The advent of school holidays always brings me the excitement though it be with slight intrepidation, the realisation that the annual visit of my grand daughters is nearly here. When I say annual, that does not mean I only see them once a year, far from it, but it does mean their longest "stay over with their Nana and Pops".
Planning has to start plenty of weeks in advance as there is never enough time to go around with two little girls and all the activities they want to see and do.
Crafting always plays a big part of any stays with Nana and my craft room holds the same fascination for them as any Aladdin's cave to the famous fairy tale 40 thieves.
So much so that my dear husband had to make a catch for the door , so high up that tiny hands could not reach.
This time the eldest girl with a little prompting from yours truly, decided to have a go at journalling. Of course a lot of the fun was collecting various tickets , handouts, programmes and colourful leaflets that could be used to fill out her "activity folder".
We are only three days into a visit and so far we have visited a Play zone in a Children's farm, viewed and petted every farm animal possible, shopped for next terms school uniforms, shoes , sandals and would you believe 52 pairs of socks!!!
We have been to see the fabulous new film ICE AGE 3, that had us all laughing for most of the time we were at the cinema. There was a visit to the book shop, all our grandchildren love books, especially as they know Pops and Nana will always pay the bill for any literary works of art, from the classics to sticker books.
It poured with rain, but did that stop us venturing out on yet another expedition? Of course it didn't. Off we set again. This time to take a trip on a railway steam engine that turned out to be three years older than Michael , and commissioned in 1946.Now this really excited the girls. Like most children of their age they had never been on a steam engine, and only once previously on an electric train. The youngest likened it to Thomas the Tank and for those with children, they will be familiar that it is one of the little ones favourite story book characters. There was time for tea and scones with jam and cream in the tiny railway station tearoom before we left.
Not being the most agile of people, climbing the high steps to get on board was a bit tricky for me. However there we sat waving madly to people taking photographs and watched the world traverse slowly by until we reached our destination some twenty minutes later. The children did not know but we had booked tickets for a visit to an Aquarium on arrival, that gave us plenty of time for both a fun and educational tour before returning home.
As I said we just don't have enough time and as we have a visit to the theatre planned for tomorrow to see Peter Rabbit, the famous story by Beatrix Potter, I am now heading for bed without even finding time for me to "play" in my craft room today.
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