What We Did for Summer 2018

This week summer officially ends for me, as Little Miss goes back to school. It’s not the weather, or the light nights, days at the beach or barbecues that define summer for me, it’s having LM off for six whole weeks. At time they feel like they stretch for years, but then it’s over in the blink of an eye and I wonder why I was so worried about them.

This was the first summer I truly struggled. I’d always heard mothers in the school yard saying how difficult summer was, filling the long days on little budget but I wasn’t one of those. I love having LM at home, and I do, I truly do. But it was hard. With the blow of losing my livvybird instagram account just before she finished for the summer my mental health spiralled. I was losing work and losing money. Trying to fill those days while saving for a holiday I’d booked the very day my account vanished wasn’t easy. I felt like I was doing a disservice to her. Last year we went away for a week, 2 days in London and 5 at Disneyland Paris. This year I hadn’t booked a thing. Then my parents went away and it was so hard. My sister had a fuller life than she’d let on, her boyfriend every weekend (and during the week the second week they were away) and friends to see multiple times. I had.. no one. And that really sank in. None of my friends live here. I regretted not booking trains in advance to get away for a few days, foolishly think I’d be needed here. I know better. And once I realised that in the future I’ll never make the mistake again, I got on with it.

I’m hoping by writing this post, I can see how full our summer actually was. I posted a photo of Little Miss every single day on my personal Instagram, so I could look back and see all the wonderful things we did. And that even if we didn’t leave the house, we did something every single day. I also wanted to put together this post, like the ones i’ve done for other holidays in the past like Halloween, Easter and Christmas as they’re a great reminder of everything we did all in one place. Something I can look back on in the future.

The Big Things
Although we didn’t have a holiday of any kind (I feel like one in May half term and another in October half term is probably enough), we did have a few days away. Firstly we went up to Edinburgh to meet up with our friends Alannah and Quinn. We took the kids to see their first show on The Fringe which was Peter and the Star Catchers. We all loved it given the kids are both Peter Pan fans and I thought it was a great story. The cast were high school students from the US and they were amazing. We then went for pizza followed by a walk to the park in Princes Garden. It was such a great day, the kids always get on so well and it was nice to spend some time with people aren’t family.

Photo Credit Ubackdrop
(as my phone deleted all mine!)

We also had a day to Newcastle to do shopping. Now I don’t really ever go shopping, it’s seems like added expense I don’t have when I’m constantly saving for a trip. So this was a huge treat for Little Miss! We only bought from three shops, Disney Store, Primark and Lush but to LM it felt like a shopping spree, in fact she said it felt like Christmas. She got her new school bag, lunch box and bottle from the Disney Store along with an Animator Littles Lilo & Stitch set with some money off me and my parents. In Primark she picked out a Ravenclaw notebook and Quill for £4.50 for both and in Lush she rinsed me for her first ever bath product, along with one for my nephew! We also visited Waterstones and Forbidden Planet which were both different kinds of Heaven for her. In the morning we met up with Roisin from Disneyfind for a few hours, LM loved her and especially loved pushing her little boy in the pram. We had lunch in Chiquitos and then dessert in a place called Creams which does amazing ice cream sundaes. All in all, a great day out.

The Little Miss Things
In the space of 24 hours Little Miss learned to ride her bike without stabilizers on and she’s never looked back. She’s such a confident rider now and it’s just amazing that one weekend she had them on, the next she was off. I was so proud of her as she was really afraid. But once she could see she wasn’t going to get hurt she just took to it. She decided she wanted to learn to tie her laces, and she taught herself including a double bow. She also taught herself how to swing without being pushed at the park. If only we could have cracked telling the time but we’re getting there. She honestly amazes me every single day.

We did a lot of little things that we wouldn’t normally do as she’s at school all week like going out for hot chocolate, and when the weather was really hot at the start of the summer holidays we went to the beach. We visited every single park in the area at some point. We mooched around the shops in town. Went out for lunch just the two of us a lot. She decided she wanted to try corn on the cob and has eaten so much of it this summer. We’ve had movie days, made her Fairy Garden (which died after 2 weeks, tragic), painted rocks, went on photography walks, spent time at my sister’s, spent time at my mum’s, visited my Nanny’s house, baked cakes and scones.. Although at times I’ve felt like the summer hasn’t been exciting for her as we’ve never gone away on an over night trip but when I list everything off she’s had a wonderful summer.

The Local Things
The plus side to not going away as we’ve enjoyed a lot of local activities. In mid August we went to the local Seaside Festival they have every year with food, donkey rides, live music, a fair ground and even an old school Punch and Judy show. We went on the first day which was gorgeous sunshine and LM even met up with a friend from school. We spent about 3 hours there and although it was super expensive Little Miss had the best time so I can’t complain! Then we had the Lifeboat fate, very similar to the Seaside Festival but it’s only on for one day to raise money for the local Lifeboat. Again there is food, drinks, lifeboat demonstrations and a fair ground. It filled a Sunday afternoon and it’s lovely to support the community. Last weekend was my favourite local event of the year, the Food & Beer Festival. We go every year and my Dad bless him gets so excited. It’s a showcase of local food from restaurants, stalls selling local produce and a large beer tent with locally brewed beers and ciders. They also have live music all day. We usually go on one of the three days it’s on and we have lunch there, a few drinks and shop. LM loves that they have farm animals there too.

With LM getting into Harry Potter this year a trip to Alnwick was in order. The castle and it’s grounds were used as the backdrop of some of the outdoor shots in the earlier movies. Although this trip we didn’t venture into the grounds, and made a point to pop into the Hogs Head Inn one of the pubs in Alnwick, this one was made even more special because it shares the name of the pubs in Hogsmeade, the village Hogwarts students can visit once a month.

Another thing we did in the local area was visit a big country house and buy annual passes to the grounds. There is loads of different trails you can do, a huge adventure playground, places to picnic and they also hold activities inside the house for kids. We went once, we did the Woodland Trail which cost £2 for the kids and they got a big sheet of paper and clues to follow.  It was well worth the money and it kept us busy for well over 3 hours including a play in the adventure playground.

We also went to the local Honey Farm one day and over the board to another seaside town. They have a gorgeous beach, bowling alley and the best fish and chips restaurant in the area.

The Movies We Saw
We managed to go to the cinema twice, to see the two most recent Disney releases, The Incredibles 2 and Christopher Robin.

The Incredibles 2 arrived in our local cinema a week after it’s UK release and we went on the first day of the summer holidays. I love The Incredibles, it’s one of my favourites as it is my Dad’s who came to the cinema with us to see a non-Star Wars/Jurassic World/Marvel movie for the first time ever with the kids. I loved The Incredibles 2, it’s probably one of my favourite Disney sequels ever. I think it moved the story on and I loved that there was more talking and more action. The story also focused on more members of their family which I feel gave it more depth.

We went to Edinburgh to see Christopher Robin the day after it came out. LM has become rather attached to the Silly Old Bear and has watched everything she could get her hands on from every single movie to the old 90s TV show and the one she watched as a toddler, My Friends Tigger and Pooh. I got her Piglet from Shop Disney and handed down my Pooh Bear, Tigger, Kanga, Roo and Eeyore that I had as a child and she carted them around the house. So even though this was over 2 hours long and live action, I had no doubt she’d sit through it. I don’t even know how to put into words my thoughts and feelings on this movie. It was beautiful. My favourite ever live action without a doubt. It was so well done and I cried as much as I laughed, it made me feel warm and happy. It made me hold onto Little Miss even tighter. I know it’ll be a movie I come to watch many times and was far better than I could ever have imagined it. Winnie the Pooh was such a huge part of my childhood, up there with Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan, and I feel like this movie brought it into adulthood with me.

The Books I Read
I haven’t read so many books in such a short space of time since I was pregnant with Little Miss, seven years ago. Usually I managed 5/6 books over the whole year, but this summer I read six in six weeks. And I enjoyed them all for different reasons. Knowing the second “Wilde” book was coming out in August, I first revisited Wilde Like Me by Louise Pentland and read it over the course of 2 days. A few days later Wilde About the Girl arrived on my doorstep from Louise, a good few days before the publication. I knew it was going to be well over a year before another “Wilde” book so I savoured it and read it over a week. I loved it. I love Robin Wilde. She is the first character I’ve felt a complete affinity with. It took me about a week to pick up another book while I processed Wilde About the Girl, and tried to be “more like Robin”.

The next book I picked up was Caraval by Stephanie Garber. I actually got it for Mothers Day after being recommended it by people on Twitter, apparently it had a similar tone to my all time favourite book The Night Circus by Erin Morganstern. I’d already picked up Caraval a few times, and even took it on holiday but I couldn’t get into it.. until I was about 100 pages in, then everything changed. I got completely swept away and by the end I felt breathless and had goosebumps. Garber writes with such colour, I could vividly see everything described, I lived Scarlett’s journey in Caraval and I wanted more. Thankfully the sequel, Legendary, was already out except I couldn’t find in my town. so I read another book in the mean time (I’ll get to that). When I finally got to Legendary, I devoured it. I read all 416 pages in the space of 12 hours (I slept for 7 of those). I was worried I wouldn’t enjoy it as much with it being told from Tella’s point of view but I loved it even more than Caraval. Now to wait until next May to read the last book in the trilogy, Finale.

The book I read in between the two books of Caraval was My Not So Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella. It’s the second Kinsella book I’ve read this year (the first was Surprise Me). I love Sophie Kinsella’s books because it feels like a warm comforting blanket. I recognise her voice instantly and I know i’m going to enjoy the journey they’ll take me on. My Not So Perfect Life was that. I can’t say I’ve ever read a book she’s written and not enjoyed it.

The final book I read this summer was a co-reading with Little Miss. We tackled Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Each taking a page to read. I thought it would have taken all summer but LM insisted a chapter a night. She’s a good reader and hearing her voice read the familiar words I’ve read so many times over the past 18 years was magic. I honestly didn’t believe there was a feeling as wonderful as the first time you read Harry Potter, but there is, it’s the first time you share those stories with you child and see the look on her face as the story unfolds. See her fall in love and really go to Hogwarts. I worried for so long that she wouldn’t take to the magical world JK Rowling created the way I had, but she’s there and she loves it. She wants to wait until we own the illustrated version of Chamber of Secrets before we read it, the pictureless well thumbed copy I own just didn’t own the same appeal.

What did you get up to this summer? Were you lucky enough to get a lot of reading done, or did you explore your local area like we did by visiting restaurants in Alnwick, or were you lucky enough to get away on holiday abroad? Let me know!