Thursday photo #248

Unless we’re away in the camper van, our weekends tend to follow the same sort of pattern. Saturdays are spent outdoors. Usually visiting a National Trust property, the children often ride their bikes. It’s a day of freedom and fresh air and I know they always feel better for it.

Being outdoors in Winter

I sometimes feel a bit guilty for dragging the girls outside when it gets really cold. On Friday, the girls played in the snow twice. Once before school on the decking, then we went up the Malvern Hills for a walk at the end of the school day. They had a brilliant time playing with friends and although they got a bit cold, there were no complaints.

On Saturday though, our day took a slightly different turn. We decided on an indoor activity for the morning and headed to Inflata Nation in Birmingham. The girls had an amazing time and definitely burned off plenty of energy. Afterwards we went to Wagamamas for lunch at their request, and by the time we got home it was nearly dark.

Then, they did something that surprised me. Rather than chilling out after their busy day, both girls went out to play outside on the trampoline. It made me realise that perhaps I’m not being unreasonable for dragging them outside every weekend. They clearly felt in themselves that they’d missed out on time outside, so they made up for it in their own way. It was really interesting to see and I think we’ll be back to outdoor play this weekend.

Developing personalities

One of the best things about being a parent is seeing the girls’ personalities develop and grow as they get older. When Libby was tiny, she was always very shy with people. This soon changed when she started drama lessons, and she became incredibly outgoing.

Lia has never been quite as shy as Libby was, but her self-confidence in terms of taking part of activities has always been quite shaky. She doesn’t like water slides much. Roller coasters are a definite no, and fairground rides can’t go too fast. She’s also always been a bit wary of big inflatable slides.

When we arrived at Inflata Nation, she was straight onto the little slide, and I thought that would be it for her. But when Libby wanted to go on the big slide, Lia seemed keen to go along too. They went up with my husband and I expected him to have to give Lia a bit of a shove when she bottled it at the top.

What actually happened was that Lia flew up to the top of the slide and came bombing down it like a bat out of hell. Libby and my husband were still on their way up the steps when Lia threw herself off the top. She is definitely becoming more confident, perhaps she will be a little dare devil like her sister.

Thursday photo #248

I have no idea what this even was that the girls were playing with at Inflata Nation, I think it might be a scoreboard for the gladiator game that wasn’t open. Either way, they spent ages inventing their own game with it and playing together in fits of giggles.