Outdoor Holiday :: PLAY

We didn't just contain our play to the beach. But it often seems that children are in the constant motion of play wherever they may be. We like BMX parks, ducks, playgrounds and play-fishing for crabs. I revelled in the luxury of many playgrounds (there being, er, none at home in the countryside). We alone of all of our relatives who use the family holiday home know of the most playgrounds. Indeed our holiday overlapped a bit with my dh's brother and so we were able to show him a handful of our favourite playgrounds. Very smugly. We found them only because once we reach our home from home we are reluctant ever to get into the car until it's time for the holiday to end. This means we walk at least five miles every single day, a roundish trip encompassing parks, beach, the town and whatever else takes our fancy. In on the act was my dh who went to University here and so has the low down on short cuts and fuzzily remembered ideas of where he once thinks he saw a park (which single male notices such things?). So each and every time we have visited St. Andrews in the long/short years since Isaac's birth we discover and discover and this year was no different. It's always so good to feel you are visiting and remembering and making anew. Familiar, cosy but still exciting.











Lots of firsts too this year: Esmé, of course visited for the first time. She had her first swim, her first real beach time and rock pool exploring. There was a three-wheeler buggy there and this girl was *thrilled* beyond words to ride in it. She is one pushchair deprived babe.





*** Please tell me so that I can correct my dh - he laughed a million times and shook his head looking at Esmé dressed as she was in this picture above. He said she looked like a crazy bag lady, or that a colour blind person dressed her. For one, I told him, I just grabbed clothing and this was how she ended up looking, I didn't have a plan.... and two I think she looks cute, and maybe a *bit* ecentric, but that's ok for a baby.... am I wrong, is he right? Tell me! ***



Felix learned to ride his bike, properly without the little trainer wheels, he caught a crab on a line with squid (and let it go). The tooth fairy visited him and left silver under his pillow, for the very first time. Isaac big on his notes and ideas acquired an old fashioned typewriter to jot them down with the lovely-typewriter-y instant gratification constantly required for him. He was big enough to use the BMX ramps at the skate park without being too intimidated by the Big Kids (although to be fair they were at School). Ducks! Living where we do means we lack a duck feeding outlet which was filled to satisfaction pretty much every bread-sparing day.















Could I forget the golf? Well yeah.... I pretty much could. But being in the home of golf stirs some males into golf mode. And so.