Prior to the summer holidays I wrote a bucket list of all the things that I intended or wished to do throughout the six-week break. Before I begin writing a similar list for Autumn I thought that I’d first reflect upon my original bucket list to see how I got on…
Looking Back At My Summer Bucket List
To enjoy a well-needed holiday to Majorca with the husband and the kids, making full use of the all-inclusive as well as all nine of the swimming pools included on site!
We certainly enjoyed our holiday to Majorca and have already started planning our next summer vacation which will most likely be to Ibiza. We made full use of the all-inclusive aspects of the hotel despite E insisting upon sticking to a diet of bread, sausages and burgers for the majority of the week as kids do. We also swam in each and every pool both inside the complex and next door in the attached hydro park.
To have not one but many BBQs with family and friends in our recently renovated back garden. Never mind getting piddled on patios, I’ll be getting drunk on the decking whilst Paul sizzles his sausages (or whatever he fancies cooking) and the kids run riot.
Whilst I fully intended to get the BBQ out I kind of forgot throwing away said BBQ during our extension work. We have however had numerous parties and such-like throughout the summer where we have fully utilised our recently renovated garden.
Celebrate our little ladies fourth birthday in style, Moana style to be precise. I am hoping to hire a bouncy castle to stick in the garden weather permitting and put on drinks and a buffet spread for adults and children alike to enjoy.
We may not have hired a bouncy castle as we made use of our own bouncy castle. We did however have a Moana/ Hawaiian themed birthday party to celebrate both E’s and my own birthdays with a buffet and beverages for family and friends.
Paul and I will shortly be celebrating our tenth wedding anniversary, our first decade has flown by! Although on the day I will most likely be in the midst of packing cases for the upcoming holiday I hope to at least go out for a meal or if not get a take away to mark the occasion.
Due to outgoing holiday finances, we cut back a little on our anniversary making a meal at home. We did however go out following said meal for a pint or two at the Plough where we then danced the night away in eighties style.
- Whilst we always make grand plans to get out and about visiting some of the many tourist attractions we are surrounded by during the summer it’s not often that we actually manage to do so. At some point over the holidays I hope to visit both Fell Foot Park and Grizedale Forest for a wander around with the little ones.
We didn’t do any of the above partly due to time restrictions and partly due to cutting back costs. Next year perhaps …
- Tacky as it may be, I absoloutly love Blackpool and given that E is yet to visit the Pleasure Beach I have a feeling we may well find ourselves there at some point over the summer. Heres hoping we find some offers or deals on tickets in the meantime.
We had planned on visiting the Pleasure Beach but sadly our basset hound Molly fell ill and we found ourselves swapping Blackpool for Barrow. Either way, we had fun!
- I’ve been saying for some time now that I hope to find a new career path, I’ve worked really hard on applying to what feels like endless amounts of jobs and have received countless ‘Dear John’ letters but here’s hoping (fingers and toes crossed) that by Autumn I might just find something else other than bar work to throw my focus and efforts into.
Despite filling out endless applications I’ve made no real progress on job hunting. I’ve had a couple of fruitless interviews which I guess is experience but so far no joy on the job front.
- To teach E how to write her name prior to starting school. We have worked upon mark-making, following lines, tracing letters and now we need to pull it all together and get ready for starting school.
We’ve encouraged E to trace her name over dotted letters but she’s still struggling to decide between using her left or right hand and hasn’t shown a huge deal of interest in mastering calligraphy as of yet.
Come the August bank holiday Paul and I are hoping to obtain a babysitter as we have been very kindly invited to attend a party of sorts currently referred to as Cheesefields by our good friends. I look forward to kicking back and enjoying a night off before September arrives and routine returns.
Oh my days did we have fun at Cheesefields, it was certainly a night to remember from what I remember given the amount of drink that I consumed!
Given that I wish to wear swimwear whilst lazing by the pool come August I really should retract the exercise bike from the garage and ‘give it some’ as having lost a few pounds over the past few months it seems they have slowly crept back on whilst I wasn’t looking I was probably too busy gorging on ginger biscuits or picking at pasties!
Despite eating like a pig whilst in Majorca I have managed to continue with my weight loss and wore my purple tankini with pride by the poolside this summer.
Overall, I think that Paul and I did exceedingly well this summer. We certainly kept the kids entertained and made the very best of our time together as a family despite having limited funds. I will now endeavour to put together a similar action list for the Autumn!
