Today has been the final day of the summer holidays.  Tomorrow, Ella and Mimi go back to school (Year 2 and Year 1 respectively) and Lola starts Pre-School.

We have squeezed as much fun as possible out of our time together during the last two weeks. Here’s what we got up to:

We paid a visit to Trentham Gardens:

We had a family adventure to Birmingham Sealife Centre

Lola ‘graduated’ from Nursery:

We went to a local Wildlife Sanctuary (Gentleshaw, at Fletchers Garden Centre):

My friend came to stay and we enjoyed lunch at Amerton Farm and playing in the Town Park:

We attended yet another birthday party:

And a wedding reception:

Sophie came to visit and we took a trip to Red Lion Ice Cream Farm:

and we spent a morning at Birches Valley:

We were rewarded on the final evening with a rather spectacular sunset – the perfect way to end the holidays 🙂

I honestly thought that the six week holiday would drag, but in actual fact it has flown by – I can’t believe how quickly it’s gone.  We’ve had so much fun together, and I’ve learnt plenty about myself and my girls along the way.  Here’s what the final two weeks have taught me:

1.  Random conversations lead to new insights

I’ve discovered things I never knew about my girls just by following their lead with the conversation.  For example – Ella had always said that she wants to be an author when she grows up.  I now know she has a fairly specific target audience in mind – children aged 3-16.  And Mimi wants to be both an inventor and an explorer.  Who knew?!  I have also had the wonderful realisation that the sound of my girls giggling together is one of the happiest things in my world, and I am going to endeavour to ensure that it happens a lot more often.

2.  Know your limits

And know their limits.  We have been so mega-busy that I think we all feel like we need a holiday to recover from the holidays!  With hindsight, maybe I tried to organise a few too many things for us to do, and perhaps I should have planned in a few more ‘free days’ where we just got up and did whatever took our fancy.  Doing too much = tired children and tired parents, and when the two happen at the same time there are arguments and strops, which leads to shouting and upset.  Being aware of when I was reaching my limit (whether it was the limit on my patience, my tiredness, or my ability-to-cope-with-silliness), and recognising when the girls were reaching theirs made a big difference to how our days finished when we got home from wherever we’d been.

3.  I’m doing ok… and that’s enough

While I think every single one of us strives to be a ‘perfect parent’, we all know deep down that it’s actually completely unattainable.  As long as we strive to be the best parent we can be for our children, that’s good enough.  We’re all doing the best we can with what we’ve got.  If I screw up (shout / resort to using the thinking step / threaten to take away something they love in order to make them comply with what I want them to do… the list goes on…) I ALWAYS talk to them afterwards and apologise and explain what I had been thinking and feeling at the time, making absolutely certain that they know it wasn’t their fault and that I was reacting to something else probably completely unrelated.

4.  I love my girls

Silly as it sounds, although of course I know that deep down, sometimes I think I forget it at a surface level.  I see their behaviour and make that a part of them, when actually, it’s just a response they are giving to a particular stimulus.  I love them, no matter how they behave.  I love them because they are part of me.  If this summer has taught me anything it’s that my girls are crazy, funny, independent and all completely individual.  I’ve absolutely loved getting to know their personalities more and more, on a much deeper level, as the weeks have gone by – their quirks, their ideas, the way they think, how they feel, their perspective on things.  They’re awesome, and I’m very, very grateful to have them in my life.

With the summer ‘officially’ over, it’s time to turn our thoughts to September and the months ahead.  So far September is already shaping up to be a jam-packed month – I’m super busy work-wise, plus there are several visits from family and friends in the diary too.  Looks like the Summer of Fun is going to be continuing well into Autumn…

I’d love to hear your stories about your Summer of Fun, so please do leave a comment below.  What did you learn?