Summer Hols: Week 1: Part 2

On Wednesday we decided to have a day on the beach. I have spent 14 years visiting Papa and Toot's neck-of-the-woods and I have never once had a sunny day to enjoy their beautiful sandy beaches. It is beyond a joke. Anyway, we thought that whatever the weather, we'd do it.

It was not promising. Toot and FHB did some kite flying, while the rest of us hunkered down behind the wind break. Custard did a lot of rolling around and digging.

After a few hours of Needing-a-jumper-weather, the sun came out. Finally! 14 years! Of course we had no swimmies with us, but one of the brilliant things about being very young is the ability to strip down to your pants and run into the sea.

FHB built a city:

And I enjoyed the view of the North Sea and the sand between my toes. Our beach at home is fab, but soft sand is extra special.

The only thing that could be said to have marred the day was the inability of my children to go to sleep that night. Gosh they messed about for a long time. Even Toot shouted at them, and that is unheard of.

x

Summer Holidays: Week 1: Part 1

The last week or so of term is always hideous- that I was prepared for. What I had forgotten is the hideousness of the first few days off. My children are always vile. They have been WILD this week, bad tempered, tired-beyond-tired, more inclined towards violence than normal, excessively shouty and always slightly sweaty. They all have purple eyes and look as if they need more vegetables. I am sure they save this for when they see their grandparents.

Anyway...the day school finished we headed down to the beach for a fish'n'chippy tea. W told me off for being grumpy. Custard sat in the ketchup.

Going well.

The weekend was a quiet one, because this week following has been FULL.

On Tuesday we went to the Science Museum. Oh. My. Goodness.

I see, looking at the photos that it looks as if we had a nice time. I am sure the kids did. I sort of didn't really. They were literally climbing the walls (I kid you not. They were panelled and proved too much of a temptation for my boys).
With four children there is usually at least one having a good day. Not so on Tuesday. It started with FHB and Custard having a full blown punch-up in the back of Papa and Toot's car and degenerated from there. I shall not dwell on it any more as I can feel my stomach clenching and the stress returning.

Look, there were steam engines:

And the Apollo command capsule. My dad was Very Excited by this. So was FHB. My dad suggested buying him a one way ticket for the next flight. A Good Idea, I thought.

On Tuesday evening we drove up to Papa and Toot's house. To be continued...x

Busy times

Hello! I have a load of photos sitting in my email, but I can't download them for some reason, so a little substitution will henceforth occur:

It is the first Monday of the summer holidays. We have mislaid one of the Wii remotes, FHB and the Mouse have been fighting like mortal enemies for three days, the house is a filth pit from the depths of Hades, there are a lot of Hama beads underfoot making life a little uncomfortable without shoes and it is not quite pay day. Good start.

So today will herald a ferocious clean-up and the arrival of Papa and Toot this afternoon. Hallelujiah! Tomorrow we are all going to meet my Dad at the Science Museum to see the Apollo rocket. FHB is very excited.

In the mean time...

:: I apologise for writing crappy short phone blogs- I don't know where my time has gone, but the phone seems to be the way to continue blogging through busy times.

:: I have started three new crochet projects and finally finished all the large grannies needed for my blanket. Just 123 4-round squares to go. A crochet catch-up will follow at some point.

:: We have had some lovely afternoons on the beach- impromptu times, in school uniform, no towels, no way of drying off dingbat boys who insist in going in up tot heir shoulder fully clothed.

:: Fish n chips have also been consumed on the beach. W is working on the far side of London at the moment, which makes for a long commute and little time with the kids on week days. Whenhe can get away a little early we meet up on the shore for a picnicky tea and a run around in the fresh air. Last time, Custard sat in the ketchup.

:: My yarn habit is persisting. I have about 200 new balls of the stuff. Most of it is already earmarked and I am wondering if I could get away with going back for a third time.

:: FHB seems unable to sit down. Small boys should come fitted with restraining bolts like R2-D2.

:: The bears have discovered Home Alone. I am subjected to re-enactments of the aftershave scene about twenty times a day. It is very noisy.

:: I am tired already. You can't rest and regroup when you have four children- they need to go out every day and run around like puppies. I need a week somewhere sunny, flopped by a pool with a book, a hook and my husband only.

:: Then perhaps another week with the kids too.

x

Big day out for Bears

Being gluttons for punishment, the day after taking the bears to London, Papa, Toot, W and myself took the bears to our local beachy theme park. W's brother, our sister-in-law and our niece joined us too as it is Tink's Best-Day-Out-Ever place.

We had a fab day- lots of rides, a slap-up fish 'n' chip lunch courtesy of Papa, more rides, ice cream, more rides. After about five hours, the little ones were exhausted. There were tears. While everyone else went home for tea and a bath, Toot and I stayed out with the boys for another hour and a half, during which I had to have another go on the hair-raising upside-down-twisty-turny rollercoaster from hell with FHB. He was a very excited boy because it was the first time he had been big enough to go on the grown-up rides.

Now, I love a rollercoaster, but going on one with a very skinny seven year old is scary. I knew he was at no risk of falling out, but even so, I was hanging on to him all the way round incase he slipped his skinny little body through the safety seat. Heart in mouth time for me!

Anyway, all was well, obviously, and he had a tremendous time. His favourite bit was when he made me go on the water flume and I got soaked from my waist down. He owes me a bag of donuts for that!

x

Dinosaur Day

Friday was a teacher training day, so the bears had an extra day off school.  'I know', says I, enthusiastically, 'Let's go and see the dinosaurs!'

I basked in the glory of being A Popular Mum for a couple of days. The bears were excited and I was very much looking forward to seeing them myself, it's been a while.

Friday morning dawned...the bears had a punch up because Custard had lost his cagoule and refused to wear his old coat. FHB swapped. Then swapped back. All hell broke loose. I separated the boys. Mouse got angry because I wouldn't let her wear my coat. She pulled the pig face. I shouted. By eight thirty I felt ashamed. I tried to sort out FHB's ipod for the train journey. I am not good with technology. We had a slight contretemps. I realised I am not far away from him having to explain how to use the remote control to me.

We eventually left. I got on the train with my children. They sang 'Hey Jude' loudly all the way into London, much to the amusement of some teenagers sitting next to us. I don't know whether I am proud or slightly embarrassed.

We met Papa and Toot and managed to get across town to the Natural History Museum. Then we set a new record- we entered the main hall and lost Custard within thirty seconds of being in the building. Mine and Toot's voices rang from the rafters and a small boy appeared from nowhere, saying, 'I was just lookin' at the dinosaur'.

It is (always) a brilliant dinosaur.

Turned out the main dinosaur gallery was bloody well closed for a 'Spring clean'. Didn't they know we were coming? Papa staved off an explosion by treating us all to tickets to the new dinosaur exhibition, complete with moving, ROARING, dinosaurs. Turned out Miss T likes a walking, talking dinosaur, but is not so keen on skellingtons: 'Me scared, Mummy'. Just as well the normal gallery was closed then.

We had a great time at the museum, despite the fact that all my children appear to have bladder problems which manifest at different times, resulting in all their grown-ups spending what feels like half a day at least taking small, sticky, jiggling children to the toilet.

What did they like best in the whole museum? The earthquake experience? No, too realistic. The dinosaurs? No, too dark. The volcanoes? No. The fossils? No...  No, what they liked best was the stuffed panda in the cafe, who died in 1972. Go figure.

And the shop. Always the shop. After half an hour of FHB trying to choose between a torch and a pencil I wanted to crawl off and cry.

Anyway...

Then we had the Custard-needs-a-poo-and-there-is-no-toilet-nearby-I-think-I-might-throttle-him-incident; then we met W, who treated us all to pizza. During the meal we took the kids to the toilet a total of 12 times between us. And I had to throw away a pair of Miss T's trousers. Fun!

By the time we got home, Mouse was hysterically tired, Custard was vocally beyond that and W and I bought a bottle of gin.

I had a lovely day you know, and I brought home the same amount of children I started off with. Success!

x

Ups and downs with Miss T

When my youngest child is not being deeply naughty she is tremendously good fun. Yesterday I was quite out of temper with her due to the flooding of my hallway with the entire contents of a LARGE bucket of dirty mop water, a trip to Tesco which would have been easier to have done with a load of baboons, and the need to clean the downstairs cloakroom (the whole thing- not just the toilet- the walls, the floor, the door too) not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES due to her pig-headedness in refusing to ask for assistance when she needs a poo.

Hmm.

Anyway, I was sitting here feeling Extremely Irritated, looking at my photos from the last week and suddenly I realised I was not cross anymore. Because you know what? Being at home with my children is good fun most of the time, and who wouldn't rather be doing this:

or admiring this:

than working?

x

Me and Miss T

Hello! Yesterday Miss T and I hopped on the bike and tootled off around town. First stop was the hospital occupational health department, where, much to my disgust I had to have the MMR jab. All my kids have had it and I have spent much time saying 'don't complain, it doesn't hurt, you're fine' etc etc to crying kids.

It does hurt.

I decided I had been a brave soldier and deserved a treat. Miss T suggested a pink lolly. We settled on a large coffee for me and a hot chocolate for her, with a pink lolly on the side.

Having made our way so near to the beach, I suggested we cycle home along the front. She said no. But, it looked very enticing from up on the top of the cliff, and she does LOVE going down a hill at full pelt, so she changed her mind.

We whizzed down the cliff at which point she shouts: ME CO-O-O-O-OLD! MAM, US GO UP HOME NOW.

I refused and started cycling. Past the cliff lift. Past the funicular lift. Just far enough, infact, to realise that Miss T was right, it was indeed co-o-o-o-old, and windy, and actually, cycling was damn hard work. Especially when being poked in the back by a small child's sticky lolly, accompanied my the words 'You go faster now Mummy'.

Grrr.

I found the first available road back up the cliff and got off and pushed. I have no shame.

I got home, hot, red-faced, sweaty and HUNGRY. That, folks, is the problem when you begin the day with good intentions, i.e. a small bowl of muesli rather than a great big pile of muesli and then some toast, and perhaps a biscuit or two.

Oh dear. Fail.

And as for Miss T...

Well, she fell asleep about the time I was pushing her up the flipping cliff. And she stayed asleep, in the bike seat, for a good hour and a half. Alright for some!

x

W's Last day of freedom

I meant to write this post last week, but due to the vagiaries of Blogger and my new phone, it didn't quite work out. Anyway...Here we are, and I shall try again.

Last friday was W's last day of house husbandry before returning to work this week. I had the day off, so we treated ourselves to breakfast on the beach with Miss T.

Eggs Benedict- My FAVOURITE EVER breakfast, especially when someone else has made it.

And, oh yes, breakfast really was ON the beach. We have been meaning to try this place since it opened about a year ago, but for one reason or another (mainly because taking six of us out anywhere costs Loads, so we tend to go armed with a thermos instead) we have never made it. Turns out that this bar is completely child and buggy friendly, serves excellent coffee and has sparkly pink, very clean, toilet seats. What more can you want?

Following our splendid breakfast we still had several hours before we had to get the big bears form school, so W suggested we head off to Burnham-on-Crouch to see what was there.

What was there was a View:

A fabulous charity shop where I bought all of this:

Also a good old fashioned sweet shop, a yummy arty-crafty-galleryish place that sold Beautiful handbags, a dinky coffee shop that sold homemade scones and large filter coffees, served by a very nice lady in a Cath Kidston pinny, and a lovely little town that we could quite happily live in. Cue a couple of very happy hours spent when we got home, messing about on Rightmove to see what we could afford.

All in all we had a lovely lovely day, despite the downpour.

++++++++

In the charity shop I bought a Holly Hobby (?) duvet cover, thinking I  could chop it up and make it into Other Stuff. It's not really my thing, you know. Miss T saw it when we got home and said 'THAT'S MINE!':

If anyone had ever told me I would willingly put this duvet cover on a bed in my home I would have laughed at them.

x

Beachiness and bad barbecues

Hello! It has been a busy busy week for us, and I have only just had time to sit down and write about last weekend.

We had some friends over with their scrummy baby and took a Sunday trip to the beach. Let's have a barbie, we said, the weather's been great, we said, let's eat up the last of the wagyu beef on the beach, we said.

Well, we had an hour on the beach. The four of us adults spent half that time wrestling with an oversize wind break, which we eventually realised we could not use because it would not stand up in the soft sand. The bears climbed the rocks, underneath the big sign saying 'DANGER, DO NOT CLIMB ROCKS'. The adults sat on the blankets and drank coffee. The kids dug sand near the blankets. The sand ended up in the coffee. The coffee crunched.

We stoically ordered W to light the barbie. A beach warden poked his head over the sea wall and said we could not have the barbie on the beach, we had to go up onto the grass above. Which proved useful because that way W (down to his last match) met the Polish man with the parafin who lit the barbie for us while nearly losing his eyebrows. (Don't try this at home folks!)

With both our husbands being important with a barbecue, My friend and I were left with:

4 children on foot
1 baby in a large buggy
4 blankets
2 bags of clothes
1 enormous bag of buckets and spades
1 bag of shoes
1 cool bag full of posh beef
2 picnic bags
1 VERY large hamper

-to carry back up to the picnic area. We managed it- needs must, and the weather had started to turn and we were hungry.

Sometime later W slapped several chunks of wagyu beef down infront of us. Mmmmm. Really good. The treatiest of beef. We savoured it. For about three minutes. Then it got Windy. The baby started crying. Custard cut himself with a butter knife. Miss T started a mantra of 'Me freeeeezing'. We wrapped her in a blanket. Then the plates blew away. Then W said: Ooh, if you look over there you can see the rain. It'll be here in about eight minutes.

It was there in seven.

W and our friends scooped up all five kids and ran for the cars. I played donkey and carried the luggage. I got wet.

Do you know, we had A Great Day! Loads of fun, truly unforgettable...for whatever reasons!

Hope you had a great weekend too, whatever you were doing...x

In the saddle

Today W, Miss T and I had a Big Bike Ride. The big three were in school, the sun was shining, so we hopped on our bikes and headed down to the seafront for breakfast:

Oh yes!

This was my view:

We rode the entire length of the seafront (about five and a half miles) to get to here:

A lovely bit of beach that we don't normally visit as it's a bit of a pig in the car. I had forgotten how beautiful it is.

Miss T fell head first off the ramp and put her teeth through her lip- much blood and many tears ensued. But, my brave girl was calmed down with the promise of an ice cream.

The fence goes out for really long way into the estuary. I think it is the remains of the one they built in the war to stop the U-boats coming up the Thames.

I got some really daft tan lines on my feet, due to the overly technical strapwork on my sandals.

Altogether we cycled about twelve and a half miles today, and I am feeling pretty pleased with myself, because I did it with a small person on the back of my bike too. Though I did run out of steam half way up the hill to get back home. I got off and pushed for a (short) way. The shame!

We have been doing some Ooh-I-wish-I-lived-here local sightseeing too:

The house on the right here has an orangery. I want an orangery! No simple conservatory will do now- there needs to be an orangery in my future!

The world from a bike- wonderful. Such a great morning! x