because monday it is….

1. Nearly the end of the holidays….back to school in sight….*sigh*…i could really do without the school run nonsense…

2. My camera and I are separated for the time being. It is visiting Canon for some repairs..its a looong story, i won't go into it but it involved some incompetent Canon customer service people and a long and wasted 3 hour round trip for us ;(

3. Ben has started begging me to delete/archive some photos on our computer….*cough cough* i think the photo files are now taking up pretty much all the space we have. Things are getting pretty bad…one time i tried to load files the computer actually said 'there is no more space lady!" …well in words to that effect anyway…

4. How far can i get without mentioning this awful summer weather we have had? It is the traditional british rainy season here in the North.

5. I am enjoying watching this

6. We did the 'shoe' shop the other day. Shopping with kids isn't the most fun you can think of and shopping with kids for shoes is even less of the most fun but we needed the schoolio shoes so we went to a local outlet to pick some up. The kids were armed with a bit of left over pocket money which they blew on a trampoline bungee type thing.

Poppy threw in two backward somersaults..(which irked her highly over competitive big brother)..

7. The girls had their hair cut..well the big girls…its only the second time that they have actually been to the hairdressers. Poppy wasn't keen at all. Maisie lapped up every second and even had her hair washed. They are both sporting much shorter hairstyles now…easier for school…i hope…

not a great picture but you can see that we went for a fringe….after her little DIY haridressing efforts a while ago the 'stump' of hair that was left as her fringe has grown enough to be incorporated in a real fringe. I like it on her and she seems fairly happy.

8. Isaac didnt have a hair cut but did eventually loose the other front tooth that has been hanging out nearly all summer. His grown up teeth are starting to push through…how in the heck did he get to being nearly 8…i have no idea….

9. i borrowed a pretty amazing macro lens from Dad..only to have my 5d decide to up and quit working…but meanwhile the little 400d that i have is standing in and trying to cope with a lens that weighs about twice its weight. But this lens is pretty incredible….

yes that is my reflection..in the tiny edge of my phone…..i lo-ve this lens…

10. This picture was taken at the Eureka kids museum….we had a fantastic day there, i have more photos but..maybe next time…You have to get up pretty early in this house (which i did this morning) to have any sort of time by yourself and my time has just ended…*morning to Isaac and Poppy**

Even when you are a nearly five year old school starter with a sometimes exasperating attitude towards us…

mum and dads bed is still the place you come when you had a nightmare….

it's the little moments and trying to find the outright gold in them right?

Packing up your extra large tent in the chucking it down rain is quite possibly the most miserable thing I have ever done on an AUGUST weekend….

It's official… 

The british summer (?) and I have fallen out….. 

I'll be in touch from Australia…..

This little person has been the one and only for the past few days… The big kids went to grandparents for a few days and she has ruled the roost…in a manner of speaking.
The first night she climbed isaac's ladder shouting….
"I..aaaaaacccccc"
One thing I have realised tho… When the others are not around … She seems really really LOUD!

Blog posted here.

so its the middle of August! Nearly a month of the school break gone..and nothing is quite frankly as pitiful as hearing your beloved man cry 'only two weeks till school starts!"…. A cry echoed by many a teacher i am sure….

and for what its worth..im NOT knocking the length of time they get off…this isnt really where i was going with this post so i wont get on the old soapie…but teachers do hours and hours and hours of unpaid overtime people….take that off the holiday that everyone thinks is so cushy and you might just find they get about the same holiday entitlement as the average…

although prolly not if you are reading this from America…where i think you might get about 3 or 4 days holiday a year!!!???

So anyway we camped this summer, first time for that..and being honest with you it is incredible what you can fit in a meagre 7 seater (6 seats of which are full of human). We packed all we could think of and a few things we couldn't and headed to New Wine, which is a church event run by lots of different churches in the Northeast. 

They do a fabulous kids programme and our kids thrived in it…of course it is an impromtu camp site..as in its a bunch of portaloos and porta-shower type things on an agricultural showground……and so the washing/cleaning/personal hygiene thing sorta slipped slightly but…..hey….clearly God was not bothered by sand and grime otherwise he wouldn't have sent his people into the desert for such a long time…right?

So we grubbed along and when it got too much we toted the kids to a local swimming baths and let the chlorine do its job……

….you know im kidding….

…we showered them first….

…er…..didn't we?……

and so to some pictures, we actually didnt have too much bad weather…..although i did notice that what i thought were delightful 'out all summer' tan lines on my kids seemed to disappear a bit after they had a loooong bath once we returned home… 

um……

yeah….

Maisie and the bear thingy that was in her group..i forget her/his name…..we had to go and have a picture taken with it.  Maisie insisted..Isaac wanted nothing to do with it. I have no idea what the bear does…but it was the darkest corner of the their shed thing and i had no flash and so used an ISO of 6000!!!…holy orangeyglow batman!

that first morning look out the tent….weird things happen to the concept of time when you are under canvas. I think our awake time got longer…by about 9.30am on the first couple of days it felt like lunch time 'cos i'd been up so long.

 
 yeah a happy little 'its light therefore it must be getting up time right' face…

yes…there was much face rubbing and scratching…i think just because of the stubble not the spiritual?

we were on such a small pitch for the amount of people there we thought it might just be possible to walk around then entire pitch staying undercover of canvas…new wine people…WE NEED MORE SPACE!

Although have to say it did give us some pretty impressive 'fly over the guy rope' moments *snigger*

as typepad is on a go slow this evening im going to post this and head to bed….part two tomorrow, hopefully but if you want to check out more pictures from the week..they are up on flickr….

Happy camping  :)