Posts in category: Personal

I’m a bit wary to say it, in case I curse it, but things have gone pretty smoothly so far for the start of the new school year.

The children went back last Monday and both seem to have settled in really well.

Rhys is back with one of his favourite teachers and a new (to us) teacher who he already loves.  He’s also back in a class with all is oldest friends so he’s really rather happy.

Nerys has a new (to us) teacher who seems really lovely and who’s been sharing photos of what they’ve been up to each day on Class Dojo which is so nice.

She’s also thrilled that they can mix across the year group at playtime again so, even though she’s not in the same class as them all, she can play with all her friends in the yard.

Knowing that the children would most likely be worn out after the first week back in school, we didn’t really plan much for the weekend.

Saturday was mostly a lazy day at home, with a bit of reading, a fair bit of Liv and Maddie on the TV and a little bit of homework.

On Sunday we had a more active day – we headed down to the front for a run.  The children are signed up to do the 1k and 3k children’s races next Sunday as part of the Swansea Bay 10K, so we thought we should try and get a little bit of training in before then!

We found a stretch of the prom that was about 1K long, and Nerys ran that once while Rhys and I did it three times to prepare him for the longer race he’s signed up for.

The children both did really well and I think feel a bit more confident about the race next week now.  It’s the first time Rhys is doing the 3K race and he’s feeling a bit unsure about it, but we’ve had a look at the route online with him and reassured him that there’ll be plenty of people around to make sure he goes the right way.

The children were also back to swimming lessons yesterday after the long summer break.

They were both a bit nervous beforehand having not been in so long, but both came out happy and feeling good about how well they’d done.

I’m keeping everything crossed that this week goes as smoothly as last week and that the children both have another good run at school.

Rhys has got cubs starting up again this week which he’s looking forward to.  They’re still splitting the pack in two this term, and Rhys is in group 1 so he’ll be going in person this week.  Then next week he’ll have a few activities to do with us at home.

We’re still waiting to hear when Brownies will be starting back up again for Nerys, but hopefully that’ll be soon.  She really enjoyed the sessions that she went to before the summer, so can’t wait for it to get going again.

Do your children do many activities and classes outside of school?  What do they enjoy doing the most?

Here we go.  Back to the school routine, after a really lovely summer break.

I’m not entirely sure where the holidays went though.  Normally by this time I’m absolutely ready for the return to routine and structure of term-time.

But this year feels different.

Even though the children were off for almost 7 weeks thanks to inset days, it still feels like the summer has flown by.  And I’m not sure I’m entirely ready to go back to the uncertainty that seems to come with the children being in school at the moment.

I’m just keeping everything crossed that we can all stay healthy and that Rhys and Nerys can have a more settled year in school than they’ve had for the last 2 years.

They both seem to have really enjoyed the break from everything over the summer, and I think we’ve managed a good balance of doing things and having time to just ‘be’ and relax.

Nerys and I popped into town at the end of last week to pick up the last few bits we needed for school, and we just about managed to get everything sorted.

She also had a ride on the carousel in town that she’s wanted to go on all summer.

It is a really lovely old-fashioned carousel and it really lived up to her expectations of how much fun it would be to ride on.

We didn’t quite manage to tick off everything from our summer bucket list this year, but we’ve had loads of fun doing as many things from it as we could.

We’ve made buns, cake, ice cream, brownies and s’mores.

We’ve had afternoon tea with the children’s grandparents, a family pizza party, and a sleepover in the lounge.

We’ve visited Margam park, the LC for swimming, Cardiff with the cousins, the waterfront museum, the sunflower fields at Rhossili, and Plantasia.

We’ve walked to 6 different parks in 1 day, played crazy golf, and walked to Mumbles and back.

We’ve swum in the sea, built epic sandcastles, and had picnics in the park.

Best of all, we’ve actually been able to see family this summer.

I had an amazing few days in Kent for my Dad’s birthday in July, and the children have spent time with both sets of cousins on my side of the family during the holidays.

It’s been so lovely to see the children together after not seeing each other for so long.  They all got on so well and really enjoyed just spending time together.

There are still a few things on our list that we’re hoping to tick off in the next few weeks before we start to accept summer is on its way out.

We’re planning on heading out to Gower one evening to watch the sunset, have a chocolate fondue one day for pudding, and Nerys and I are determined to learn how to knit properly.

For now though, I’m just looking to get us all through this first week back at school in one piece.  The routine at school has changed a bit again, with no more staggered start and finish times.  So hopefully that’ll all go smoothly and it might make drop off and pick up a bit quicker than it was last year.

Good luck to all the other parents out there with children heading back to school this week!

The children and I had a really fun day out last week, taking advantage of the free bus offer that’s been available in Swansea this summer.

We caught the bus into town, spent an hour exploring the national waterfront museum and then had a really fun few hours in Plantasia.

It was only the second time we’ve been to Plantasia so the children were really excited to go and have another look around.  We added their animalympics trail to our tickets, so took our time walking around and looking out for the answers to questions about the different creatures we spotted.

We also stopped to take a couple of pictures of the children trying to escape from the giant Venus fly trap.

I think my favourite part of the whole place is seeing the meerkats.  There’s a little tunnel that goes underneath their enclosure, with a dome that you can pop your head up into to get really close to the action.

I just love seeing the looks on the children’s faces when they’re in there, right up next to the meerkats.

We did also get quite excited when we finally spotted three crocodiles in the water after a fair bit of looking around for them.  There were signs up when we were there advertising special sessions where you can go and actually feed the crocodiles, but I’m not sure I’d be brave enough for that!

Now it feels like we’re really on the home stretch before school starts back up again, so we’re trying to fit in a few more things from our bucket list when Steve has time off work next week.

We’ve done pretty well so far, with quite a few things ticked off the list.  We were quite ambitious this year with almost 50 things on the list, so I’m not sure we’ll manage to get them all done but we’ve been having a lot of fun trying!

Last week was a fun one, with birthday celebrations, park trips with friends, walks to the beach, and a new drama workshop for Nerys.

It was my birthday at the end of the week and we had a lovely family day to celebrate.

Steve made some cinnamon rolls for a late breakfast which Nerys and I both enjoyed so much that we went back for seconds.  Then in the afternoon we hopped in the car and drove out to Rhossili to see the sunflower fields.

This has been something I’ve wanted to do for a few years now, but for one reason or another we’ve not made it until now.  So we were all pretty excited to finally get out and see the fields.

It was a grey, overcast day so we thought it would be quite quiet out in Rhossili but there were actually loads of cars parked up when we got there.  On our walk out to the fields though we passed the crowds who were on their way back to their cars, so the fields themselves were relatively quiet when we reached them.

The children had great fun doing the Gruffalo trail that’s been set up among the flowers and we stopped and posed for photos under the beautiful flower arches.  It was all just the perfect way to spend an afternoon together.

Rhys and Nerys were both so keen to make sure I had a good birthday, and wanted to spend as much of it with me as they could.  So we all ended up staying up late, eating homemade pizza far later than normal teatime and cwtching up on the sofa watching Moana.  It might not have been particularly rock and roll, but right now I can’t think of a much better way to start the last year of my 30s.

The school summer holidays are in full swing now, and the children are both enjoying the long break from the school routine.

We’ve had lots of lazy days at home, baking, playing computer games, reading a bit, and generally making the most of not having to be up and out anywhere.  The last year and a half has been so unpredictable and uncertain for the children, I think they need some time now to regroup a bit with no worries or pressures.

There have been plenty of trips to the parks and the beach as well, and we’ve all loved having a bit more freedom to visit places and mix with friends and family more than we did last summer.

We’ve had visits from both my sister and her girls, and my brother and his in the last month and it’s been brilliant to just be able to hang out with them indoors!

I’m focussing a lot on the little things this summer, enjoying the simple things like walking in the local park and paddling in the water at the beach.  I know that at some point in the not too distant future my children won’t want to spend all this time with me, so I’m doing my best to make the most of this time when they do!

We’ve still got a couple of weeks left of the holidays before we have to shift gear again and get ready for heading back to school.

Steve should be taking some time off work so we can hopefully do a few more of the bigger things from our bucket list, like visiting Margam Park or Folly Farm.  Nerys is also desperate to go swimming at the LC so I need to find a date we can book in for that soon.

What have your children enjoyed most so far this summer, and what are they still looking forward to?

The summer holidays are in full swing and we’re slowly ticking things off our bucket list.

Last week we had a few low-key days with trips to the local library, baking brownies at home, and a little picnic in the park.

Nerys put together a scavenger hunt to do while we out having our picnic and we all had fun searching for the things she’d listed.  The children also had fun climbing trees and playing tag in the park after we’d finished eating.

The highlight of last week though was getting to see my brother and his 2 girls.

They came to Swansea for 2 nights and we crammed in as much time together as possible while they were here.

I saw them when I was in Kent last month for my Dad’s birthday, but Rhys and Nerys hadn’t seen their uncle or their cousins for about 2 years so it was amazing to have this time together.

We had gorgeous sunny weather on their first day here so we strolled through Singleton park down to the beach.  We picked up some lunch from the Coop and ate that by the sea, then the children ran off to jump in the water for a swim.

We stayed at the beach until about 5 o’clock before heading back to our house for homemade pizza for tea.

The next day was grey and rainy so we met up for a long, late breakfast at a local café and then spent the day indoors playing card games and doing Harry Potter quizzes created by one of my nieces.

After so much time apart it was really lovely to just spend time together, not doing all that much but just enjoying each other’s company and getting to know each other again.

Have you been able to meet up with family again yet after all this time apart?

Another week of the summer holidays has whizzed by.  I have a bad feeling it’ll be September and back-to-school time before I know it.

We had another relatively quiet week last week, thanks to me and Steve both being pretty busy with work.

We did have a really lovely visit from my sister and her girls for a few hours on Wednesday though, which was a fab way to break up the week.  The children were all really happy to see each other and had a great time playing Roblox together on various devices and attempting a round of the game of life before the girls had to head off.

They also brought with them a huge bag of clothes that were being passed down to Nerys from her other cousins.  I picked the clothes out when I was in Kent recently, but couldn’t manage to get them home with me when the last leg of my journey was by train.

It was a bit tricky picking out the bits I thought Nerys would like when she wasn’t with me to give her opinion, but judging by her reactions when she went through the bag I think I did alright.  And I’m thrilled because I shouldn’t have to go clothes shopping again for her for a while now!

The rest of last week was a mix of excessive screen time while Steve and I worked and trips out to the local parks.

We all headed out for a walk through Singleton Park at the weekend so we could take some family photos for July’s me and mine project.

We sat on a bench looking out over the grass, with the bay on the horizon, and joked about how soon could we move away from Swansea.

The city is quite often called ‘the graveyard of ambition’, and there seems to be this joke around people never leaving here, as if that’s a bad thing.  After living here for more than 20 years I can’t see me ever wanting to leave.

Between the beaches, the parks, and all the other beautiful outdoor spaces we have here, I can’t see why we would want to live any where else.  The only thing I would change is to have my family closer.  Then I think that, if I’d gone with my other uni choice, I could’ve ended up in Aberdeen, so the trip from Swansea to Kent suddenly doesn’t seem quite so far!

I can still remember the day that I first came to Swansea for a uni open day.  I stood on the steps of Fulton House with my dad, and just had this gut feeling that this was the place I was supposed to be.  I’m pretty glad I went with that gut feeling to be honest!