Posts in category: Personal

I’ve completely lost track of time.

How many weeks are we into the summer holidays now?!  I couldn’t with any confidence tell you.

What I do know though is that we had a lovely time at the end of last week.

We saw my sister and her girls for the first time in months and months, resulting in a day that Nerys declared ‘the best day ever’.

That is the face of a girl incredibly happy to be at the beach with her cousins in the sunshine.

The tide was on its way out when we walked down to the beach, so I wasn’t expecting the children to swim.  You’d think I’d have learnt by now wouldn’t you!

It turned out that the tide was still quite high when we got to the beach, so they all made a run for it to paddle.  Which very quickly turned into a swim.

Rhys came back to the blankets to strip off to his pants quite early on, but Nerys decided she wanted to keep her dress on.  I’m not sure how well you can tell from this photo quite how wet that dress was by the time they came out of the water!

Luckily I had a sweatshirt with me that we managed to style into a jumper dress for her to wear for the rest of the day!

We walked back via the shop for ice lollies and the park for a play and another snack.

And if all that wasn’t enough, we got home to find Steve had planned to make us dominoes-style pizzas for tea.  He’s found a new copy-cat recipe online, and bought new pizza trays to cook them on, and oh my word they are so good.  And I say that as a huge dominoes fan!

So really, I can see where Nerys was coming from with her ‘best day ever’ declaration.

Family, beach, sea, ice lollies and pizza.

Does it get much better than that?!

We made it back to the play park.

I mentioned last week that the parks were opening back up again in Wales, and that we might try to visit one soon.

We went to Cwmdonkin park one afternoon at the start of the week and, honestly, it was really stressful.  It was so busy there, I was relieved the children had their scooters so they were happy to just do circuits of the park for a while until a huge group of people left the play park.

Even after they’d gone I was really on edge, and asked the children to just stick to one bit of equipment to play on.  It sounds a bit strange now I’m writing it down, but the thought of all who knows how many children climbing on everything all day long with nothing being wiped down afterwards just really made me nervous.

Rhys and Nerys were fab though and happily stuck to the wooden climbing frame the whole time, and then let me cover their hands in sanitiser on our way out.

After that experience I thought we would try going first thing in the morning next time, so that’s what we did at the end of the week.

We were in Brynmill park by 9 and it was lovely.

It was quiet, it was incredibly warm and the children were thrilled to be able to play on everything they wanted to play on.  We probably spent about an hour by the swings and I felt so much more relaxed than I did at the start of the week.

We were still careful to keep our distance from the couple of other families that came and went, and we still used plenty of hand sanitiser but it was a much more enjoyable experience.

We even managed to get some duck food from the kiosk and fed the birds for the first time in over 5 months.

I sat in the sunshine and the children fed the ducks and the pigeons.

Little pleasures really.

Nothing big, nothing we’ve not done before, but after months of not doing these things it feels so lovely to be back doing them again.

We’ve always enjoyed staying close to home, making the most of the parks and beaches we have nearby, so this is what most of our summer will look like I think.  We’ve got a list of things we want to do before school starts again and it’s pretty much all beautifully simple things like making our own ice lollies and rolling down hills and if we can tick off as many of these things as possible the children will have had a pretty great summer as far as we’re all concerned.

I don’t really know where July went.

I swear it was only a week or two ago that we were in my in-laws garden taking our family photo for June’s me and mine post.

And now here we are, another month later, with another photo taken by my mother-in-law.

This time round though we took it while we were all out together for a walk in Clyne woods.

We’ve been going for walks in this woods for years, but Steve’s parents have only really started going there regularly in the last few months.

They now love it as much as we do, and Steve has been really enjoying teaching them some of the history of the area.  Whenever we go he’ll always point out something different, telling us how this was part of the brickworks, or how that is a blocked up entrance to an old mine shaft.

What really makes me smile is seeing the children pick up on his enthusiasm for these things.

They’ll shout out when they see random bricks on the ground, asking Steve to tell them which brickworks they came from.  Actually, any time they see anything random they’ll ask him to explain what it is, and how long it’s been there.

I don’t know how much of what he tells them they’ll remember as they get older, but I love the idea of them walking in those woods with their own families when they’re older, telling them stories of what used to be there all those years ago!

Time is moving so strangely at the moment isn’t it?

The first week of the summer holidays seemed to fly by without us really doing much at all.

It was just the kind of week we needed after the months of doing school at home.

At the weekend we met up with Steve’s parents for a lovely long walk around Clyne woods.  It’s one of those amazing places where, no matter how many times you go, you can still find another random path to wander down and explore.

The children are still so happy to be able to be close with their grandparents again, it’s lovely that the novelty hasn’t worn off yet and those hugs and the chance to hold hands as they walk are still a source of joy for everyone.

The rest of last week was pretty much just about enjoying not having to do proper school work at home and the children having that bit more freedom to do what they want.

We baked some chocolate banana bread and some peanut butter and chocolate cookies, which all went down a bit too well!

Steve and I had a few hours to get some work done in a quiet house one day when Rhys and Nerys went to have fun at their grandparents house.

We also spent a really soggy afternoon in Singleton Park at the end of the week.  We’d made plans to meet up with friends, then a few minutes before we were due to leave I watched the rain come in over Mumbles.

It was that misty, fine rain though, so we still headed out, and found a spot under a tree in the park where my friend and I could sit and be relatively sheltered while we chatted.  And the children ran around, played, and climbed trees, not giving the rain a second thought.

The weather for most of this week is looking a bit brighter (at the moment at least) so I think there might be a few more trips to the park and maybe the beach at some point.

The play parks are open again here in Wales now, but honestly I still feel a bit wary of going.  The play areas in our local parks are quite small, so I’m not sure how easy it would be to keep the children away from others while still being able to have fun.

I think I might try going first thing in the morning one day and see how that goes.

Have you taken your children to the play park since they opened up again?  How did you find it?!

We made it.

Somehow we made it to the end of the strangest school year I could have imagined.

We’re all feeling a real mix of emotions about it all at the moment.

I think we’re all happy that the end of term is here, but that happiness is tinged with the sadness for all the things the children have missed out on.

It’s been 16 weeks with them at home, so that’s 16 weeks not spent with their friends.  16 weeks out of the classroom and away from their teachers who they love so much.  16 weeks without swimming lessons and cubs and rainbows and all those normal, fun things they’d normally do alongside school life.

They did have their 3 days in school over the last 3 weeks though.

Before they went in I honestly wasn’t sure if it was worth it.  It seemed such a tiny amount of time, in a strange situation, and I wasn’t sure what they would really get out of it.

I’m so glad they went though.  It was definitely the right decision for us.

They came out happy each time and I’m so pleased they were able to have that little bit of time with their teachers and a few of their friends before the end of the year.

Now we have the whole of the summer holidays stretched out in front of us.

I’m not sure quite what we’ll do for the next six weeks, but we’re off to a pretty good start so far.

The children had finished all their work from school by Wednesday last week, so we were able to relax towards the end of the week.  I took them out to the park on Friday for a few hours and it was so nice to just be out, letting them run off some pent up energy.

There were people in the play area of the park, which surprised me because they were supposed to still be closed until today here in Wales.

Luckily the children were really understanding when I told them I still didn’t want them going in there and playing.  I know that might sound over the top to some people, but I’m still feeling quite cautious about what we do and where we go.

The main reason I wanted to keep risks at a real minimum though was the fact that they were going to be sleeping over at their grandparents house for the weekend.

They counted down the days all week, they were so excited.

We’ve seen Steve’s parents all through lockdown, but have only recently been able to hug them again and go in each other’s houses since we formed an extended household with them.  So it was a bit strange for all of us after all this time to think about the children being able to go and stay overnight with them.

But I’m writing this in a house that is blissfully quiet, knowing they’re having a great time being spoilt by their grandparents, making them sit through the Harry Potter films that we sent over with them.

It’s a beautifully normal thing, them spending time at their house, that feels so incredibly special after all this time.

After a few months of living the groundhog day life of work and school at home, things have been just a little bit different for the children over the last few weeks.

They’ve both been in to school for the past three Mondays.

It’s been a bit of a strange experience all round, with staggered start and finish times, only a handful of children in at a time and having to keep 2 metres apart from each other all day.  But I’m so glad we decided to do it.  The children have both come out with big smiles on their faces each week and I think it’s done them a lot of good to have the proper face to face time with their teachers and a few of their friends.

The rest of the time things have stayed pretty much the same.

We’ve carried on doing school work at home and we’ve stayed close to home on our trips out, just venturing to the local parks and the beach.  We had a run of grey rainy days last week so when the sun reappeared I took the children through the park to campus to meet Steve after he finished work.

After a few days at home it was brilliant to have all this space for the children to run and burn off some energy.

There are quite a few hilly areas in this park that they both love running down as fast as they can, and there are quite a few different routes you can take around the park so you don’t feel like you’re just doing the same walk each time you go which I love!

I think possibly the highlight of the past month for the children came last weekend, when they were finally able to hug Nana and Pops again.

They’ve introduced ‘extended households’ in Wales now, so we’ve made one with my in-laws, which means we can hug them again, and we can go in each other’s houses.  Such small things really, but they mean so much after all these months.

We went for a walk all together on the beach last weekend and it was so simple but so lovely.  We walked, we talked, we didn’t have to worry about keeping our distance from each other, and the children were in their element.

Now we’re right at the end of term and the end of the school year, and this incredibly strange time of doing school at home is almost over.

As long as everything goes to plan the children will be back in school pretty much as normal in September, although we’re still waiting to hear details on how that will work.

The summer holidays won’t be quite the same as normal but I’m hoping we can make it as fun as possible with the children, making the most of living where we do and spending more time at the beach and in the park.

The travel restrictions have been lifted in Wales so we should be able to get out to gower again which will be amazing, and we’ll see what other places nearby are able to open up again safely over the next few weeks.

Last week was a big week for the children.

After over three months of being cautious and careful and keeping their distance, they were finally able to hug their grandparents again.

Back in the pre-coronavirus days my in-laws would normally pick the children up from school once a week and take them back to their house.  They would have their tea there and enjoy a few hours of time with their grandparents.  They would also have sleepovers there on a fairly regular basis.

And while we’ve still been seeing them at least once a week through all this weirdness, it’s been so hard for the two generations to not be able to get close to each other.

So we’re all really happy now that we’ve been able to form an extended household together.

This is also possibly the first time I’ve been grateful that the rest of our family all live away; so there were no hard choices to make about who we would do this with!

We all met up for a walk along the beach at the weekend and it was just glorious.

Rhys and Nerys were so happy to be able to hug their grandparents again.  And Nerys held hands with both me and Nana pretty much the whole way along the beach.

We walked a fair bit further than we normally do, almost all the way to Blackpill.  The tide was in and the sea was incredibly calm and it was just beautiful down there.

We walked close together.

Nana helped Nerys shake shells out of her shoes.

The children held hands with their grandparents.

Such little things.  Things we would’ve absolutely taken for granted a few months ago.  Things that mean the world now.