Me and Mine – A Portrait for April 2017

May 4, 2017

Do you sometimes get to the end of the month and think, what have we actually done in the past four weeks?! I’ve just been looking back on my blog for the month of April and it seems like a really long month that we have packed an awful lot into.

Maybe that is my excuse for being so ultra late in posting my Me and Mine family update this month – I’ve had such a lot on and haven’t managed to find time to write very much this week.

April started with my birthday party – although my 40th was at the end of March, my party was on 1 April and was absolutely amazing. I had the best time with my friends and family, my house was full, everyone was happy and smiley, there was lots of good times and dancing and plenty of memories made.

Some of those involving friends in very impressive 80s outfits it has to be said!

Birthdays were a bit of a theme because it would have been Roger’s and then the week after it was Sam’s. We celebrated both, one with a trip to the Cow and Calf Rocks in Ilkley and the other with a few days with friends in Filey.

Most of our photos for this month were taken in Filey, it was Sam’s birthday – he turned eight – and we were out at the brilliant park there called Glen Gardens. There are pedalos, trampolines, a play park, crazy golf and a café which also sells endless cheap souvenirs and tatt – perfect for a day out with kids! My two love spending their holiday money and always come back with little plastic souvenirs and some sort of joke ice cube with a plastic fly in or a box of firecrackers. It’s great when they can get so much enjoyment out of a £1 spend isn’t it!

We stayed in the same apartment we had stayed in last time we were in Filey, which was only a few weeks after Roger’s funeral in August 2015. It was so nice to be back there but also really made me think about how far we have come since then.

How young the kids seemed back then and how we somehow managed to have a really good break despite the obvious trauma we were going through. There is a lot to be said for living in the moment and spending time with little ones when times are tough. Sam and Flo have the best memories of Filey and don’t equate it at all to that period in our lives like I do.

We were only there for a few days this time, with our friends Sally and Joe – now our regular holiday buddies after we went to Portugal together last year. It was bright and sunny and a really nice break to be walking down by the sea, eating fish and chips by the bandstand and playing in the penny arcades.

The last few weeks of the month have been rather less exciting, what with the Easter holidays ending and everyone getting back into the school routine. We did manage to fit another trip over to Wirral in too, seeing family and spending time on the beach where we scattered Roger’s ashes last year. Always a lovely but emotional experience for us all.

In May we will be going on our first solo family adventure abroad, when we jet off to Levante Beach on our Mark Warner holiday, all part of me being chosen as a Mark Warner Mum this year. We have the brochure constantly open on the kitchen table and we’re all looking forward to it so much. Lucky that I know a few blogger friends who have already visited and written about it so I can get a regular fix of photos of the resort and beach. I can’t wait for that sunshine!

I hope you had a good April too.

X Julia

Click here to read last month’s post, and here for Our Year in Family Portraits, from the year we began in May 2015.