Happy Campers!

Maxi Dress - Primark, Top - New Look, Necklace - No idea, Bangles - Warehouse and Primark

Being the ditzy and disorganised person that I am, I decided the day before is the best time to sort and pack for a family camping trip which had been planned for a month! Hence there being absolutely no time to write a blog post leading up to the excitement, and getting my daughter to take a quick photo now and then to post on here when we returned home.
Thursday was stress stress stress! The whole kitchen was filled with bags, clothes, toys, food, and everything except the kitchen sink (though I was tempted), I had a mammoth list being carried from room to room as I checked items off and the exhausting day ended with an hour long phone call from my equally excited mother who was doing her last minute packing.

Dungarees - New Look, Top - Primark, Necklace - Table top sale, Shoes - Next

You see my family is a complicated one. I actually have two mams, one being my biological mother and one being the mother who brought me up. Many many things have gone under the bridge during the years, ups and downs, and long fall outs, but as we're all getting older its time to look forward and not back. So this weekend was the very 1st time my two daughters were to meet their Grandma (who until a few weeks ago did not know existed) and my mothers side of the family. The initial meeting was a hit and went off far better than I could imagine and the kids settled with the family as if they'd known each other for years.

Introducing everyone to the  girls was fun but complicated and with so many new names to remember, from grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, it was proving a little difficult for them to remember everybody. So Grandma brought out her sticky labels and we all wore name badges for the first day. Though I was a tad concerned why I needed one when Ive lived with my children from the minute they were born, lol. The labels gave us quite a bit amusement later, we pointed out that Uncle Sam, Aunty Sue and Grandad Tam all still had their stickers on and at this point the three of them had been for a walk through the local village, shopping for booze and BBQ food without the children!

Incase I forget who I am....

No reason why a tent can't be stylish!

We had four tents and a gazebo up in our section of the campsite and I took the opportunity to decorate mine with pretty bunting. Though this came back to haunt me later.... The evening was spent BBQ'ing (which was a disaster in itself trying to get it going) and boozing around the camp fire tea lights and playing Pictionary with the white board mam borrowed from work! Its amazing how competitive grown ups can get over a scribbled piece of art work.

Its late, cold, and we're flagging.

The first night in our tent was not the at peace with nature feeling I would hope for. The first 2 hours were spent listening to the sounds of the site settling down for the night. Numerous ziiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiips were heard, followed by Walton's style "good night John Boy" from each tent, bodily functions and drunken laughter then finally snoring as people were finally 'quiet' for the night. Just dozing off I woke to the first chimes I'd heard of the village clock for 2am, every hour.... 3:30am the whole of the worlds birds decided to have a party in the tree above our tent, which woke my youngest who announced she needed a wee. At this point my stomach was taking a turn for the worse anyway and off we headed to the facilities block! Ziiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip woke my eldest as we came back and at 4am the sun was out so the kids wanted to go and wake everyone else (who probably wouldn't have appreciated it having just gone to be a couple of hours earlier). As the birds continued their party, the local ducks came along to join in the fun and quacked and fought outside our tent. By this time my patience wore out as the birds flapped their wings so hard against my bedroom compartment... i started whacking the tent to try and shoo them only to discover it was my bunting flip flapping against the tent in the wind... Each chime of the clock brought my eldest asking if she could get up yet and finally at 7am with a severe lack of sleep and dodgy gut I relented and let them start their day!

Bed Head's!

Feeling pretty rotten at this point and being told I look like a druggy corpse. Such a loving family!

Saturday rained, and rained, and rained. Coats and wellies on we continued the fun and frolics with any game that involved a ball, yes this included word association, most of which went right over the top of my bemused children's heads. That reminds me, my eldest is still wondering why the tent erupted with howling laughter for about an hour when taking orders for the local chippy my gay cousin announced he quite fancied a sausage...

My eldest showing off her Hula Hoop skills, the gazebo in the background was our 'kitchen'.

Short pause from the rain....

Maxi Skirt - Primark, Jumper - New Look, Headband - Primark (excuse dodgy pose and squinty eyes, I was telling my daughter how to use the camera)

Thankfully a better nights sleep was had by all the following night and feeling better we packed up the tents and headed to the beach to finally enjoy some sunshine.

My Aunts and Uncles were conceaned at my choice of beach clothing and the ability to play.... well thats where underwear helps hitch things up...

The Eldest being a rock star! (Headband - New Look)

I should have known not to pile all of our camping things ontop of the clothes bag in the car, still she was happy enough to travel home in 'just' my hoodie!

All in all a fantastic weekend was had despite the minor flaws we had a blast. The laughs and games made up for everything and we can't wait to repeat the process. I know, I'm mad!