Here in Birmingham, there are just three full weeks of term left before we break up for the summer holidays. My contract at work finishes at the end of term, and although I will be really sad to finish, I can’t say I’m not looking forward to being at home with the kids! Because the kids go to the school, and I am a member of the PTA, I’ll still have lots to do with the school anyway, so I’ll still get a chance to see some of the staff that I have made friends with.

Graham is going to be going back to work full-time in the summer. We are hoping that he will be starting pretty much as soon as I break up, so it’s going to be a massive change in routine for all of us. I’ve never really been at home with all three of them by myself – since Ben was born, Graham has been around so I could focus on building up my writing work. I know that without any plans in place, the six weeks are going to be pretty challenging, so I’ve been thinking about things to do and places to visit.

Obviously, a lot depends on the weather and on money. If the weather is nice, we will try and get out and about as much as possible (although the thought of taking the three of them out alone is terrifying!). I’ve got a list of woods, parks, and places that I want to visit and explore with them. If the weather is naff though, it becomes a lot trickier. I know lots of people will stick on wellies and raincoats and go out, but that’s not me. I can’t stand getting cold and wet! No doubt at some point we will visit a soft play centre, and perhaps have a few play dates with friends, but I’ve also started thinking about things to do in the house.

I have ordered a tuff spot to try and do some messy play with the kids. They love it, and so do I, but we haven’t done it for a while because I don’t want to ruin the carpet. Tuff Spots are so versatile because they can be used for messy play, to do art and painting in, to create imaginary and small worlds and contain things like Lego. I’ve been mooching around on Pinterest for ideas for things to do, and hopefully, I will be blogging about what we have been up to. We also have a nice back garden, so we will try and spend as much time outside as we can. The kids have all sorts of garden toys and I’ve got a few ideas sorted for things to do outside.

We are hoping to go camping for a few days at some point. Last year we went to a lovely campsite about an hour or so away from us, and if the weather is ok, we would like to go there again. My parents are going on holiday to Wales for a couple of weeks, and they (well, my mum!) has given us permission to go and gatecrash it for a couple of days, so we have that to look forward to.

So there are our summer holiday plans – let’s just hope we get some decent weather!! What are you planning?