Folk Week Fun

This past week, a local town have been hosting their annual 'Folk Week'.  The bloke and I got together during Folk Week and are both huge fans, as we have always taken the week off of work to enjoy it fully.  Bands play, stall holders sell their wares, Morris dancers line the seafront and there is a general atmosphere of summer, relaxation and good company.

We spend time with friends in beer gardens, getting up to dance with the boys when the folk bands play.  We pop down to the beach and enjoy building sandcastles and paddling in the sea.  We wander along taking in the magicians, jugglers, dancers and buskers and we most certainly indulge in some 'folk week fudge'.

We watch the parades, point out the hobby horses and feed our pennies to Clarence the dragon.  We took Dylan's little bike and zoomed around the quiet roads, strengthening the little dude's legs after his break.

Once the little ones are safely tucked up in bed, we take it in turn to enjoy an evening out on the busy seafront, sitting outside with cider in plastic cups and catching up with friends old and new.  Some nights we kept the boys out later, an evening picnic on the beach or in the park followed by live music at the bandstand until we are all ready to retire to our beds.

Dylan learn to walk again, and more importantly, learnt to dance again, loving the kids club put on every morning and the stick banging music.  We spent every day out, as a family enjoying each others company and meeting up with friends.  

Folk Week is our favourite week of the year, the atmosphere, the location, the familiarity, the smells, the sounds and of course the delicious fudge.

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Barcelona with a Toddler

We have recently returned from a lovely family holiday to Spain with our toddler son and Barcelona was an amazing place to visit with a small child.  We are already missing the warmth as we snuggle under blankets back home! 

We had a fantastic time although I was initially worried about taking a 14 month old who has just learnt to walk on holiday.  Luckily it all went rather smoothly and we managed to keep him awake for long enough that he slept through most of both plane journeys - result!  We found that Barcelona was the perfect choice for a holiday with a toddler as the country is very family friendly and Dylan absolutely adored all the attention.

We stayed in an apartment a few stops away from the main attractions so as to have a bit of a quiet place to wind down in the evenings.  It did mean having to get the Metro complete with baby and buggy, but luckily it was much easier than using the London Underground with a child.  Most of the stations had clearly marked lifts that meant getting around was easy.  There were a few that didn't and luckily we had bought our lightest stroller (Cosatto Super-Lite) as the bloke ended up carrying both buggy and baby up and down the stairs in an effort to be chivalric and not make me do any lifting whilst pregnant. ( I think he secretly enjoyed the exercise as there were usually offers to help.)

On the tube Dylan never had to sit in silence.  Everyone wanted to wave and blow kisses with him and they all marvelled over his chubby cheeks and blonde hair.  Even the most unlikely candidates were cooing over him and he never tired of this, playing up to it all every time!  I found that without fail I was offered a seat on every train so I think my bump must really be protruding now!

Out and about we found that every restaurant had a high chair and although none did children's menus, it is not really necessary with tapas and Dylan loved each and every thing we gave him to try!  Some places were amazing with him and bought over colouring, bubbles, toy cars and took him for walks around the place too which made eating out very easy!

Attraction wise we did things for each of us.  There was plenty of time for shopping and looking at the architecture but we also visited the aquarium and the gorgeous Park Guell where we let Dylan explore and his fascination with going up and down the steps began!  

After a lovely day in the gardens and parks of Montjuic we saw the amazing light, music and sound show at the magic fountain as the sun set and although the little dude was getting tired he loved to watch it.  It was a complete highlight for me as it was in a beautiful place at the end of a long day walking and exploring and it made for some beautiful photos!

Having an apartment was the best choice we could have made as when we got back of an evening, Dylan went straight to bed and we could have a lovely sofa and kitchen space to wind down ourselves and make snacks.  He loved being able to walk around and explore and luckily there were no proper accidents considering it had a very hard floor and he had been walking all of a week unaided before we got there! 

The three of us had a fantastic holiday made easier by the fact that Barcelona is a great place to take a toddler, and his naturally flirty personality was very welcome! We enjoyed our last week away as a family of 3 and are already pining for the sun!

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