Again, another super long starting piece for the Christchurch Eye, which had to be edited down from 800 words to 300! I hope I get better at this!
‘Hurray! We’ve completed the ‘marathon week’ – otherwise known as the last few days of school and the carefree contentment of summer is slowly creeping into our routine and do I dare jinx it and say we are falling into a fairly pleasant summer rhythm? The ‘summer bucket list’ ideas are providing a constant invitation to satiate our appetite for adventure and conversations start with ‘Let’s do, Let’s go, Let’s find’ and I love it. But I’m well aware that this school summer holiday is a long old race and we’re going have to pace ourselves if we’re to survive until September when school restarts at 8.40am. But hey who’s counting?
So we’re busy creating happy memories, which will stick in my children’s minds long after the sand has been washed off and the buckets and spades packed away and to be honest I’m enjoying it all as much as them because I want my boys to have some of the summer memories that I have. We all have childhood memories which we want to protect our children from – divorce, bullying, broken friendships or struggling in school – But summer has the potential to bring out the best in many families and I’m making certain it brings out the best in ours. So we’ll be repeating my favourite parts of childhood and together we’ll add in a few of our own – because although I can’t control parenthood, how we spend the next few weeks is something I can influence and I’m going to make sure that we fly this holiday flag really high, making sure that whatever the weather our summer is colourful and fun.
We’ll be welcoming in the holiday season by watching ‘Summer Spectacular’ at the Regent Centre performed by The Glad Rag from the 27th – 30th July, enjoying Stompin’ on the Quomps on the 6th August and joining in the fun at Christchurch regatta, fun fair, carnival and fireworks on August 13th -14th. And these big moments will be interspersed with doing the harbour walk, dingying down the Stour, charity shop book hunt, rotating between the beach, pool and splash park, having a summer film night, chalk drawing on the patio, playing in the paddling pool, blowing bubbles anywhere, taking a train ride or bus trip, sand castle building with a moat and a flag, buying water melon at the market, making a tee pee, having evening picnics, going on a bear hunt, having a rain dance, face painting, duck feeding, shadow dancing, splashing in puddles, making morning pancakes, playing uno and making up our own memory games, puppet shows, hula hooping, boat trip down the Stour, look at the view, camps with friends, decorating the car windows with catchy phrases like ‘are we there yet’, fruit picking, sparklers on the cliff top, trying to catch fish, catching grass hoppers, homemade dens with bin bags and pegs and cushions, sibling Olympics in the garden and mini olympics at the beach inspired by the Rio olympics, wave jumping and body boarding, skim boarding and sprinklers, walks around Stanpit, family moon walk, water balloon fight, eat breakfast for dinner, flying a kite, paddle boarding, watching the sun set, sleepover with friends, make friendship bracelets, summer playlist, torch light scavenger hunt, spa night, random acts of kindness and then if the planets align – hopefully a meal out ‘sans’ kids for Jez and I.
.. Aren’t we lucky to be able to do all this in Christchurch and the surrounding areas? – as I tell the boys almost every day!
But be in no doubt that these wonderful plans will all be weathered by reality because no-one gets to dodge the rubbish bits in life fully – there’ll be more messes to clear up, more arguments, kids will wreck havoc and we’ll have the inevitable stir craziness, the ‘Can we’, ‘Can you’ followed by ‘I’m bored’ comments and the reapplying of sunscreen on little moving bodies will test my patience but it will be entirely worth all the efforts put into this summer. Even the bit of arriving ‘in style’ at the beach – me feeling hot, sweaty and ladened with random bags, towels, toys balanced precariously and spades dropping off the buggy whilst I attempt to pull it across the sand or the hideous leaving the park moments where ‘two more minutes’ turns in to ‘I’m not gonna ask you again’ which turns into a fake ‘I’m leaving!’ strop.
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The baton has been passed and I’m running with it inspired by my own summer memories. How I love Summer! So much potential and possibility… so many things you could do and achieve…. and hopefully sunshine beckons so we can all enjoy a cheerful dose of summery things. Wishing you a wonderful, warm, sand filled summer. What summer memory from your childhood are you most looking forward to passing on to your own children?
Oh my goodness – it’s so long! Below is the published piece which Jez had to edit down for me as I’m obviously so precious about my words.
…and I got a little reminder that I had to stick to no more than 300 words from the magazine.