Mid Year Review 2017

Well, where on earth did that 6 months go? I seriously cannot believe half the year is now over. I don’t want the years to fly by too quickly, we are having too much fun! I thought I would do a quick mid year review of 2017 so far, giving some thought to how we will spend the rest of 2017.

Our Travels

We’ve done most, if not all of our international travel already. We came back from Serbia on Monday and we thoroughly enjoyed Croatia just 2 weeks before that. I will get round to writing posts about our trips very soon. Needlesstosay they were both involving synchro! There is the possibility of another international comp towards the end of the year but we are not sure if this will come off.

There has also been a LOT of travels up and down the country – The trips down south to training, calm down a bit now over the summer. Our Mini is sighing a huge sigh of relief!

We are due to get the caravan out in the next couple of weeks for lots of trips to the Lake District and who knows where else. This will be our first year in 9 years that we haven’t visited Biarritz. I think we will really miss it during August but for now we are glad of the rest!

The Blogs

I will admit, both blogs have been quieter than I would like so far this year. I have a huge backlog of posts that I am desperate to share. To try to catch up, I’m attempting to post every day during July – either here at 2 Adults 3 Children, over at Casa Costello or a video on my YouTube channel. Lets see how it goes!

There are tons of recipes and cake photos to share as well as reviews and travel posts. And that’s not even mentioning the Reading Roundups!

Books

Which leads me nicely onto books. This area is going really well. I’m racing through so many good books this year and enjoying reviewing them. My TBR pile is getting slightly out of hand & I’m thinking I might have to get round to buying that extra set of shelves very soon. I’m on my 3rd Sharon Bolton of the year, this one is a bit slower (Dead Woman Walking) but I’ve a feeling it will pick up soon.

Tara is simply a whizz at reading – I have no idea what they do in her school to get them to such a high level, but its obviously working! Violet has done so well too this year – We had an impromptu trip to the library last week when she spotted a couple of books that she was desperate to read. This is huge progress when, just a couple of years ago, it would have been a struggle to even get her to agree to a trip to the library. David Baddiel is her current favourite, closely followed by David Williams. An author doesn’t have to called David to appeal to Violet but it does help!

Pets

We have always been very clear that we would get another kitten after the loss of our precious Darren. The timing just hasn’t been right until now though, with our trips to Croatia and Serbia. The hunt is definitely on for a kitten to come to its forever home now though – especially after my sister just last week adopted 4 adorable little kittens!

A post shared by Helen Costello (@casacostello) on Jun 28, 2017 at 3:42am PDT

Schools

We are nearing the end of primary for Violet – heading headlong into a month of parties, masses and end of school plays. Trying to be brave about it (Me, not Violet – she can’t wait!) and focus on the exciting times ahead. Our journey to high school wasn’t completely simple – again, I’ll blog about this over the next couple of weeks.

Millie is almost at the end of her first year in her ‘new’ school. She’s loved every minute of it. So many new friends and wonderful experiences. She came back from a 3 day expedition for her Silver Duke of Edinburgh award earlier today and is frankly buzzing with all the hilarious tales to tell.

House

Well, I’m still no further on with re doing our bedroom. The paint has been bought to chalk the furniture but so many synchro training sessions a week mean that decorating sadly seems to take forever around here. Millie and Violet have now both added to the list by requesting makeovers for their rooms too. They definitely need more glamour and an older feel to their rooms which I will be hopefully sharing with you by the end of the year.

We’ve been toying with the idea of moving house – We do so much traveling to Millie’s school but it didn’t seem worth it for just another year. Add a change of plan to where Violet will be going to high school though, and suddenly it seems quite sensible. We are keeping our options open for now but who knows, if the perfect house came along, we may be on the move. The idea of a bit of a project appeals to me – I have more time during the day now but the sensible one of us (Dermot) keeps my plans under control!

Synchro

I couldn’t do a review of the year so far without giving a nod to synchro. It takes up so much of our time and brain and that’s even without me & Dermot getting wet! Millie has loved her first year of being on Team GB – a great achievement for a 14 year old. Her highlights so far have been coming first in technical figures in Croatia & silver and bronze medals at British Champs. Lots more work to do for the rest of the year which will be no easy task during her GCSE year. (Many thanks to our friend, Jon for the pic)

So that’s it for now – How has the first half of the year gone for you? Hope its been good so far. Any surprises?  Don’t forget to pop back during July to see regular updates.