Enjoying a Week off at Home as a Family

This half term, we had nothing planned. It was such an amazing feeling, considering that we are normally really busy whenever we have some time off. None of our relatives live in our area, so we are always either out and about on a mission, or have visitors at home. No matter how much I enjoy going on a road-trip with the children or having guests, it is sometimes refreshing to just be at home, relaxing and enjoying being with hubby and our brood.

Only hiccup, bronchitis for me. Why is it always when you have a week off that you get sick and feel at your worst when all you want is to enjoy your family? Despite the fact I was house-bound for most of the week, we managed to cram in quite a lot of fun.

On Saturday, the children made apple cake and we celebrated Mister Penguin’s birthday.

Sunday was a gorgeous day and we made the most of the sunshine.  Our garden is a suntrap and it got to 21 degrees Celsius mid-morning!  We then gathered toilet paper rolls and craft supplies to make little owls I had seen on Misplaced Brit, Steph’s brilliant blog.  Beanie and Crevette spent ages playing with their cute creations outside with Jumpy and had a bubble blowing session (nothing beats bubbles!) then they took it in turns to stay outside and go inside to wave from our bedside window (the little things in life, hey!).

On Monday, we ventured out of the house and hubby treated us all to a carvery lunch, which was great. During Jumpy’s nap, Crevette, Beanie and I made Nutella Cake.

Tuesday was a great day for the children. After playing with trains for the whole morning, hubby took them to the park and they had a crêpe party waiting for them when they got home.

When the postman came on Wednesday morning, Crevette was over the moon to receive a postcard from his headteacher, telling him he was a good role model. When I was at the doctor’s, the kids did some painting with their daddy and I had a girly lunch with my friend Roselyne whilst hubby and the kids went food shopping.

On Thursday, Jumpy and I had an appointment with her allergy consultant. Hubby, Crevette and Beanie went on an adventure. The children did not know where they were going, which made it all the more exciting. They kept asking to go to “the Dinosaur Museum” and they were not disappointed as hubby had planned to take them to the Natural History Museum. They were delighted to take trains, tubes, buses and spend a few hours in their favourite museum.

On Friday morning, the children and I checked on the flowers that had been showing signs of flowering all week, and we had three open daffodils in the garden… exciting! We spent the whole afternoon at a friend’s house and the kids had a great playdate.

After a lovely breakfast – I actually sat at the table eating my toasted bread and drinking warm coffee (yes, warm!), Jumpy went for a nap and I thought I would do something fun but quiet with Beanie and Crevette. I had a drawing tutorial at the back of my mind. I remembered saving it on Pinterest a few months ago. It took me ages to find it again as I had saved it in my “pins to check” board. The link was not valid (hence the “pins to check” board) but as the photo was self-explanatory, we still ended up with some pretty good sketches.

Crevette made goat’s cheese sandwiches for him and Beanie then we were off to their swimming lessons. After dinner, we relaxed on the sofa and as the children got talking about babies coming out of their mummies’ tummies, we looked at their first ever pictures, which was a magical moment for all of us. After 8 p.m. tonight, we could still hear the older two chatting upstairs and as we started listening more closely, we heard that Crevette was reading “There’s A House Inside My Mummy” (Giles Andreae and Vanessa Cabban) to Beanie… how sweet!

Tomorrow, the plan is to relax in the morning, take the children to their swimming lessons before slowly coming back to reality in the evening and getting ready for work, school, routine…