Posts in category: Personal

So here we are.  The end of August and very nearly the end of the summer holidays.

Things have worked out quite nicely this year with Steve being off work for the last week, so we’ve had loads of time together as a family.  In typical Swansea fashion the weather has been all over the place, so we’ve sort of let that dictate what we got up to each day.

On one of the more overcast days last week we popped over to Penllergare woods for a wander.

I’d never been before and was really curious to go and explore a bit.  It was so beautiful.  We must’ve spent about 2 hours walking there, and there is still a huge area of the woodland that we didn’t get to.

We found a beautiful spot by the water to take a few family photos.  It was so peaceful there, it would make a great place to sit down for a picnic if we go again another day.

To balance out the greyer days last week we also had a few gloriously sunny and hot days.

We debated heading out to Gower but in the end decided that half of Swansea would have the same idea, with it being a sunny long weekend.  So we stayed local and headed down to Swansea bay 3 days in a row.

I think we made the right decision, especially after we found out that people were queuing for an hour to pay for parking at some of the beaches on Gower!

The first day we went down I took the camera with me to take some photos of the children, and to get this family photo too.

The other 2 times we went down I left the camera at home and actually went swimming in the sea too.

I am so, so pleased that I decided to do it.

The children thought it was brilliant that we were all swimming in the sea together, and I loved being in the water with them.  Even though there were some really chilly spots in the water as we swam around!  We’ve actually talked about getting wetsuits at some point so we can all swim in the sea at other times of the year, which I know the children would love.

Now we’re wrapping up the summer holidays and I think, in general, it’s been a good one this year.

We’ve not been away anywhere, but I think living where we do we don’t really need to go away on holiday.  We’re so lucky with the beaches so nearby.

There have been days at home, trips to museums and art galleries, crafts and parks, beach visits, time spent with family and one random night spent in a tent in our living room.

I wonder how long it’ll take us all to readjust to the routine of the new school year.

I don’t feel entirely prepared for it if I’m honest.  I don’t even know which classrooms the children will be in this year, so wish me luck getting them both in on time on Tuesday!

I’m in that strange time space again.

Where it feels like the summer holidays have flown by, but at the same time it feels like a lifetime ago that the children broke up from school.  I can’t quite get my head around the fact that we’re into the last week of the holidays though.

We had a good week last week, with a sunny morning spent in Brynmill Park, a trip to Cardiff to meet up with my siblings and their children and another day with them here in Swansea.

I absolutely love seeing all the cousins together, and watching the relationships develop as they all get older.

Steve’s off work now for the last week of the school holidays and we kicked things off with a trip to the beach on Saturday.

It was a gloriously sunny day so Steve and the children went for a proper swim in the sea, while I had a paddle and took some photos.  One of these days I’ll leave the camera at home and get in for a proper swim myself!

They had a brilliant time though, and it was just beautiful down there.

Then that evening we did something that I’d promised the children we would do all summer.  We had a sleepover in the living room.

The plan had always been to pile a load of duvets and blankets and cushions on the floor and sleep there.  But Steve decided to step things up a gear and mentioned the tent that we had stashed away in the cupboard under the stairs.

So I’m writing this on Sunday morning with a big old tent still up in our living room.

The children slept in there with duvets and blankets and I slept on the sofa.  Steve somehow got away with being allowed to sleep upstairs with our bed all to himself.

It was great though, we all slept pretty well all things considered, and Rhys and Nerys were so excited about doing something so different.

Who knows, maybe one day we’ll pitch the tent in the garden and really feel like we’re camping!

We went on a bit of a mission this weekend.

My husband went out to do the third leg of his epic walk round Gower that he does every summer.  So the children and I did a bit of a long walk ourselves.  We decided to see how many of the local parks we could get round in one afternoon.

We went to Cwmdonkin park to start with and had a good play on the big slide, the zip-wire and the swings.

That’s where Nerys’ photo was taken.  She’s worked out how to get herself swinging now and is so proud of herself each time she does it.

After Cwmdonkin we walked to Brynmill Park for a play on the climbing frame and the web swing.

We wandered round to feed the ducks and then walked through Singleton Park and along to the playpark by Singleton boating lake.  Then it was back up through Singleton park again, with a stop by the fallen tree for a climb.

Rhys brought these sticks with him from the collection he keeps outside our front door.  He was busy practising all his ninja moves with them when I took this photo.

Once I got both children down from the tree we headed to our final park for the day, the little one we go to close to their swimming lessons.

As we headed out of Singleton park Nerys spotted a book that had been hidden as part of the ‘look for a book’ group that’s popped up recently here in Swansea.  She was so excited when I explained to her what it was all about, and now we have the extra fun of hiding the book again this week for someone else to find and enjoy!

By the end of our trek we’d made it round 5 different parks which I’m honestly quite impressed with.

I think I was more tired by the end of the day than the children though, I really don’t know where all their energy comes from!

We’re hopefully seeing my siblings next week which I’m really looking forward to.

We don’t all get together all that often with us being scattered around the country, and I absolutely love seeing all the cousins together.

Hopefully the weather and the tide times will be on our side and we can head to the beach, which is what we did last year.  You can’t always trust the two factors to come together here in Swansea though!

Last week was a big one for Nerys.

After a few weeks of wobbling she lost her first tooth.  She swallowed it actually, poor thing.

We were sitting together eating lunch on Friday and she turned to me and asked where her tooth was.  A quick look in her mouth confirmed that it had come out, but there was no sign of it anywhere.

So we’ve made the assumption that it got swallowed along with her lunch.

She was a bit upset to start with, but once I’d reassured her that the tooth fairy would still come and visit her if we wrote her a little note she was quite happy.

As for me?

I’m feeling all kinds of emotional about it.

5 just seems too young to be starting to lose baby teeth, even though it does seem to be quite normal these days to start losing them at that age.

It feels like a really big thing though, another big step away from her being my baby.

I’ll get used to it soon enough though I’m sure.

This gappy smile will be our normal for a while.  Until another tooth comes out I suppose!

How old was your child when they lost their first tooth?

The summer holidays are in full swing here.

We’re still very much enjoying the break from the school routine and not having to be up and out every morning.

Steve’s really busy at work at the moment, so we didn’t go too far from home at the weekend.  Instead we went for a walk round Singleton Park to see the floral displays.

August is possibly the best month to go and see them, as they’re all in full bloom and absolutely stunning.

Steve took this photo of Nerys as we had a little sit down before heading back home, and I just had to use it for this week’s living arrows post because I thought it was really sweet.

Last week we also spent an afternoon in Brynmill park, where we bumped into friends from school which was a lovely surprise.

We had some time at home doing art projects for the children’s cubs/rainbows badges, as well as baking some flapjacks which are so tasty.

The busiest day for us was Thursday when we got the bus into town and visited Swansea Museum.  They had a craft activity on where the children got to paint rocks.  They had a great time and the artist running the session was lovely and even let Rhys take home one of the sample rocks that she had painted.

Our plans for this week are still quite vague, which is no bad thing in my book.

What I do know is that my sister and her girls are coming to see us for the day on Tuesday which we’re all very excited about.  The cousins always love getting together and it’s so nice now they’re all older and my sister and I can actually chat in relative peace!

How is your summer going so far?

We made it to the end of term and have happily survived the first week of the summer holidays!

The last few weeks of term were busy ones for the children but they coped brilliantly.  We had an absolutely amazing evening during the very last week of term when their school put on a concert in the Brangwyn Hall.

It was so well done and all the children sang beautifully and I just felt so lucky to be there and watch them all.

Now though it’s really lovely to just slow down the pace a bit.  Let the children regroup.  Have a few lazy days and late nights.

We’re not going away on holiday anywhere this summer but I always feel like we don’t really need to, living where we do.  There are so many parks and outdoor spaces to play in close to home, and then we have all the stunning beaches of Gower just along the coast.

As part of our plan to visit quite a few different beaches this summer we popped to Langland Bay last week.  I always love taking our family photos for the me and mine project at the beach, so I grabbed the chance to take this month’s pictures while we were there.

I think we’ve become pros at the ‘look at each other and smile’ type photos, don’t you agree!

Those are always the ones I love the most though, the expressions on our faces always just make me smile so much when I look at them.

August is looking like it’ll be a good month for us, with the school holidays in full swing.

We’ll be heading off to lots more beaches, spending afternoons in the park, doing crafts at the museum and visiting the local art gallery.  I’m also hoping for clear skies around my birthday so we can spot some shooting stars during the perseid meteor shower.  We let the children stay up last year to try and spot some, but it was quite cloudy and they didn’t manage to see any.

I would really love for them to get to see a couple this year.

What have you got planned for the summer?