Project 365 – July 2026

July has come and gone, featuring great weather and fantastic vibes! I have been enjoying summertime, having more activities, and Kai has been very much enjoying his routine. I am excited to have such good weather and such good times ahead. We spent a lot of time soaking up the sun with some workdays sprinkled in. Every break from school, I am so happy that Dann and I work from home, flexible, so that we can make the most of the days. Children are only small for so long! I wrote about each and every day of July as a part of Project 365 – if you want to see some other bloggers, they are at the bottom of this post. Some write weekly, others monthly like me. Some even write daily!

July 1st – Raids and Friends

Today was a work day, where I spent a lot of the day working after making and dropping off Robin’s lunch for school. I had a lot of tasks, which very much kept me busy. In the afternoon, we went out to play Pokemon Go, with a bunch of friends. Though the World Cup was on, as England continued to do poorly, more people appeared out for Pokemon. This was pretty funny! Kai then joined a few of us for the movie Supergirl, which was very good. Afterwards, we went home and I did a bunch of household stuff with Dann before heading to bed. We are trying to get our garden sorted and do some refreshes to the house.

July 2nd – Quiet Thursday

Today was a bit of another work day, where I spent quite some time working. I packed Robin soup again for lunch, even though it was very warm, because she keeps asking for soup! Absolutely wild. Amelia also needed a packed lunch dropped in, as she was heading to a trip. She had a fantastic time! After school, we all just hung out at home. I spent the evening writing, which was very productive, while Robin, Amelia and Kai all played video games. It was a simple evening but a good one. I ended up going to bed early as the heat has been a lot!

July 3rd – Rocksteady, Cupcakes and Friends

Today was a classic busy day! I made lunches, packed some backpacks, and everyone headed into school (well, a part from Kai, who is done for the year). After school drop off, Dann and I went to see Robin’s Rocksteady concert, which is where she plays guitar. It’s the last one of the year and she did so well – she actually played a song Amelia did when she was in the program, and they have been practicing together at home all term, as Amelia has a drum kit at home and Robin has an electric guitar. After the show, we went home and I got more work done until pickup. I then got Robin and we waited for the school’s summer festival to start. Robin walked around, going on some of the inflatables with her friends, before grabbing some stuff from the stalls and heading to Preform. One of her friends is now going to Preform with her, which is so much fun! Amelia had two of her friends over after school as well. I made dinner, we ate as soon as Robin got home (with her friend from Preform), before Amelia, myself, and her friends headed over to our cupcake class, this time it was Wonderland themed. It was a longer class, as everyone was very chatty, and when I got home I went right to bed.

July 4th – Strawberries and London Pride

This morning I slept in! Then did some chores before we got ready to go out. We all go strawberry picking at Cammas Hall every year, and this year was no different. We all had a good time picking both strawberries and cherries, which we are turning into jam. It’s so much fun and just feels like a great, slow way to start a weekend as a family. Afterwards, Dann and I headed to London Pride. We had a great time at a rooftop pride party, going into the park to see the stage, and we listened to some stand-up comedy. It was just a lovely day; great weather, great fun. We then headed home where Kai was looking to order in dinner, as he now has his own card and budget for the month, as a way of him being more adult. He ended up with WingStop, which is his favorite now that he is in town. Dann and I got Indian food! I had work in the evening, which went well, and then hung out with Dann until bed.

July 5th – Pokemon Picnic

We hosted a Pokemon Picnic this morning, which was a bit of a running around to get the sandwiches, drinks, etc before appearing! I put down golden lures and a bunch of people brought others, so it was a long, fun day! Amelia and Robin got milkshakes with their friends and Kai hung out for a bit, which was all very nice! We then headed back home, where I worked as I was traveling soon. There was a lot of hanging out with Dann and a lot of writing done, which was great.

July 6th – Pokemon Raid Hour Day 1

This week is a very Pokemon Heavy week, as every day there are raids. I woke up today, packed Robin’s lunch and got her report card, and then headed right into work. Robin’s report card was glowing, she’s such a good person and that’s what really matters to us. There was also so much work to do!!! I spent today getting a lot of it done, going to meetings, etc. In the evening, I went out to Raid Hour Day One, where some people were there are the start, but we ended with 40 people! Great turnout for a Monday that the World Cup was on, with England in the game. I then headed home, served dinner up for DnD, and did a bit of cleaning before returning to my room to work until everyone left. I then hung out with Dann and went to bed.

July 7th – Shopping and Pokemon Go

Kai has been asking to go to Costco for quite some time, and today was the day. I woke up, packed Robin’s lunch, and then we all headed to Lakeside for lunch before going to Costco as there were a few other shops I needed to go to. We got lunch at the food court, where I got to try British Baja Blast, which was terrible, and eat some tacos. Kai got a big chocolate cake that we all split to – which was probably the best chocolate cake I have ever had. We then went to Costco where we got way to much food, and headed home. I got straight to work back at home, before finishing midday and making a bunch of strawberry desserts for tabletop night. It was a long day! I then headed out for Raid Hour in Pokemon Go, before coming home to make dinner, then a bunch of people came over for tabletop and we had dinner, dessert, and played Codenames. When everyone left, I went straight to bed.

July 8th – Travel Day

I woke up today very aware of the time, packed Robin a lunch, then blitzed through a bunch of work before getting on an extremely long plane to New York City. I landed, got to my hotel, and then explored the city. New York City isn’t my absolute favorite, it always feels a little dangerous, and I am staying right by Time Square which is extremely busy. Either way, I do love American food and had fun picking up snacks! Dann went along to Robin’s afterschool club’s performance. She had missed a lot of lessons due to her other house not taking her along, but still did very well all things considered! I am so looking forward to seeing her perform play next week! I then went right to bed early, as jetlag.

July 9th – Sites in New York City

I started off the day by waking up too early. I then went to Central Park and had a big walk around, eating half of my sandwich that I got yesterday. It was a lovely start to my day. I then headed to the Color Factory NYC, which was a fantastic museum of color, where you can find out your color and even try some foods of your color. I then headed to grab a New York Pizza slice, before going to the Ice Cream Museum, which had unlimited ice cream and so many flavors! This was such a fun part of my day. I then headed to my hotel, packed up my things, and went to the Pokemon Go 10th Anniversary event. This was probably the best Pokemon Go memory I have ever had; a DJ blasting, taking over Time Square, and otherwise sharing joy of Pokemon with a bunch of selected people. It was fantastic! I then headed from there straight to catch my 1AM plane. Dann spent the day at Robin’s school trip, where they went to a zoo together.

July 10th – My Chemical Romance

I landed in the evening in London, after a long (and eventless) flight of mainly me sleeping. Dann had arranged Robin to head to a sleepover. Amelia had a half day at school. So, once I had landed, Dann got Amelia and Kai all set up to go to My Chemical Romance with me! I met them at Wembly, where I had already sat in our seats, and we all very much enjoyed seeing the show. It was fantastic! Kai loved it far more than any of us thought anyone would. We all got matching t-shirts and headed home for a late night.

July 11th – Pokemon, Food and Minions

I have to say, I woke up extremely tired today! It was the first day of Pokemon Go Fest Global, and I went out at 10 am, along with Dann, Robin and Amelia, to play. Amelia and Robin got to get Five Guys with their mates and we all caught a lot of Pokemon. I was excited to see so many people out – we had well over 160 people today! For lunch, Kai joined us up town and we went to Wagamamas as they have a new Buldak menu that Robin wanted to try. Kai bumped into some of his mates, who were playing Pokemon Go with us, and was sort of gushing about how cool Dann and I are (rare, from a teenager), bragging about being able to go to My Chemical Romance and about the Pokemon Group. He even played a bit! After lunch, Kai headed to the gym, and the rest of us played more Pokemon until the afternoon. Then, Robin and Amelia had some friends join them for Minions and Monsters the movie, which we all went to, before going home, having dinner, and resting for the evening.

July 12th – Pokemon Go Fest and Essex Summer Fest

Today had the same start as yesterday. We woke up, headed to Pokemon Go at 10am, and started playing! Though, today was a shorter day (I got a Mewtwo with background, shiny, instantly! Bottle capped it too). We grabbed some Five Guys for lunch, then headed to the Essex Summer Fest to see what it was all about. The Essex Summer Fest was a lot of fun – Robin, Kai and Amelia went on rides, played Hook-a-duck, and we had snacks while listening to music. Once we had soaked up enough of the sun, we headed home for a lazy evening in, playing video games, having dinner, and sleeping.

July 13th – Breakfast, Board Games and Moana

Today, we got up and everyone got ready for school beyond Kai who slept in. Dann, Robin and I headed to Robin’s school for a breakfast to honor a teacher who had been teaching since Kai went to that school! Absolutely wild to think she is retiring. It was very nice to hang out with other parents and be there for this touching breakfast. We then headed to work before picking our girls up from school this afternoon. Then, Robin, Amelia and I headed to Geek Retreat to play Sosig – a board game about hot dogs – before heading to the movies. Amelia’s friend met us (we are having a summer of seeing friends!) and we all saw Moana for girls night, before everyone (including Amelia’s friend) headed to ours for dinner. We ate, opened Pokemon Cards, I served DnD, and then everyone headed home in the evening before bedtime.

July 14th – Develop Brighton

Today we woke up, got Robin and Amelia ready for school, and dropped them off. Once they were in, Dann and I headed to Develop Brighton. Kai did not want to go to Brighton and we had a lot of back and forth to and from there, so I had meal prepped some lunches and dinners for Kai. The first day of Develop Brighton is a lot of seeing friends, meeting up, and chatting. It was very good! Dann and I headed home just after eating dinner out with our friends at a very nice Asian place.

July 15th – Sports Day and Brilliant Indie Treasures

Today was an extremely long day. Dann and I woke up and went to Robin’s sports day. This was very fun to see – she had various little activities that she went through. It was very cute! I cannot believe how much taller she is this year – no longer the smallest in her class. Dann and I then zipped up to Brighton so that we could get the room ready for Brilliant Indie Treasures – a games showcase we run. This was a lot of set up, then once it was on, I worked the doors. I had such a fantastic time! It was truly a wonderful event full of great games, great people, and so much fun. Afterwards, we were all pretty tired! Dann headed home and I headed to an after party before going to my accommodation and going to bed.

July 16th – Last Day at Develop

I had a meeting today, which is why I stayed in Brighton. I slept, went out to breakfast with Quang and Daniel (two people who worked in games) and then headed to the venue to have my very long meeting. I was one of the judges for the Indie Showcase at Develop Brighton, so it was good to get the end of judging done. I then hung about the showcase and expo, before the end of the day, where I met up with Quang and we went to dinner with loads of gamedevs! After dinner, I went to second dinner with some other game devs, before heading to an after party, then another after party, then went back to my accommodation to get to bed.

July 17th – Heading Home

I woke up, went out to breakfast with Quang and some game devs, before Quang gave me a ride back home! This was a lovely road trip back, and it was very cool to hang out with Quang. We use to live together, and it was neat to do a road trip even if it was short. When I got home, Dann and I took Robin out to the splash park as she had a half day and Amelia had a long day (due to having her end of year reward trip.) Dann and I then headed to Robin’s preform. It was her showcase day, so we got to see her whole play. She did fantastic, as two different characters! I am truly so amazed and proud of her. Amelia also made it along to this, which was lovely, as her trip came back earlier than expected. We then headed home where Robin and I watched all of Maze Runner after dinner.

July 18th – Berries, Pokemon and Work

I have so much work to do! Today we woke up, Robin asked for nachos for breakfast so I made those, and then we picked a bunch of blackberries from our bush in our yard. My orange bell peppers and cherry tomatoes are growing very well. I used the blackberries to make homemade syrup and some jam. It’s great to have such a big bush in our back yard, the berries were really sweet. Dann and I did some shopping before running Pokemon Go for a bit. There were a bunch of raids going on, which was fun, then Dann and I headed home to get some work done and hang out together as we both missed each other a lot.

July 19th – Lots of Errands

Today Dann and I spent a lot of the day doing errands. We had various places that we needed to pick up shopping, lots of tasks in the garden and in the house, and lots of cleaning to be done. We’ve had a builder around replacing some of the old doors in our house and they are also coming to price up the carpeting being replaced and the backdoor handle being fixed. It’s lots to do! I also hired a house cleaner to come once a month, starting next week, as it’s just been too much to deep clean a lot of the house and as I got a raise at work (that has required more traveling, as a result), it just made sense. I hope this helps so I do not have big cleaning days! I did end up taking my camera out and taking pictures of some flowers, which was lovely, but otherwise I did a lot of writing and watching TV with Dann. In the evening, Dann and I hung out before bed and watched a movie at home.

July 20th – Working Day

Today was a sort of nothing of note day! I woke up, did not have to pack lunch boxes as it is SUMMERTIME, and then I spent the day working. There was so much work to do, so much to catch up on, a lot of meetings – it was a long, long working day. In the evening, Dann ran DnD, so I made dinner for everyone, but otherwise I just spent a lot of time catching up work.

July 21st – Work Event in London

Today I woke up and did a lot of work, then headed into London for One Night Only, which was a very exclusive gaming evening with tons of games, dev interviews and the like. Dann and I both very much enjoyed checking out the games there and being around so much of the games industry. In the evening, we hosted Tabletop Night – I made gnocchi mac n cheese, Matt made fudge, and it was just a lovely evening. Claire even brought over her dogs to visit!

July 22nd – Raid Hour Evening

Today was a day of more work, really! Though, not as much as lately. Dann made me a very fun lunch of lots of my favorite foods, which I enjoyed. Then, in the evening, we picked up Robin and Amelia for raid hour – which Amelia got the shiny on her second raid! We had a really fun time. There wasn’t any movies in the evening that we had not seen, so we skipped out this week and headed home to rest.

Jul 23rd – Volunteering and Date Night

Yesterday at dinnertime, I mentioned to Kai I would be volunteering at our local food bank today, and he asked to come along. This was a surprise to me, but of course I said yes! Early in the morning, we both walked over to the food bank and got an understanding of what we’d be doing. Kai is primarily moving and breaking down boxes while I am packing boxes into bags and adding in any extras. Kai has been living with us fulltime for a few months now, and he is really come a long ways with his attitude and the way that he looks at life. It’s clear he is really thriving! At the end of our shift, I headed out with Dann to Mayfield Lavender Garden, which was a fantastic little date night. Dann and I got some Indian food to round out our date night – it was such a lovely, romantic evening.

July 24th – Mall Crawl and Hyper Japan

This morning, we all headed to Westfield to have a bit of a walk around. We did some shopping, went to Boost, and even had some items from the Chinatown Bakery that’s there, before heading into Hyper Japan. This was all of our first year at Hyper Japan, which felt a lot like a Comicon – it was interesting! Everyone had a lot of fun and there were plenty of video games for us to check out. We then headed home in the evening for dinner and bedtime.

July 25th – Beach and a Party

Today we all agreed to have a beachside picnic! So, we got up, I made oatmeal cookies and prepped a bunch of food, and then we headed out to enjoy the sun! We took a big walk along the ocean, ate loads of food, and played a ton in the sand. I have been enjoying the warm lately, though it has gone on for a little to long. In the late afternoon we headed home and I added some purple into Amelia and Robin’s hair – Amelia had been asking for the entire school year if we could add a splash of color this summer. We then headed off to a family celebration with a lot of the cousins and distant relatives, which was a lot of fun. Amelia, Robin and Kai got to play with their family members and just enjoy seeing them all! We then headed home and I did a playtest before heading to bed myself.

July 26th – Pokemon Go and Friends

Today was a Pokemon Go make-up day for Go Fest, which went very well in our area, so I am not sure why we had a make-up day. But, we went into our town centre and had a blast with our friends! Amelia and Robin enjoyed walking around and seeing the lions that have appeared in our town (and in Essex) along with grabbing Five Guys with their friends. We then brought their friends to ours for dinner, playing a lot of games and with new toys, before it was time for them to leave. At Pokemon Go, Molly and Husky (in-game name) invited me to be their bridesmaid! This was a very, very lovely thing and I am so honored. This year has really shown me how fantastic and close my friendships are. It’s been so amazing to see their journey and I look forward to seeing their wedding.

July 27th – Board Games, Friends, and Pokemon

Today was a very average day! We all got up, Dann and I worked from home (as we normally do) so we hung out a lot with Amelia, Robin and Kai. There were video games played, new toys opened, and that sort of thing. Robin and Amelia have now hit the end credits at Tamadatchi Life, which is their favorite game to play at the moment. We headed to Geek Retreat early to play a bunch of board games, get shakes, and then do some shopping before heading home. We then made dinner for DnD and headed to Raid Hour where we met up with Amelia and Robin’s friends, who then came home with us to hang out. When we were back, my friend had come to DnD with her partner, and we both hung out in the backyard while Amelia and Robin played with friends and Kai played DnD. It was extremely lovely to hang out and catch up with my friend – it had been a while since she was free! When everyone left I did dishes and went to sleep.

July 28th – Shopping and Hair

This morning, Amelia and Robin decided we needed to do some more shopping (and spot lions!) so we went around our town getting some summer clothing! We also played a bunch of video games, then I went to my hairstylist to get my hair refreshed. The purple is back! It was a long time at the hair salon, which I go to on my own, without making Amelia and Robin sit in the room and wait with me. When I was done, I headed back home for some dinner, before hanging out for the rest of the evening with Dann. I did do a bit of work, but it wasn’t super challenging work today.

July 29th – Raid Hour and Movie

Today was a very normal work day, with a lot of work to do! I then headed out to get an eye test early in the morning, as I was due for one, before doing more work. Dann made a really great pasta salad with hot honey and pizza inspired ingredients. In the evening, Dann and I went to Raid Hour – where there were quite a few people! We then met up with some of our friends to see The Odyssey, which is an extremely long film. It probably should be split into two films and more content added to it. Either way it was fun to see friends and go to the movies! When we got home, I went right to bed.

July 30th – Volunteering, Scrap Books and a Movie

Kai asked to come along to the food bank, so joined me again to volunteer! We went early in the morning and today was much busier than the previous. I took a work call from here and it all worked out well – good to know I can volunteer and still show up at work. It was a fun day! Kai and I then headed home, where I set up some scrap booking for Amelia and Robin as they needed an activity. Children can get so bored during the summer holiday, so having some things to entertain them is important! Robin, as soon as I got home, asked what activity they were doing today – so it was clear they were a bit bored. In the late afternoon, we took a walk to the park and played with the Zing Zooperball, which is still getting regular use. Then, we went to Spider Man after dinner, which was such a lovely movie. When we all got home, we went to bed.

July 31st – A Beach Day

We are not wasting a moment of summer, as it feels like at their other house, Amelia and Robin have been doing nothing anyway. We want to make sure there is tons for them to do so that they enjoy the limited time they are off school. So, when Amelia asked about going back to the beach today, we made it work. We packed everything to go into the ocean and headed to the beach, where we were for several hours eating snacks and playing in the water. Amelia found loads of sea glass as we were there for high tide and watched the tide leave. Then, we all headed to our favorite ice cream place for ice cream before heading home. We had some dinner, and then played some games together in the evening before bed.