Over too soon...

We've just had an excellent weekend as Little Sis and family finished their Autumn half term at my place. If I'm going to be honest, everything didn't go entirely to plan but we proved that it is still possible to have some family fun at a cost of not much more than a little time and effort. What's more, if they can travel 250 miles to come and visit, then I've nothing so important that won't wait for a couple of days.

Friday, we headed out to Woodthorpe Garden Centre where they already have an extensive Christmas display open, but all year round they have a free play area with trampolines and an impressive maze.

After a quick bite of lunch prepared in their camper van, we went on to Woodthorpe Aquatics where they have such a huge range of pond and aquarium fish available that it's worth going just for a look around even if you are not buying. I'm sure they will thank me for that.

From there, our plans took a bit of a nose dive as we went in search of a working water mill to find that one had closed for the season and the other had been converted to a private house and closed to the public completely.

Undeterred, we took comfort in the wonderful selection of ice cream at Applebys at Conisholme then headed home where I rustled up a Chinese meal for the six of us.

I'd been hoping to fire up the barbie for tea on Saturday but by lunchtime the weather was already looking questionable. We took a drive out to Waltham Windmill where once again the tourist industry had conspired against us and almost everything had closed, but we amused ourselves for a while between the play area and the traditional sweet shop on site.

Cleethorpes seemed surprisingly quiet given that it was half term and the rain had held off so we stopped off at the Jungle Zoo. It achieved the objective of delighting the youngest two of us, but I'm afraid I have to agree with these guys (in this case) that the birds and animals on display didn't appear to be particularly happy and would certainly benefit from bigger enclosures.

As predicted, the weather dictated that the "barbie" was prepared between the oven, the grill and the trusty George Foreman, but everyone had their fill (and still more in my case) and we toasted Little Sis' recent job sucess with a glass of bubbly. As an added bonus, what left-overs there were have now been re-jigged to furbish me with packed lunch for this week.

Before we knew where we were, it was Sunday morning and and despite having been given an additional hour, I was stood in the drive waving them all on their way again. Still, it's only eight weeks until we all meet up again for Christmas.

*Gulp* it's only eight weeks to Christmas...