Our Half Term Holiday

I was very lucky last week to have had the whole week off for half term, and it was very much needed. It has been a tough 10 weeks in the school in which I currently work, and last week was a chance to get away from it all and forget about it. It was, of course, also a chance to get to spend some much needed quality time with Isabelle. While I am at work we obviously don't get that same concentrated time together, and last week was great to top up our reserves to help see us through the next 7 weeks.
I wouldn't exactly say it was a relaxing week, as we didn't have a minute to spare! I had originally planned to do some big messy play activities with Isabelle, but we just didn't have the time to do that and so I decided to let it all just fall by the way side (along with the pile of marking I left at school). We really took this week 'off' everything and just did what we felt like doing.
It was great to be able to catch up with our lovely friends and their toddlers at the breastfeeding group, and a birthday party, at the start of the week. We always have a lot of fun, and so do the little people, and it was great to get together with everyone and have a chat about not very much at all. I'm already planning and looking forward to our Christmas get together.
On Tuesday Simon was off, so we went swimming and then to the dentist, before getting Isabelle some new shoes.

Thursday saw us visiting my granny, where Isabelle had big love for my granny's wooden African head "Joe". She has played with Joe before, but this week Joe had the full treatment of kisses, cuddles and a nappy change. She really made me laugh when she cuddled him and started to pull at her top saying "Joe, milk!".
Over the weekend we escaped up to our holiday home. Dexter (the dog) is terrified of fireworks, and with Friday night being Halloween we knew we needed to get him away. My parents were also up at the holiday home so we went to join them, knowing it would be much quieter. We were right, and Dexter was able to get through another Halloween with his nerves in tact. My dad bought sparklers for Isabelle and, despite my certainty that she would hate them, she loved them! We had a great 5 minutes 'sparkling' in the garage (our of the rain) to mark our Halloween festivities.

Simon was able to take Saturday off which was wonderful. We didn't do anything amazing, but it was just so nice to have that time together. On both Saturday and Sunday we x went for lunch, walked the dogs along the beach and went to the park. Isabelle loves the park. On Saturday we were the only ones there due to the rain and wind, but she had a great time anyway - we all did.


Overall, a really wonderful week. I cannot wait to finish work on 19th December so I can get back to normal with Isabelle and be with her all the time. Only 47 days to go.......