Our Summer Holiday Break

So! The summer holidays have been and gone and on Tuesday my little ones went back to school. Over the summer we had a good mixture of being away and doing our own activities. The children have had their own days out and we've had some rest days too. In this post I wanted to share what we got up to, in a nut shell of course!

We kicked off the summer holidays in a rather wonderful way with our cousins wedding. Everyone looked amazing and we all had such a lovely time celebrating with the happy brides. Here's some photos from the wedding which the children enjoyed. I just loved the whole set up!

The Cupcakes Go to Cambridge ~ Beyond The Ice House 2017

Every 2 years we venture up to Cambridge to visit family and listen to local music at Beyond The Ice House on my Aunt and Uncles land. We meet up with cousins from Cambridge and Portsmouth plus Grandparents, several aunts and uncles and a lot of friends of the family including a real friendly bunch from Mount Dora, America, who were camped out in the meadow we were in.

The Mount Dora Crew

The ice house is an invite only event my Aunt and Uncle run every couple of years. There are drinks, live music, loads of food based on the bring and share theme plus laughter, games and plenty of people to chat to. The main aim of this event is not just about having a good time but raising money for Camfed, a charity that works to educate girls and support young women in rural communities in Africa. My Uncle worked in Zambia years ago and saw first hand the lack of education for girls. Ever since then Beyond The Ice House has raised money for the charity. The total I've just seen for this year is £6550.15 which is AMAZING

The Holiday

As usual we had ourselves a little caravan, it was difficult to be here given this was our first holiday as a single parent family. The kids took a day to adjust too. By Saturday we were all much happier. We had bacon in the field in the morning, then went in to Cambridge (that was a near disaster, thankfully my friend rescued me!) we managed to catch up a bit whilst the children played but didn't spend nearly enough time together so have decided to do a girls day out somewhere in the near future!

When we got back it was pool time which is probably the highlight for all the children. Mr K met us at the house too which was so wonderful. We all got to chill out together with the children getting to know him a little before going back to swimming. We listened to some local bands and some American groups (including those folks from Mount Dora who got people in the spirit!)

Here are some photos from the holiday:
With thanks to my sister 

 I asked the children what their favourite bits of the holiday were:

Midge: "My very favourite part of the holiday was having loads of fun in the swimming pool, especially when I swam on my own! I loved seeing all my cousins so much"

Little A: " I liked the swimming pool and eating 'macon' (bacon) in the morning."

A successful event and a successful first solo parenting holiday for me!

Cupcake Mumma

Our Cambridge Holiday

Now I've had a couple of days sleep, I thought I'd share some of the highlights from our family holiday to Cambridge. For the most part we had wonderful sunshine but sadly did get caught in one rather heavy rain storm when we adventured into Cambridge. This happened to be one of the best days for me though because I got to meet my pen pal and social media buddy of six years Kerrie! It was ace and the children all got on too which was lovely. 



For 2 days we enjoyed a small music festival listening and dancing to local bands to the small hours. We camped in a caravan, had outdoor camp stove dinners and breakfast with the birds early in the morning. In the photo above you can see one of the very cool camper vans that turned up for the weekend. Hubby and I always get jealous when we see these! Midge playing with one of lawn games. My cousin selling her homemade items and supper of cereals in a mug: yum.

One of the acts was a Samba Band local to Cambridge. They were my favourite act and had everyone dancing.

When almost everyone had gone we took over a second caravan and joined in coffee mornings outside and visiting more family who have recently moved near by. Midge and Little A went exploring and we all had fun going on some countryside walks. We were pretty sad to leave but had a wonderful time.
I took some photos as we arrived at the train station in London and the view from the Taxi. I'm such a tourist, I love it! Midge fell asleep on the way to London on Daddy and the only photo of me on holiday was this one of Little A and I on the way to Kings Cross!

I want to thank my Aunt and Uncle for once again opening their home to us all. We had a lovely time and miss them very much already. Ice House 2015 here we come!

Cupcake Mumma

Day 29 Where Have you Travelled?

I bet I'm going to be so very boring compared to a lot of the bloggers participating in this challenge! I have only travelled out of the UK twice and that was, on both occasions, to France.

I went when I was very tiny on a big family holiday and I don't remember a thing. I was probably about 3 but have been informed I ate frogs legs. How gross.
I also went to Brittany when I was in year 7 with my school year so I was 11 then. We stayed in a convent, had only 5 minutes to shower to get through everybody, there was a lot of sun burnt teens and not much to do. I came back with a few items from the Hypermarche. I don't have the items I bought but I did recently find the receipt from this trip in my memory box which I was delighted about! I spent most of this trip pretty bored to be honest and kept falling out with my best friend too so what could have been an exciting and educational trip to France was spoiled and I don't think that well planned considering I don't remember a sodding thing!

Otherwise I've only ever been to Sussex for a funeral, Devon where my Aunt and Uncle live (and that was years ago) and Cambridge which I love and cannot wait to visit again. We went to My aunts house where they hold a music festival some years, it was fantastic!

Live music!

A lot of kegs!

I wouldn't mind seeing America but I don't think we'd ever be in that kind of position financially, still you never know. I would also need to get over the fear of planes which is pretty bad! Otherwise I have no desire to go abroad and just want to explore my country so much more.

CupcakeMumma