Summer Holiday Highlights 2022

This year’s summer holidays felt a bit different from others, mainly because I had spinal surgery in June. The children broke up exactly 6 weeks after my surgery which was the date when I was (gently) able to start doing things again. My mobility and pain have been vastly improved, but at the beginning of the summer holidays I really still was sore and very conscious of overdoing it. It meant that whenever I did things with children, I had to plan for rest days. For the first week of the summer holidays, my husband was in the States which meant I was solo parenting. This year we also needed to be more circumspect with money too, because of my back I have had to reduce my working hours quite significantly, although I am a fan of cheap or free days out for school holidays otherwise it becomes ridiculously expensive. My injury did mean that I really did learn to appreciate the little things more and really appreciated the simple things that I might have taken for granted before.

A Trip to Beale Park

Every year in the summer holidays, my Mum and Dad organise a trip out for all of their grandchildren. It’s usually to the zoo or something animal related, as my Dad loves wildlife. This year the only week all of us could make it was the first week of the holidays. Because of my recovery, they all came this way so I didn’t have to do a long drive as well as walking all day. So we decided to go to Beale Park. Beale Park is a wildlife park in Reading. Despite living close it’s not somewhere the children and I have actually visited before. The park was nice, had a lovely collection of animals and the children had a great time. I wouldn’t say it was the best wildlife park that we have visited – that has to go to Cotswolds – but we still have an enjoyable family day out.

BlogOn Kids

I have gone to BlogOn conferences every year for a little while now, and am in fact going again this October. But for the first time this year, they did a BlogOn Kids event for children of bloggers to go and interact with brands. I honestly cannot tell you how excited my children were about this and were asking me for days before when we would be going. We had a lovely day and they got to see and play with lots of toys and just generally had a blast. Plus when we got home the goody bag was epic!

Holiday to Wales

This is without a doubt the highlight of our summer holidays. We go on holiday to Wales regularly, it’s such a beautiful country. This year though we were there in the middle of a heatwave and it was glorious. For about the first ten days all we pretty much did was spend our days on the beach. Playing, reading and my husband and children have been learning to paddleboard and absolutely loved it. For the second week of our holiday, my in-laws joined us for the holiday, which was lovely and the children enjoyed lots of grandparent time. I can honestly say it’s the loveliest holiday we have had in a while, the sunshine made it wonderful, but I also think for me having been in pain for such a long time, I really appreciated the little things. It really was the simple things that made this holiday so much fun – sun, sea and sand.

Day out at the Park & Days out with Old Friends

Sometimes it’s the simple things, isn’t it? I took the children out to blow off some steam at the park and asked one of their friends if he wanted to join us. We had a great afternoon the sun was blazing, I bought everyone ice lollies. We also managed to meet up with Aria’s friend who moved away last year and she came to visit us for a play and picnic in the park.

Paddleboarding at Dinton Pastures

After all the paddleboarding fun of our holiday, my husband and children were keen to find somewhere locally where they could do it. We found that Dinton Pastures Activity Centre was a great place to. There was lots of facilities and had a pretty reasonable launch fee as well as boards you could hire too. We invited my parents to join us one weekend and had a bit of a different day out.

Return of the Bracknell Fun Days

I have such fond memories of the Bracknell fun days and taking my children to them when they were little. They haven’t been on for the last couple of years because of the pandemic, so it was great to see them back. We were only able to make one of the dates due to our holidays and other commitments. We met up with some friends there, the kids loved the inflatables, took part in a talent show, where Bo hilariously got up and told everyone his talent was hiding!! And had a picnic, followed by a Mr. Whippy ice cream. Fab.

Bo’s First Trip to the Cinema

I’ve never taken Bo to the cinema before, this has been slightly influenced by covid, but also he’s not that great at sitting still either. But this year I decided he might just be able to do it. We decided on the new Minions film, he already loved the first one. We got pick and mix and headed to the cinema. I had forgotten how much 4-year-olds need to go to the toilet during a film! But we all had a great time.

Library Reading Challenge

My kids absolutely love books and reading. We have taken part in the last couple of reading challenges for the summer holidays because of covid. This year it was one of the things that they asked to do and we were able to fit the visits in around our holiday. They looked forward to visiting and getting new books every week and I have promised to take them more regularly to the library in the future.

Camping in the Garden

This seems to have become a bit of a summer holiday tradition. We didn’t manage it last year as the weather didn’t behave on the weekends we had free. This is the first time Bo has taken part as he was a bit too little before. I don’t know how much sleep was actually had by all! But we started with a family film and popcorn and the children and Dad proceeded to camp out in the garden. I have been told it was the best fun ever!

How were your summer holidays?