Family Fun
Tags: cousin izzy, dartmouth park, family, frankie and bennys, out and about, sandwell valley country park.
Our last few Saturdays have been filled with family; my sister stayed the night with her husband and their 2 year old daughter, and we’ve also visited my grandparents as well as meeting up with James’s father. That’s a lot of socialising for a toddler in a few short weeks!
When Jennie and co came to stay we took them out to a local country park with a farm, tea room & fabulous wooden play area. Dartmouth Park is right next door with a second large play area as well, so by early afternoon both kids had enjoyed lots and lots of fun & Georgie’s cousin Izzy was nicely tired out for their drive home! The kids both loved seeing the animals at the farm and enjoyed their “little farmers” lunchbox which was great value and came complete with glittery animal stickers and a toy animal each – what more could you want?
Georgie doesn’t get to spend an awful lot of time with her older (and therefore obviously much cooler) cousin, as they live a good few hours away, so it was lovely to see them have some interaction time. Unfortunately Izzy was more interested in spending time with our Norwich Terrier Homily than anyone else – the rest of us were often ignored in favour of our animated teddy bear of a dog!
The Saturday just gone was spent over in Warwickshire, which is now to be nicknamed “the county of over-eating”. We had lunch with my grandparents, spending a few hours with them at their house to have a decent chat while Georgie played and explored the house with her Great Grandad in tow. Thankfully she was remarkably well behaved, and the visit went very smoothly! You never know what is going to happen with a toddler in a house that is not at all baby safe.
Following our huge (with seconds) lunch of slow cooked lamb at Grandmas, we met up half an hour down the road with James’s dad. Anthony spends a lot of his time at his home in a remote corner of Ireland, and gets work doing temp vet jobs all over the UK. If he happens to be working close to us we try to meet up. Even so, this was only the second time that we’ve managed it this year, and Georgie has changed an awful lot in the last 6 months so there were big differences for him to see in his granddaughter. Back in April she wasn’t quite walking, was barely talking, and was quite a bit smaller. There have been lots of growth spurts this summer!
After a drink and a failed attempt at the Wacky Warehouse (it was just too crowded with older kids for a slightly tired Georgie to relax and enjoy herself), we headed to Frankie and Benny’s for an early dinner and we all ended up eating far more than we expected to manage! I’m not sure how I didn’t burst, eating a second good meal not long after lunch, followed by half a banoffee sundae! I didn’t really have room for it but I just cannot resist the lure of a F&Bs banoffee sundae… 
Needless to say, after two busy busy weekends in a row, I’m looking forward to a quiet few days this weekend, with just some light housework to deal with!
