Posts in category: Personal

I’m writing this on Sunday evening, with a glass of cider by my side and a smile on my face.

We’ve had a really lovely weekend, thanks to a very special occasion that the children have been waiting for for months.  Our good friends got married on Saturday and Rhys and Nerys got to be page boy and flower girl for them.

It was a brilliantly laid-back wedding that included a beautiful violin solo, a strangely moving reading about dinosaurs, and a chilled out bbq/garden party back at their house with friends I’ve not seen in far too long.

Rhys and Nerys absolutely loved getting to dress up in their special wedding clothes and be a part of the wedding ceremony.  Our friends are the type of friends who are so close they’re auntie and uncle to the children so it was lovely that they got to be so involved and to feel quite special on their big day.

We weren’t sure how long the children would last at the garden party but they were fab in the end.

It really helped that a few of our friends have children of similar ages so there were lots of people for them to play with.  And one of our friends had the brilliant idea of bringing along some board games that they all loved.

We got really lucky too that the bride’s sister is absolutely amazing with kids and sort of took on the role of keeping them all happy and entertained.  I was even able to have a glass of wine thanks to her and knowing that Rhys and Nerys were being taken care of!

It really was just a brilliant day all round, and I’m just so happy that I got to be there.  I just love seeing people get married, especially when you know that the day is exactly the way they wanted it to be.

After last month’s photos for the siblings project being a bit of a last minute thing, I managed to be a bit more organised this month.

We went for a walk in Mumbles last weekend and I took the opportunity to basically cover all my photographic bases.  So I got photos for this week’s living arrows post, some family photos ready for the me and mine project at the end of the month, and these photos of Rhys and Nerys together for the siblings project.

They were having a brilliant time picking stones from the beach and seeing how far they could throw them into the water.

This kept them occupied for quite a while, before we headed up to the clifftop to really enjoy the view and take a few more photos.

You know, I still find it funny sometimes when I look at my two little blond children.  I always imagined my children would have dark hair like me, so it does make me smile seeing these two so fair.

Did you have an image in your head of what your children might look like?

If you did, were you right or do your children look pretty different from the way you imagined?

What a difference a week makes!

Last week I wrote about how cold and grey the weekend had been, and now I’m writing this at the end of a day filled with glorious blue skies and warm sunshine.

The children had their swimming lesson as usual yesterday, then we were planning on heading to Victoria park for a bit of a play.  But on the way there Steve decided to mix things up a bit and suggested we head to Mumbles for a walk instead.

So we drove down and parked by the pier then walked all the way along the front to the shops to pick up a few bits that we needed.

Nerys kept asking all the way along if she could go down onto the beach, so when we got back to the pier we walked down to the small beach there for her and Rhys to have a little play in the sand and the sea.

They had a brilliant time picking up stones and seeing how far they could throw them into the water, and how big a splash they could make.  Rhys even managed to get one of his stones to skip along the water, which I was pretty impressed with!

We spent a couple of hours out and about in the sunshine and all came home with that edge of tiredness that you only really get from being out in the fresh air.

Which meant that there was a little bit of whinging and winding each other up by the time we got to bath time.  I think that’s quite standard though isn’t it, for everyone to get a bit tetchy when they’re tired!

I’ll take it though.

I’ll take the moments of whinging in exchange for days like this spent by the water, all together.

I know it’s a terribly British thing to do, to talk about the weather, but I really can’t believe how chilly it’s been the last few days.  Considering it’s May, and especially after the gorgeously warm weather we had over the Easter weekend.

We still popped out for a walk yesterday, despite it being grey and a bit nippy.

We drove down to the far end of the marina where there’s a little park for the children to play in, and then walked from there to the other end to pick up a few bits from the shop.

Rhys and Nerys were both happy to have a different park to explore and play in, and they both livened up there after seeming a bit tired after their swimming lessons.

We’ve all needed to slow down the pace a bit this weekend, after a busy first week back at school and work.

Rhys in particular had a big week.

His class have started doing swimming at the national pool as part of their PE lessons which he is so excited about.  I think he enjoyed being able to show what he can do and he just loves being in the water in general.

He also went to cubs for the first time last week.

I don’t think he really had a clue what to expect.  To be honest, I didn’t really know what to expect from it.  So we were all a bit surprised to see quite how formal the meeting was in the beginning.

Rhys was a bit overwhelmed by it I think, but he stuck with it and when the actual activities started he joined right in.  By the end he was absolutely bouncing, happily declaring that he’s already decided he wants to keep going.

I’m so happy for him, and really hope he does stick with this decision to keep going because I think cubs will open up so many chances for him to try out all sorts of things that he might not otherwise get the opportunity to try.

Just in that one session last week he did sports, painting to music, making fruit kebabs and then some mindfulness.  So I think we’re all looking forward to seeing what other activities he’ll get to do in the next few weeks.

Do your children go to cubs/beavers/rainbows/brownies?  

I can’t quite believe that another month has come and gone already.

It doesn’t feel long ago at all that I was on this beach taking our family photos for March, and now here we are again for April.  After the glorious weather over the Easter weekend it seems a bit of a shame that our photos are once again of us all wrapped up in our winter coats.  But I’m hoping that come next month we’ll be able to shed a few layers and get some slightly different looking pictures!

These photos were taken at the weekend, right at the end of a lovely week off for everyone.

We needed a few bits from the shop and wanted to get out for some fresh air so we went for a walk along the beach to get the shop at the bottom of Singleton Park.

It was really overcast and drizzly out which meant the beach was almost deserted.  I really love it down there when it’s like that, so peaceful, it’s just really soothing.  And a perfect chance to get some family photos without feeling self-conscious with lots of people around!

I have a funny feeling May is going to fly by just as quickly as April did.

This next term at school is only 4 weeks which feels really short to me, so it’ll be half term and the end of May before we know it.  I don’t like to think too much about how quickly time seems to be passing at the moment.

They do say don’t they that time passes more quickly as you get older and I really do think that’s true.  I also think that it seems to speed up as your children get older.  I’m sure the baby years lasted such a long time but the months are whizzing by now the children are older.

I just want to hold on to it.

Anyone else feel the same way?

So here we are, back to the old normal routine.

I’ve got the usual mixed emotions.  Happy to be back in that routine, that regular rhythm of the working week.  But also sad to see the end of the holidays when we’ve had a really lovely time all together.

Steve had the second week of the break off work and it has been so nice to just be together.

We’ve been to the beach a few times in the past week, and each time I’m reminded quite how lucky we are to live where we do.

I was saying to Steve yesterday that I think if we lived further away from the coast I might be a bit disappointed if we went to the beach for the day and it was grey and a bit wet.  But living as close as we do, the weather kind of becomes irrelevant.

It was really grey and drizzly when the photo above was taken, but it didn’t matter.  We still strolled casually along the beach to the shop to pick up some bits for dinner.  We stopped to look at shells and stones that had been washed up on the sand.

Last week’s living arrows photo was taken on a particularly warm evening when the children were able to paddle and splash about in the water.

They enjoyed it so much that they insisted on wearing their swimming costumes the next time we went.  Even though we warned them that the weather had changed and it would be really cold in the water.

Fair play to them, they were committed and for about ten minutes they went for it.

Ten minutes was about their limit though, before running out and wrapping up warm in a towel.

I’d like to think that the experience has taught them that maybe Steve and I know what we’re talking about, and next time we say it’s a bit too cold for swimming they might listen to us.  I’m not sure that’s the case though.

They still had so much fun; that’s what they’ll remember.  The laughter.  The gleeful shrieks as another wave splashed around their legs.

As it should be really.

I think we could all do with remembering the highlights more couldn’t we!

We are halfway through the Easter holidays and the break from school has been lovely so far.

It was just me and the children for most of last week.  On Monday we went to an Easter craft session at the local library that was a lot of fun, and had the added bonus of a few of Nerys’ friends from school being there too so she was very happy.

Tuesday was a bit grey and wet so we had a lovely quiet day at home.  Then on Wednesday we ventured out to Cwmdonkin park for a few hours to burn off some energy.

Thursday was our busiest day, with a trip to the LC2 for soft play then a craft session at the Waterfront museum.  It was a lovely warm day so we sat outside the museum to have some lunch, then we headed into town to pick up a few bits from the shops.

The children were with their grandparents on Friday so I had a chance to get some work done.  Then Steve and I took them to the beach after my in-laws dropped them home.

We knew the tide would be in at around 7, and having been a lovely sunny day it was just about warm enough for the children to have a splash around in the sea.

They had an absolutely brilliant time, and ended up much wetter than we’d anticipated.

It was just so great to watch them though, and all the brilliant memories from last summer came flooding back.  We spent a lot of time at the beach last summer and I think it really helped both the children build up their confidence in the water.

I’m really hoping we get enough warm sunny days again this summer to be able to do it all over again this year.