Our week of summer activities in Devon

Last week I had the week off work and spent it with the girlies, and the hubby when he wasn’t working. It was my first time off these school summer hols but hadn’t planned many activities as our proper holiday to France is later this month. Even though I say I hadn’t planned much we seemed to be busy pretty much everyday. We got up to quite a few things and I thought I would share them, in case you were ever in Devon looking for things to do these summer holidays.

Saturday
We were all off so decided to go and have a walk around Stover Country Park which is just outside Newton Abbot and close to the A38, the main road between Exeter and Plymouth. It is a wildlife park with a lake with lots of points to feed the ducks and many other trails that you can walk and cycle.

There is also some great children’s trails. My eldest loved reading the Ted Hughes poems and my youngest looking for the carvings of the animals in the woods.

After our walk we sat under the very tall trees for a picnic, a great spot for hide and seek and finding pine cones.

We spent just over a couple of hours at the park and then decided to pop into Torquay, which is just down the road from where we live. Paignton Zoo have just started the Great Big Rhino trail so we went on the hunt for some of the Rhinos & a cheeky ice cream. Here are the girls with our favourite so far – Suns Out Horns Out.

Sunday
Once a year there is an event on Paignton Green called Dubs on the Beach. This is the hubby’s favourite event as it’s a chance to look around a load of lovely done up T5’s and VW campers. Alright, I actually like it too as some of the vans are done up just gorgeous on the inside. They really make you feel like you can be care free and lets just travel the world! Unfortunately I couldn’t get many pics as the girls were flitting between them all but here’s one with the obligatory ice cream!

Monday
The weather was not so good today, in fact it rained for most of the day. So after a very quiet morning I surprised the girls with a trip to the cinema to see Finding Dory. We really enjoyed it, and my eldest bless her was having a little cry at the happy and sad bits. I really enjoyed the film too, as usual they have the great one liners for only us adults to get.

Tuesday
Again the weather wasn’t great so we went over to a friends for a play date which lasted most of the day.

Wednesday
Today we took the train from Paignton to Teignmouth to catch up with my mum.  There is a fab play park on the seafront where there are some water sprinklers which the girls love so we headed there first.

After nearly a couple of hours playing we headed to the Beachcomber Cafe just next to the park for a well earned lunch.

After a very large lunch we then wandered down to Teignmouth Pier to play the 2p machines.  I grew up in Teignmouth and have many happy memories of spending days and evenings on the pier so it is great to take the girls and see them having fun too.

We then walked further down the seafront to get an ice cream before catching the train home again.

Thursday

The girls had a bit of a lie in this morning, so after a quite morning we then popped over to Torre Abbey, which is in a Torquay, to take part in the Six Weeks of Summer activities.  The Abbey have put on a fab activities timetable, with different themes every week. Cost wise it is reasonable too. Some of the activities are free while others cost up to £15 for an adult and child to take part in a three hour workshop.

The activities on Thursday only cost £2.50 per child to make junk bugs. They first of all encouraged the kids to draw what they wanted to build then off they went to look at the vast array of materials to build their bug with. My oldest was helped by one of the assistants there and she came up with and built a great bug. I supported my youngest who just wanted to paint so we made a butterfly together.

It really was a great way to spend three hours and the girls really loved all the arts and crafts. I am sure we will be back to another session this summer.

Friday
Hubby was off work today after working Lates all week so we took a road trip to North Devon to visit my sister. We met in Braunton for a coffee and cake and then travelled 10 minutes down the road to Saunton Sands for a day on the beach.

We visit North Devon a lot but I have never been to Saunton Sands and I will definitely be back. The beach is about 3 miles long so there was no worry about finding a patch for us to base ourselves, even though as it was low tide it was a long walk to the sea for a spot of body boarding. The facilities by the beach were great, with toilets, showers, cafes and shops. The car park was pay on exit so you didn’t have to worry about returning to the car to buy another ticket which meant we could stay without worrying about a ticket. We brought our lunch and had an ice cream from the cafe, lovely pasties and hot dogs which were perfect for a picnic lunch.

After a good five hours on the beach we tidied up and then drove back to Braunton for tea. Braunton is more a village than a town but it has a great choice of places to eat. We chose Squires Fish and Chips restaurant and managed to get a table upstairs. The fish and chips were great, and the kids portions were massive. It was the perfect end to a lovely day.

This is what my sister had, and this was the mini fish and chips!!

Saturday
As we didn’t get home until 10.30 pm the night before we had a slow morning but then packed a picnic and went down to our local beach, Broadands where we have a beach hut. It was a lovely lazy day splashing around in the sea, making sand cakes and making friends.

I am writing this on Sunday night, feeling quite exhausted after all of our fun days out! Back to work for me though for a couple of weeks but then I’ve got some more time off for our summer holiday, can’t wait!

Hope you have been having a great summer holiday so far, I would love to hear what you have been up to.

Jo

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