just another morning here

So, we went to the 5th MuddlePuddle Summer Camp at Kessingland Beach. Only our third, we missed a couple of years, but it was good to be back Didn’t get the camera out much, but photos are here.

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

Josiah and I got home late last night. We had a fantastic week away in Melrose, followed by a weekend in Sheffield for a friend’s wedding, which was a great day as well. I hardly took any photos, as everywhere I went there were other people taking (probably better) pictures than me, so I didn’t bother, I’ll add links as and when people flickr them!

Briefly, we enjoyed:

seeing/meeting friends both old and new

Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh on Wednesday

Nostalgic trip round the Borders visiting friends and seeing our old house on Thursday

All the lovely food

Lots of DSing (yes, both of us, Joe was as bad as me!)

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 :

We spent a very relaxing night in the Travelodge in Sheffield, I was obviously just tired enough not to notice or care about the usual things that annoy me about (a) Travelodges and (b) Little Chefs!

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.

The drive home was easy and the girls were still up when we got back so that was nice, they looked as if they had missed me, and now I’m hoping they will have missed me enough to think of bringing me breakfast in bed!

… and as long as I don’t get held up and then the ovens are working properly, dinner should be okay, all is chopped and ready to cook! Managed to gather everything together and pack today as well as have a nice time with the children doing various things along the way. Well, I’ve probably forgotten something but never mind. OH yes, it does matter – the wine! I’ll go and pack it now!!

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

Got confused when K2 14 appeared on the milometer on the way home, then the penny dropped that we’d gone over the thousand mile marker on the round trip. Still, it was fun, we had a great week. I didn’t take any photographs other than this one, which will have limited appeal, but I’m hoping that someone might be able to identify its location!?! Incidentally, it was one thing that the children had remembered from last year and wanted to take a photo of!! If anyone does have any photos of my lot please email them to me!

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