Chilling out at home over the summer holidays

I'm definitely a home bird. I'm always happy when I'm at home, keeping myself busy and pottering about. If it wasn't for my husband, who is always on the go, I'd probably rarely leave the house! But since having children I've found that a day at home can drag, and it's important to try and get out and about somewhere. Even just a quick walk to the playground or a couple of hours spent at a friend's house can break up the day and give the children enough social interaction that they will amuse themselves quietly at home for the rest of it. So I do like to make an effort to get a few things scheduled in the calendar over the summer.

But I'm not one of those people that takes the children out and about all over the place. I think we'd all get exhausted! I also don't want my husband to feel left out, not to mention the fact that we'd have no money left by the end of the summer. We'll probably only do one or two full day trips out over the holidays with friends and then the rest of the time we'll fill our time with some play dates, trips to the swimming pool, and local outings to break up the day.

The children do play nicely together at home (for a short while at least!) and they are happy with crafting, jigsaws, reading, helping me with bits and pieces of housework, baking and so on. They also do have time to spend playing video games and watching their iPads, although I try to limit it as they'd happily do that all day!

Sometimes I do feel a little bit inadequate when I see pictures of people out and about visiting all sorts of exciting places over the summer. But I remind myself that we often go away on holiday during the school holidays and have amazing experiences together - everyone needs some downtime to relax and if the children are content to spend time in the house with me then so am I.

What do your summer holidays look like - are you out and about all the time or are you happy to spend time chilling out at home?