The Holidays begin!

The summer holidays brings conflicting feelings. Part of me rues the loss of time to myself - the difficulty of fitting in runs and the impossibility of long bike rides. However, another part of me - the overwhelming majority - looks forward to the time spent with the kids, and all the fun things we can get up to without school or work getting in the way.

The first morning of the holidays looked like this:

Not even posed!

If only this enthusiasm for reading could last for 6 weeks. A week in and they're still doing some reading every day, but there's been a lot of bickering, shouting and hyperactive behaviour to contend with. We've been lucky with the weather, and able to go out most days.

Last weekend, there was a notable acheivement for the kids as they swam in the sea for the first time!

'Let me out!'

The water was cold at first, but then the sun came out and it was fine. I was nervous because Robbie and Emma are very confident swimmers at the pool, so I thought they might not be wary enough of the tide. But we kept a close eye on them and they didn't go in too deep.

It's been years since I swam in the sea too. I suppose in Scotland it was never really warm enough, and once we had the children, it was impractical.

The big waves were great fun, and Robbie declared the experience 'terrifying but fun'! Can't wait to do it again.

This week I took the kids to Seaford, where we did a bit of cliff walking. They were pretty keen to stop walking and go back to the beach for an ice-cream though.

Love that picture of them both admiring the view!

The following day it poured with rain, but we had a good time at the cinema. It's been lovely today, but looks like there'll be cooler weather and maybe rain coming. I'll be trying to fit in as many days at the beach as possible, and squeeze in the running when I can.