Aaron's Blog

1st Day In Year 5

So, Aaron is now in Year 5 and has Mr Stein as his teacher, the same as Ben had.  He seems to like him, which is good, and is doing well considering he hadn’t been to school since March!  There was a blip a few weeks into term though, when he, and the rest of year 5, had to isolate for two weeks as a child in their year’s parents had a positive covid test.  Luckily, the school was a bit more prepared this time so he had better organised work to do at home, although he stormed through it all each day and ended up finishing early most days!

He has been enjoying PE each week and has been doing tag Rugby and cross country.  Reports in from other children are that Aaron has been doing exceptionally well and is actually beating a lot of the regular runners at cross country now! It’s no wonder really as he is tall and lanky and should be near the front! haha  They have also said that he and Rafe are excellent in tag rugby as they are the two with the tags and they do a really good job of keeping away from everyone else.  A very good team apparently!  Awesome!

Homework wise, until a couple of weeks ago, he has only had spellings to do – nothing else at all!!  Coby has had about 4 pages of homework each week so Aaron has been very lucky so far!  Since he has been getting homework as well as spellings, it has only been a small amount and so not taken him very long at all. Lucky chap!

Anyway, he is getting on very well, which is the main thing!

Here is a pic of him on the first day of school.  He is dressed in his PE kit as the children have to go to school wearing their PE kit If they have PE that day as they are not allowed to change at school anymore, due to covid.  Unfortunately, it does mean that if they get wet and muddy, they have to stay in it for the rest of the day! He has come home very, very mucky most days!!

From the 5th November until the 3rd December, lockdown 12 was enforced for England, so everything was cancelled again, apart from School this time as the Government wanted education to keep going.  Thank goodness for that!!!  However, it meant all clubs outside of school, which had only really started up again, were stopped, inc football, Beavers, Cubs and swimming lessons.  So we were again stuck at home and only allowed out for essential shopping and for some exercise.  The restrictions weren’t quite as severe as earlier in the year but the Government had to do something as deaths and hospital admissions were spiking again and we subsequently had a second spike of Covid-19.  So we were very lucky to go away for my 40th birthday weekend!!  Oh well!!

During October, we went to stay at a lodge in St Merryn for my 40th birthday.  The lodge was very nice and had a massive hot tub.  It was a good weekend and Ben, Aaron and Coby really enjoyed it there – especially the hot tub of course!  We had Chinese takeaway on Saturday evening and watched a couple of films and played some games during the days.  As it was half term the following week, I took the Monday off of work so we had 3 full nights there.  We made very good use of the hot tub, even when the weather was cold and wet!

We were intending to go camping for Ben’s 12th birthday weekend this year but the weather forecast wasn’t very good at all so we managed to change that until the May Bank Holiday weekend next year so instead we managed to book a last minute caravan at Devon Cliffs.  We had only been here a few weeks ago at the end of August but enjoyed it so much, we thought that we would book it again, but in a cheaper caravan this time.  As October is out of season, prices were cheaper anyway but we did manage to get a really nice caravan that was only a few minutes walk from the beach at a much lower cost.  So we were pleased with that!

We travelled up on the Friday after school and had a Burger King takeaway when we arrived as they onsite BK delivers onsite as well.  We managed to get there just in time as there was an accident on the road on the way so we were later than we hoped.  We did still manage a quick walk on the beach that evening as well, which was nice during dusk.

We spent the Saturday in the beach with the boys playing in the sea and went to the restaurant for tea.  Aaron ended up, somehow, leaving his tablet on the table so Kelly had to go back in and luckily it had been handed in!  Lucky Aaron!  We then went back to the caravan and played some card games until bedtime.

On the Sunday, we couldn’t sleep at all, so we ended up all getting up for a walk on the beach at 6am.  It was lovely and we were surprised with the number of people that were up and about at that time of day!  We had a nice long walk along the beach and then went back to the caravan and had a cooked breakfast.  We then had a walk around the complex and ended up in the arcade to use up the last of our pennies.  We were meant to get some sandwiches for lunch but we ended up going to the other restaurant and having a nice meal.  We then had to go back to the caravan and start packing our stuff up as we had to drive home that evening.  We had considered staying overnight and leaving really early the next morning but we decided against that.

Once again, we had had a really nice time at Devon Cliffs and it was a perfect weekend for Ben’s birthday.  It is such a lovely place to stay, what with the beach, arcade and other facilities onsite.  I don’t think this will be the last time that we will stay! 🙂

During the August Bank Holiday weekend, we booked to stay at a caravan at Devon Cliffs Haven in Exmouth.  We hadn’t been there before but we loved it there!

The holiday park was brilliant and had it’s own beach, restaurants, takeaways, arcade, swimming pool and other activities to do.  Because of Covid-19 though, restrictions were in place so we couldn’t enjoy the facilities as we would have had normally, i.e. the swimming pool wasn’t open and we had to wear a mask in any indoor areas (such as the arcade) and to get to our table in the restaurants.  Anyhow, it was still great and we really enjoyed ourselves.  We spent a couple of days on the beach as the weather was pretty good and went to both of the restaurants, which were also really nice.  In a way, having the restrictions made things better as the restaurants were nice and quiet and nicely spread out so we could relax more.  I think we spent most of our time in the arcade though and must have spent a bit of money in there!  It was great fun and the boys had won enough tickets at the end of the weekend to get some sweets each.

The caravan that we stayed in was nice as well, although we had to contact the owner as we found items from the previous occupants in there.  Obviously, the cleaners hadn’t done a very good job so the owner got them in again.  We wouldn’t have worried too much but with Covid-19, everything was meant to be thoroughly cleaned down between visitors.  Anyway, the owner was apologetic and we left the cleaners to it on the Saturday morning whilst we went to the beach.

The beach was nice and big as well although there were loads of wasps!!  The water was freezing but it was nice and calm each day, so it was nice and safe for the boys to play in with their bodyboards.  We had a couple of beach BBQs, which was nice, and generally had a nice time.

It was a lovely weekend at Devon Cliffs and we will definitely be going back again although we will probably try and get a caravan closer to the beach so we could just walk the distance next time.