Summer Holiday’s – Week Two

So the first week of the school summer holidays flew by, so it was full steam ahead into Summer holiday’s – week two. But where’s my energy gone? I was feeling shattered from the start so it was an exhausting week.

On Monday we returned from our trip to Wales, then I managed to dump (drop off) most of the tribe at Grandma’s so I could head to Aldi to restock my cupboards with triple the amount of food than we usually consume on the average term time week, because children like to constantly eat when they aren’t in routine. So cupboards stacked with more than the average amount of treats so that I can bribe my way through the week, the kids had a choice for dinner instead of the odd couple of fish fingers, a pizza, some pasta and cocktail sausages.

Kids fed I headed to SW as I skipped it last week due to the the boy’s wrist trauma, I was dreading it as I has well and truly fallen of the SW wagon. The result wasn’t good bloody 2.5lb on FFS, I was only 1lb away from target and now I’m now needing to shift 3.5lb to get my next shiny. The gain was totally deserved, so I will be on salad all week!

Tuesday and Wednesday I worked and the 4 smallest went to Grandma’s so I finally got to tick some tasks off my never ending work list.

They baked cakes and flapjacks, which they loved as we never bake at home.

Wednesday I had an ultra exciting meeting about the future and am still buzzing from that, all will be revealed very soon, eek!

As my meeting ran over I was later than expected to collect the kids, so swung by the golden arches to get tea, which instantly put me in the kids good books, because there is nothing better than a tea that comes with a toy and you can eat out of a cupboard box, sod the crap nutritional food content. Dish the kids boxes out for one of them to ask where are my chips and then realise none of them had chips, so I rang and they said they would have new meals ready with the added bonus of McFlurry’s that I was too tight to buy. So even though I had to drive all the way back across town, my brownie points had now doubled with the kids.

The day was then topped off with the lovely gesture from the boy, he picked me a beautiful rose from Grandma’s garden, it’s the small things hey!

Thursday was new cast day for Faryl and he was super excited to be getting coloured casts. I was early for the hospital, which is pretty rare for me to be early anywhere. But a good job I was as there is no parking at the hospital due to building works so we had to drive around and around!! The doctor was running 90 minutes late, thank god I took the iPad with us otherwise the boy would have been climbing the walls. Then once we had seen the doctor we had a 45 minute wait for him to be replastered, yawn!

So that was fair chunk of the day gone, Grandma had the other 3 little ones, so we met her in the local park where there were free kids activities. But it was like torture for Faryl who has recently developed no fear and still wants to scale the highest climbing frames even though he has both hands in casts, so moaned continuously that it wasn’t far, so we will be avoiding parks for the next 2 weeks until he has his arms back in full working order, hopefully! Then came the leaving the park fiasco, running away, wanting to stay longer, wanting to go home with one of the other mums we were out with, yes the usual parenting jazz. Which if similar ever happens to you, you will sympathise with my thoughts of why the hell did we ever come to the park and continuously give the kids an open threat that we will never go out for the day again!! But finally I bribed them into the car with chocolate brownies, so Monday’s food shop wasn’t all in vain.

Swimming lessons aka ‘Mum’s Weekly Sweat Session’ carries on so I headed to the pool with the two middle girls, even though it was as hot and sticky in there as ever. Today’s proud Mummy moment came with one of the girls doing the final task need to complete the level, so will soon be swimming in stage 2, not bad work when she only started lessons at the end of May. The other tried really hard and completed loads of tasks to rocket her from 29% to 78% of her way through the stage. Good work girlies xx

Friday, we had plans to head to Countryfile Live but hearing about the nightmare traffic stories from the day before we decided to give it a miss. The thought of being stuck for hours in traffic which a screechy, whiny load of kids in the car filled me with dread. And we were going to do something locally, but the firstborn had a reaction to a sting/bite so need to see the doc right in the middle of the day, so I was given no choice but to stay home and tidy the tip that is our house. Why o why during the holidays can they not all play with one thing and put it away then move onto the next, oops I forgot they are kids!!!

Grandma is now away for 2 weeks so I have no childcare and a little extra work so wish me luck.

Saturday we headed out with friends, the weather was lush, when it’s hot and sunny, it always make me want to emigrate somewhere sunny, as I always feel so much more positive and have energy when the sun shines. Oh well maybe one day hey!

Sunday I had grand plans to do some gardening, but it was raining when we got up, so that was enough of an excuse to not bother. So did a few bits around the house, but I was feeling pretty knackered, so lounge around a bit. The kids were expecting a visitor but they didn’t show and could see them clock watching, so as the weather brightened up I decided to get them ready and headed out after lunch. As National Trust members (not I’m not old before my time) we have some great houses and gardens locally, so chose to go to Avebury Stone Circle and Manor as t had been recommended to us by friends. The kids had a whirl and we blew away the cobwebs. It was a lush end to week two and we only finished the day with 2 major meltdowns, result!
School holidays are completely exhausting, but I do go to bed remembering the kids laughs and smiles through the day, call me mushy but that’s what parenting I all about right!