The wet night did make the whole site a bit muddy for a couple of days but nothing too terrible on our side of the site anyway. My parents did have a bit of a Kessingland week in their awning though, and ended up throwing their groundsheet away rather than cleaning it! Think swamp mixed with cowpats and you have the general idea, yuk.

We were camped with friends from one of the other churches in the network, which was nice, because we were the only campers there from our own local church, so it meant that the children had friends to play with, I had more hair to braid (!!) and we had friends to laze around and share coffee and wine with

Saw a number of old friends throughout the week which was nice, and we also saw rather a lot of my youngest brother as well, who clearly had too much time on his hands and kept coming back to be clambered on by small girls – lovely to have him around though.

The organised ‘churchy’ activities (for want of a better word!) consisted of various meetings most mornings and in the evenings too, as well as sports and other stuff going on during the afternoon. The children all had groups to go to, which they really enjoyed and got lots out of. I was on a team helping with the 3 and 4 year olds during the morning sessions, which was a lot of fun.

We had a couple of free days as well, where we escaped the site (it was *so* noisy!) and did our own thing. On the first day we went to Herstmonceux Science Centre where we met some of the Screamteam and most of the Monsterteenies, and had a fab day there. (I didn’t ever get my email from the Art Machine by the way, what happened to that I wonder?!)

On our other day off we ended up in Eastbourne visiting Ros & Tony at Bonners Music Superstore. Steve made himself at home immediately and made a long phonecall but for some reason didn’t want me to take a photo Anna made herself at home too We didn’t spend too much money though!

Mooched around Eastbourne for a while, then went swimming again, then ended up at Pevensey Castle on the way back to the campsite. Fab castle with lots of interesting different parts added over the years. Tried desperately to get a picture of all three children looking nice at the same time but after four attempts I gave up!

We spent a fair bit of time enjoying Ashburnham again; it is a gorgeous site. Tried hard to get the camera to do things it isn’t really cut out to do with the lens I was using but the results weren’t too bad, all things considered.

As an aside, my Flickr post bar has miraculously sprung back into life tonight after months of not recognising me as a user – don’t know what happened there but I’m very glad to have it back!

Got a bit of washing done today but generally lazed around as we were fairly exhausted. Our wonderful neighbour(s) had done a fantastic job with the guinea pigs which was an extra blessing.

Various highlights according to the various members of this family, but as this is my blog, I’ll write about mine We will certainly remember the rain and mud. Thankfully it served to highlight the wonderfulness of the new folding camper, which is definitely a change for the better, I think all of us appreciated it for the space it gave us. Even the awning wasn’t too horrendous to put up (although we did have a fair bit of help both times we did it so I’ll reserve judgement until after the rest of the summer). We did have an awful muddy flood in the awning for a few days; when the trailer started to simultaneously sink (unevenly) while the awning pegs fell out of the ground, and the mud began to smell, we decided to move to higher ground – but had to get a tractor to tow the trailer out, as the cars were getting stuck in the field and our car would never have managed! So that was amusing

It was great to be among friends for a week, and to chat to new people too, albeit briefly. In some ways it was a shame that the weather wasn’t really ‘sitting round outside’ weather as I didn’t see enough of some people, but there we go.

Our day at Bewilderwood was fab, highly recommended by all of us.

Sparky’s – some of us love it, some of us hate it. Actually this year in some ways it was good to have somewhere warm and dry to go! And it’s only a couple of years until all my children are old enough not to need the accompanying adult (and have to ask other people’s parents )! This year some of the children entered the karaoke competition and Anna won, meaning someone is going to end up taking her back in October for a second helping of Sparky fun – aargh! Still, at least she won static caravan accommodation for the week as well.

What else?
We went to see Shrek 3 at Lowestoft cinema on the Sunday (a mini-tradition there as we watched Shrek 2 there on its release weekend three years ago).
I managed to miss pretty much all the planned camp events (well, the ones that still happened!) for one reason and another. Anna did some tie-dying though!
Didn’t go to the beach at all. I don’t really like beaches, and no-one else asked to go, so we didn’t.
Enjoyed the cabaret on Thursday, fab to see so many different performances.

Had a really really naff journey home, it took three hours longer than it should have, which just goes to cement my hatred of driving to and from the East coast (Em, don’t know how you do it on a regular basis, it would do my head in!). Still, despite that and the general swampiness of the week, it was definitely a great time

Briefly, we enjoyed:

and I’m sure there was more, but I can’t remember it now.

There was lots (and lots) of Fimo craft going on, which ended up annoying me as I could never get inspired and also couldn’t stand seeing small children muck up the colours, not to mention welding bits of uncooked fimo to the table, chairs, and floor – aargh! But it was fun nevertheless I enjoyed the week almost as much as the first Melrose camp back in 2004 I think. It was very strange not to have the girls there but they seem to have had a good week at home with Steve too.

A few snaps of us from Melrose courtesy of the Beans :

Kirsty and James’ wedding was also a fabulous day, lovely to see them get married and enjoy their day, and great to see so many of our friends there too.

Feels really weird to be just taking Josiah to a home ed camp rather than all three children, but the girls are looking forward to organising Steve/the household while we’re away

A few highlights for me:

Evening and late night gatherings of friends, with music and frivolity of all sorts – the Oompa Loompa dancing will be particularly fondly remembered

Food and kitchen stuff all being so stress free (or so it seemed to me), thank heaven for that dishwasher. Nic’s mince pies were a culinary highlight as she made the pastry from scratch without even using any scales!

The introduction to Geocaching was much appreciated – I really enjoyed it and we really must get into it ourselves.

Pennywell outing was fabulous – well, I thought so, anyway. I made a great shepherd

As usual the children had a ball, too, and loved spending time with their friends. They are also completely and utterly exhausted – both Anna and Joe ended up having music lessons this afternoon as well!

A few more photos are in the usual place … look forward to seeing everyone else’s later as well. Thanks to all who were there for a great week Going to sort dinner and then take everyone off to bed! Very excited as AC:WW arrived this week so I’m off to play it

Anyway – we don’t have much planned for the week; I’ve promised my lot that we’ll go swimming one day, and on Thursday we are going to the Nativity at Pennywell Farm, which should be great (again – if anyone reading this wants to and can join us, please do!).

So, yes, where was I? Shopping and cooking – got it all finished in time to go to Anna’s Stagecoach end of term production this afternoon. We were all fairly relieved that it was the last session, the production was okay but not much better, as expected. Her report was glowing though

Whiling away the evening sorting laundry (why does that never end?), writing lists for tomorrow, and watching tv. Very impressed by Ellen MacArthur’s ‘Star in a Reasonably Priced Car’ lap on Top Gear just now! It was supposed to be film night but no-one has turned up so we get to enjoy Clarkson & Co – I do quite like Top Gear

Right. Off to do something slightly more productive.

It was lovely to be with friends and get to know some new ones too – the children really enjoyed themselves, so much that I hardly saw them – I even had to round them up at mealtimes, most days! Most of our time was spent kicking around the hostel, with the odd trip to the park thrown in. Oh, and we went swimming too – driving round Galashiels in search of the pool was probably the most amusing moment of the week for me! We spent a nice day with friends on Wednesday too, and enjoyed taking their dogs out for a walk across the fields where they live. I thought everything at the hostel went smoothly, the food was fantastic this year, no-one was sick (always a good thing ), I got to cuddle the babies, and just generally enjoyed being in the company of friends, and seeing my children enjoying the company of their friends too.

I warmed to the Volvo, as it did go rather well – all the driving was relatively peaceful, and on the way home we popped in to see Stuart and Liz, then Joe’s little friend Isaac and family, who’ve recently moved away too. Eventually got home around 7.30 last night, to fish & chips with Steve

Didn’t set an alarm for this morning, but as I woke up in time we decided to go swimming, then home for brunch, now we’re watching Labyrinth before going to a talk by Brian and Wendy Froud this afternoon at the museum – part of the Animated Exeter stuff. I love Labyrinth, it’s a fab film – I think the kids will really enjoy the talk today, I’m looking forward to it as well. Of course Toby (the baby in the Labyrinth film) is their son, too. We did want to get The Dark Crystal as well, but despite it having been first on my LOVEfilm list for at least 6 weeks now it hasn’t arrived, and we asked at the video shop too but they didn’t have it. We might go to the showing at the university on Wednesday instead. Then we’re off to Ruth‘s for tea, so that will be nice. Laundry and sorting out from the week away will happen eventually

Spent yesterday farting around sorting out the car, and then we had some friends over in the afternoon who are thinking of home educating their four children when they move house probably later in the year. I think all the children got on well, although we managed to be a bad influence with the Gamecube We had a good discussion too, Steve managed to get home from work which was nice – made us think all over again about they hows and whys of our home education, which is never a bad thing, either.

Last night I packed all the packable stuff, the boot is full, now I’m praying that the food from the fridge/freezer will fit in the front footwell. My friend who lives in the Borders finally got back to me so I’ve arranged to go and see her one day while we’re at Melrose. Anyway, those of you who are going to Melrose, see you later. Those who aren’t, have a good week, I’ll be back next weekend. And Steve, don’t forget to feed the hamster