Family,Outings

A long Easter weekend, birthdays and Yorkshire walks

Sparkly Easter Egg

Flo and Me at Easter

We spent the Easter weekend over at my parents’ house in Yorkshire, managing to pack so much into the four-day break. I took Florence to a friend’s daughter’s birthday party on Saturday, which was a really lovely get together involving a few rounds of pin the tail on the donkey and a walk up to Ilkley Moor. What started off as a little stroll on a fairly mild day ended up with us all clutching our coffees outside the little cafe at the Cow and Calf rocks while the kids ate their ice lollies under blankets. It was picturesque, but very, very windy!

Florence hasn’t been to many birthday parties except the ones where she has tagged along with her brother, and it was so cute seeing how excited she was at this one. She might not yet be three but she can belt out Happy Birthday with the best of them – a good job really as she had to do it again for me too the day after!

It was my birthday on Easter Monday, and we had a bit of a girls’ night out on Saturday to celebrate. I say a bit, I should say a lot as it turned into a fairly big night, starting with prosecco and ending in a few rounds of sambuca, but amazingly not translating into a really bad head on Easter Sunday. I was a little sleep-deprived though, when Sam woke me up at seven for an egg hunt. Perhaps that’s the ultimate hangover cure – chocolate and tea for breakfast.

Sparkly Easter Egg

I feel really lucky that I’ve got so many close friends from my school days. So many don’t keep in touch with their childhood friends, but our group seems to have stuck together through so much and walking into some of the pubs we were regulars in 20 years ago, it somehow felt like nothing had changed at all. Of course it has, as instead of teenage girls with little responsibility we are now nearly 40-year-old women with a lot of little ones between us and a whole lot of life experience. It doesn’t mean we are much different to how we were then though, and we still know how to have a good time just as much as we did then! Shame we didn’t factor in the clocks going forward an hour when we booked in our night out, as 2am soon turned into three, and before we knew it the Easter bunny was a-comin.

On Sunday morning, my lovely mum had hidden lots of little eggs round the house for Sam and Flo to find, and they were over the moon tucking into their treats so early on in the day. For the second time that week, Sam carried on our family tradition of rolling his eggs down the stairs to break them up before eating them.

Ilkley Moor panorama

I saw someone mention on instagram this week that it’s a Yorkshire tradition – I’m not sure if it is or not, but if you’re new to this, don’t forget to put them in a plastic bag first to avoid a carpet full of chocolate flakes!

Another tip – if you have a hard wood floor, the eggs give a really satisfying crack as they break.

In the afternoon, we took a trip to Bolton Abbey with my sister, my brother-in-law and their three children to do the Easter Egg hunt there. The trail is essentially a walk by the river where you find several large cut-out bunnies and use them to crack the Easter bunny code to win a bag of mini eggs.

It was a really lovely walk, looking for the bunnies and seeing the huge glittery disco eggs hanging from the trees. The only downside was the thunder which rolled as we reached the point farthest from the car park, and the torrential rain that followed. Still, the kids didn’t complain and we made it back for our mini eggs so all was not lost.

Kids at Bolton Abbey http://rrainbeaubelle.com

Kids at Bolton Abbey

Easter bunnies at Bolton Abbey http://rainbeaubelle.com

Bolton Abbey walk http://rainbeaubelle.com

By the time Monday came around and it was my actual birthday I was feeling pretty partied out, but not so much that I couldn’t manage a few glasses of fizz and a catch up with my friends back home in my kitchen. There’s always time for that. We seem to have spent many nights in my kitchen, putting the world to rights, as it’s nearly always only me who needs a babysitter. We also all have our birthdays pretty close together, so there’s always a reason for a party these days. Big thumbs up emoji needed here!

Looking back at my blog from this time last year, so much has changed and it’s quite strange reading the post I wrote after my birthday in 2015. I mean it was only a few weeks after we found out about Roger’s cancer, and yet there I was, blowing out the candles on a cake. I suppose it makes me think about all the ways we have to keep going and try to have as normal a life as possible when you have kids. There is no room to stay inside and hide, as far as they know it’s their mum’s birthday and they want a party! It only feels like yesterday I was standing in the local balloon shop, asking for these confetti balloons to be blown up and being told what a huge drama it was for them, only to think to myself, if you only knew what drama was really going on at our house then you’d know, blowing up a balloon does not even go near!

Anyway, it’s there for the record, and if nothing else, there are cute photos of Flo with spiky baby hair.

So thanks for reading this epic post about my weekend, I hope you had a really lovely break too.

x Julia

Sam's Easter egg

Easter Sunday

Easter chocolate on Ilkley Moor http://rainbeaubelle.com

Birthday night out

#YorkshireFamily with Yorkshire Tots

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4 Comments

  • Reply
    Amy Ransom
    March 30, 2016 at 7:13 pm

    Belated happy birthday Julia. Glad you had such a great time. Always enjoy reading your posts x
    Amy Ransom recently posted…The NOT SO New Mum F*cket ListMy Profile

  • Reply
    Mackenzie Glanville
    March 31, 2016 at 11:31 am

    Happy Birthday beautiful. I am glad you have such amazing friends to share in celebrating with. I also have high school friends and they are the best aren’t they! I love the tradition of breaking Easter eggs on the stairs super cute and fun! Great photos too! Much love xx

  • Reply
    Erin Ek Rush
    April 2, 2016 at 2:25 pm

    What an amazing weekend! You are lucky to have such a good group of friends from your childhood, it sounds like such a nice birthday celebrations all around (and a small birthday miracle you felt fine in the morning!) We love a trip to Bolton Abbey but I’ve never actually stopped at that cafe near the Cow and Calf rocks. I always think it looks so nice, might have to be one for this Spring! Thank you for linking up with #YorkshireFamily

  • Reply
    A Welly Walk at Bolton Abbey with Joules - Rainbeaubelle
    October 28, 2016 at 9:40 pm

    […] on the Duke of Devonshire’s estate near Skipton, North Yorkshire, is on the same route as the Easter Egg walk we did in March. It follows the River Wharfe through Strid Wood, and as you go you have to count […]

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