Childhood Memories

I am very lucky to have many happy childhood memories of different things. Holidays, Christmas, family times, events and friendships. For me one of the best things about being a parent is having the chance to give my children the happy memories that they will grow up with. I want them to be able to smile and reminisce about the same sorts of things that I do.

We do our very best to provide our girls with a happy home life and I am confident that they will look back and smile when they think of our holidays and moments of silliness. Robyn has a very good friend. She recently described her as her “BFF” (Best Friend Forever!). They are in the same class at school, go to Rainbows & church club together and we try and get together outside of school as much as we can.

Last week we invited her “BFF” home for tea. After Katie had gone to bed we treated them to a DVD, popcorn & chocolate while they wore PJ’s and snuggled up in quilts and blankets. It was a sleepover party without the actual sleepover part! That bit won’t be long coming though, Robyn is staying overnight at her friend’s house in a couple of weeks time!
As I sat and watched the two girls laugh, sing and dance together I couldn’t help but smile. I reckon they will remember that evening forever. They were so happy to be sharing a good time together. The stuff childhood memories are made of for sure.

I am a part of making those memories for my girls and that makes me feel fantastic. Really, really fantastic 🙂

Sports day

Sports day was one of the events in the school year that I used to dread. I have never been very sporty and unfortunatly one of my senior schools was joined onto the leisure centre. School had full use of all the facilities. Gah!

I used to manage to get through a rounders match at school by ensuring I’d be out as soon as possible & therefore spend the rest of the time sat at the edge of the field making daisy chains! If I was on the fielding team I’d strategically stand  where I knew the ball was very unlikely to land so that I could stand still for as long as possible.

When it was netball I took a similar approach… always being goal keeper meant that I was confined to one end of the court so didnt have to run very far. Jumping around a bit when the other team tried to score was about all that was required!

Cross country was my idea of complete hell. I can remember the course we had to take like it was yesterday. Round the athletics track once, round the small bike track, round the big bike track, down the side of school and behind the leisure centre, along the back of the netball courts & hockey pitches, up the side of the art block, round and along the English block, along the mound and back into the school entrance to the leisure centre. Once back at school you had 5 mins to shower and change before going to your next lesson. There was never enough time to get dry properly so I’d end up damp and uncomfortable for the rest of the day.

Swimming on the other hand I used to enjoy. No running involved you see! I even used to take up the chance to go swimming at lunchtime once a week. I still enjoy swimming now. I’m not terribly good at it but I always find it quite a relaxing experience so long as its an adult only session!

Yesterday was Robyns sports day. She told me yesterday morning she was going to win a race for Granny Mary and she excelled herself! My wonderful daughter won 4 out of 6 races, something that I could only dream of! After school we walked through the park to see my mum and dad. We passed the ice-cream van and so I rewarded Robyn (and myself & Katie of course!) with a lovely creamy 99 with raspberry sauce.

Football Star!

Number 1!

On her way to victory!

Snow Memories

We’ve had a fair bit of snow up here in Yorkshire and its just not shifting. I don’t mind the snow, I get excited when I see it falling as I know the girls will like it and also Anthony. It reminds me of when I was a child and how much fun we used to have.

When we lived in Lincoln we lived next to a big common. I remember waking up to a big snowfall once and school closed. I would have been 11 or 12 years old. We all went onto the common and a big group of friends (including adults from my dads college) built a HUGE igloo. It was big enough to fit us all inside and grown adults could stand up at the highest part of it. It took us hours to build that igloo. We were all so so proud of it and were sad to go home and leave it behind.

The next day school was open again and we walked past the igloo on the way in. Everybody at school was talking about it… “Did you see that igloo on the common?! It’s wicked!!”. As a kid it wasnt very often that I got the chance to take credit for something that was being talked about so much so I loved the glory. For a change I was someone people were talking to rather than ignoring.

On the way home from school we got to the common and saw that the igloo had been smashed. There was a massive heap of snow on the ground where it once stood. We were so sad.

On Monday, while hundreds of schools around the country closed Robyn went to school as normal. The pupils were all rewarded with a snow morning in the park. The whole school went to the park complete with sledges. They had a whale of a time!!

When the snow comes now I take the girls out to play in it. I want them to have happy memories of “Snow days” like I have. Its an important part of childhood.

This picture was taken in December when we had snow. We took Robyn to school in the sledge. Now that’s the way to travel in snow!!

This one was taken on Monday in the park

Happy Birthday Grandad

It would have been my dear Grandads birthday today. 96 years.

I miss him.

He would have loved Robyn and Katie. He would have teased them like mad and would have spoiled them rotten just like he used to with me and my sister.

As kids we used to visit Grandad and within minutes he would shuffle off to his cupboard and rustle through bags and boxes. He would reappear with sweets, chocolates and biscuits of all kinds… strawberry chocolate bars, wagon wheels and broken biscuits seem to stick in my mind! Nearly all were out of date where he had bought them cheap.

I remember one day Grandad disappeared and came back with a blue plastic money box that was like a safe with a combination. Ali and I were told “If you can get it open you can share what’s inside between you”. We spent ages trying to get this money box open. We were led to believe that Grandad had forgotten the code to the combination… of course he hadn’t! He gave us some hints as to what the code might be and eventually we opened it… it was full to the brim of all kinds of coins. It was every child’s dream… like finding a box of treasure!!!!

Grandad used to tap his foot… and his hand… and he used to whistle all the time. I can see him now sitting in his armchair, the newspaper on the arm open on the horseracing page. He is tapping, whistling and smiling.

Happy Birthday Grandad. I will never forget you