New Tent

14th July was cousin Megan's birthday,  Leo's end of summer preschool party a party for Ellis and swimming lessons.  Rob and I worked as a tag team to get it all done as smoothly as possible.

I took Leo to his party and we had such a fantastic time playing in the soft-play area together.  We were so busy playing, sliding, climbing and throwing balls that I didn't take any pictures or videos.

After playing they all received a little lunch box each and sat nicely eating together.  They attempted a group photo which didn't go too well and I can't post mine on here because I didn't check with everyone there about photos.

While we were at the party Rob took Ellis and Oscar to Ellis' last private swimming lesson as the teacher said his learning has plateaued now that he can swim and all he needs is some practice in his main lessons.

Then after lunch Rob took Ellis out to Aiden's birthday party which was at a soft play centre too.

Leo and I played games while Ellis was out having fun.

They were all shattered so after their bath and story they were soon zonked out in bed.

I took Ellis to his tennis lesson in the morning and I stayed and watched.

Once back from tennis, I took Leo and Ellis to the park for a bit of fun while Oscar napped.

After lunch we all went out to a local camping shop to have a look at some tents as we were going to need one for the last weekend in July as we were going to a music festival.  We didn't want to buy a new one just in case we didn't go, didn't enjoy it etc.

We looked around, and we were shown a few cheap tents that were set up in a field.  The field was really muddy and the tents were quite weathered as well as dirty and had some slight damaged.

We went back and forth to a few tents, the kids generally being quite good as they were excited about going in and out of different tents.

Rob and I finally decided on a tent together and he had the job of taking it all down.  The lady got the bags for the stuff and he got on with the job, saying it would only take him half an hour.  I had offered to take the kids to my Mum's house to keep them occupied as we had been at the camping shop for a while now and they were getting bored, but he assured me he wouldn't be long.

A hour and a half later, Leo was screaming, Oscar was bored, Ellis was fed up and I was getting close to the end of my tether.  I took the kids to the cafe, tried to get them to help me pick out other items, got Ellis to help Daddy, tried to get Leo to sleep in the car etc etc but none of it worked.

We finally loaded up the car with the wet, smelly tent and all the kids and went to McDonalds to get some grub.  We had to really hurry though as we wanted to get to another camping shop that would be closing soon.

We made it just in time, grabbed some stuff, while the kids ran around and we finally got home.

I bathed the boys and got them to bed, which I think they were very happy to do, and Rob started putting the tent up.

We spent our evening cleaning up our new tent which cost us £50, including a carpet.  It's the Coleman McKenzie Cabin 4.  It's going to be a tight squeeze!