Summer Recap

Damn it. Summer is over. There's no use denying it or refusing to acknowledge it any longer...tomorrow is the dreaded back to school and Boy is now in Year 2 of primary school. Am full of woe and have been grumping on and off all day. I say 'on and off' because ironically, today he has been a tiny gobshite who I would have gladly pinched at times. Other than that IT WAS A MAGICAL LAST DAY TOGETHER ;-)

I managed to write some posts for the first few weeks of the holidays and then life took over and I somewhat fell apart. Apologies. Here's a brief and random update post...disclaimer, parts of this may be in the wrong order!!

We have gone ahead and ordered our new kitchen from Ikea!! Long time readers will know that I have hated our kitchen since 23 minutes after we moved into this house and I have been systematically dismantling it in the hopes that one day, Husband would come home from work, realise we had no units left and announce 'huh, I guess we'll need to buy a new kitchen?' in a confused and bewildered voice. This plan didn't work. It would appear I am married to a man who a) doesn't really pay much attention to stuff and b) doesn't care if he lives in a shell. So I scrapped that plan and got pregnant, demanding a new kitchen with a fast approaching deadline. Winner! We've gone for the basic white and oak combo (see above) and the whole thing, fitted, is running us less than £3k which I can't complain about considering the room is fairly small and whilst we like to cook, we're not 'foodies'. So yay!! Roll on October 9th!!

Boy managed to lose his balance and slip off our bed, cracking his head on the fireplace as he landed. Cue blood all over our new mattress, my jeans, the bedroom carpet, all the way to the bathroom... Mama fainting when she looked to see how bad the damage was and a frantic trip to A&E. Some clever doctors and some glue later and this was what we were left with. Aargh! It lasted around 12 days and then started to come away from his scalp BUT would not budge out of his beautiful long hair. After consulting with our local hairdressers, I soaked it with acetone for 4 nights in a row and nothing. In the end it had to be cut out. I may have wept a little bit. Luckily the bald patch and scar is pretty much in line with his natural hair line so not massively noticeable and should grow back quite quickly... even so :-( Sad faces all round. God bless the mighty NHS!!

Our biggest news this summer was received at our gender scan where we found out that baby on board IS A GIRL!! Boy was delighted, Toddler said 'no thank you, I want a boy baby' and proceeded to grump for an hour and Husband just said 'I knew it' because he is infuriating and annoying. We have named her, started buying things she'll need, picked the nursery wallpaper and are all very excited to meet her. I think I was in shock for a few weeks, after all the sonographer usually says it's a boy!, but I think I'm slowly coming round to the idea. Just today in the car I turned to Posh Mama and said 'eeshk, we're going to have a real life BABY!!' Ha ha!! Roll on January!!

We discovered Alderford Lake which is both beautiful and naked-child friendly. Boys ran off on the path ahead and this is how I found them. Yikes! We didn't get to eat in the cafe this time but the menu looked good, there's a small play area and the icecream was delicious. Check it out!

Boy celebrated his 6th birthday with an epic Indiana Jones themed birthday party in the garden. They used a metal detector to hunt for coins in our sand pit, followed a treasure map to find things all over our garden, decorated their own treasure chests, dodged snakes and tarantulas and even had to wrestle an inflatable alligator (Toddler wound up sitting on his back shouting 'yee-ha!'). Nana made this amazing Indiana Lego cake and the entire thing was relaxed and perfect. Massive thanks go to Posh Mama who came round early to help me set up and at one point was found sweeping the yard whilst I stood around yawning and generally being useless. Pregnancy sucks!!

After the party, we packed the car and whizzed over to Pentreclawdd Farm in Oswestry to do a bit of glamping for the night with friends. This is such a great little site. We are not a camping family but this place was amazing. The pods were pristine, fully equipped for what you'd need for a short stay, the site was child friendly and secure and the pods were so cozy and warm overnight. I was genuinely surprised. Whenever I've camped in the past I've moaned about being cold and damp...it turns out that glamping is the way forward!! They close the site for the winter soon but if you're looking for somewhere nearby to spend a few nights we would definitely recommend this place...we're planning on returning for the entire weekend of Boy's birthday next year.

Boy spent a happy afternoon at the local library Lego building event; this was his creation. Apparently it's a prison for all the bad guys and he made a special room for Donald Trump. Am so proud!

We whizzed back to down to Devon last weekend for some beach time with Husband as he was unable to join us in July. The trip was short but sweet (we only stayed 2 nights), the weather was shite, but the food here and here was excellent and the time spent in the surf with Daddy was priceless so...

And today, to celebrate/mourn the end of summer we went to the Ice Cream Farm in Cheshire with Posh Mama and her daughter. Such a nice venue. We hadn't been since Toddler turned 2 (you may remember the blog about his birthday party there...it was a bank holiday weekend, the less said about the crowds the better, eeshk!) but today was lovely and quiet. Boy was rude and obnoxious, I suspect he is both ready for the routine of school and anxious about returning, but on the whole it was a fun day. Posh Mama and I nearly had unfortunate pant-wetting accidents when she pushed the roundabout a little too vigorously, walked off looking victorious and both boys toppled off backwards in a comedy confused-face slow-mo fashion, I haven't laughed so hard in months!! Yes, we did get filthy looks from other parents and no, my children weren't harmed in any way or I would have assisted them instead of bending over double howling, obviously!!

So there you have it. That has been our summer holidays. I have little to no idea how I'm supposed to get them both up, fed, dressed and out the door by 8.06am tomorrow morning. Not only have they been sleeping in until anything as late as 8.30am but I could be overtaken by a geriatric tortoise at the moment (DAMN YOU, PELVIS!) and Toddler is taking full advantage of my reduced mobility by misbehaving just out of reach whilst grinning at me like a demon. 

Maybe I'll set the alarm for 5.30am to be on the safe side?!

I hope everyone has had a wonderful summer and is coping with the return to monotonous routine. Am trying to focus on the great things autumn has to offer, like dark nights and tartan scarves and ankle boots and soup not to mention the opportunities for daytime napping that school provides...also it's only 32 days of school until half term!!