A Proper Day Out

Here we are at the end of the school break. It feels as if the children have been off for ages. 
Not much happened the first week. G and I had to work more or less our normal hours which meant S went and spent a couple of afternoons with my mum and in between times she had friends round to play and a sleepover. T met up with friends, spent some time plugged in the xbox and did an extra shift volunteering at the charity shop.
The second week was full of the same, the children saw friends when it was possible, we had to make an unscheduled trip to the vets as Malcolm was unwell and then magically better after two injections from the vet and as a bonus I had an extra day off and we had a day out.

The weather here in the South has been exceptionally warm and I thought a little trip to Lee-on-the-Solent would be ideal.
As I dislike driving we made the journey by taking a train to Fareham and then a bus to Lee. By buying the tickets online the night before I was able to add in the plusbus tickets which made it so much cheaper than purchasing the bus tickets on the day.

As a thank you to mum for helping us out over the holiday we asked her to join us and S was thrilled when T said he would come out too.
There aren't many shops in Lee and shopping isn't the reason we went, but it does have 5 charity shops which we had a very quick look in. One was another branch of the charity T volunteers for which he was keen to explore and then declared wasn't as good as his!
The next stop was the chip shop for our lunch which we took down to eat sat on the pebbly shore

looking out towards the sea which as you can see was partially covered in a hazy mist.

After eating S and I played catch with the ball she had recently bought with some of her birthday money. I love the look on her face in the top picture when she realised she had thrown the ball towards me with a bit too much gusto and it went way over my head.

There was much giggling when S filled up the back of T's shirt with stones and they began to trickle down the back of his trousers.

He got his own back afterwards though, pouring stones down the back of S's dress. So many were put down the dress that they bulged out and made her look as though she had a shell on her back like a turtle.

The water was chilly but it didn't stop mum, T and S going in for a short paddle. Just after this photo was taken T splashed S and got her dress very wet and although she complained loudly to him there was a big grin on her face too. 

I could have stayed for longer but by mid afternoon the children were ready to go home and so after we had had an ice cream we made started the journey home. A lovely highlight of the holidays.