April 2021 | Looking Back

April was a busy one for us. It was nice to have the boys off school so we could enjoy half term and some adventures together. Like most of the months this year, April just flew by and I actually cannot believe we are in May already. We did have a lovely month  and I have really enjoyed looking back at our April. 

National Trust

Once again we tried to make the most of our National Trust passes this month. Sometimes it can be hard to plan in advance as you have to book up to a week in advance. The tickets for the week ahead go on sale early Friday morning.  So far we have been lucky and have visited every time we have booked and the weather has always been kind to us. 

First we headed to Speke Hall. There was an Easter Egg Trail around the estate for the children to enjoy. It was lots of fun and little J enjoyed following the arrows, solving the clues and getting a chocolate treat at the end.

Tatton Park was also on our visit list for this month. Here we enjoyed a different type of trail. Percy the Park Keeper has created a secret path to follow to help find his friends and gather all the tools he needs for a big spring clean up. We really enjoyed this trail in Tatton Park Gardens and got to meet Percy at the end. 

Next we visited Quarry bank Mill where little J enjoyed another Easter Egg Trail. We’ve never visited Quarry Bank Mill before so had no idea what to expect. We all enjoyed lovely views of the gardens, the mill and then headed on one of the walks. 

I am so pleased that we bought our National Trust memberships last year. It’s really helped us get up and go over the past few months and enjoy some lovely properties, gardens and walks.

Spending Time With Family and Friends

This month we managed to squeeze in some time with our family and friends within the lockdown restrictions.

We took little J and his friend to another National Trust favourite of ours, Formby Red Squirrel Reserve. They spent the day building dens, swinging from a tree swing, rolling down sand-hills, enjoying a picnic and even finding some animal bones. It was lovely to see them play together and catch up on all the things they’ve missed out on over the past few months.

We also had the chance to head to the park for a lovely afternoon with family. Watching Little J and his cousins play together made us all so happy as they have missed out on so much time together over the past few months.

Another family day out was to the Ice Cream Farm in Cheshire. This was definitely our favourite day out this month. It's been a very long time since we visited the Ice Cream Farm so we were pleasantly surprised how much it has changed with lots more to see and do. They boys spent their day climbing, bouncing, crawling and digging for jewels. We finished off the day with an ice cream.

Another Injury

Unfortunately there was another injury this month.  Last month was big J hurting his ankle and ending up on crutches, this month little J broke his little finger. It happened while he was playing for his football team. As he is the goalie he has to make lots of difficult saves and sometimes gets trampled on. We’re not quite sure which one caused the break, maybe it was a mixture of the two. 

We hesitated at first about taking him to A&E and thought about strapping his little finger together to the next with a bit of cotton wool and tape. We are so glad we took him because his little finger was broken. He ended up with a full cast up to his elbow. This is a new procedure for broken fingers at our local hospital and hopefully it means that he will be on the mend sooner. The bad news was it did mean that his goalie duties were passed on to somebody else and he had to watch his team from the sidelines.

Looking forward to a fun May with lots planned.

Michelle