Summer

The school holidays.....I have adored the school holidays up to yet. Been nowhere glamorous but these people around me have given me plenty to smile at and many memories to tuck away in my pocket to take out when a smile and a warm cosy memory is needed. So without further ado I give you the school holiday news

We have read,read,read and then read some more. This is 'no' exaggeration. Feeling down - lets read. Woke up to early - lets read. Nothing to do - lets read. Got brilliant new books - lets read. It's raining outside - lets read. Want to beat Mummy and catch up with what page she is on - lets read. I'm on my third book of the summer,Chips is on his zillionth. This is how we roll....we read,through good and bad,rain and shine,inside and outdoors,we read.

We have walked too. Past fields with poppies and parks full of wildflowers.

flowers that children from our village planted

We have done trails and meandered along the sides of train tracks and flowing rivers.

Sometimes we have walked without knowing where we were going to end up! One of those days we stopped by a lay by and found some big muddy puddles. Chips found great fun and satisfaction throwing stones into the puddles,the bigger the stone the better. On this afternoon the sky was blue and the countryside around us was beautiful,just a short distance from home and it was so pretty. We came home happy.

The urge to blast a football has been seen if not daily then enough to be a constant in our lives. If the ball has not been kicked then its been thrown or bounced. Be it a football or a tennis ball or even a teeny tiny bouncy ball,a ball has played its part these holidays. There has been catch on the beach,football on the fields and the patio and bouncy/tennis ball games in the kitchen. These are often loud and can shatter any sane persons sense of peace and also any light fitting that comes in contact with a ball...yep I'm looking at you son,you know Iam! And now I'm looking at the said lamp,that now stands with just it's bulb showing,a beautiful look for our lounge.... one minute was all it took,a quick goodbye to my parents and then the look on your face as you sat on the sofa holding the shattered lamp in your hand...even then you grinned....did you not think I would react badly and yell....I guess you know me to well. And I have been a mum of boys for over twenty one years now.

We went to the seaside for a day. When you only get one day at the seaside you have to grab it with both hands and get the most out of every second you have,you don't have a second to waste. And that's what the boys did. They played on the beach under grey skies and the growl of thunder which eventually turned into torrential rain and one hell of a thunderstorm on our way back home. Young Chips went into the murky sea and embraced it totally,splashing around with abandon and not a care in the world.

There was the most ferocious game of catch on the beach which made me smile,people in this family throw hard,always have done and it seems that given the chance they still do.

Talking of ferocious,there was a very competitive game of air hockey and I was ever so squeakily pleased when I beat my middle boy,goodness knows how it happened but it did' happen and I have a claim to family fame and I'm holding it aloft and making the most of the rare occasion when I beat one of the boys.

We spent the whole afternoon ensconced in the amusement arcades either playing air hockey or pushing two pence pieces into a machine to win a little plastic minion. This became a battle of wills between me and Chips and the machine. Put it this way,there was no chance that we were going to leave without that minion,we made a stand and that minion was going to be ours. We therefore pushed quite a lot of 2ps in the machine! Sharky could not quite bear our determination to rescue the minion and make him ours but we needed that little guy and if these 2ps were keeping Chips amused on a wet soggy seaside afternoon I was not going to stop the game. So we stood pushing those pennies in,getting faster as we went and more determined or should that word be 'desperate' to win the minion. In the end it was Sharky who did it! He was also getting desperate!So he strolled up,put probably a couple of pennies in and hey presto the minion dropped from the machine and was freed by the kiosk man,as after all that time, the little guy got stuck in the bottom of the machine and couldn't quite make his dash to freedom without a bit of help! Anyway,in the end we did get him and he has been cherished ever since.

We ended the day with a wet and soggy walk to a seaside chip shop and had seaside chips. Nothing nicer than seaside chips. It was a good day.

a very wet seaside!

Trains seem to have a played their part these holidays. Either by going on them,watching them or walking along and finding their tracks. Chips is quite interested in the whole train scenario and so we have played to this interest and spent a lot of time near trains. Last year we seemed to be constantly finding rivers,this year it's been trains.

There has been celebrations - birthdays galore and exam success too. University beckons and a whole change in family dynamics is on the horizon,the thought of how did 18 years go by so quickly is firmly stuck in my head these days,not in a bad way,just in a pretty amazed kind of how way. Time flies....

Come and gone in a flash these school holidays,guess its time to pack the shorts away and get the school uniforms out....

*tucks away the best bits of the holidays in her pocket and smiles,let the memories live on in my heart*

one of my very favourite photographs of the holidays