On Monday I let the children make their Summer holiday wish list.  It was fairly easy, they each took it in turns to write two thing at a time. This is what they came up with;

1. Park
2. Cinema
3. Bowling
4. St Ives
5. Legoland
6. Use our pocket money
7. Farmer James’
8. Swimming
9. Kite flying
10. Picnic
11. Bookshop
12. Bike track
13. Seaside
14. Fishing
15. Library
16. Book shop again
17. Holiday to Scotland

It’s all a bit sensible if you ask me. My list would have gone like this;

1. Visit Narnia
2. Eat toasted marshmallows and chocolate all day
3. Go camping
4. Make Mum and Dad slaves for a day
5. Zoo
6. Cinema at least four times
7. Create a Lego village on the dining table
8. Pyjama day
9. Sit in a bookshop for a few hours, mooching
10. Make a den and sleep in it
11. Slide down the stairs in sleeping bags
12. Paint in the garden
13. Water fight!

That just about covers it. So I think I’ll incorporate some of these into the first list and see how we go.

What are you doing during the Summer holidays?

Clearly us Northerners do things differently, our luxury camping item is a pack of baby wipes, and usually it’s only half a slightly dehydrated pack.

I just couldn’t believe that anyone would take a carpet on a camping trip with them.  I asked the beautiful Mrs Spud for photographic evidence of the tent carpet. I might have referred to her as a Southern Pansy too.

Here is said photo …

Fighting through my sniggers I came over all Peter Kay … and showed  The Husband Mrs Spud’s specialist carpet.

It went a bit like this …

… It’s a tent … carpet? Tent? .. carpet? Tent. Carpet.

To my shock he looked impressed if not slightly jealous of the tent carpet.

When I said “… and her Husband makes her vacuum their tent carpet” he was totally overcome with awe.  I have visions of him forfeiting his sleeping bag’s space in our car for his very own tent carpet for next years trip.

How could I pick just one?

So, if you want to read my latest post ‘We both assumed roles; Me … ‘Concerned Mother’, her ‘Stubborn Teenager’ you’ll have to bob yourselves on over  there.

Between Monday and Friday the washing machine was on approximately 9 times ( if you count the time it harrrumphed, filled with water, and told me to go away and leave it alone).

During our camping trip we had some dry weather, we managed to sit out for the first two nights watching the stars, including some shooting stars, which were beautiful.

The other 80% of our time was spent in variations of rain. Fat plops, intermittent drips, exceptionally wet rain and sideways drizzle.  The latter being my least favourite.

The kids, ten under 6′s, just continued to play cricket, ride bikes, play football and generally roll around in the mud regardless of the weather.  Rain schmain.

By the end of our six days we had no clothes left, we looked like ragamuffins.  We were tired, slightly skint due to spending the final three rainy nights eating in the pub and very, very muddy. Hence the washing.

As you know, the 4 year old is particularly adventurous and falls over a lot.  Camping was no exception; He fell over his own feet, a bike, he even managed to chafe his butt cheeks on a rock.  But his knees … his knees are actually brown. To be fair he had a couple of particularly bad knee falls.

I have scrubbed, he has screamed, I have wiped, he has wept. I quickly realised that the ‘campers knee’ is actually a mud encrusted scab.  The mud will only leave us when the scab does.

I considered taking a picture of his ‘Campers Knees’ to show the horror in it’s entirety but shame prohibited me. First time for everything I suppose.

So for at least another week, my son will look like he hasn’t had a wash.

I will return with some photos of our trip at some point over the next few days.  Our cameras both ran out of juice and died on us so I am stealing pictures that one of the Teenage Lovelies and my very own Teenager took!

I have to do “interesting things in 7 photos”.

So here are the “rules”, if you will …

1. You must thank the person who has given you the award (Yeah, thanks. As if Tara Lara’s bloody Gallery didn’t test my photographic archives enough …)

2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog

3. Link the person who has nominated you for the award

4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting – (Mocha Beanie mummy has altered this to 7 photos and I’m liking that)

5. Nominate 7 other Kreativ Bloggers

6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate

7. Let the nominated bloggers know they have been tagged

So here are my 7 interesting photos;

Number 1 – Nesting Bowls/Lights of My Life

My Sister bought these as a wedding gift.  They are beautiful.  If our house were on fire I would grab these first.  Sad, but true.

Number Two – The Funniest Lamb Ever

This is my boy, aged just 2, at Hesketh Farm Park in North Yorkshire.  Just before this picture was taken he was peering into the lamb’s enclosure when a rather friendly lamb tried to leap up at him.  This was taken seconds later.  He thought it as the funniest thing ever.  It warms my cockles so it does.

Number Three – A Sophisticated Couple, If Ever I Saw One

I don’t think this requires any explanation.

Number Four – The One Eyed Poo From Kathmandu

This work of art was brought home by my 4 year old last year.  I had absolutely no idea what it was.  I eventually found out it was, in fact, a snail, but we all had fun when I opened it up to you, my readers, to decide.

Number Five – The Studious One

This is the 5 year old.  She spends most of her time drawing or writing.  This is where she sits sometimes when I’m cooking.  she pretends to interview me.  Clearly a good day at school; Check out the remains of her lunch on her jumper and her scabby bruised knees.

Number Six – A Field of Happy Campers

This was last year’s camping holiday to Robin Hood’s Bay.  It’s a crap photo but I love that my nearest and dearest are all running round a field having fun as the sun sets.

Number Seven – Sisters

This is The Teenager and the 5 year old three years ago.  You would be forgiven for thinking we were on a beach in the UK, overcast and gloomy … but no, this was a lake in France, during ten days of drizzle. Despite the rain we had a good time …

Number Eight – The Reason I get Up in The Morning

I know I’m cheating, it said ‘seven photos’.  Shoot me.

So, the title of this photo sounds like a cliche, but without these two I would stay in bed, have a lie in.  I would need an alarm clock to get up for work.  Who needs an alarm clock when you have these beaming faces in your face at 6.48 every morning without fail?

So I am tagging you;

Audrey Horne, It’s A Small World After All, Battling On, Rosie Scribble, Chelle’s Place, English Mum & New Day New Lesson

]]> http://arewenearlythereyetmummy.com/if-my-house-were-on-fire-id-grab-these-first/feed/ 22 http://arewenearlythereyetmummy.com/my-5-best-bits-of-2009/ http://arewenearlythereyetmummy.com/my-5-best-bits-of-2009/#comments Thu, 31 Dec 2009 13:26:46 +0000 Laura - AWNTYM? http://addcreative.co.uk/AWNTYM/?p=2514 I’ve been tagged by Wendy to disclose my best bits of 2009.  It was difficult and to be honest I could have listed about 50.  However, as the laptop seems to be crawling at a snails pace I did what I could …

April – Our family tradition of egg rolling is such a big thing. All the family and some select friends gather to roll eggs at Easter and it is always followed by food and merriment. I never win, but I love taking part … ahem.  Maybe next year when the egg roll is in Scotland …

May – My review trip to Walt Disney World,Florida – I am still in shock that I was lucky enough to go on this incredible trip. One of the best things to come out of that trip is six new friendships with Erica, Lulu, Alice, Becky, Linda and Jane. I still smile when I think of the laughter we shared.

July – Camping at Robin Hoods bay in the Summer was great. The children are now old enough to enjoy camping without it being a chore. The 3 year old was in his element (the outdoors) and we made new friends. Such a relaxed time was had and I can’t wait for more of the same next year. Hopefully heading for Scotland to relive some childhood memories and perhaps take in some of the Edinburgh festival.

August – Wearing Magic Pants and celebrating my 31st birthday with my friends. I have battled 3 or 4 more times in a toilet cubicle with the magic pants since then.

September – Hiding behind that wagon in Port Aventura with friends old (Alice and Erica) and new (Tara and Jo B).

And so I pass the challenge onto 5 other bloggers!

Little Mummy

English Mum

Dulwich Divorcee

Insomniac Mummy

Sticky Fingers

A wee, turned into a poo.  The 5 year old likes to ‘poo and go’.  The 3 year old unfortunately likes to ‘poo and chat’, ‘poo and ponder’, ‘poo and sing’ … all in one sitting.  I was aware that the husband was making bacon butties and eggy bread and didn’t want to miss out. I felt anxious as we launched into our 3rd round of ‘The Wheels on the Bus’.

My boy cannot be rushed.  After our sing song he wanted to discuss the fact that I was taller than him, that he didn’t want to go home, whether he was going to pre-school or not that day, that he liked me and whether he could watch Wallace and Gromit when we got home.

When he announced that he’d finished I was delighted … I could taste the bacon sandwich that I would shortly be stuffing into my mouth.

It was then that I discovered to my horror that there was only one solitary sheet of toilet paper left.

I considered my options.  Could I run next door past the queue of ladies with their ‘early morning camping bladder’ and demand toilet paper whilst hoping that no one entered the single toilet with my 3 year old bent over zealously waving his bottom in the air?  No.  I checked my pockets for emergency tissues.  None.  Could we wait till we got back to the tent where there was an abundance of wipes and tissues.  No, it wasn’t that sort of poo … if you get me

So I can now testify that in moments of extreme toilet paper loss you can fold a piece of toilet paper 4 times and still have a clean bottom.

Camping is not conducive for sleep. In the dead of night you can hear every conversation, snore and fart across the campsite. You are never alone, it is like being in a bedroom with 100 other people. The snoring was entertaining for the first 10 minutes but became irritating after the third hour, especially when multiple snoring created one long uninterrupted snore.

When I did sleep I would wake in a panic when the slightest movement would make the airbed tilt to one side. Lack of movement in a sleeping bag doesn’t help, especially when your preferred sleeping method is ‘over active starfish’. I only had to roll over to witness my husband in his newly purchased ‘mummy’ sleeping bag. He looked like he’d been vacuum packed and would need the help of a physiotherapist and some lubricant to get moving again in the morning.

All of this seemed irrelevant by 05.41 each morning when the 2 year old came bounding out of his pod like a schizophrenic kangaroo on Christmas morning. I became irrational, threatening him with all sorts of beastly things ‘get back into bed or I will burn all your toys on the camp fire’, ‘go back to sleep or we will go home right now and leave you here’, ‘go back to bed or I will beat you with a tent pole’. I imagined Supernanny’s harsh bespectacled face peering through the tent flap and in her monotone Dick Van Dyke voice saying “Laura, what are you doin? Neffer freaten anyfing you can’t foller frough”. She may well be a behavioural specialist but she’s left a trail of children up and down the country unable to enunciate the ‘th’ sound. At this point I pulled myself together and took the 2 year old on a ‘bear hunt’ in the woods surreptitiously hopeful that a great grizzly would leap out of the bushes and eat him so I could go back to my ‘restricted starfish’ slumber.

Every time we camp we buy a new piece of camping kit. Next time I think I’ll spare the dog’s shame and buy some adult nappies and if anyone has invented a soundproof, blackout tent cover I’d be very interested to hear from them.