As I mentioned in my Week in Pictures post, one of the things we did on our trip to Margate was visit Storkes Adventure Golf. There are several things that I consider obligatory on a trip to the British seaside, these include ice cream, paddling, eating fish and chips and playing a round of mini golf. Our trip to Margate was all about making the most of the gorgeous weather and enjoying all the things that the seasides on our doorstep have to offer.

Strokes Adventure Golf is a short walk from the town centre, by Westbrook Bay.  We walked along the beach to get there and it was lovely. Their 18 hole course is perfect for grown ups and littles ones alike, with varying degrees of difficulty. You can enjoy gorgeous sea views while trying to navigate between rockscapes, plants and water features.

The course was really clean and well maintained and such a nice place to spend a couple of hours. The staff were so lovely £5 for adults and £4 for children I think it’s a really affordable way to pass an afternoon.

We really enjoyed our game of golf, although there was a little cheating and maybe a little too much being competitive! But luckily there were snacks and refreshments available at the shop, so we could take a little time out and enjoy an ice cream. There’s also a sheltered seating area if you need a little break from the sun.

If you’re planning on visiting Margate, this is definitely something I’d recommend doing. There’s plenty of summer holiday left for day trips to the beach, so if you’re running out of ideas to keep the kids busy, this is a great place to start.

I’ve got lots more Margate content coming up very soon, we packed so much into our visit! We made so many happy memories in the three days we were there and it was my first trip alone with the girls. I just can’t wait to go back with Rob and challenge him to a game of golf!

Find out more on the Strokes Adventure Gold website.

*Thank you so much to Visit Thanet and Strokes Adventure Golf for providing a complimentary game of mini golf in return for this blog post. All opinions as always are my own. 

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Oops! I’m predictably behind with my weekly updates already! But better late than never I say! I just wrote a seriously long list of all the posts I need and want to write before the end of August, so hopefully there’ll be a bit more blogging happening this week! But in the meantime, here’s my belated My Week in Pictures post.

Sunday 29th: This was a pretty busy day for us. Rob was working all weekend so it was just me and the girls. First up we took Jessica to her rising lesson. It was the first rainy day in ages, but we weren’t complaining, it was nice to cool down for a bit. We had a look at some farm animals and Lila had a little pony ride.

When we got home I made the girls a leek and bacon frittata, which looked absolutely delicious. I’m vegetarian so I didn’t get to try any but they definitely enjoyed it. Other than that the day was mostly spent packing for our trip to Margate and getting the house tidy before we went.

Monday 30th: Today we arrived in Margate! We did so much while we were there, that I’ll be writing some specific posts on our stay and what to do in Margate, so I won’t clog up this post with everything.

But to summarise – on Monday we… had cupcakes in The Curious Cupcake Cafe, Played on the beach and did some of the rides and activities on the beach, explored the old town, checked into our stunning Air BNB, Went for pizza at GB Pizza, Played on the beach some more, had gelato from Melt, went for a long walk and finally settled for bed! Such a long but very fun day!

Tuesday 31st: In the morning it was straight to Dreamland, where the kids went on loads of rides. I was so impressed with how brave Lila was going on absolutely everything! As well as going on all the rides, she held a snake and a tarantula and spent ages learning to roller skate at the Roller Disco. We spent about 7 hours at Dreamland and had the absolute best day. I’ll be writing all about it soon.

I wore my new lemon print dress from Tu Clothing at Sainsbury’s. I went to so many different branches looking for it. And finally got my hands on it just in time to wear it in Margate.

After that we headed to the beach to spend the rest of the day paddling, making sand castles, eating ice cream and enjoying the most gorgeous sunset. It was such a lovely way to end the day.

Wednesday 1st: Our last day in Margate! In the morning we headed to the visitor centre to pick up a Coastal Explorer pack. You can read all about that in my last blog post. It was so much fun and has given me so many ideas for future visits to the beach.

We then headed to Strokes Adventure Golf, for a really fun round of golf. I’m going to write about this a bit more later in the week, but I don’t think you can visit the British seaside without a round of crazy golf and this one is particularly good. So definitely a must visit, if you’re staying in Margate.

Then it was time for a few more hours on the beach and a dip in the tidal pool, it was time to head back to London. I was very sad to leave Margate and definitely didn’t do everything on my list, but it was great to get home to Rob she I’d really been missing.

Thursday 2nd and Friday 3rd: I literally took no photos on either of these days. After a non stop busy start to the week, we spend a couple of days at home relaxing, washing all the sand out of clothes and watching films and playing. I had so many emails to catch up on and life admin to get through that nothing exciting happened at all!

Friday 4th: It was lovely to have a family day at home. Rob finally had a day off work and we spent most of it in the garden. We did a few things from my Summer Holiday Bucket List. We spent ages making a farm in the garden for Lila’s farm animals. We also planted some bean seeds, which although it’s a little late in the season, will hopefully grow so I can make a bean wig wam.

Saturday 5th: We had another day in the garden, we started off by making a mini beach for Lila’s dolls. We just filled a dish with sand and made mini sand castles with some toy buckets. it was really fun.

Then we headed to Garson’s Farm to look at the lovely sunflowers and took some pictures and picked a couple to take home. We also went to the garden centre to buy some herbs and compost.

When we got in we made a lovely wheelbarrow herb garden, which we’re going to have so much fun adding too and picking lovely herbs to cook with. This was such a fun activity to do with Lila and a great way to spend some time outdoors.

I’m planning to do proper posts one a lot of the things we did this week, as soon as I get a moment! I also need to do a post on last week, so please bear with me as keeping the kids busy, the house tidy, the laundry done and everyone happy takes up so much time in the holidays, that theres not much time left to write!

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We’re already two weeks into the summer holidays, it goes so quickly! A couple of weeks ago I shared my post on how to make the most of the summer holidays, but I also wanted to do a bucket list of all the things I personally want to do with the girls this summer. A few we’ve already done and there are lots I’m looking forward to trying.

Every year I have the intention of making a holiday scrap book, where we write about our day and stick in pictures and tickets and things we’ve picked up on our day. We’ve never quite got round to doing it properly, except in the Easter holidays this year, when Lila had to do it for her holiday homework. It was so much fun and really made use appreciate all the things we’d done. I’d love to record some of these fun things in our scrap books this year.

Go crabbing. Can you believe we haven’t done this since the last time I blogged about it? I just checked and that was 2013! Definitely time to get the crab line out again and have some fun.

Plant stuff in the garden. I’d love to get some little pots and let the kids choose a few plants to put in them and take care of over the summer.

Match box challenge. I spotted this one in a book. Basically each kid has a little match box and they have to gather tiny things likes stones, seeds, leaves and petals and see what they have found at the end.

Fly a kite. There are few things as satisfying as getting a kite in the air. We have tried many times and succeeded a few!

Build a bug hotel. I’ve wanted to god this forever! All you need to do is gather old tiles, bricks flower pots and bits of wood and stack them up to make a little home for lots of bugs.

Nature rubbings. Simple, classic and fun! All you need is paper and crayons and you can use the rubbings for other crafts and decorations or just stick them in the holiday scrapbook.

Plant a bean wigwam. I have a lot of bamboo sticks left over from something else, so I’m hoping to make a wigwam out of them and then grow beans up them. It will look awesome when it’s done and the kids can enjoy watching it grow.

Paint outside. I love the idea of sitting outside on out picnic blanket with a paint palette and making some nice painting that we can put in our holiday scrapbooks.

Make a sand kingdom. Not just satisfied with sand castles, I like to be a bit extra and create advanced cities in the sand. I can usually be found on the beach organising a troupe of children into digging the deepest moat around our sand kingdom!

Make a mini wildlife pond. I found this one in a book, you basically make a little pond with a plastic box. You need to make sure there is a way for mammals to get out if they accidentally fall in and there are things to add to make it a nice habitat for little creatures. I think this would be so much fun.

Stone painting. Simply find some nice stones and paint them! Cheap, easy and fun!

Go swimming. I absolutely love taking the kids swimming. I’ve booked Lila some intensive swimming lessons over the holidays so she can gain more confidence in the water, so we’ll definitely be practicing a lot.

Den Building. If you’re a long term reader, you’ll know that we really do love e bit of den building. Mostly thanks to the National Trust. We’ll probably do this at some of their properties, but we also have enough branches ing our garden that we can do it at home now too!

Potion making. Basically grabbing lots of stuff and mixing it into a potion, messy? yes. Fun? also yes!

Make friendship bracelets. I’d love for us to make some little friendship bracelets for each other.

Make a mini outdoor farm. Get all the toy farm animals outside and create a lovely outdoor farm for them to play in.

Bake some cakes. I absolutely love baking,  but I definitely don’t do it enough with the kids anymore. It’s definitely something I’d like to do a lot in the holidays. We can also go and deliver some of our bakes to friends and family.

Visit 10 different National Trust properties. Like I mentioned in my last post, we like to make the most of our memberships. We live reasonable near quite a few properties, so we’ll often pop to them for short visits in the afternoon. I definitely think 10 is an achievable number.

Watch the sunset over the beach. I’ve booked  a few days in Margate for me and the girls and the sunsets are just amazing. We’ll definitely be staying up late to watch the sun set over the beach.

Do lots of bedroom DIY projects with the girls. We’re always working on the girls rooms and we’ve had a few Pinteresty DIY ideas that we’d all like to do together. Watch this space as I think they’ll make good blog posts!

Swim in the sea. No summer holiday is complete without a dip in the sea!

Make the most of the garden. We are so lucky to have a big garden and this year I really want to use it as much as possible. You don’t always need to go far to enjoy lots of outdoor time.

Go on lots of road trips. Last year I really enjoyed just jumping in the car and driving to new places, even if they are not very far. I’d definitely like to go on more adventures this year.

Take lots of Instax pictures. I got Jess an Insta camera for Christmas and I’ve just bought loads of film for it, so we can capture lots of memories over the summer.

See friends and family. I’d definitely like to spend lots of time seeing people we love over the holidays. We’re lucky that both Rob’s parents and mine live close by, so they can expect lots of little visits over the summer.

Have picnics. Picnics are not only fun, but they also save money. So I’ll be carrying snacks, sandwiches and my trusty picnic blanket around with me everywhere!

Go pond dipping. I absolutely love pond dipping, I’m really excited to see what little creatures we can discover.

Give the kids a chance to get snapping. I love taking pictures, but I also love it when I hand the camera over to the kids and let them capture some of their little moments. They always really enjoy it.

Bring back My Week in Pictures. Last summer I did a My Week in Pictures post every week of the holidays. Like my own little diary, mostly of where I’d been and what outfits I wore (my poor kids had to take all my outfit pics!) I’d really like to do it again this year, as they are still some of my favourite ever pics on the blog.

I’m sure I’ll think of loads more things as soon as this post is published, but I think that’s it for now! Fingers crossed we can get a few of these ticked off the list. I might even get my reluctant 12 year old to some of it! hehe. If you have any fun, affordable suggestions let me know. I’m always looking for ideas.

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As promised I am returning this summer with a new round of My Week in Pictures Posts. I only do these in the summer holidays as it’s the most interesting time of year! I don’t do nearly enough during term time! Maybe I should try. The other reason I only do this in the summer holidays is because I have a bit more time. I say this during a massive multi tasking episode, in which I have my laptop on the kitchen work top while I simultaneously cook dinner, fold washing, load the dishwasher, unpack suitcases and the hang more washing to dry. Last week was a little bit full on and crazy and a bit of a juggling act, but we’ve also managed to have lots of fun too.

Saturday 21st: I wrote a little post about this already, but after taking Jess to Pony Club, we drove over to Garson’s Farm and picked some fruit and veg. You can read a bit more about it in my Summer Holiday Diaries post. No outfit of the day for today as I kept it comfy in the heat in a pair of shorts and plain white t shirt.

Sunday 22nd : On Sunday we just had a day in and cleaned the house from top to bottom and generally tried to get ready for the week. I love getting things done on a Sunday and starting my week fresh and organised. It’s amazing how quickly the house gets messy again though! After that we went to see Incredibles 2 at the cinema. n

Monday 23rd: In the morning we made a start on our summer holiday scrap books. I had grand plans to do them every single day with the girls to record our 6 weeks together, but I’ll confess we’ve already failed a little at this. But on Monday we went all out and created some great pages.

In the afternoon when Rob got in from work, we took Lila for a walk around Morden Hall Park, which was absolutely lovely. I wore a dress from Collectif Clothing with some comfy Sun Jellies shoes.

Tuesday 24th: In the morning I dropped Jess at a riding school day and later on Lila went to my mum and dads. I headed into London with Faye for a lovely event with Pukka Herbs. I’m already a big fan of all their teas and this event was to launch their brand new collection of lattes. I will write a full post on them soon, but I can tell you now that they are all absolutely delicious. We were talked through all the different spices that went into each latte and why they are beneficial and work well together and it was so interesting. My favourites are the turmeric and the ginger flavours.

After that we had a brief wander around looking for cute little side streets and found this lovely yellow house. I love that even in the busiest parts of London you can find gorgeous quiet corners and quirky little squares. I got a quick snap of my outfit. I was wearing a t shirt from Primark and a Cath Kidston skirt with some comfy flip flops.

Wednesday 25th: After a chilled morning at home, we headed to Polesden Lacey in Surrey. I like popping out later in the day during the holidays, so everyone gets some relaxed time at home and we can get any chores out of the way. No one has to be in a rush and the girls can have lunch first. It’s definitely one of the best things about it staying light so late in the summer. We took in the lovely view and looked around the gardens.

I wore a yellow floral dress from Primark with my Hotter Sol sandals. I’ve picked up so many great dresses in Primark this year. I’ve been on a budget and they’ve just had so many awesome things that I can’t resist.

Thursday 26th: I spent the morning catching up on lots of work, I wish I’d got a bit more finished before term ended, but July has been non stop and there was no time to get ahead! I got loads of blog pictures taken and edited all ready for when I get a bit of time to actually write and post! I also tackled my Inbox which is always filling up so fast I cannot keep up.

Luckily I eventually got everything done and we went to lovely Ham House for a play in the garden and some lovely tea and cake. I sat under a tree while the girls had loads of fun doing gymnastics on the lawn. A great end to the day.

I wore a lovely top from Primark, which they have in. a few colours at the moment. They go with absolutely everything. My skirt is also Primark, but I bought it from eBay a couple of years ago for about £1.50. I’m wearing my Sol sandals from Hotter again. They are so comfy and go with everything. I cannot recommend gold sandals enough.

Friday 27th: Jessica went to a gymnastics club for the day and Lila and I ran lots of errands and got a few bits we needed. We also popped to the lavender fields for a gorgeous walk and an ice-cream. I always feel really lucky to live so near them, as I know people travel a long way to see them. I always try to go as often as possible in July and August when the lavender is in full bloom. I love seeing all the cute little bumble bees.

After weeks of no rain, the heavens opened while we were there and it was the best thing! I love the smell of hot summer rain and rising it with the gorgeous scent of lavender was just amazing. I was so grateful for the little break in the crazy heatwave too.

I wore a gingham skirt that I made myself a few years ago and the top from Primark in cream. Of course I’m wearing my Hotter Sol sandals AGAIN, even though you can’t see them!

Saturday 28th: We popped to the farm so Jess could go to Pony Club (yes she does too many activities, no I can’t really afford it, yes I’m bad at saying no 🤷🏻‍♀️) Lila and I had a play in the playground and went to see all our favourite animals. We go so often that we know every single one! I didn’t even get any pics of the animals or farm as we’ve done it so many times. Will make more effort next time! Lila did take a quick pic of my casual mum outfit, linen shorts and a yellow top from Primark. I’m wearing the Sol sandals in white this time.

So that was our busy week! Sorry this post is going up so late, we’ve been away this week and I didn’t get this finished before I left. Lots of catching up will happen this week.

I have to add that despite having a wonderful and full week with the kids I actually felt pretty down all week. Rob was working very long hours, my parents and brother were away and all my friends were working and I felt a bit lonely and really missed everyone. Being a mummy is the best thing ever, but not speaking to another adult all week can be a bit isolating. I also just felt like my mental health was a bit off and everything was a bit too much. You get through these little down weeks and life goes on, but I never want to give the impression of things being perfect. My kids act up, I get sad, I have a little cry, it’s all normal and OK. Just also a bit shit to go through!

I’m going to try to do one of these each week of the holidays, as well as Summer Holiday Diaries which will be longer posts about places we’ve been. I’ll also still be posting my usual content. You can keep up with everything over on my Instagram, where I post a lot!

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