Does anyone else have weekends that are jam packed? Event upon event upon event? Well last weekend was one of those weekends for the Lightys. In fact, last Saturday was a big first for Baby Lighty: it was his first trip to the beach!
Technically, he has had a couple of trips to the coast before – once when he was tiny and we were trying to make the most of Mr Lighty’s last day of paternity leave, and once when we enjoyed a few days in a cottage in Sussex – but he’d never actually been on the beach itself. Which meant that we were really excited when we were lucky enough to be invited to Walton-on-the-Naze for the day, to visit our friends who were holidaying in their caravan there.
The Great British Summertime didn’t let us down either, and Saturday gone was a glorious summer’s day. We loaded up the car with a picnic, bucket and spade, swimwear, towels and pretty much everything but the kitchen sink and set off on the hour and a bit journey. Our friends’ caravan is slightly further down coast from the pier, above a lovely, somewhat quieter part of the beach, surrounded by the more traditional beach huts that dot that part of the Essex coastline. Ideal, in other words, for littlies.
We set up camp by the sea wall, at the point furthest away from where the tide could come and get us, and I was so pleasantly surprised by how clean and beautiful the beach was. With weather like we had last weekend, it could have easily rivalled the Med!
Of course, Baby Lighty does always like to be a little bit different, and after my previous experience of him hating a messy play session, and not really wanting to go to town on the cake at his cake smash, I was interested to see how he’d react to the sand. He’s only ever been in a friend’s sandpit previously, and he wasn’t overly impressed with that, so I had a sneaking suspicion that he wouldn’t like the feel of the sand at the beach…and I was right! He wasn’t keen on putting his hands or feet on the sand (which in some ways was quite handy, as it meant that he stayed put on the beach mats and picnic blanket rather than wander off!!), and when we took him down to the water’s edge, there were a lot of “wows” coming from him, but once his little feet were in the water it was a different story and he wasn’t impressed by the sea either: Baby Lighty decided that he would take to doing some sort of yoga pose to ensure that only one foot was ever in the water at any given time!!
“I must keep one foot out of the water at any given point!”
Digging!
The view from the pier.
We had a brilliant day, and I know that Baby Lighty did too, as the next morning he didn’t wake up until 11am – pretty much unheard of for any baby, surely?! Mrs Lighty, of course, got up at 8am to check on him, and then didn’t know what to do with herself as Mr Lighty had taken the opportunity to lie in too.
Once everyone in the Lighty household had woken up, we had another big event on the Sunday: Nanny Kersey’s 80th birthday lunch! Technically, it was her birthday the week before, but it wasn’t until all of the family members were in the country that we went out to celebrate. And as an added bonus, Nanny Kersey picked our wedding venue’s restaurant for the lunch! This did, of course, mean that Mrs Lighty was determined to take a recreation of one of our wedding photos, but with Baby Lighty included, especially once I realised that I’d unwittingly picked a long white (if somewhat floral) dress for the occasion!
The original wedding photo…
…and our attempt at the recreation! Yes it has bugged me since last Sunday that Mr Lighty and I should have been on opposite sides of the photo!!
Now that’s what you call a birthday cake!
The birthday girl!
All of this, and we haven’t even mentioned Mrs Lighty’s grown-up night out on the Friday. Let’s just say that Mrs Lighty’s weekend started just as wonderfully – with Pimms and Prosecco and good friends involved – as it ended….
Proud to be linking up with:
I love the idea of recreating you wedding photo with your little one, and its beautiful!
#fortheloveofblog
Thank you! Should’ve been the other way round, but still… 😉 #fortheloveofBLOG
Sounds like an utterly fab weekend! Alfie loved his first visit to the beach, we couldn’t keep him off the sand or out of the water – he wasn’t even interested in his lunch which is unheard of for him! We love your wedding venue, and went there to celebrate my Mum’s 50th a few years ago, it really is so lovely there. Love that photo recreation, it’s so cute!
Thank you! We love our wedding venue too, the food is always fab! Ah Baby Lighty does scare easily. Anything he’s not sure of – like the sand or the sea – is not for him. He did make us chuckle though with his beach-yoga!! xxx
This is lovely, I love weekends like this (although they are knackering)! That is such a good idea that you got to recreate your wedding photo with Baby Lighty, I would love to do that. Beaches and babies are a weird combination but it looked like he was enjoying it. When we put our daughter on the sand in Spain a few months ago, she didn’t move for ages, I think because she didn’t know what she was sitting on, but eventually decided it was ok to crawl on the sand. I hope you all had a brilliant weekend. We had a similar action packed one last weekend, I think I’m still recovering. Thanks so much for linking up at #fortheloveofBLOG. Claire x
I know, it kind of makes you grateful for the quiet weekends in a weird kind of way, doesn’t it?! I really want to take Baby Lighty abroad on a beach holiday now, but we’ll need to save up for it. Thanks for having me on #fortheloveofBLOG 🙂
A lovely post! I just love the recreation of the wedding photo. Both the original and the recreation are beautiful. Looks like you had a wonderful weekend. By the way, I was so touched by your letter to baby Lighty on his first birthday. Just beautiful. I have my second son’s first birthday coming up. Such a wonderful and emotional time! xx
Ah thank you! So kind of you and thank you for taking the time to read my posts! Just wished we’d managed to realise that we should’ve been the other way around in the photo, ha!! Happy almost second birthday to your son too xxx
haha it’s such a beautiful photo! Sorry the way I wrote that was confusing. He is my second born but he’s one at the end of the month. Such mixed emotions, no longer a baby but going onto that lovely toddler stage too. xx
Always lovely to read your posts xx
ps thank you for his early birthday wishes xxx
Ah I see, sorry! In that case happy first birthday 🙂
Aw thank you lovely and thank you for following my blog xx
I’m glad you had a nice time at the beach! I took my daughter to the beach for the first time a few months ago and she was NOT impressed – I suspect because she had just started walking and the sand felt unsteady under her feet. I love the beach so I’m hoping that she’ll start to like it a bit more as she gets older. #fartglitter
That’s exactly the same as Baby Lighty, he has recently started walking and thought “what on earth is this?!”. And me too, really hoping he’ll grow to love it. #fartglitter
That cake looks delicious and what a lovely break and amazingly some good British weather too!! #dreamteam
Yep we were definitely lucky with the weather! Thanks for taking the time to read my post 🙂 #dreamteam
Ah your posts never fail to make me smile. I love the little man’s yoga pose haha, and the idea or recreating your wedding photo is genius and really effective! Sounds like you had a brilliant weekend and your gran had a lovely birthday (and cake. Check out that cake!!) 😉 Thanks for linking with #fartglitter x
I can’t take credit for the cake, my cousin organised it, it’s Patisserie Valerie no less!! Ah I know, Baby Lighty’s yoga pose had us all in stitches, it’s the look on his little face too!! Little does he know but he’s off to the beach again tomorrow… Thanks for having me on #fartglitter 🙂
Wow- busy busy. Don’t worry about the beach, our tot hated it at first and is still scares of the water but he has come round lots.
#fartglitter
Well, in typical #parentinglawsofsod style, yesterday Baby Lighty decided that he liked the beach when out with the childminder. After I’d told her that he doesn’t like the sand. Totally showed me up!! #fartglitter
Ah we have been to Walton-on-the-Naze, not for ages mind. Lovely though isn’t it? Love that you got to recreate your wedding photo! x
Yes it’s really lovely – the last time I went was for GCSE geography coursework, ha! Thanks for taking the time to read my post 🙂
What a lovely weekend it looks like you have had. The beach looks wonderful and as does that fabulous cake! What a very clever idea to re-create your wedding photo 🙂 We are heading towards Walton-On-Naze soon… I can’t wait. Thank you for linking up to the #DreamTeam xx
Ooh you’ll love it, it’s really beautiful there yet still has that British seaside feel #DreamTeam xxx