Family Saturday

As part of my new beginnings and plan of all plans I 've had loads of ideas on how to spend more quality time with Aiden and Sienna, so I thought up 'Family Saturday'.
With my insomnia being quite bad recently, it's given me lots of thinking time!
I got thinking back to all the amazing things I did when I was a child - I still have no idea how my parents afforded it!! I would have an activity or club every day of the week, some free, some at school, but I was always busy.
The freebies were playing in the school orchestra and quartet, hockey club and helping at Robins Youth Club.
Then I had weekly dancing lessons (modern and tap). I played the violin and then changed to the viola, which I played in a weekly lesson, then at music school in Cromwell Strings and the Viola Group on Saturdays and finally for Berkshire String Training Orchestra (until in my last year, when I finally made it into Berkshire Youth Orchestra!). I tried the clarinet for a bit too! When I was in Primary school I did judo lessons and had swimming lessons in the summer holidays - all things which cost money that I'm almost certain my parents struggled at times to find, but never said so!

Anyway, it got me thinking about what we do for Aiden in particular, as Sienna's still a bit too little for lots of things ;) and I realised that he doesn't get enough quality time or activities in the week. He goes to gymnastics once a week and pre-school 3 sessions, but the rest of the time it's pretty much at home playing (alone, or with mum, dad, Dean or me) or watching the telly. As I've been struggling so much with my depression, I've found it really hard to find energy to play with Aiden and kept hearing myself saying 'I'm too tired at the moment,' or similar, which I hated!

Now that I'm better, Dean and I have agreed to have Saturdays as 'Family Day' I googled loads of local places we could visit (free and cheap!) and some crafty / baking things to do at home. Each Saturday we are going to choose something to do all together :) Once a month we are going to have one special activity that costs a bit more money, as a treat. I picked out 4 activities for March: baking biscuits and decorating them, going to the local Lakes, painting canvases to decorate Siennas room (we did the same for Aiden's room - we did one and then both sets of grandparents and uncles did one each as well) and our special trip is going to 'Coral Reef' which is a bit of a trek, but will be a great treat!
For our first official 'family Saturday', we got on our wellies and Aiden's waterproofs and took off for a walk round the Lakes. We had a brilliant time! We fed the ducks and swans - some of them got a little too close for my liking ;)

I'm keeping an eye on you swan!!

Typical isn't it, you say 'cheese' and
Aiden pulls a face like this!

 I'm having a go at photography, maybe with the end resulting in some lovely nature cards that I could sell??



Then I taught Aiden how to play 'Pooh Sticks' which I used to love playing with my grannie when I was little!

trying to spot where are sticks had got to!

We (well, Aiden and I!) then splashed in all the puddles we could find on our walk round the lake. I'm not sure who had more fun, Aiden or me, heehee!

 

Finally we then had a spot of lunch at the gorgeous cafe. Aiden also got to make some flowers in pots for grannie and nanny, as they were running a crafty activity session - only £1 per pot!
This is one of my favourite places to visit, as it can be totally free if you don't stop for lunch! Also, as we are sooo lucky to have such a beautiful nature reserve just down the road, it's almost criminal not to make the most of it ;)

I can't wait for next weeks fun, probably one of the home activites this time :)