We started the week off meeting Nanny and Pops at the local garden centre for breakfast on the Sunday before having a little wander around the Christmas decorations there. The girls also had fun playing with the different water features. After this we set off to an aqueduct that I had found in our trusted ‘wild guide’ book. We went for a little puddle walk along the canal before being mugged off in a little cafe for some ice cream and tea (honestly, you’d have thought we would have learnt by now that if a place doesn’t advertise their prices, it’ll be because they are too much!), but it was a nice little spot.

We then headed up to Slough for our stopover. Henry had quite the adventure trying to find a car park close to the Premier Inn and wisely moved the car from the first one to a closer one that he spotted on his walk back to the hotel, the fact it was closer wasn’t the priority for moving it, the fact he had parked next to a car with slashed tyres was slightly higher on the list!

After breakfast we drove the short distance to our actual destination- Windsor Castle. I’ve been desperate to visit for a long time and it was an amazing place to visit. The kids were fascinated by the guards, Henry made friends with a cat and Polly spotted a unicorn on a tomb which she was very excited about. There was a lot of walking involved and the kids needed the break in the education centre to do some crafts, but it was very moving seeing where our late Queen has been laid to rest and the Long Walk looked beautiful in the Autumn sunshine.

After a cheeky McDonalds (one of many last week!) we made the rest of the journey up to Suffolk. We arrived early evening and got an invite to my brother Oli and his partner Faye’s for a cheeky takeaway which went down well. We found ourselves back in a McDonalds the next morning for breakfast which had to be hurried down as Clara started launching crayons across the place while the other two moaned about wanting a balloon. After this we caught up with some of our Grandparents.

We then met up some of our friends at some woods where the kids all had a blast running amongst the trees and seeing who could find the biggest stick. We all had a lot of fun and enjoyed a mismatch selection of scones and ice creams from the cafe afterwards.

Wednesday started with Grandpops joining us for breakfast at the Premier Inn, Clara’s object of choice to throw that morning was a fork across the table. We then made our way to Felixstowe joined by Grandpops’ partner Becky. We braved a windy walk along the seafront before the kids had enough and demanded we stop which was just in time for a little lunch at a nice cafe where they did some amazing chips. The kids (I’m including Henry in this!) then went wild on the 2p machines. They won some sweets and we left the town via the huge container ships at the port. We then all headed back for an indoor BBQ and Polly and Becky had an epic colouring in session.

The kids ended up staying up quite late each night as we all share a room at the hotel and routine goes out the window on holiday anyway. That particular night Seb, Clara and I all fell asleep leaving the other two to watch a documentary together about Elon Musk- not the first thing I’d imagine Polly watching but she was chatting about the ‘rocket space man’ at breakfast the next day so she was actually watching it!

On Thursday we went to Bressingham with my brother- if your kids love trains like ours then this is a must visit place. There were multiple train journeys and turns round the carousel. We also braved the quad bike go carts with each of the adults taking a child- I got the crazy child. Polly was utterly terrifying and although I was controlling the speed, she kept grabbing the handlebars and veering us into walls shouting how funny it would be to crash. Seb also gave us a good scare in the park when he vanished for a good few minutes. We were just starting to get to the panicked shouting (in between the quiet mutterings of ‘oh shit’) when the cheeky rascal popped out from inside the tunnel of the climbing frame that we had all been standing on when we began our search. We did have a really good time there though and would definitely go back again.

We then met up with Faye and headed back to Ipswich for a meal with our Grandparents. We arrived to a packed-out place and very quickly realised that something had gone wrong with the communication to our Grandparents as they never showed up. Oli did eventually track them down after we’d given up and eaten- turns out they’d gone to a different place, given up waiting soon after and got a KFC on their way home! Our evening was full of amusement though, from the giant-sized portions, to an overload of onion rings, to Clara getting stuck in the bottom of a claw machine. She climbed in through the flap at the base of the unit and shouted till I came running- hopefully she won’t try that again!

Our final day was a day of saying goodbyes with donuts and cuddles, before heading home. The journey home was an adventure in itself as it normally takes about six hours with a couple of stops, but turned into a 9 1/2-hour nightmare due to road closures, traffic, crashes and roadworks. Seb broke up the journey with his shouts of “I’m bursting for a wee” everytime we joined a new motorway and we learnt that Polly farts in her sleep and they stink.

We finished off our week together with a day in Exeter (after a bit of a lie in after the horrendous night before!). Polly and I joined the ‘March of the Mummies’ protest, one of several being held across the country. It was an amazing experience, plus an excellent excuse for Polly to shout ‘now’ in the street when she’s normally being told to keep the noise down. The protest is aimed at asking the government to put more effort into childcare and parental rights in the country, anyone who’s interested in reading more about this should check out the social media pages of the organisers ‘Pregnant then screwed.’

After a day to recover (‘cough cough’ catch up on washing in my pjs whilst also binge watching ‘Strictly’ and ‘Bake off’) we went back to reality with a rainy bump today. It’s definitely been a half term to remember even if I do feel like I need another week to recover.

For the big two at the age of around two I wrote them a letter, so I realise I needed to get on and write my last one to the absolute Queen that is our koala Bear Clara…

When you popped out just over two years ago during a Covid lockdown when the world was a pretty scary place you completed our little family and boy have you made your presence known in this house. Your sense of humour and your cheekiness is positively infectious.

You crack me up the way you try to put on any clothes or shoes nearby- my pjs, Polly’s wellies, build a bear shoes, dolls skirts. Whatever you can get your feet or arms into.

I love hearing your gleeful shout of ‘meeeeee’, whether is owning up to who farted or declaring who should get the last biscuit.

The love you share with your older sister for arts and crafts, I mean yes it does mean I’m writing this post on a laptop that you’ve coloured in but it does make me laugh that everything you ‘draw’ no matter what the canvas is (an actual piece of paper, your sister’s official school photo, your face) you give a proud little “ta-daaa” and wait for a compliment on your work.

Oh my gosh, your obsession with water, from pouring it into anything from your water bottle (mainly pots and pans from the toy kitchen but sometimes you’ll turn a toy dump truck into a new cup) to the fact that you refuse to keep a rain cover over the pushchair and you’ve found the best way to splash in puddles is with your hands while sitting in one.

Your love for ‘Waffle doggy’ is next level, including the dancing and singing to the theme tune with the loudest shout of ‘oh oh ohhhhhhh’ at the end with outstretched arms.

I admire the fact that you won’t be pushed to engage with anyone, it’s all on your terms, although this does especially offend the older generation in our town it’s quite refreshing to see a person say: ‘no I don’t want to say hello today so I’m not going to.’

I love the fact that you are just starting to make more sense to the outside world with actual human words being spoken but still maintaining your own unique way of using them, like holding up a book and saying, “you talk it.”

Your love of nature is so uplifting. We have to walk home from town via the river with you collecting every stick you can carry, your face lights up when you see the sea and you’re the only one in the house who doesn’t run away from spiders.

Although you’re now dropping that nap, the ‘oh car’ game before any nap used to be a highlight of the afternoon- we would just stand at the window and shout ‘oh car’ at each car that went past for a couple of minutes, but of my gosh when a bus went past!

I do love that you usually have a baby (or a Pikachu) in your arms, pram, shopping trolley etc, you love looking after them including sudocreming them! And everything you look after gets an ‘oh poo!’ (Bluey figurines, teddy bears etc) then you pull out wipes to clean them up.

Finally, you make me laugh how into programmes and films you get (see the ‘Waffle doggy’ mention above). From dancing to every song in Encanto, to the tears that break my heart when the balloon pops in that particular episode of Bluey, to the love you have for Strictly with plenty of clapping and even blowing Craig Revel Horwood a kiss when he enters to ballroom!

Anyway, just keep being you because as your nursery teacher put it beautifully this week- everyone needs a Clara in their life.

Love from your mama xxx

Where did September go? Like seriously where did it go? I’ve honestly blinked, and we’ve flown through a month of school runs, plays in the park, genral life and there was a carnival for good measure.

The carnival itself was a whirl of noise, dancing and flashing lights which slightly blew Clara’s brain as it was her first. It’s usually an annual occurrence in the town and its route takes it right past our front door. We get cosy in our pjs and dressing gowns with hot chocolate and watch it from our porch. This year the girls ventured onto the pavement and joined in with dancing and high fives whilst Seb wasn’t quite so on board with the whole thing- he sat on a camp chair glaring at most of it! Two out of three happy is a winner though.

The season of coughs and colds is definitely upon us and so we’ve had a quieter weekend this week- Seb is currently asleep on the sofa whilst the girls play with pay-doh wearing a mixture of pjs and onesies (classic Polly is still managing to be half naked though!). There is also a hint of Christmas in the air- I’m not apologising for my early mention of the c word this year as anyone who knows me, knows that this is just who I am. I’ve officially started properly buying presents (I may have actually bought the first official present back in June), I’m checking in regularly to see if our favourite garden centre is back on board with the whole Santa thing and Polly has drafted her first Christmas wish list. The list is fairly impressive, and I do love the fact she includes her siblings wishes too but I’m not quite sure how we’ll get on tracking down an alicorn for her.

This time of year also means that some of our favourite programmes are back and this year the kids have actually got into ‘Bake off’ properly which I’m pretty pleased about, this is as well as the usual ‘Strictly’ hype (which is currently on right now). We catch up with them at the weekend in between ‘My little Pony’ and ‘Thomas the tank engine’ which makes for a varied mix!

Everyone seems to be settling into their new routines which is good, we are still getting a few tears at the nursery drop off but only ever hear good things at pick up. I didn’t realise until this week that we’ve got her in on a morning where they do forest school which was a happy surprise- she was all smiles after toasting marshmallows round a fire.

Talking of marshmallows, this change of season meant that this week we had our first hot chocolate and marshmallow session after school when the weather did its usual of wait till the school run to unleash its downpour of rain. I’ve also officially switched the wardrobes over into winter mode and done a glove stock take.

There was also a big switch round upstairs in the house when I decided to move Clara’s bed into the same room as her siblings. Apart from the actual moving of the furniture which included a spectacular ‘pivot’ moment when I got an armchair stuck in the doorway and removed a layer of paint from the woodwork in a sweary rage, it’s (touch wood!!) been an ok transition. On the first night Clara went to get a bit upset as I left the room, I sat down on the landing to see whether she would be ok when I heard Polly’s gentle voice say “It’s ok Clara, you’ll see Mummy in the morning, I’m here. You need to lie down now and go to sleep”- and amazingly she did. I mean the big two then had a whispered chat that had to be broken up several times and she woke up in the middle of the night and wound up in with us, but (again touch wood!!) it’s going ok. The next morning provided another cute moment when I found Polly searching for Clara using the lullaby light confused as to where she had gone.

Well time to sign off now as the play doh playing has turned into ‘let’s put it up our nose whilst also eating pieces of it too’ plus I can only put off cleaning the bathroom so many times.