Saturday 7th June 2025
Just two months before the Kent Family's big holiday and the kids were still yet to find out about it because Sam wanted to surprise them. However, with 9 year old Daniel regularly going to Cubs, he was much more focused on a different type of holiday: camping. And because the Cubs didn't go camping nearly as frequent as Daniel would've liked, Sam had just gone shopping and got Daniel a small tent to camp out in the garden sometimes. And because Sam didn't want 5 year old Ella to feel left out, she had gotten her daughter some brand new bed sheets, covered with Hello Kitty and pink to go with the rest of her room.
"Mummy!" Daniel said happily.
"Aw, my children have come to see me to help me carry the shopping in." Sam said sarcastically as she carried in the shopping bags that contained the weekly food shop in.
"Did you get it?" Daniel asked excitedly.
"Start to unpack the shopping and then I'll tell you." Sam stated as she placed the bags on the kitchen side before she went back out to the car to get the rest of the shopping. Tom was putting the shopping away with the 'help' of his children when Sam carried in the last lot of shopping which wasn't carrier bags, it was a blue bag which was obviously a tent and a rectangular package with Ella's new bed sheets in.
"Thank you!" Daniel said excitedly as he took the tent and ran out into the garden whilst Ella tried to open her bed sheets.
"I need to wash these first but I'll make your bed up with them so you can sleep with them tonight." Sam explained to her daughter as she took the package off of her and began to put them in the washing machine for a quick spin.
"I don't like the idea of him sleeping outside by himself." Tom said quietly to his wife as they stood on the patio watching their son organise his sleeping bag and toys out in his blue tent in the garden on the grass besides the trampoline.
"He won't be sleeping by himself." Sam stated.
"But you just told him he can sleep out here by himself." Tom stated confusedly.
"I know, just wait." Sam said secretively before she turned and walked into the house.
"There you go, how's that?" Sam asked as she flattened out Ella's new duvet covers with the freshly made bed and Ella giggled as she jumped up on them and then laid her Hello Kitty toy like human in bed with it's head on the pillow.
"Thank you." Ella smiled.
"You're welcome. Now then, what do you want to do? You've got about an hour before we have lunch." Sam asked, though she was pretty sure as to what the answer would be.
"Trampoline!"
"Come on then. Let's see what tricks you can do." Sam smiled as she followed her daughter down the stairs and out into the garden where Daniel was sitting in his tent with the door rolled up, reading a comic. The trampoline was near enough the same height as Ella and the ladder was a bit tricky for her, so Sam had to lift her up and then zip the net closed just in case before her daughter began bouncing about.
"I still don't want him sleeping outside by himself." Tom said quietly as he came and stood besides his wife.
"And I've already told you, he won't be." Sam stated.
"What? But you-"
"Just trust me okay? You'll see what I mean later."
7pm
It was an hour before Daniel's bedtime but Sam decided that it was time to put her plan into action, just in case it didn't work and she needed to come up with a backup idea. The family had spent the evening outside with Ella on her trampoline and Daniel in his tent but Sam stood up and gave Tom a look, so he did so too.
"Right, come on Ella. I think it's time we go in now." Sam ordered and Ella was getting rather tired so she came out of the net and into her mother's arms so that she could be safely put back down on the ground. "Right Daniel, we'll give you a key, lock the back door and if you-"
"Wait, I... I-I want dad to stay with me." Daniel admitted reluctantly.
"I told you so." Sam whispered to her husband and Tom smirked. "I'll bring you a sleeping bag and pillow out in a minute." Sam added so Tom got into the tent and Sam went into the house with Ella. After collecting her husband's things for the night, she took them outside and then took Ella up to bed, got her dressed, let her brush her teeth and then read a story to her. "How do you like your new bed sheets?" Sam asked curiously.
"They're really comfy." Ella said sleepily as she nuzzled her face into her pillow as she laid on her side, facing her mum.
"Good. Night night." Sam whispered as she kissed Ella on the forehead, and then switched her bedroom light off and headed to the master bedroom. Sam got changed into her pyjamas, used the bathroom and then got into the spacious double bed that she had all to herself. She smiled as she though of her husband and son, spending the night together with plenty of bonding time that she hoped would bring them closer than ever before. And those happy thoughts soon helped Sam to drift off into a slumber.
Meanwhile, Tom had just laid down in his sleeping bag besides his son out in their garden and thankfully it was a nice cool summer evening, but it wasn't too cold for them to be sleeping out.
"You know you can always come and talk to me about anything." Tom began. "Even if it's embarrassing and you don't want mum to know, or if there's a girl you've got your eye on and you want some chat up lines." Tom grinned as he playfully elbowed his son and Daniel awkwardly smiled before he spoke up.
"Dad?"
"Yeah."
"I think I might have problem... Downstairs." Daniel admitted timidly.
"Yeah? Why do you think that?" Tom asked softly as he tried to show Daniel that it was okay for his son to talk to him about such things thought Tom knew that, like most young boys, Daniel was probably just worried about something silly. And he knew that his son had already begun puberty - albeit a lot earlier than most boys - because Daniel had secretly told him one day that he had wet the bed, but when Tom went to change the sheets without Sam knowing to spare his son the embarrassment, he realised that in fact his son had had a wet dream, and Tom had had to explain to his son what had happened.
"Well I... What if one of my testicles, is slightly lower than the other?" Daniel asked awkwardly but worriedly.
"Don't worry, that's perfectly normal, I promise." Tom said reassuringly. "I've got one lower than the other and most men have got the same. It's just like with women, most have breasts that are slightly different sizes or shapes, and that's because they can't be exactly equal, they're bound to have a few differences in them. So don't worry about it, okay?"
"Yeah. Thanks Dad."
"No worries. Now let's eat some sweets that I snuck out of the kitchen and d from your mum." Tom grinned.
Sunday 8th June 2025, 9am
The next morning, Sam was cooking a Full English breakfast, when Daniel and Tom walked in from the garden after Sam had let the dogs out and opened their tent to wake them up.
"Did you sleep well?" Sam asked curiously as they sat down at the breakfast bar, and Tom sat besides his daughter who was colouring, or rather scribbling, in a colouring book.
"My back is killing me, I don't know how you can sleep on the floor." Tom croaked as he rubbed his back and Sam flicked the kettle on before she went back and flipped the bacon. "What about you two? You sleep alright?" Tom asked.
"Yep. I had the whole bed to myself all night, and then Ella woke up at 7am and she came and had a lie in in my bed for a while." Sam smiled she made Tom a cup of tea, placed it in front of him and then stood behind him as she opened a tube of deep heat. "Hold your shirt up." Sam said softly and Tom rolled his shirt up at the back and then Sam gently rubbed some deep heat into his lower back.
"Mmmmm..." Tom groaned in pleasure as the heat melted away his aches and pains and replaced them with a warming sensation in his muscles. "Thanks." Tom smiled as he kissed Sam on the cheek and then she washed her hands and went back to cooking breakfast.
"Ugh." Daniel exclaimed.
"Yucky." Ella commented.
"What's wrong with that?" Tom protested.
"It's disgusting." Daniel stated.
"What was? All she did was rub something into my back. It's just like when you're out in the garden and mum puts sun cream on your back." Tom stated.
"Whatever." Daniel muttered.
"Right, me and your dad have got a surprise for you after breakfast." Sam stated to change the subject and Tom smiled as he knew exactly what she was planning.
11am
After getting dressed, Daniel and Ella were waiting in the living room as they excitedly waited for what the surprise was, when Sam and Tom came down, and Sam had a rectangular box that was covered in Minnie and Mickey Mouse red wrapping paper.
"Right, you two open this together." Sam ordered as she placed it on the coffee table and within seconds, they ripped it open to find a plain cardboard box that rattled when it was moved. Daniel lifted off the lid to find lots of puzzle pieces with bright colours on it.
"I don't understand." Daniel said confusedly.
"Well, that puzzle, is a clue as to where we're going on holiday this year. So you and Ella need to work as a team and put the puzzle together, and then work out where we're going." Sam explained as she and Tom sat down on the sofa.
"But we haven't got a picture to see what the puzzle is supposed to look like." Daniel stated.
"Well, then you two will have to work with each other and come up with a plan." Sam stated. She had given them no image purposely because if they had an image, then they wouldn't have to do with puzzle.
"We do the edges first." Ella stated.
"There you go, try that." Tom smiled and so the children poured the 1000 piece puzzle onto the carpet, and they began placing the pieces with flat edges on the coffee table.
Sam and Tom knew that the large puzzle would be a challenge, but both of their children liked doing puzzles so they sat back and watched as their children successfully worked together. Sam got them some juice and fruit after half an hour for them to take a break, and then after an hour of hard work, Daniel let Ella put the final piece of the puzzle in. It was a puzzle with two circles on it, showing the eastern and western hemispheres of the world, and surrounds those were dozens of disney characters. The princesses were at the top, and then dotted on various countries were others characters such as Simba, from the lion king on the continent of Africa, and then tropical fish from Finding Nemo near the Australian coast.
"But I don't get it. How can we be going all over the world?" Daniel asked confusedly and Ella too frowned at the dilemma.
"Well, what are all these characters related to?" Tom asked.
"Magic!" Ella smiled.
"Not quite. What channel are they all on on the TV?" Sam asked.
"Disney." Daniel stated.
"Correct, and what is the map of?" Tom asked.
"The wor... Oh my god are we going to disney world?!" Daniel shrieked and as soon as he said that, Ella's face lit up because both had friends who had been there, plus they had seen the adverts for disney on the TV.
"We are indeed." Sam nodded and both of he he kids squealed as they jumped up and down. "But, we're not just going to Disney world, we're going to Florida, which is a state in America." Sam stated as she pointed to the correct place on the map on the puzzle. "And we're going there for two weeks and we'll go to all the parks, and we're going to swim with dolphins, and then we're going to spend another two weeks in Florida in different areas and do various activities." Sam explained.
"We're going on weeks for four weeks?!" Daniel smiled.
"Yep. So once you two break up for your summer holidays, you'll have two weeks of coming to work with me and Dad, and then after that, you'll have a four week holiday, and then a couple of days left before you return to school." Sam stated.
"Thank you!" Ella smiled as she ran up and gave Sam a hug.
"Yeah, thanks." Daniel said excitedly as he jumped up and gave Tom a big hug with the four of them on the same sofa.
Coming up: The Kent Family finally embark on their month long holiday! But what will they get up to?
Thanks for reading, please review :)