Another month has come and gone in the blink of an eye.  We are well into the school summer break now and we continue to be blessed with gorgeous sunshine most days.  This is certainly turning into an unusual summer here in the UK; I can’t think of the last time we had such a long stretch of beautiful weather.

As you might well have to come to expect from us now, we haven’t had a spare moment to ourselves in July.  In fact, we have a 10 day stretch coming up where we have nothing but family time planned in and I can’t wait.  No outside commitments, no work, no DIY or other day-to-day stuff…just the four of us having some mini adventures together.  I hope the sunshine stays around because it will be absolute bliss!

Since we last checked in, the major thing we have ticked off the list was a review trip to the Northumberland coast.  I am currently editing and sorting content and photos although I did manage to get my vlog up last week.  We were invited to stay in one of the Ross & Outchester Cottages and had an amazing time.  Do go and check out the video if you have time, I feel like it really captures the essence of our visit.  If I add in the fact that we visited the second biggest used bookstore in the UK, flew broomsticks at the castle used in some of the Harry Potter movies and squeezed in some beach fun with the drone, I hope that will be enough to convince you.

I have to admit that by the end of July, the kids were really ready for the summer holiday to begin.  There is something about the sticky weather and school days that just lead to grumpy, grouchy children and that was certainly the case here.  Both Meg and Eli were exhausted when the final day of school rolled around but unfortunately they didn’t have much time to recoup as the day they broke up James whisked them off for a three day camping adventure in Cheshire.  Camping really isn’t my style so I stayed at home which was strange in itself.  I think we worked out that it had been almost a decade since I had been in the house entirely on my own overnight with no husband or children tagging along.  I made the most of it by doing what I love best…hibernating and reading!  Although I did venture out for afternoon tea on one of the days just to prove I’m not a complete anti-social hermit.

Right after the camping trip, Meg and Eli went down south to spend a week with my parents.  I honestly can’t say how much they loved it, and how helpful it is for us too.  Knowing that we don’t have to worry about holiday care for the entire six weeks is a real relief but also knowing that the kids get to spend some quality one on one time with their grandparents is also a blessing too.  My parents didn’t let up the pace either and the kids were here there and everywhere during their week long visit.  Meanwhile James and I spent most of our evenings twiddling our thumbs and wondering what we did before we had the kids to take up our time.

One of the evenings I was lucky enough to be surprised by James with a date night and we headed into Liverpool for food at the Baltic Market (which I highly recommend) along with a round of Ghetto Golf.  Naturally I was crowned the winner despite the super strong gin cocktails I was thoroughly enjoying along the way.  It was a good night and if you are local to the area I’d definitely recommend both the Baltic Market and Ghetto Golf; lots of fun to be had.

We have started August strong with a mid-week wedding down in the beautiful Cambridgeshire countryside…but I will save that for the end of the month.  For now, I will leave with thoughts of a quieter 10 days or so.  A girl can always dream!

You might be forgiven for thinking I had dropped off the edge of the planet…this little blog of mine which I swore I would be more consistent with at the start of the year has fallen victim to the many other pulls on my time just lately.  It’s so tricky to keep up with all the different social media platforms and Youtube in particular has quickly eaten into a lot of the time I would have spent writing.

That said, there is still something I love about the written word, and about sharing photos that I have captured and I do plan to be a little bit better at getting on here and sharing those everyday moments as well as the progress we are making with the house, the many thoughts spiralling in my brain and so on, and so on.  Famous last words indeed.

We cruised through April, hibernating and chilling out when the weather was bad (which was most of the time) and bravely heading out into the fresh air when it wasn’t as bad.  I honestly feel as though the month went by in the blink of an eye and I couldn’t really tell you what we did.  Apart from James’ birthday.  Which I only kind of remember.  Whoops.

Then May was a busy month for our little team with both Meg and Eli celebrating birthdays, and mine as well.  We are now responsible (*ahem*) for a 7 and a 9 year old and honestly…considering that half the time I still feel about 18 years old, it’s a little scary to think that we are racing towards those double figures.  We had a joint party for them this year at our local laser quest and it was really good; I’m not sure how long the novelty of joint parties will last but combining it certainly made it less stressful for us, and they seemed to have a great day.  That said, I don’t think we will do laser quest again…as usual I got far too competitive and I think I terrified some of Eli’s friends with my intensity.  Not a great mama moment.

For me, I saw in my 31st birthday in style this year; by getting my wisdom teeth removed.  As I write this I am still not 100% recovered but I am gradually getting there.  I did film some footage of my experience but I am still pondering over whether it is something which needs to see the light of day.  Let’s just say that chunky cheeks were not a good look for me!  I had three teeth removed in total; the two bottom ones and one top.  The bottom ones were impacted so really needed to come out, but it also meant having a general anaesthetic and needing stitches.  I don’t remember much about the day the teeth came out themselves, other than when I was coming round afterwards.  Apparently I was obsessed with the fact that the guy going in for surgery after me was having 6 teeth removed because they were rotten but my own first memory of coming round is of thinking I had accidentally fallen asleep whilst I was waiting for them to take me down to surgery.  I actually remember berating myself that I needed to wake up or they wouldn’t do the operation!  Madness.

Finally, I think the only thing left to share are some photos of our time enjoying the blue skies and sunshine over the past few weeks.  Since the start of May we’ve had some amazing weather, which isn’t something you can often say about the UK.  It does seem to be coming to an end but we’ve really tried to make the most of the sun whilst it’s been here and I think the kids sun-kissed freckled faces are testament to that.  I’m really hoping it isn’t the end of all the nice weather though…this past week I’ve missed out on sitting outside with a good book and a glass of wine, which you’ll know if you’ve been around here a while, is one of my all-time favourite ways to wind up my day.  Fingers crossed, eh!