A fantastic opportunity to spend time as a family, even though our children are not so small any more. Exploring a small part of Italy to discover what it had to offer including a fine array of allergy-friendly and delicious foods. Our 10 days were simply stunning and I know we’d all love to go back again:
I don’t know about you, but a definite sense of COVID and lockdown fatigue has hit our household and G and M were more than ready for their February half-tern break this week. For M, spending close to 6 hours daily in live online lessons has been surprisingly tiring and the loss of his walks to, from and around school have definitely impacted on his sleep patterns as he is mentally, but not always physically exhausted by the end of the day.
As Mike and I have both been working from home this week as normal, G and M have had their days to themselves. Before the week even began, I suggested that keeping up with some schoolwork would be a good idea and so each morning has been filled with homework, tutor sessions and, in G’s case, making sure that all her A-level notes are legible and neatly written up from her occasionally messy notes. They’ve been out for daily walks, had great fun making their recordings for their end-of-term virtual Stagecoach performance and even took over the kitchen on Shrove Tuesday to whip up a batch of delicious M-friendly pancakes for us all to enjoy.
However, our evenings this week have been dedicated to family time and what better way to spend that time than in some friendly rivalry around a board game. To avoid squabbles as much as possible, G and M have taken it in turns to pick the evening’s game and we’ve had a real mix so far this week. From honing our art talents in “Telestrations” – we soon discovered who the weak links in the family are – to developing our deduction skills in “Cluedo“, all via a musical interlude on the kazoo in “Play that Tune”, there have been a lot of giggles to be heard. We’ve revisited some long-standing family favourites as well as playing those bought at Christmas, although the Reindeer Hoopla has yet to make an out-of-season reappearance!
Like so much of the last 48 weeks, this half-term might not have been quite as we would have liked or planned, but we’ve had a lot of fun together, perhaps even more so now that the children are older and can be challenged a bit more in our games. I’d be hard pressed to pick a personal favourite from our table filled to the brim, but would highly recommend “Telestrations”, a game we can’t wait to play with my Mum once we’re able to visit her once again. The topic of which game is picked for that evening’s entertainment has been a key part of our dinner table conversation and it’s been fascinating to see which games each child chooses.
What’s your recommendation? Any family favourites that are always picked, or something new to you that you think we might also like to try to?
It doesn’t happen very often, but somehow we’ve managed to have the day off work *together* to celebrate our 21st wedding anniversary. Of course, it’s not just us at home, but G and M as well since the government announcement that schools must finish a day earlier for the Christmas break, but I’m hoping that we might manage to grab 10 minutes here or there on our own. Our plans for a special dinner out are on hold until we can actually go to a restaurant, so I imagine it will probably be a bottle of bubbles and a meal from M&S instead, but that’s okay with me. We might not look quite as fresh-faced as we did 21years ago, but we’re still in this together and that’s what’s most important.
Love you always Mike xxx
A summer like no other, but still filled to bursting with sunshine, laughter and huge amounts of safe ice-cream!
Like so many others our summer holidays plans have been put on hold this year, first by COVID-19 and then by the loss of Mike’s Dad. After much discussion with G in particular, we had originally planned an epic Disney holiday through Northern Europe to mark the end of 2 years of hard work towards her GCSEs and it was a huge disappointment to us all when we had to cancel that trip. Instead, G, M and I have found ourselves on staycation this week and have been heading out on day trips within a reasonable distance of our home base.
The soaring heatwave has, at times, been almost unbearable, and there’s been much discussion about whether it’s been as hot as either our holidays to Portugal or Greece – it has – especially without the refreshing coolness of a pool or the sea to dip in and out of when needed. It has, however, also got us talking about places we’d like to visit in the future, destinations we’d like to go back to and truly appreciating the ease with which we’ve been able to travel and experience so many different cultures in the past.
This week we’ve explored an arboretum, been on a bear hunt (and other wild animals) and walked along our local pier. Both G and M have both met up with friends “in real life” for the first time since March and I’ve been brave enough to venture out a little more than I have done in months. The week has been filled with laughter, adventure and some hot weather stroppiness as well as building more memories and revisiting old familiar haunts too.
New York now seems like a distant memory and nothing beats being able to look back at so many photos from the time we spent together. The below images are a selection taken by Mike, me and M:
Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a peaceful New Year! xxx
It’s a big year of milestones in our family this year, with my Mum’s 70th and G’s 16th birthdays as well as our 20th wedding anniversary. You may remember that in September we spent a family weekend at the Bluestone resort in Wales for my Mum’s birthday, but her celebrations haven’t stopped there and last weekend we headed to London for a weekend of stylish fun. The main reason for the trip was to fill a long-held ambition of my Mum’s, to go to the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. As the only members of the family lucky enough to have been there before are M and me, thanks to his 2 lengthy December admissions at GOSH, I wanted to find something to see that I thought we all would enjoy and, spotting the performance of “Sleeping Beauty” by the Royal Ballet in their calendar, knew that this was the winning choice.
Our weekend started with the train journey to London and then across London to our hotel near Borough Market. We had agreed on an early dinner to give us plenty of time to get to the Royal Opera House, so after a short walk from the hotel to St Paul’s Cathedral and back for Mike, M and me, we dressed in our finest and headed across the road to the nearby Wagamama restaurant for what we knew would be an easy and safe dinner for both G and M. From there, it was a case of hailing a black cab to whisk us to Covent Garden and we found ourselves there with plenty of time to soak up the atmosphere of this incredible building before the performance started.
For anyone wondering what to wear to the ROH, the rule really is anything goes, just as their website suggests. From jeans to evening dresses and just about everything in-between, we spotted our fellow theatre-goers wearing it all. We had opted to dress up with G remarkably, and not too reluctantly, in a black skater-style lace dress, whilst M was suited and booted in a burgundy shirt, grey tie and black waistcoat. My Mum and I had talked beforehand about what to wear and both regretted not 
having dressed up just a little more. Mike had told me to take one of my long dresses to wear, but I chickened out at the last moment taking a knee-length dress instead and really wish I hadn’t. Similarly, Mum had opted for smart trousers, heels and a long top, but wished she had brought a dress. Obviously, we’ve reached the sensible conclusion that we will just have to go again and wear our finest!
Coats safely deposited in the cloakroom, we wandered about the gorgeous Christmas tree to spend some time in the bar area on the first floor, sipping our glasses of champagne and people-watching before finding our seats in the side stalls. I wasn’t sure how good the view from our seats would be, but I needn’t have worried as we had a great view of the stage and only missed a few bits happening on the very side of it at times. I was also nervous about whether the children, especially M, would survive the lengthy performance – 3 hours including 2 20 minutes intervals – but again, I didn’t need to. Both children were enthralled, even if M did drift off a little towards the end and they were excited to spot different dance steps that they have been learning in their own dance classes. The performance was absolutely incredible and the whole family enjoyed our night at the opera.
Another year gone, another year making memories that we can’t share and another year missing you. It hardly seems possible that it’s 15 years this year and yet it is.
No sooner have we just about stopped celebrating my Mum’s 70th birthday (there are a couple more presents to enjoy over the next few weeks), but it’s time for Mike’s birthday – and on a Tuesday of all days. Tuesday has to been one of the worst days to celebrate a birthday in our household – M has his dyslexia lesson after school, G has an hour’s tutoring to prep her for her GCSEs and we head to our local swimming pool for our half hour session between 8.30 and 9pm; and it’s pretty much non-stop until bed.
So, instead of even attempting a meal out or raucous party night, we had a rather low-key celebration over the weekend with a scrumptious buffet-style spread and bottle of wine for the adults in front of Strictly on Saturday and marked the occasion that way.
Happy birthday Mike – we love you very much xxx
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