Sunday we went to the Mermaid on the Hastings sea front and had breakfast with friends.
Friends Stuart and I worked with when we lived in England.
We returned to the house and had lunch a bit later with Granny and Auntie Cheryl. They stayed for the afternoon. The kids played in the garden and then braved going into the wood. Everyone left around 6 pm, and then I sat on the patio in the cool evening air. Stuart and Barry returned after taking Granny back to Eastbourne. Grandpa played his guitar and I sang again.
Monday morning we were up packing and cleaning the upstairs. The kids had breakfast and we celebrated Millie’s birthday. She opened gifts from Grandma, Grandpa, Granny, Auntie Cheryl and us. She was so excited.
Unicorns were the theme of the birthday this year.
We left Grandma and Grandpa’s to go to Granddad and Grandma’s. When we got there, we discovered their house was under construction. We got our things unloaded and Millie got a gift of a sequenced lunch bag with a unicorn and a rainbow on it. She loves her little bags. I asked her if she wanted to use that as her school lunch bag. She wouldn’t dream of getting it dirty, so the answer was clearly no. It would just go in amongst her other bags and she would carry it around with random things in it. Fine by me, I suppose.
We went into the garden once we were settled. Grandma made bubble mixture and Granddad made a bubble contraption that would make these huge bubbles. Initially the bubbles were not great, but after adding here and there and letting it sit for a while, there were some massive bubbles that developed.
The first few attempts at large bubbles were a bust.
After a bit, it all started to work!
My sister in law, Anna, and her three girls came over in the afternoon.
Lunch with the Atkinson girls.
Millie’s birthday cupcake!
The cousins; Bella, Jack, Eliza (in Jack’s arms), Millie and Sophia.
Eliza loved Jack and Millie.
Purdy the dog!
We spent the afternoon in the garden. Bella, my niece, had to get back for her gym class. Once they had left the kids ate dinner and showered, then were off to bed. The adults then had lasagna and nattered the night away.
We woke up Tuesday morning and headed to our adventure for the day. We went climbing on a ropes course. Stuart misread the instructions. He read that there had to be an adult with each child. Come to find out, that wasn’t true. However, the fee for me to participate had already been paid so I decided to do it any way. There were two courses. The first one was scary enough. My second trip on the first loop, I was just ahead of this boy who couldn’t have been older than 6. I got on the second platform and heard some whimpering behind me. I turned around and said, ‘You okay, buddy?’ He said, ‘I’m just really scared.’ I said, ‘Don’t worry, so am I!’ I helped coach him through the rest of the course. Stuart told me that was just a taste of what teaching Year 2 (1st grade) was going to be like. I suppose I can handle it.
The second loop of the ropes course was not my friend as it moved too much and messed with my knee. So needless to say, I stayed on the ground after my last attempt.
We decided to have a picnic at a local park by a lake. The rain came so our picnic was cut short. Our initial plan was to go to Barnes and Anna’s house around 4:30, once Anna returned from taking Bella to gym. The rain forced our hand to go a bit earlier.
The girls had friends over so Jack felt a bit left out. He managed in the end, but was thrown off by our switching of plans. I’ve noticed more and more that when we change plans on him he has difficulty understanding and processing it. I need to read up on how to handle this, I suppose.
We left their house and came back to Grandma and Grandad’s house for a couple of hours. The kids played outside and then they called Hope. We then went to a village pub for dinner. I had ham and eggs. I didn’t eat all of my food so Jack decided he would eat mine. When he did, he discovered a fly under one of the eggs. Poor Jack. It kind of made him sick. The pub ended up not charging us for that meal, which was great customer service in our opinion.
Once we were home, the kids showered and were off to bed. We didn’t stay up terribly late as we had to get up early to leave for London Wednesday morning.
Wednesday morning we were out the door to London by 8:30 am. We got to Premier Inn at the Heathrow airport, but we were too early to check in. We jumped in an Uber and headed to the city for lunch and a show. Clare, Henry, May and three of their friends came with us. Lunch was long and leisurely.
We then walked up the road a bit to see Wicked. The kids were so excited. We got the tickets for Millie for her birthday. The show did not disappoint. There was some explaining to do at the end, especially for Jack. If you know nothing of the musical, read up in it via Wikipedia and you will see that there would be some things to explain to a 9 year old.
After the show we went to St James’ park so the kids could run around. We grabbed sandwiches on the way and had a picnic of sorts. The girls ran around and the boys wrestled. We parted just before 6:30 pm and were back at the hotel just before 8 pm. Both kids showered and then watched television in bed. I showered just after 9 and also hit the bed.
On the way back to the underground, we stopped for a quick selfie in front of Buckingham Palace, as you do.
Stuart was up and on his way to Birmingham Thursday morning just before 7 am. He was going to pick up Hope. Jack, Millie and I caught an Uber into London to see Mandy’s new pad. She has a view of the Tower Bridge. It was a lovely spot. The only thing not lovely was that it was raining all day on Thursday. We took the tube to the Natural History Museum. There was a queue about a mile long waiting to get into the free museum. I suppose everyone was looking for something to do indoors. We walked back toward Kensington station and found a pub. We ducked in and had a bite of lunch. Stuart and Hope met us at a pub just before 1 pm. We decided we didn’t care that the kitchen was exceptionally slow that day. The rain was not what we had expected or wanted.
Our Uber took us across the Tower Bridge.
The view from Mandy’s new home.
Our pub lunch with Mandy.
After a lovely lunch we headed back to the tube to go to Covent Garden. We walked around for a bit and the kids got sweeties. We then went back to the underground and tried to tell Mandy what she needed to do to get back to her place. She seemed nervous but prepared.
The kids posing at Covent Garden, and, yes, we did buy umbrellas we will never use again.
We headed back to the hotel for the kids to chill out. We had to be up and out of the hotel by 3:00 am. I got a message from Mandy around 4 pm. She had arrived home safely. So her first outing on the tube, alone, was a success.
We chilled out in the hotel for a couple of hours and then went to dinner in the hotel restaurant. Jack said he wasn’t hungry, but I suspected he was feeling a bit left out by the girls. When Millie and Hope went to the bathroom I asked him if he was feeling a bit left out. He said he was. So I told him that any time in these next two weeks, if he was feeling that way, he could just quietly come to me, let me know, and I would spend a bit more time with him. He seemed happy with that.
Once dinner was over, we were back in the room and attempted to get everyone to sleep, which was challenging. Everyone was finally asleep around 10 pm. Millie slept between Stuart and myself, so you can only guess what kind of sleep I had.
The alarm had not even gone off and Stuart was up. It was only 2:30 am. We were at the airport by 3:30 am, only to find out the baggage drop didn’t open until 4:30 am. Oops. Could have slept another hour. Oh well. We got a coffee. The kids played Snakes and Ladders, while another group of kids ran around the area with no manners at all. I spoke to the older girl, who proceeded to basically tell me she hadn’t been running through the kids’ game. I asked her where her mother was. She said, ‘She’s right over there.’ As you would guess, I walked over to her and asked her if she would ask her kids to stay out of the game. I told her they were welcome to play if they liked. I had to put some kind of nicety in there. She yelled at her boys, which was good enough. I didn’t have the energy to tell her that her daughter was rude and disrespectful. Generally, the teens that are rude come by it honestly. What a way to start my day!
Airport Snakes and Ladders? Why not!
We had a bite to eat before getting on the flight. We were the first ones on the flight and we were seated in the bulk head seats, which was nice. We took off at 6:20 am and landed 9:40 am, Madrid time. We’ve done a bit of changing time zones this summer for sure.
When we landed, we headed to the rental car. Thank goodness Stuart hired a 7 seater car. I can’t imagine what the journey to Oria would have been like in a 5 seater with the three kids. Plus, when we decide to go anywhere in the two weeks, we will be able to all go together.
Everyone was initially very eager for the journey.
Then reality set in. Poor children were up a bit early Friday morning.
We stopped on the journey to go to the bathroom. We were going to stop at a restaurant to eat, but in the end we decided to just grab junk food and travel on. The journey wasn’t horrible. The kids slept for part of it. They got a bit antsy towards the end, which drove Stuart and myself a bit mad. We stopped about an hour away from Oria for another bathroom break. That’s when they silliness started.
We finally arrived at Grandma and Grandpa’s just before 5 pm. We hardly set foot in the door before the kids were in the pool. I think it was a bit chillier than they thought it would be because they didn’t stay in the pool long.
Too cold for me!
This is the view I always prefer.
The kids came inside just after 6 pm and started playing games. Grandma started fixing dinner. Stuart and Grandpa took the rubbish to the big skip. I decided to go out on the patio and enjoy the view. Our Spain holiday is truly my happy place. I don’t worry about anything at all. The wind was blowing and it was a cool 77 degrees (25 Celsius). It was glorious!
We ate on the patio. Millie actually ate lasagna and was then able to get her presents from Hope. She was so very thoughtful and brought all of us gifts. It was so very sweet. The kids were especially excited.
The kids all went to bed around 9 pm. We followed shortly. It was a bit warm when we went to bed, but I dropped straight off. All children slept well.
Millie wasn’t awake until nearly 9 am. I didn’t even get up until 8 am. Once everyone was up and had eaten, all but Grandpa went to Abox to the shops. We bought groceries and headed back to the house.
The kids swam while Grandpa, Stuart and I washed the deck of the pool. I helped pull the pool cover off the deck as Stuart was scared of the potential spiders that might be in the cover.
Hope rode the unicorn that Daddy had blown up for her.
Millie tipped off the unicorn daddy had blown up for her. Ha!
Once the kids were out of the pool, they started writing in their journals. Grandma had bought each of them one earlier in the day. In this time the kids wrote, played music on their phones, and Jack started picking his wart. Thrilling! He’s had this wart that won’t go away for over a month. We are not really sure what to do. I’ve used medication, but it’s still there. I remember as a kid I dug mine out as well. I suppose that will work!
The kids showered while Stuart fixed dinner on the bbq. We had dinner and then the kids went inside for a bit to watch their iPads or play. Stuart and Grandpa cleaned the pool while Grandma and I sat on the porch. Around 9:30 pm, I read a book to Jack and Millie, while Hope continued to write in her journal and watch something on Netflix. Jack and Millie then went to bed and Hope followed shortly. Grandma and Grandpa went up to bed and Stuart and I sat on the porch for a while. I seem to be sitting on porches a lot this summer. I suppose I should enjoy it while it lasts. It’s only two more weeks before I have to go back to work and I am going to savor every moment.
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