FAMILY WEEKLY UPDATE: 27TH JULY - 2ND AUGUST 2026 | THEATRE, DRAWING & LITTLE HOME FAMILY FESTIVAL
Family Weekly Update
After all the excitement of my birthday week, this week's family weekly update started at a much slower pace as we headed into the first full week of the school holidays.
It didn't stay quiet for long, though, and by the weekend we'd somehow gone from relaxing at home to spending two very busy days at Little HOME Family Festival!
😴 Monday – A Much-Needed Quiet Day
After such a busy birthday week, I was absolutely exhausted on Monday and really didn't feel like doing very much.
Luckily, Lawrence had the day off and it was also the first day of the school holidays, so he took Alice and Leo to the park for a little while.
I spent most of the day on my new iPad, practising drawing in Procreate and getting used to all the different tools.
I'm still very much learning, but I'm really enjoying being able to draw again. It's been a long time since I've properly sat down and created my own artwork, so at the moment I'm mostly experimenting and trying to find a drawing style that I like.
It was exactly the quiet day I needed after the previous week.
🎭 Tuesday – Games, Nando's & Oh Zeus! at Lowry
Tuesday morning started with some family games. We played Leo's favourite, UNO, followed by Hungry Hungry Hippos, before I started getting ready for another theatre trip.
I was heading to Lowry to review Oh Zeus!, but getting there was slightly more complicated than usual because of the work taking place on the tram lines.
With no trams running and my usual bus missing out MediaCity, I decided there was absolutely no point risking being late. I set off at around 4pm, caught a bus to the Trafford Centre and then changed onto the number 30.
I got off opposite the Imperial War Museum North at around 4:45pm and walked across the bridge towards Lowry.
Considering the performance didn't start until 7pm, I'd definitely succeeded in my mission not to be late – I had more than two hours to spare!
My first stop was actually the Cadbury shop, where I treated myself to one of the Roses pick-and-mix boxes.
I say pick and mix, but there wasn't actually much mixing involved because I filled the whole box with strawberry and orange creams!
With chocolate sorted, I headed to Nando's at around 5:05pm to get something to eat.
One advantage of arriving ridiculously early was that I could actually sit down, eat and relax without constantly checking the time.
Afterwards, I headed over to Lowry, collected my programme and two drinks vouchers from the box office and found somewhere to sit while I waited for my brother.
Unfortunately, his journey wasn't going quite as smoothly as mine.
As it got closer and closer to 7pm, there was still no sign of him. Eventually, at around 6:50pm, I decided I couldn't wait any longer and headed into the Quays Theatre.
Thankfully, at approximately 6:55pm, with just five minutes to spare, my brother finally appeared!
Nothing like making a dramatic entrance.
We were sitting in Stalls Row M, Seats 1 and 2, which is the second row from the back.
Despite being towards the back, we had a really good clear view. The Quays Theatre is much smaller and more intimate than the Lyric Theatre, so you still feel quite close to the stage.
The show started at 7pm, almost immediately after my brother had sat down.
Act One lasted around 70 minutes, followed by a 20-minute interval, which finally gave us a chance to properly catch up. We also used our drinks vouchers – I had a lemonade while my brother went for a cider.
The performance finished at around 9:30pm, and afterwards we walked back across the bridge and caught the bus to the Trafford Centre before going our separate ways for the final part of the journey home.
I finally got home at around 10:30pm and, instead of sensibly going straight to bed, started writing my review.
I didn't finish it and eventually gave up at around 1am!
👉 You can read my more personal Oh Zeus! review and theatre trip on Sarah Monaghan HERE.
👉 Read my full Oh Zeus! review on All About Theatre HERE.
✏️ Wednesday – More Procreate Practice
On Wednesday, I finished writing my Oh Zeus! review and shared it on Instagram.
Once that was done, I went straight back to practising my drawing on the iPad.
Alice and Leo were obviously interested in what I was doing, so I showed them how Procreate worked and let them both have a little go at drawing on the iPad too.
Afterwards, I got out some paper and felt-tip pens so they could carry on drawing at the table while I continued practising.
It ended up being a very creative afternoon for all three of us.
🎨 Thursday – Designing My Own Theatre Artwork
By Thursday, I decided it was time to stop simply practising and actually try creating something.
I started drawing a collection of simple theatre-themed icons that I'm hoping I might eventually be able to turn into a repeat pattern for things like mugs and notebooks.
I've got lots of ideas, but at the moment I'm concentrating on learning and trying to make everything look consistent.
I spent quite a lot of the day drawing, although there was still housework to do and Alice and Leo made sure I didn't spend the entire day attached to my iPad!
We played some more UNO and a few games of Matching Pairs too.
🛒 Friday – My First Theatre Pattern & Craft Room Organisation
On Friday, I finished drawing my first set of theatre icons and started experimenting with arranging them into a repeat pattern.
I'm still learning, but I'm really enjoying seeing the individual drawings start to come together as a collection.
I also decided to tackle my craft room.
I'd ordered a four-shelf trolley from Amazon for around £26 because I desperately needed somewhere better to store some of my craft machines.
Thankfully, it was really easy to put together, and once it was finished I managed to fit my air fryer, Cricut, Minc machine, Cinch and badge maker onto it.
I absolutely love it!
It's made such a difference having everything together rather than taking up space in different parts of the room.
🎭 Saturday – Our First Day at Little HOME
Saturday was the start of a very busy weekend as the children, my brother and I headed to Little HOME, HOME Manchester's free family festival.
We caught the bus at around 9:35am and arrived just before 10am. One nice bonus was that the children could travel for free because children are able to travel free on buses throughout August.
When we arrived Alice and Leo headed straight for Creativity Corner. Alice did some drawing while Leo got involved in helping to build a giant cardboard rocket, which he really enjoyed.
At 10:30am, we headed into Theatre 2 to see Tales From The Lighthouse, a family show combining storytelling, live folk music and puppetry in a collection of stories inspired by the sea.
We had tickets but seating was unreserved, so you could choose where you wanted to sit. We decided to sit towards the back, where there was a better rake, and still had a great view because it's such an intimate theatre.
At the end of the show, the children were invited to meet the water horse puppet and could even have a closer look and a little go on the concertina while the musician held it.
👉 You can read more about my Tales From The Lighthouse visit and shorter review.
👉 Read my full All About Theatre review of Tales From The Lighthouse.
We then headed outside to eat our packed lunch at one of the picnic tables while watching Kismat Wala, an outdoor puppet show set around a magical cart inspired by South Asian street markets, following a young man's journey to discover his destiny.
After lunch, Alice and Leo played giant Connect 4 before joining in with some outdoor drawing on a huge piece of paper that had been taped down to the floor.
Then it was time to head back inside for All In A Mouse's Night, a non-verbal puppetry show following a curious little mouse who dreams of travelling into space – although we nearly didn't get in!
Somehow our tickets had been issued for the 11am performance instead of the 1pm show, so we had to join the standby queue. Thankfully, there was space and we managed to get in.
Alice and Leo chose to sit on the blankets on the floor at the front, and after the performance they could meet the moonlight puppet, which Alice particularly loved.
There was just enough time for another visit to Creativity Corner, where they decorated little cardboard tubs to make drums, before we headed into HOME's cinema for the 2pm relaxed screening of Puffin Rock and the New Friends.
I bought Alice and Leo a tub of ice cream each to eat during the film, which definitely went down well!
Afterwards, we finished our first day with pizza and chips in HOME's bar. We ordered two pizzas, two sharing portions of chips, a pot of gravy and a pint of Diet Coke, which came to £49.15.
We eventually caught the bus home at around 4:30pm.
And somehow we were going back to do it all again the next day!
🥁 Sunday – Back to Little HOME!
On Sunday, Lawrence was off work, so this time all four of us headed back to HOME.
We caught the bus at around 11:25am and arrived at approximately 11:45am.
Once again, Creativity Corner was our first stop, where Alice and Leo did some crafts and decorated paper cups.
We then headed outside to watch Batala Manchester, the drumming was fantastic, and Alice loved dancing along to the music. Leo found it a bit too loud, though, so he went back inside to Creativity Corner with Lawrence while Alice and I stayed outside.
We listened for a while then headed back inside to find Lawrence and Leo, and we all went to do some biscuit decorating.
While we were there, Alice and Leo were also each given a little HOME goody bag. These came in HOME-branded tote bags and contained some sweets, leaflets about upcoming shows and a light-up foam baton.
They were very pleased with their unexpected treats!
With biscuits decorated and goody bags in hand, it was time to head into Theatre 1 for Over To You: The Storytelling Gameshow.
This was a really fun interactive show where the audience helped decide what happened in the story.
Alice was even picked to go up and play Higher or Lower!
She didn't win, but she was just excited to have been chosen and was perfectly happy with her consolation prize – a zip. 😂
The winner got three zips, so obviously the stakes were incredibly high!
Leo, however, was much more upset that Alice hadn't won than Alice was and decided he wanted to go home.
We were heading straight into another show, The Magic Bookmark, a panto-style storytelling adventure where the evil Book Worm makes all the books in Mama G's library disappear because he believes reading gives people too much knowledge. Mama G must then find three books that can help make the world a better place, with the mysterious Magic Bookmark helping her along the way.
Leo initially decided he didn't want to watch it. Lawrence took him outside, but at the last minute he changed his mind and came back in because he wanted to sit with me.
I'm very glad he did because it ended up being his favourite show of the entire weekend!
👉 You can read more about our The Magic Bookmark visit and shorter review Here.
👉 Read my full All About Theatre review of The Magic Bookmark Here
🎪 Apparently We're Not Joining the Circus
After The Magic Bookmark, Alice and Leo wanted to try some circus skills with Skylight Circus.
We tried plate spinning.
Terrible.
Juggling?
Also terrible. 😂
Thankfully, Leo then found a diabolo.
I actually had one when I was younger, so I could remember how to get it spinning and even managed a couple of simple tricks. Leo wasn't too bad at it either and really enjoyed having a go.
After a little more drawing outside, we finally admitted defeat and headed for the bus.
We got home at around 4pm and were all completely exhausted after two very busy days.
Our Sunday evening therefore involved doing as little as possible and watching The Wild Robot together.
Perfect.
👉 Read more about our two days at Little HOME Family Festival, including all the shows, activities and family fun we experienced.
Final Thoughts
This week's family weekly update definitely started more peacefully than it ended!
I've really enjoyed having some time to learn Procreate and start creating my own theatre-themed designs. I'm still very much a beginner, but it's been lovely getting back into drawing and seeing some of my ideas gradually come together.
My trip to Oh Zeus! was another fun theatre night too, even if the lack of trams turned getting to Lowry into slightly more of an adventure than usual.
The biggest part of the week, though, was definitely Little HOME.
I loved how much variety there was across the weekend and how Alice and Leo could enjoy the festival in completely different ways. Alice happily danced along to the drumming while Leo preferred somewhere quieter, and after initially deciding he didn't want to see The Magic Bookmark, it ended up being his favourite show.
By Sunday afternoon we were completely exhausted, but we'd managed to pack so much into our weekend.
I think an evening on the sofa watching The Wild Robot was very well deserved!
Watch This Week's Family Weekly Vlog
You can see much more from this week's family weekly update vlog in Weekly Vlog #462, including my trip to Lowry for Oh Zeus!, putting together my new craft trolley and both of our days at Little HOME.
Comments