Making The Most Of Family Time

Since having G in the summer it seems more important than ever to spend quality family time together.  I don’t think that is purely down to having another member, O starting school also makes me realise how little family time we have available.  During the week it often feels that I hardly see him, and that’s despite me dropping him off and picking him up everyday so I’m sure this feeling will increase when I’m back at work.

Weekends now are so precious and there always seems so much to do in them.  The past three weekends have involved birthday parties, next weekend is the school Christmas fair and the weekend after is the village Christmas lantern parade.  Whilst we are busier than we have ever been a part of me is loving that O is getting to experience so many different things and when we do get a spare weekend (the next one is sometime in January, I think) I try to pencil something in for us a family.  When I was growing up I have really fond memories of day trips with my mum, dad and brother and I want my boys to have the same sort of memories of their childhood.

A few weeks ago, we had a spare Saturday, and headed over to Southport for the day, somewhere I hadn’t been in years.  I’d forgotten how close it was to us and we were there is just over forty minutes.  It was a beautiful sunny Autumnal day and we headed straight for the pleasure beach.  It was fully kitted out for Halloween as it was the middle of October and there were more pumpkins than you could imagine.  My favourite element of the day was the time I had to spend with O.  My husband stayed with G, and me and my eldest hit the rides.  For four and a half years O and I have been pretty much inseparable and I have to admit I’ve been missing him whilst he’s at school, and I’m busy with G.  I think O needed the Mummy time too!

After an hour or so (and when we’d run out of tokens for the rides) we headed into the town for a bite to eat before heading home.  It was only a few hours but it was great to be by the seaside and away from our local area.

With plans to take more day trips the only downside is possibly the car journey.  Whilst G is still at the age where he falls asleep almost as soon as we start to drive, O needs a little more occupying.  If he’s tired he may have a quick nap but other than that he will chatter constantly, and gets easily bored.  We were kindly sent a gift from I Car Hire Insurance to help keep him entertained.

The box contains a great selection of goodies to keep the kids happy in the car.

O loved that all the goodies in the box were for him and he also loved carrying the suitcase to the car.  Some of the items weren’t necessarily practical for using in the car (bubbles, I’m looking at you) but they will be fun for when you get to your destination.

My favourite item was the game book that came in the suitcase.  O loved trying to spot all the items on the bingo cards, although we did have to let him win!  It’s just a pity G was too young to join in.

We’ll definitely be playing these games in the future when we’re heading out in the car, although I may have to “forget” the Tamogotchi, I’d forgotten how annoying those little beeping things could be!

Disclosure:  We were kindly sent the suitcase in exchange for mentioning it here.