Author Archives: HHaricot

that was me at work today – rofl! no doubt i will be in a bit of trouble!

girls went to chris’s parents [?grandbeans?] and all did some maths. bb can know happily do  4, and was writing 4′s everywhere! SB still on fractions. other than that, alot of playing.

chris has made a start on tidying as next weekend both extended families coming for the day!

i had a long day at work, and should go to bed earlier, but it is too darn hot!

after our fably sociable weekend [did i mention max as being a particularly good tent taker downerer??] we came home with a stop at little chef on the way. bb couldn’t bring herself to wake up – bless – so sb, big and small [from making it up] were able to sit on their own table, and us grownups at another. they were really beautifully behaved [mostly] and we all ate well. even better, the lovely waitress and new chef made such a pigs ear of the order [but without ruining the meal] that we barely paid for any of it!! our girls fell asleep in the car and jax’s followed a bit later, leaving us with some gossip time.

whilst i was at work on monday the girls and big and small had a lot of fun as it was a glorious day, and i got home from work early, so had more chatting time with jax and she finally left after tea.

i liked the way the tents worked at the weekend in a cross, leaving a good sociable central zone, particularly well for sitting and chatting into the night. most nights not too cold, but the last a bit parky, so jo was well wrapped in a duvet – which seemed v sensible! it was good actually to have such a good show up of husbands too. it was just what i needed! must do it more often! it almost made up for no kessingland or alternative! august looks set for being pretty sociable too…

i could have done this in th last blog post, but that was about tents – something i am rather keen on! so this is about the adventure day. having taken bb to a similar park on our family holiday, we were aware that she is something of a delicate daisy about rides. it is a bit of a shock, as her general personality isn’t that delicate, and i always thought her fearless! so we bought chris and sb a band, and me and bb a run of tickets. good thing too!

chris and sb had a ball, they went on loads of things and had a great laugh. def got their money’s worth. i would have loved a go at the water ones… oh well, plenty of time in the future. sb loved the big roller coaster particularly and the wavy slide [i would have liked that too!]. bb loved the bouncy castle and teeny tinies  vehicle ride, and for both of these, she didn’t get asked for a ticket as she is on the 90cm borderline. so she had 4 free rides. she also loved the playpark, so actually had a fab time. bUT she hated the ladybird ride and wailed for some considerable time over it!

when i have flickered i will add some pics. the only neg was later on that day when sb had a recurrence of her low mood blogged previously. i think she had been feeling a bit left out, and her foot was playing up by then, and a week of late nights got her to sob herself to sleep. luckilly i was on holiday with great friends who i can talk to about these things, and they had a chat to their kids, and the next day sb had a ball with her friends again. it is good to have such lovely friends that you can talk about these things with, even though i felt bad about it. i also gave sb a v long talk [again!] about give and take, and working out what you actually want. i am hoping that she will get this social thing earlier than i did [about 30!!]. i know i over empathise with it in some respects, cos i know how it has affected my whole life, and i am glad i can bounce this off the friends there, and know they aren’t judging me too much as a psycho neurotic parent!!

more wine, jax and family arrived [unfortunately pretty much at the point i frogmarched an overwrought sb off to bed!]

whilst at the sports day we had a number of twitters suggesting that the planned camping weekend was not going to be quite so easy as planned, as it had run out of pitches for some late able to come families! a quick conflab with k and we decided to lend kirsty and jax our frontier to share and we would share with merry our ridgipod, whilst joanna was in our vango. we have never attempted to take tents with us, but 2 1/2 in our car an 1/2 in kirsty’s with the tent she had been planning to use, and eventually we were all packed, including all poles. [and lithuanians] much helped by kirsty on kid duty whilst chris and i wished we hadn’t stayed up till 2 am – rofl!

a quick drive and we got there. the khyam ridgipod went up in double quick time, and sb was fab at setting up the inner. both girls are getting good at helping the tent up process. kirsty came and we turned our attention to the frontier. unfortuately we snapped a joint and i got grumpy! possibly as i was tired, the kids were shrieking [needed diluting i think!] and the frontier isn’t as quick as the ridgipod. so sorry kirsty and family again. anyway, it went up. i like kirsty’s plan of not guying everything, leaving you with a bit more pegging if the weather looks bad for a psychological lift. left chris and kirsty at it to pop a few things in our tent and read a bit more riot act. it was drizzling and matter and antimatter were doing their thing… and then helped rejig the frontier so it stood right! we are def going to sell the frontier, so any interested parties email me before it goes on ebay.

frontier – sleeps 8 comfortably [had 7 all weekend] with a vis a vis style 4 berths each side and huge middle space. v tall, so no probs with stooping, v weather proof, so no leaking or worries in wind. negs, is that putting up in wind a pain as it is a bit sail like, but once central square pegged is v straightforward.

joanna and nic shortly followed, and i got the third tent going. this being our weekender vango venture 500 was a cinch, and prob took under 15 mins. left jo and bill to finish the pegging and got our tent porch up. phew, all tents done!! def wine time and relax!! and thats how we spent a lovely evening!