Mair's efforts at keeping fit!

 I love where we live, a little village by the seaside, in North Wales.
After growing up outside London, and living in a busy capital city in Central Europe I have valued the peace and tranquility and safety we have here.
Every summer I have to stay in London for 4 days as a Team Leader for GCSE RE. We are put up in a lovely hotel and I have the opportunity to shop and see shows.
The first two days are great, apart from the hard brain intensive work, and missing the kids. The third and forth days, I just cannot wait to get home. The noise, bustle, dirt grime and exhaustion of trailing through London no
Longer hold any appeal whatsoever. The train journey home is great. A feeling of calm and peace wash over me the minute I reach the Welsh Coastline and see the sea once again.

 There is no better place in my mind to bring up children. All our kids have bikes and scooters and over the years we often go down to the play parks by the beach. As it's only 10 minutes to reach the sea we can go after tea or quickly at the weekend for a break.
We go all year round, even when there's no one else in the park!
Mair loves the parks. Her Grandmothers flat over looked them and it was one of her joys to watch her grandchildren play there from her windows.

 It is so important for children to get fresh air and exercise. These sort of trips cost nothing other than our time and effort.
In the summer we take a disposable barbecue and have tea in the parks whilst the children play and chat to friends there.
This time, it was just me and Mair having some one to one time together. The babies were asleep and the older ones were busy doing their course work. Simon took Jono up to the mountains for a longer walk so I gave Mair the choice of where she wanted to go.

 She chose the parks, the beach and then, predictably, the ice cream shop!!! In the middle of winter!
She has her little routine with the park and does not like it one bit if one of the older children come too and spoil this set pattern of activities. She equally hates it when they 'show' her how to do things or tell her she's doing it wrong. Hence it's much quieter to take her alone as well.

 I must admit I find it fairly exhausting to keep climbing up and down and then play an invigorating game of hopscotch and I am jolly glad none of my students live nearby and can capture some of my feeble attempts on their mobiles!
The play parks are across the road from each other so its easy to move from one to the other.
The only thing to watch out for are seagulls! or rather over friendly, over confident and greedy seagulls.
They are known to swoop done and gobble sandwiches and food from your hands. When Jono was little one picked his sandwich right out of his mouth and flew off!

 Jono, needless to say is not fond of them nowadays!
Mair is very confident and it is nice, finally to be able to relax a little when she is at the parks. This will be short lived as the twins will be walking soon so constant super valence will once again be the order of the day.
I am enjoying the break! No longer having to sprint from end to end chasing after a small child!..although it did keep me fit!

We had a lovely afternoon. It was a very sunny, but chilly day, and there were not many people around. It was lovely to spend time with her and talk about the things that are important to her as we played, without being interrupted or laughed at. Without the TV or phones or other everyday distractions. Just us.

When she grows up, it is these times and these photographs I will cherish the most. These are the precious years of my children's lives.
These activities and the bonding times they create are the events that my children will remember and reflect on as well. We often talk about the funny things that happened on our trips to the parks over the years, and we have many!