Journeys Are My Diary

Life, Adventures, Entertainment and more - A little bit of everything blog!

Our Summer Holidays so far!

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The kids have now been off for two full weeks (and a couple of days) so I thought I would update with what we’ve been up to so far – especially since I’m not keeping up with my monthly updates at the moment.

The school holidays couldn’t really have been off to a worse start, than a weather forecast like this ^^ However, I am grateful to work from home and so no matter what the weather, at least I get to spend time with the kids! As they broke up on the Wednesday, we had a couple of extra days that week, to fit in some fun. Thursday was one of my favourite days actually as we went to see Despicable Me 3 (which was average in my opinion), then went to Chimichanga for dinner (which we had never been to before) and finally we went to our local park – Hartsholme – for a lovely walk around the lake.

On the Friday, the girls made a video of themselves doing the Beanboozled challenge and I really must remember to upload it, plus we seemed to watch a ton of movies over the first few days including; Definitely Maybe, 10 Things I Hate About You, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Phantom of the Opera and Save the Last Dance. We also got an invite to my mum’s on Sunday for a roast dinner and that was amazing.

The following week was the first full week and for the first four days we had visitors in the form of Amy and Liv. The girls were at their dad’s on the Monday so Amy and I just spent time catching up, then in the evening Chris, Amy and I had chinese takeaway and watched Game of Thrones. The other days were mostly spent sewing, though Amy and I did manage to go fabric shopping too.

The weather was fairly rubbish all week, starting off raining and ending up sunny or vice versa. After dropping Amy and Liv at the station though, the girls and I took a trip to Norton Disney (a place we had joked about visiting for a while) and luckily the sun stayed out for some pics.

That weekend, we went to LFCC (which is London Film and Comic Con). I had been once before and really enjoyed it, but this time was a flying visit really – all so I could meet Wil Wheaton. Chris was working until 4.30pm Saturday so we headed off down to London after that and stayed at a Travelodge near Heathrow. In the morning we drove to North Ealing station, parked there and caught the train to Earl’s Court and then walked to London Olympia. Grabbing a virtual ticket for Wil Wheaton’s queue was first priority but after that we did some shopping and wandered around stalls. We ate lunch and shopped some more until finally we could meet Wil Wheaton. I had taken a blank Flux card with me for signing and had decided a CREEPER would be best. These are cards that if laid in front of you in the game, means you can’t win. Since Wil is pretty notorious for not winning on his YouTube show “Tabletop”, I thought this would be perfect. He seemed to agree and wrote “IT SUCKS TO BE YOU” and then signed it. Sadly as he was passing it back, he smudged the card but I didn’t mind as I still knew what it was. He said “Now it really sucks to be you!” which made us all laugh.

As I’m writing this post, I realise this all happened almost a week ago (it was Sunday and today is Friday) but it honestly only feels like yesterday! Anyway the next day the girls were with their dad and went to a National Park and built a den. They have a video of that too which I hope to upload soon. The rest of this week has really just been spent at home. I had a lot of work to catch up on after Amy’s visit and so the girls have really just entertained themselves on Minecraft, Slime Rancher, Theme Hospital etc. Yesterday though they started a jigsaw with my mum and once my work was done I joined in too. Then mum left and I couldn’t bear to leave the jigsaw unfinished so we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening making sure it got done!

That pretty much sums up the last two weeks and I’m so glad its been a combination of lots and nothing. I always think its important to have plenty of down days during the holidays so you don’t feel completely knackered, but you also need days were you do things together, or else you end the holidays feeling like you didn’t do anything! Hopefully I’ll update again soon with whatever else we get up to!

July AND August Round-up

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july
Can you believe it got to August 21st before I actually got around to writing my July round-up? I had remembered earlier than that but with one thing or another, I just didn’t find time to write it up. However by that point it seemed a bit random to post so late in the month and I decided to save it and do July and August together. July will be far more vague but here they both are anyway!

Watching: Fringe (Season 4-5), Vampire Diaries (Season 7), Wayward Pines (Season 1-2), Sleepy Hollow (Season 3), Grimm (Season 6), Suits (Season 6), Transformers – Age of Extinction, Bones (Season 6+)
Reading: Cinder.
Sewing & Making (for Closet Geek): A few more ears, some bunting, an Anna skirt, along with the usual orders of bows, pencil cases and clothes.

And in other news…
– Pokemon Go became a big things for Lily. She doesn’t have her own phone and it won’t work on her iPad so I let her use it on my phone. I have to admit I don’t mind encouraging it – especially the walks to hatch eggs.
– Probably the most notable part of July was the girls finishing school for the summer, coupled with Megan leaving primary school altogether. The last two weeks were very emotional with School play, Leavers Do, Church Services, Leavers Assembly, Sports Day etc. However even though she was sad, school ended on a high note and hopefully she’s looking forward to Secondary School in September.
– We had some beautiful weather, actually like Summer for a change. It was really nice but of course didn’t last long!
– The girls washed Chris’s car, outside with Chris. They started on mine too but soon got bored and Chris ended up finishing it.
– Dentists. Enough said.
– Our first camping trip took place at the very end of July. We went to a place called Staxton, near Scarborough for the weekend and actually had a great time.

 

august

Watching: I completely caught up with Bones, right up to the end of Season 10. Criminal Minds (from Season 2-), Captain America: Winter Soldier (finally), X-Men 1, 2 and 3 with the kids. Daredevil (Season 2). Containment, Musketeers and Vikings.
Reading: Cinder, Reliquary.
Sewing & Making (for Closet Geek): Harry Potter bunting, loads and loads of pencil cases.

And in other news…
– We went to Meadowhall shopping, to get Beauty and the Beast tsum tsums, shoes for Megan and of course FIVE GUYS! It was Nat’s first time too.
– Nat, Megan, Lily and I went to a Harry Potter convention and ball. We had an overnight stay at the Premier Inn, Nottingham.
– Chris bought Lily a starter set of Pokemon cards and then taught her how to play.
– We took our second camping trip, this time to Chichester, where we spent the day on a boat in the marina and got a brand new tent too!
– We got an ice cream maker to review AND made ice cream. It was pretty amazing.
– Placed an uber Hobbycraft order which was pretty exciting!
– Closet Geek turned ONE! I still can’t believe it really but its actually a great feeling. I love my work more than I ever thought possible.
– Went to see Suicide Squad at the cinema. It was really nice as Chris and I went with my best friend and her boyfriend Dan.
– I took the girls to the beach and we had a really great day. We went to Mablethorpe and the weather was beautiful. We had candy floss, ice cream and the girls got an airbrush tattoo.

Looking forward to in September:
– Megan starts school on 2nd September so that is both terrifying and exciting. I can’t believe she’s old enough for secondary school. I hope her first day goes well!
– Amy is hopefully coming to visit next weekend. I haven’t seen her since May so it will be lovely to see her and Liv again.
– (Not entirely sure I’m looking forward to this but..) Seeing the Halloween orders flood in for Closet Geek. I’m hoping its not as crazy as last year but its nice to be busy.
– Other than that there isn’t much going on this month so we’ll just see how it goes!

Life Lately (Summer Holidays)

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I’ve been a little quiet lately and that’s partly because I’m busy with Closet Geek but also because the kids are off on Summer holidays. While we haven’t done much so far, we have been camping (last weekend) and we’re going to a Harry Potter convention this weekend (followed by a Yule Ball).

Photo 30-07-2016, 13 25 54

I have updates to make including my round up of July, our camping trip to Staxton (near Scarborough), of course the Harry Potter convention and maybe even a review of Curlformers. Please understand that it’s not because I don’t want to be here, its just that I want to enjoy my time with the kids and of course, complete my orders!

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Week 30 – Monday Round-up

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It’s been my second week off work and probably the busiest I had planned for the whole of the 7 weeks I’m off in total. The kids were still at school from Monday to Wednesday, there were also 2 end of year Church services included in that and a school disco. Chris had also booked a week off this week so it was great to get some quality time in with him!

Monday started off with school as usual for the kids. Megan had her church service at St Botolphs and Lily was invited along too as choir were singing. I’d volunteered to walk the kids from school to church and back again, so it was nice to walk with both Megan and Lily. The service was pretty good, all things considered, and of course the girls sang beautifully.

After walking the kids back to school, I said my goodbyes and headed home to Chris. We had a pretty chilled out day, headed up to Morrisons to do some shopping, grabbed a salad for lunch, ordered a rotary airer for the garden from Argos and then also headed to Aldi for some shopping. All of which we did before heading back to pick up the girls from school. Once I got back from the school run, I had a text to say my airer was ready to collect already so Lily and I went to get it. The evening was fairly uneventful, at least until the washing machine broke and that was a chaotic few hours! We managed to order a new one at a pretty good price but sadly it won’t be arriving for 2 weeks! Typical though, since I bought a washing line!

Tuesday was a lot of the same. I took the kids to school and it was Lily’s turn for an end of school church service, this time at the Methodist church. Again I’d agreed to walk with them to church and back so Lily and I, plus her friend Ciara, all walked to church together. The service wasn’t as good as the older one had been but it was okay. Once I walked them back to school, I headed off to Mum’s to get some washing on while she was away. I then headed back to Gainsborough, got a few bits and pieces done there, all before heading back to mum’s, taking out washing, hanging it out to dry and putting some more on (with Chris’ help), again before collecting the kids. Once we had the kids we nipped to McDonalds in Lincoln for food and then headed back to Mum’s so the kids could get ready for the school disco. I did yet more washing, then took Lily to the disco, then more washing and collected Lily while dropping off Megan. Finally at 8pm we all headed off from Mum’s, with both wet and dry clothes, picked up Megan and headed home!

Wednesday, Megan slept in really late. Lily and I had been dressed and ready for a while, wrapped presents and written cards for teachers, packed lunch boxes etc. Finally at 8.15am we had to wake Megan and get her ready. She pretty much had time to get dressed and write her card, all before we pushed out of the door and she had to eat breakfast in the car. When the kids were dropped off, I headed home and had a fairly relaxing day with Chris. He cooked me omelette for lunch and it was amazing! The kids school ended early at 2.30pm so we headed off to get them and then as a treat took them to Pizza Hut for an early dinner. While the meal wasn’t especially great, we had a good time and it was a nice way to celebrate school ending.

When we eventually got home, we just relaxed for the rest of the evening. It was much needed, especially for the girls, as though it had only been a 3 day school week, it had been a busy one!

Thursday and the kids dad was having them for the day and overnight. While they’d wanted to go swimming in the morning first, he’d asked me not to as he wanted to take them to the beach. He arrived about 11.30am and they headed off for the day, though I knew Mum was having them the next day so it would be a few days till I saw them. Chris and I then cracked on with prop making and decorations for the Murder Mystery we were having the next day. We worked pretty hard but we did take a break for lunch and headed to Morrisons for salad again. That was also the day that I tried out my first OOTD post!

We continued working on props when we got back, though not for long as it was pretty hot and we were tired. I got some of the decorations up, hoping it would save us some time the next day. In the end we decided to head out to Tesco and actually get our meal shopping done for the Murder Mystery. It was about 6pm but it was finally cooling off for the day so it wasn’t too bad. Chris then made me omelette again for dinner and while it wasn’t as nice as some of his previous attempts, it was still pretty good. I spent the evening making a cake for one of our friends, Chris. It was his murder mystery party the next day.

Friday we basically had a day of tidying, cleaning and getting ready for the party. It was ridiculously hot which definitely didn’t help either of us, but we did manage to get pretty much everything done. I was so glad we’d done the shopping the day before, and the cake, as there wouldn’t have been time for that. Everyone arrived late (no surprise) but we got cracking and while it wasn’t the best murder mystery we’ve ever done, the evening was incredibly funny and entertaining. I love when our group of friends get together, I laugh so much.

Saturday, Chris and I should have managed a lie-in but sadly neither of us slept well. Instead I woke up with my usual hangover headache (after just one drink) because I forgot to drink water. Unfortunately Mum wasn’t feeling well enough to bring the kids back either, so Chris and I headed out to pick them up. On the way back, both feeling a little better, we decided to surprise the kids by taking them to Blyton Dairy Ice Cream Parlour. We all had a lovely hour or so there and the ice cream was amazing.

The rest of the day was really just spent relaxing. I had hoped to take them both swimming but with my headache being so on and off, we decided against it, instead picking to have a lazy day. In the end the girls and I ended up watching two movies back to back, taking us right up till their bed time. I got all my pictures uploaded from the Murder Mystery and even a few others I’d been meaning to add to albums. Chris and I then spent the evening watching Zombieland.

Finally came Sunday. A day I was up far too early and heading out the door at 7.30am. Nat and I had been planning our trip to Alton Towers for months and finally the day was here. In the end, one of our friends Jon ended up tagging along with us but it was great and we had such a laugh. We got to Alton Towers around 10.30am but by the time we got into the park it was 11am. We headed straight for The Smiler as it was the newest ride and after queuing for an hour and a half, we finally got on and it was great. We then headed to Oblivion which is nearby, luckily to only queue for about 5 minutes. After that we decided to eat, only a sausage roll but at least something to put in our stomach.

We then headed off to the other side of the park, mostly to ride Nemesis but dragging Jon on the water rides too. We got completely soaked on the Log Flume, then not so much on the Water Rapids. It was a huge amount of fun anyway though. Next came Nemesis which actually didn’t seem so good after going on The Smiler. Then we did Air, then Thirteen, but sadly Rita was having technical difficulties and so we skipped that. The last ride was the Sonic Spinball one but honestly it was awful and I ended up feeling quite sick! However it was pretty much time for the park to close then so we headed back to the car and drove home. On the way we stopped at McDonalds for dinner and while Nat and I had racked up 20,000 steps on my iPhone pedometer, sadly I blew most of them on my calories there! We then headed back to Burton Waters, Nat got her car and I drove Jon home before heading home myself. I was so tired that I managed about an hour awake before having to give into sleep and heading to bed.

On top of that, San Diego Comic Con has been taunting me all weekend. I would seriously love to go to SDCC though I feel like 2016 would realistically be the absolute earliest I could plan to do that. Regardless of enjoying the LFCC and the cosplay, SDCC is more of a dream because its bigger and better, loads of stars and amazing panels to go watch. One day, I will go!

That’s pretty much my week. A busy one but a good one. Today has also been busy but you’ll have to wait a week to hear about that! Unless of course I make a post about it in the meantime… till then!

Week 28 – Monday Round-up

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I’m not feeling very well this evening so I can’t really be bothered to post. However I feel like my blog has been neglected enough as it is this last week.

Monday to Friday was work as usual, but this week was better than most as it was the last before summer holiday break. Sadly it was also incredibly busy, with an extra evening shift, a function day and a packing/moving day. Otherwise though, work was fine and actually quite fun at times.

What wasn’t that fun, was Megan being away on a school trip for 3 out of the 5 school days. I actually ended up posting about it over at Twice the Mum – Missing Megan. The first day was pretty hard but Nat came over in the evening and occupied most of my time. Tuesday was by far the hardest day as I didn’t get to see Megan at all and by Wednesday I was almost desperate to see her. In fact, when her coach pulled up outside, I burst into floods of tears.

That whole day wasn’t great to be honest. After I picked Megan up from school, we were all supposed to be heading to Pizza Hut for dinner. Instead Chris got knocked off his bike again and we spent an hour and a half in A&E car park. After that we just did drive thru KFC and went home. It was a pretty depressing evening, especially as it was my only one with both the girls as I was working Thursday night and away on Friday.

However, Friday was a fantastic day. When work finished, it was the beginning of a great weekend, as well as 7 weeks off! I felt brilliant and so glad to be off work. On top of that, we were straight off down to London, a 3 hour trip to our Travelodge and then another half hour on the tube into Earls Court. We headed straight for Comic Con and I had a photo shoot with Stan Lee all lined up!

The next day we dressed up for Comic Con and had a fab day doing so. It was tiring and it was hot but it was so worth it. Our whole group – myself, my Chris, Amy, my brother and his girlfriend Erika, all had costumes. I’m sure at times we regretted it, but I’d do it again in a heartbeat too. After Saturday’s Comic Con, three more friends joined us – Nat, Tom and Jon. We’d planned it so they stayed in the same Travelodge as us and the next day we all attended Comic Con together. While we only did about half a day before traveling home, it was still amazing fun. I finally got back to my kids around 6pm and after a quick cup of tea we all headed home. The girls were pretty much straight to bed and I was so knackered I didn’t really do much at all. Obviously I plan to post separately about Comic Con though so look out for that!

I had a long and tiring week but its plus points were most definitely anticipating the weekend, plus knowing I had seven weeks off after all the hecticness. LFCC was such fun and I can’t wait to go again. While it was a very draining week, both emotionally and physically, in the aftermath of Comic Con it all leaves the memory of a very good week!

Treasure Trails – Murder Mystery

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This week one of my besties Amy came to visit. Though we didn’t really have anything planned for her time here, its always nice to get out and about and do something. On the first full day she was here, we decided (as a family/group) to do a Treasure Trail.

I’d been wanting to do one for a few weeks, inspired by a locker pick-up from a MyByBox. I’d also seen a few offers on Groupon and thought it would be a fun day out. As we had a time restriction (my partner had to be at work for 4.30pm) we decided to do something within Lincolnshire. A site called TreasureTrails.co.uk offered treasure hunts, murder mysteries and spy trails and murder mysteries were the shortest on offer, at approximately 2 hours to complete. We picked a driving one, though this meant trekking down to Heckington, but it also meant we wouldn’t have to do too much walking. The pack was £6.99 to download and consisted of 4 downloadable adobe reader pages.

We set off for Heckington, arriving around midday. The first part of the trail required walking though after a while we headed back for the car and completed the trail that way instead – jumping out every now and again to figure out a clue. The clues themselves were interesting – some simple and straightforward, while others were anagrams or math problems. Between the three of us (plus the two kids) we pretty much figured them out though. Each clue answer gave us a suspect to cross off or a weapon to eliminate, ultimately meaning at the end we would be left with one person and one weapon remaining.

After a fairly lengthy exploration of Heckington, we were then sent to several other villages, most of which only had one or two clues in them. This was really what I had been expecting for the majority of the trail, since we had picked a driving one to begin with.

By far the funniest part of the day was that all the villages seemed to have pubs called The Nags Head and churches called St Andrews. It was also definitely a little strange looking for “Grace Butler” “hanging around” in one of the graveyards.

Though we stopped for a picnic sort of a lunch, the trail did take us between 2-3 hours. We finished our Murder Mystery trail in Bourne, though the last four clues were all located in the same place. We were pushed for time which didn’t help with our final solving, not to mention we realised we must have gone wrong with one of our earlier clues when we stumbled across a repeat name we’d had before. Ultimately we didn’t get the trail finished but we did have a lot of fun trying.

On reflection we decided the murderer must be “Rob Nue”. His name was an anagram of Bourne so it just seemed like the most logical out of the five suspects we had remaining. What we do know however is that whoever the murderer was, it was done with a wrench….

As I said though we had a huge amount of fun and it was nice to get out and about. If we hadn’t been getting back to Lincoln for 4.30pm I’m sure we’d have made more of an effort to get it all finished. I’d definitely be interested to try a Treasure Hunt Trail or even a Spy Trail.

How about you? Have you tried anything like this?

Example of the clues

Summer Holidays so far..

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Our summer holidays so far have been a bit of a wash out, but for a change it hasn’t been the fault of the British Weather. We’re now into week 3 of the kids holiday and week 5 of mine. So far its pretty much all centered around moving house – both sorting out the new house and clearing out the old. However today I slid my key through the letterbox, after locking up my old house for the last time. I know for sure there’s a little more hassle to come from my landlady, but for the most part, I’m done.

Today marked that feeling of relief, knowing I’d done all I could do on the old house and the focusing on the future and of course the rest of the summer holidays. Funny enough, almost as soon as I’d posted that key back through the door, I genuinely felt like something had lifted from my shoulders.

The kids and I swung by my partner’s work, to meet him for lunch today. In a charity shop I spotted a brand new pumpkin theatre, which Lily immediately took a shine to. Though I dismissed it on first passing as the price wasn’t viewable, I spotted it again on the way back past, marked at £4.98.

Though the dolls are sold separately, it wasn’t those that appealed anyway. The simple but brightly painted pumpkin theatre, was just appealing in itself. I headed in, bought that and a dress I had also spotted (pics to follow if I try it on and like it!) and then surprised Lily with it. She couldn’t stop saying “thank you” all the way home and that was worth the £5 in itself. When we got home (via the Leisure Centre to see about swimming times) there was a scramble to get it open, then both girls rushed upstairs to start practising a play with their mini Disney princess dolls.

The theatre itself is really nicely made. There are little leaf-like seats which velcro on and off at the front. The stage has little curtains which tie back with daisy elastic bands. The back drop can change from day to night, all by sliding in the back panel one side or the other. The theatre also has side doors for you to slide your hands in either side to do the play. All in all, I’m really pleased with this little find.

The rest of the day continued pleasantly. I got some more boxes unpacked which made me feel accomplished, then after getting the girls some dinner, they bathed and had their hair washed. We headed upstairs to brush and dry their hair, Megan suggesting I trimmed it – as I’d mentioned a few times that Lily needed her fringe cutting and Megan had some split ends.

I’m no master hairdresser, so I try to keep it simple. I hate really straight cut fringes, that looks like “mother cut it”, so I’ve always gone for a more choppier look with both the girls. Lily’s hair before was like some sort of sheepdog, so this cut (above) though still a little on the long side, was a vast improvement on before. I also trimmed off her ends at the back.

However Megan decided to surprise us all. A harmless conversation about cutting all her hair off came about, which soon turned into an actual decision as to how much she was going to have chopped off. Though she ummed and ahhed for about five minutes, she finally decided she wanted a good chunk off.

This is the before to show how long it was, and the after of how it is now. I can’t believe how grown up she looks now – though this look represents her sass much better than her original angelic look. I tied up the hair she had chopped off in a pink ribbon for her to keep and I’m hoping she doesn’t end up regretting the cut. So far though she seems pretty pleased with it and on the plus side, hair always grows back. Unfortunately I had to talk Lily out of the same drastic cut, partly because I didn’t want it to steal Megan’s thunder and also because I’m pretty sure Lily would actually regret it. A quick “but now your hair is longer than Megan’s!” was enough to make her feel like the winner and put her off the cut. I did tell her though if she still wants it cutting in a week, then I’ll do it. My heart was in my throat the whole time I was cutting Megan’s, just hoping I didn’t make a mess of it. I’m also pretty pleased with how it turned out.

So with two weeks and three days left of my summer holiday and three weeks and three days left of the girls summer holiday, its now my plan to make the most of our days as much as possible. I’ve penciled in lots of swimming and hopefully a few days out. Tomorrow they are spending the day with their dad but after that I’m going to spoil them and have some hopefully make some nice memories. They haven’t complained once over the last few weeks about not really doing much with our days (and being palmed off to Nanny’s) so I think they more than deserve a little spoiling.

How are you spending your summer so far?