Last Updated on 15 April 2023 by Colette
I think it’s fair to say that, traditionally, February half term is probably my least favourite holiday. It’s still cold and almost always wet so it can be more challenging to keep the kids busy without spending a fortune! That said, I do think it signals a move away from the dark dreary winter days as you know that Easter can’t really be that far away!
This half term seems to have been a particularly funny one with a real split in dates – not just one or two local authorities on a different timetables but a real divide across the country and in fact just in Manchester it seems to have been about half and half across the various authorities (and believe me – we have quite a few!)
Click through here for ideas of things to do in Manchester this February half term
Luckily for us we have been able to spend most of half term catching up with friends. When I asked Ben, Chloe and Amy what they wanted to do over the holidays the first thing they said was to see Emily and Oliver followed by a trip to soft play and of course there was the unspoken expectation of a “Butler / Burgess Day”.
On Monday, Mich and I combined the Butler / Burgess Day with the soft play request as it meant that we didn’t have to worry about the weather and the kids could run off some steam whilst we had chance to chat. Mich made the genius suggestion that we take advantage of the split half term and travel to a soft play in an area where it wasn’t actually the school holidays and this proved to be a wise move as it meant the centre was relatively quiet, although they still charged us peak rates which I thought was a little mean! We picked a large (and expensive) soft play to make sure that they boys were well occupied and spent a lovely couple of hours there.
We hadn’t actually seen Emily and Oliver for quite a while as the October half term and Christmas holidays in York didn’t seem to align with ours in Manchester however, this time we struck lucky. Usually we meet up in the Leeds area for a picnic and space to play, but I think it’s fair to say that February is never really going to offer up picnic weather and we decided that I’d take my gang over to York for a play date at Lizzy’s on Tuesday. (You might have seen her freshly baked bread on my instagram stories!) We stopped off for tea at Granny and Grandad’s on the way home too, having not seen them since New Year!
Wednesday was very much an “at home day” – getting some tidying up done and ticking off a few jobs with the reward of McDonalds for tea and then a trip to the cinema on Thursday to see Paddington 2. Chloe really wasn’t all that bothered about going but then actually loved the film in the end – we all did. Dave took Thursday afternoon off work so I could nip over to Leeds to get my hair done and have a cheeky dinner date with Kirst.
We ended the week with a really lovely play date in Heaton Park with Molly and her girls. The sun shone, the kids got on and everyone had a really nice morning. Bonus Mum Points for me for having time to making a flask of hot chocolate for the kids before we left too – this is the second time I’ve thought to do this now, my three are going to start to expect it!
It feels like the week has flown – but we’ve made the most of it and, let’s face it, it’s really not that long until the next holidays – just less than six weeks till Easter and we’re so busy that I know it will be here before I know it!
