We are sat under a blanket watching the little mermaid and finally I have 10 minutes to write a post! It’s been a week since the birthday boy’s celebrations but it feels like it’s flown by.

We had last week off work and started the week by travelling up to Suffolk to see family and friends. For the first time we stayed in a premier inn together to make it more of a holiday and to give us a bit more space and flexibility now we are a family of 4. And it was great. Polly was in her element and each evening jumped into her bed declaring ‘kites off’ (that’s ‘lights’ to you and I). It also meant a huge bed to jump on and a perfect view of the main road so she could enjoy lorry watching each morning.

We did get a bit used to having meals prepared for us or picnics so this week has been a shock for us and our oven! The children did really well with all the different places, one of the priceless moments happening in McDonald’s where we had a cheeky breakfast, discovering that both children love a hash brown! Polly had a Philadelphia bagel and spilt some on her colouring, so naturally she licked it off the paper save wasting it.

We met up with a couple of friends and their little ones which is always lovely as it gives the kids a chance to play together. The Humphrey boys’ car collection went down a storm and everyone enjoyed soft play on the Tuesday morning.

Tuesday evening also included a long overdue catch up with my cousin. We have that perfect sort of relationship where we just pick up where we left off each time and there’s always a lot of laughing as a result. We pigged out on a huge (eyes bigger than our stomachs) dominos order with Polly stealing an entire garlic bread for herself and Seb sticking his hands straight in my jam roly-poly and custard.

We finished our Suffolk trip off with a birthday meal before the long drive home. Henry enjoys any excuse to order something fancy and didn’t disappoint with this ‘milkshake’ that needed a knife.

We had Thursday at home, with me discreetly trying to sort washing out, pack last bits and generally get ready for a surprise weekend away. This is actually harder to do than I thought even with Henry being oblivious to these goings on. We ventured down into Cornwall for a day trip to the Eden project. We’d not been since having the kids and were keen to get exploring again. Seb wanted to touch everything and both of them wanted to ride in the ‘amazing’ (quote Polly) pushchair we hired out. Oh and I might have got stuck at one point… We had an amazing day there with the weather only turning as we were walking up the hill to the car.

It’s safe to say he was genuinely taken aback to learn he wouldn’t be driving home and instead would be heading a mile up the road to check in at another premier inn!

The next morning we headed out for some exploring. Portloe was just up the road and top of our list (mainly after watching ‘Wild West’ numerous times!). We had a little wander about before going rouge with Dorris the sat-nav offering her opinion of our exploring (turn left immediately and do a U-turn…). Going rogue resulted in our first ride on a car ferry- which Seb may have slept through but Polly thought was amazing.

This isn’t the ferry by the way it was a boat in the river!

We then picked up a picnic before getting lost down some country lanes, however going rogue paid off again and we found the perfect spot for our picnic by the river.

That evening we headed to a nearby pub, picked out of our ‘Wild Guide to the southwest’ for a nice meal. Seb got so excited to see our mains after eating his that he then started making the most noise he’d ever made in his life- it was happy squealing but it did result in me nearly choking on some beautifully cooked pork crackling as we decided a swift exit was in order as the 7:30 diners started to arrive. Oh and this is his new trick…

Sunday morning dawned and suddenly I’m now married to a 30 year old! The weather decided to cut our Cornish exploring short is spectacular style. We made it up to Port Issac, I got out the car, nearly fell over, declared a firm no then crawled back in the car and set Dorris the task of finding lunch. We ended up in a little pub in Camelford where the big embarrassing badge got Henry a free desert complete with candles.

The weather forced us back to Devon sooner than expected so I had to get creative to kill some time before a surprise meal. We wound up in soft play of course. It actually turned out to be a lot of fun with us trying a new place out. I’m not sure who had more fun though!

The squashy log was carried around for about half an hour as she got very attached to it for some reason!

We then had a fab meal with the family where we all failed at photography but did catch the birthday boy out with a huge chocolate cake and a room full singing him happy birthday!

The birthday celebrations carried on till Wednesday too with a lunch date with Pati and George. We ordered way too much of course and Seb finished the meal by trying to finish my cider and instead chucked it over the floor.

It’s been a fairly full on week and a bit and the boy has been well and truly spoiled but 30 is quite a big one I think, and Polly keeps telling us. Well I’ve written quite a bit and the little mermaid finished a while ago, she’s obviously taken advantage of my distraction and stuck Cars on now. 🙈