Camping!
yay - we love camping! We spent 2 nights near Ipswich this weekend so we could be near a party the kids had been invited to. I think we managed to get all sorts of weather thrown at us!
First of all, and one of the best bits for me, was as soon as we arrived at the camp site there was some kids in the playfield and Alex shouted ‘can I go make friends with them?’ and so Marcus and her went off and we hardly saw them. I don’t think we’d even got the tent out of the car by this point! My poor children who can’t socialise 
Always nice to see them make friends so easily, especially lately as I do tend to be worrying lots about M. I know I shouldn’t!
The tent went up nice and easily althought it was windy and we never managed to get the canopy up. We just couldn’t control it and I was worried we’d end up paragliding down the field. The wind only got worse over the weekend, so probably just as well we never managed it. Saturday was really nice weather, I managed to catch the sun while putting up the tent, so we went to Felixstowe for a much needed visit to the sea. I really liked it there actually, wasn’t sure what to expect, but being the bank holiday weekend I expected it to be slightly busier. We had ice cream and a nice walk and it all felt rather holiday like Went to buy some food supplies and then headed back to the tent for some tea. Again we hardly saw the kids, think it was 9pm when we finally managed to convince them it was time for sleep. One camper was doing a magic show (not sure if this was arranged by campsite or not) and Alex really loved watching it.
I think it rained a lot in the night, although sometimes it seems hard to gauge how much it did. Was slightly annoyed that the tent was dripping in some places but on driving out in the morning and speaking to other people we realised it was a spectacular amount of rain so maybe I should forgive it. We headed off, trying to stay respectable looking, to the party which was held at a gymnastics centre. All was great fun, for adults and kids alike. Although I think James hurt his back doing and indiana jones like rope swing. Hmmmm. We headed back to the party house for food and games which was lovely. Was really nice to catch up with people and have some nice chats. Lots of house and ‘rainbow stuff’ envy went on!
We were a bit worried to get back to the tent so put offf going back by having tea at Mcd’s. I just couldn’t imagine cooking in foul weather. The tent did survive though, just a few drips but as we’d covered up all bedding that was fine. We spent a nice evening playing ds’s and battleships before bed. I think the fact we were in the bedroom for most of the evening led to me being a bit claustrophobic and I struggled to sleep that night. It was extremely windy too and I was worried the tent would go so that didn’t help! Managed about 4 hours I think.
Taking the tent down again was nice and easy, small tents have advantages. Felt sorry for some of the others taking down huge tents which were inner first, just looked really hard work. Journey home was uneventful.
Kids had a fab time, M has requested that we camp for his birthday so will have to see what we can do. Shall try and add some pics in later on 
