Highlights of 2013

2013 - The Best Bits!

January is always such a gloomy month, it's cold, wet and there's not much going on. So I've decided to take a bit of time to re-cap my best bits of 2013. Lloyds Bank have been looking back at the moments that mattered in 2013 which has inspired me to write this post!

It was quite a momentous year for me as it was the year that I started my own business and registered as self employed. It has been so exciting to watch it expand and I am loving every minute of working on it. I also saw my children grow and flourish as the year went on. It was amazing watching my daughter learn to read and seeing her speaking on stage in her first proper school play. My son transformed from a toddler to a little boy and oh and we also had a new conservatory built!

But I think my favourite moment of 2013 was our holiday to Cornwall in July. We were lucky enough to stay in a gorgeous cottage set in lovely farmland which the kids adored. We usually lead very hectic lives so this holiday really gave us a chance to spend quality time together without the various demands of the school run, jobs and after school clubs that usually have us running around like headless chickens!

We also took my mum and dad with us and it was great for the children to be able to interact with them and get to know them (and it was also rather useful for us to have some babysitters on call!). As we live in Hertfordshire we are pretty much land-bound and so we were all very excited to see the sea. Our nearest beach was the glorious Summerleaze in Bude and we spent many happy hours playing on the sand, making sandcastles, paddling in the sea and rockpooling. The children learnt about sea creatures (well we found a dead crab), tides, different types of seaweed and the fact that the sea is actually jolly cold.

We visited the most amazing wildlife sanctuary where we got to feed some beautiful deer, admire peacocks and my husband had a go in the wild bird display. We also spotted wallabies and saw a Scottish wildcat which didn't look too happy to see us - although thankfully it was behind bars.

Other great days out were the stunning ruins of Tintagel where the children pretended to be knights of old and the Launceston miniature railway which was a great, if slightly chilly, experience.

But most of all we just enjoyed chilling out and spending time together. The farm we stayed on had alpacas and chickens and the children got to choose a fresh egg for breakfast each morning. We had a lovely garden and my dad and husband were very fond of the Australian BBQ which cooked us up some rather tasty treats. We ended our holiday with a date night at a quaint little cafe overlooking the beach - perfect! In fact we liked it so much that we are doing it all over again this year.