Everyone in the house has been unwell this week, and we spent the whole of half term in the house, which was a shame because the weather was glorious. The kids were back at school on Thursday, but we kept Neil off because his tummy still wasn't great. In the end, sending Caitlin to school wasn't the best idea either, and we got the phone call to say she needed to be picked up early.

While I was tending to Caitlin, Neil and his daddy decided to go out for a walk to dust off the cobwebs a bit. Being stuck in the house for a whole week, it's hard not to get cabin fever, and I thought the fresh air might be good for them.

We are very lucky to live only a few minutes away from a fantastic nature reserve and beach, so the boys headed down that way to explore a little. My husband took some photos of their adventure together.














It's not often that Neil and his daddy get to spend time together, just the two of them, so this was a great opportunity for them to do a bit of bonding. They both thoroughly enjoyed their walk together, and couldn't wait to tell us all about it when they got home. It looks like they had a fantastic time!

If you allowed the rain to dictate your summer activities, you would be spending an awful lot of time indoors. It has rained a lot recently, but I didn't want to let that dampen our spirits. I love to get out and about with the kids, and I wasn't going to let a bit of rain stop us, so after a particularly heavy spell of rain last week we decided to channel our inner Peppa Pig with some muddy puddle jumping.


So after getting dressed up in our wellies and raincoats, (please don't ask why I thought a white raincoat would be a good idea for Caitlin) we headed out on to the lane in search for some nice big pubbles.

Of course, when we do something, we don't do it by half measures, and so a bit of puddle jumping turned in to a full on mud fest, and everyone (except me, you can't soak the camera woman) was absolutely soaked from head to toe.



The lane houses some of the biggest puddles I have ever seen, in fact I was half expecting a Vicar of Dibley moment to happen and find one of my kids neck deep in a puddle!

The kids weren't impressed at first, I don't think they were expecting to get so wet. But what started out as screams of horror soon turned to sequels of delight as they soon embraced that they were going to be soaking, and just forgot about it and had fun.

The lane leads down to the beach, where Neil found a 'dinosaur'.


After a small stroll along the beach we headed back up the lane towards home, making sure we were all fully soaked before we finished.

We arrived home and had to pour water out of the kids wellies, and wring out their socks. My kitchen looked like a wet room!


After a quick clean, we were all changed in to our onsies ready for a well deserved hot chocolate in front of the heater.

We had a fantastic afternoon, it's amazing how much fun you can have when you just embrace the rain!

It has been a mixed week here, glorious sunshine one day and thundery rain showers the next. If there is one thing I have learned about British summer time it is that you must make the most of the nice days because you never know when the next one is coming.

Last weekend we did exactly that, we put on our shorts, sunglasses and suncream and headed down to the sea for some crab fishing.

We've never been crab fishing before, but we often sit by the water edge and watch the crabs move along the water bed so we knew there were plenty there.

Checking for crabs in the shallow water

Crabs are greedy little beggars and will eat just about anything. We took bacon for bait and they absolutely lapped it up. We attached it to the crab line that we got from the pound shop and we were ready to catch.


When we caught the first crab and lifted it out of the water it became apparent that Neil was absolutely terrified of them. He wanted a picture and kept saying 'Mum get a picture', but then screaming and crying when he tried to go close enough for me to take one.



I think Neil's fears come from me to be honest. I wasn't to keen on them myself, alhtough I tried not to show it. I managed to get close for a few photos, then there was a point where I was trying to record a large on that my husband was lifting out of the water when the crab fell off the line next to my foot, and I screamed like a little girl and almost dropped the camera!

The kids searched the rocks to see what they could find. Neil returned with a small dead crab.


Meet Shelbert. Neil took a real liking to 'Shelbert' and wanted to bring him home as a pet. There were a few tears when he set him down somewhere and couldn't find him again.


Caitlin tried her hand at at bit of fishing with the mini rod.


She was very excited to have caught a fish. Unfortunately, the fish turned out to be seaweed, but she was still buzzing.

We didn't get a chance to stay very long. We forgot to pack any snacks, and Neil was so hungry that he started trying to eat the raw bacon that we had brought for the crabs. He thinks he is a t-rex, and it's ok because t-rex eat raw meat. We thought we better go home and get him some real food before he poisoned himself.

We threw the remaining bacon in to the sea for the crabs to feast on, and stood at the edge watching them fight for it along the sea bed, before heading home for something nice to eat.

We had a lovely afternoon in the sunshine, I love that we live so close to the sea because the kids love trips to the beach.

On Friday afternoon Neil and Daddy went on a fishing trip, leaving me and Caitlin to find something to do on our own. It's not often we get time with just the two of us so it was nice.

There was a brief break from the rain for the most of Friday, (someone needs to tell mother nature that it is June, where is our nice summer?!), so we made the most of the nice weather and headed out for a little picnic at Dundrum Castle.

Caitlin packed herself a little bag with treats and the picnic blanket and we set off up the lane.

We took a slow stroll up the lane so Caitlin could pick some flowers for me


 She insited I took pictures of all of the wild flowers growing along the lane.

Once we got to the castle she wasted no time getting stuck in and exploring. She is a fearless little thing and loves finding places to climb and live a bit dangerously!


All the running about had us pretty tired so we sat down for a picnic. Caitlin had packed cheese sandwiches and triple biscuits. I've been pretty good this week and not been snacking on junk but I did treat myself to a wee biscuit.


I think she was starting to miss Neil and Daddy by this point and lay down for a cuddle.


After our little rest we ran around the castle exploring all of the buildings. The we played a game caitlin called 'sneak', where we had to tiptoe around as quietly as possible so no one could see us.

I've been playing around with my new camera and have discovered I can take action shots in the sport mode, so we had some fun trying to jump really high, which you can see in our little video.
         




We had a lovely afternoon running around the castle ground and burning off some energy.
Caitlin couldn't wait for Daddy to get home so she could tell him all of her stories about the day.


I'm really hoping we can have some more sunny days soon, as much as I love puddle walks in the winter, it is June now and I would love some more picnics and fun filled afternoons like this!