Yesterday G was off and he took them all off to the cinema to see the new Spy Kids movie. This one they all thoroughly enjoyed which is more than I can say for The Incredibles which we all watched last night, it didn't really keep anyone's attention throughout, I don't think that's going to become a family favourite.

One more week to go and then it's back to school, what will this week bring?