Whitsun Holiday Fun

In the run up to school holidays I always wonder how I'm going to keep the children occupied and happy but it soon whizzes past, especially when we're as lucky with the weather as we were last week.

On Saturday Molly & I had a long-awaited trip to the theatre to see Jason Donovan in Million Dollar Quartet. It was lovely having some time alone with my girl, especially as she was going away for the rest of the week. Before the show we had lunch and indulged in a little retail therapy. It was bliss. I wish we could do it more often. Hubby took the boys to Fakenham Fairways for a spot of pitch & putt followed by a picnic lunch at Eaton Park and then a game of footgolf. They'd never played it before but were very impressed and can't wait to take Molly there.   

On  what was a scorching Sunday we drove to my old home town of Lowestoft so that the children could have a splash about in the fountains. The boys got stuck in but Molly was more reserved and only dashed through when the fountains had slowed down.

The Bascule Bridge in Lowestoft terrified me as a child and it still scares me to this day. The children think it's hilarious as I sprint across as fast as I can. I hate the fact that heavy traffic makes it bounce and I hate walking over the water. I know that it will never raise up with pedestrians on but that doesn't stop me having nightmares about it! A boat went through and it was the first time that the children had seen the road 'go up in the air' and they were rather excited, especially Harry.

After lunch we walked along the seafront to the play area, opposite my old flats. It's quite strange returning to somewhere I spent my childhood and teenage years but I don't miss that time in my life. It wasn't the best. I do miss being across the road from the beach though!

On Tuesday we took a picnic lunch to Pretty Corner gardens in Sheringham and feeling ambitious we decided to walk up Beeston Hill (known locally as Beeston Bump) after a short drive. It had been on my bucket list ever since moving to Norfolk but my hip dysplasia prevented me from attempting it. The view was absolutely stunning and absolutely worth the trek up, which wasn't as bad as I expected.  To the east we could see Cromer church and to the west Sheringham Park, golf club, North Norfolk railway and Weybourne.  

During World War II Beeston was the location of a Y-Station which collected material to be passed onto Bletchley Park. 

Thursday would have been my Grandad's 92nd birthday but we sadly lost him earlier this year. I told the boys that they could choose our day out and they wanted to mark Grandad's birthday by visiting the Garden of Remembrance where his ashes were scattered and then a trip to the nearby beach. I was really touched that they wanted to honour Grandad. They haven't had much experience of death of close family members so I thought the grief and sadness would pass them by, with them being young. They were very patient with me because I was overcome with emotion. Answering their questions was difficult but I'm so pleased that they could talk about him and wanted to discuss so much. It's the only way of getting them to understand.

Gorleston Beach is, for us, one of the best Norfolk beaches. Just down the road from the busier Great Yarmouth it has miles and miles of soft sand, a paddling pool, boating pond, clifftop trim trail and play area. Parking is free on the clifftop too-which stops hubby moaning about astronomical car park fees! 

Having played golf earlier in the week the boys were keen to play again but I didn't fancy a trek to Fakenham so we went closer to home at Eaton Park Crazy Golf course. 18 holes were just £3 for Harry and £3.50 for Charlie. I kept score. Charlie took it really seriously, taking his time to line up every shot, but after 9 holes a quick tot up showed that Harry was winning! He overtook him by the 18th hole though and won, thank goodness. I'd never have heard the end of it if he had lost to his younger brother. It was a really well looked after course and the man running it was brilliant with the boys. We then spent a little while on the play area before heading into the city for a bit of shopping. The morning at the park was a good way of bribing them to come shopping! 

We didn't have a full day on Saturday because Molly was returning home from her trip to London with my Mum so we needed to stay fairly local. Another thing on my Norfolk bucket list is to walk the entire length of Marriotts Way. It's 26 miles so I'd need a bit of planning...and a lot of time(!) but instead of walking on the same few miles we've covered numerous times we went to Aylsham to start from the other end. We packed yet another picnic (don't you just love eating outdoors?) and went for a gentle stroll. 

After the first half a mile or so Charlie discovered a play area so we had our picnic and let the boys burn off some energy before continuing with the walk. 

We aimed to walk about 2 miles, using the handy mileage markers created from old rails. The boys, in the right frame of mind, will walk for miles but it helps if they have something to look for.

After a mile we were on the outskirts of Aylsham and heading towards Cawston and Reepham. The countryside was beautiful and the boys became quite involved in looking for different flowers, birds and insects. While hubby and I rested at the 2 mile marker they spent a long time 'dismantling' a range of flowers and plants to see what each one was made of. They loved guessing what everything would contain and what it would look like stripped bare. I also spent some time teaching Charlie to 'fire' the plantain weed head into the air. I used to spend hours shooting those at my sister and friends!! 

They were absolutely filthy at the end of it but it was a fab few hours in the countryside and educational too!

With Molly back home and the school holiday soon over we wanted to make the most of the sunshine so we went to Great Yarmouth for a bag of chips and a wander along the sea front. We parked at the opposite end of the Golden Mile (more free parking!) and walked through the Waterways and came across the model boat club. The boys were most impressed with the speeding RC boats.

We sat on the quiet North beach for a while and using an empty fizzy bottle we created a couple of beach games. First up we took it in turns to fill it up with tiny pebbles and then we were timed at shaking it empty. It was much harder than it sounds, especially when a larger pebbles somehow got in and blocks the neck! We each had our own techniques and we must have all been funny to watch, madly shaking a bottle and shouting encouragement at each other. I'm happy to announce that I was the clear winner! 

Next game was target practise...something we always play at the beach. I was absolute rubbish at this one but Harry managed to knock the bottle over a number of times.

The boys were very brave playing long jump off the promenade. 

After a while I lay there relaxing and apparently I dozed off for a few minutes. I was just inspecting the inside of my eyelids 😉

The children are always on the lookout for unusual shaped pebbles on the beach and Harry did well to spot this tiny heart. He gave it to me saying "A heart stone for you Mum because I love you" Awww. What a lovely end to a lovely week 💜💙

This post is linked up with Coombe Mill's Country Kids weekly link up. Click the image below to read more posts of families having fun in the great outdoors.