Summer catch up - August

We started the month with the best camping trip ever.  I took the kids for a week, the first time I've done a week's camping in years.  We went to Eweleaze Farm just outside of Weymouth. They turn out the cows and sheep for a month and turn the fields into a fantastic family campsite.  Ponies, alpaca and goats wander about, kids can walk the sheepdog puppies, and can hold the guinea pigs and rabbits.  There are huge haystacks to climb, both outside and in a barn.  They make organic pizza, bread, croissants and other goodies.  They sell ice cream and ice pops.  There are plenty of solar powered showers.  And they have a private beach!

We camped with Zoe, Dallas, Billy and their lovely dog Pablo.  A few days later we were joined by Amanda, Caden and Miles.  Some other friends camped in a different part of the site too.

We spent a lot of time at various beaches.  We were so lucky with the weather - it rained twice.  We had a fire 6 out of 7 evenings.  Many many marshmallows were eaten.

Our first evening - the beach has a floating pontoon.

Ringstead bay.

Sunshine!

Monopoly.

Our fire circle.

Our lovely tent.

Making hot chocolate.

At Lyme Regis - we met up with my dad for the afternoon.

Weymouth beach

 

Toasting marshmallows.

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At the Sealife Centre.

Meg in an empty net bag (of course).

Eweleaze cove.

A dead jellyfish that washed up, to much excitement.

 

And then, the most awful journey home.  It took 2.5 hours to travel from the M3 junction to the M4 junction on the M25.  

But never mind that - it was a fabulous holiday and we made some really lovely memories.

Two days after we got back, we were due to travel to Stoke On Trent to a family wedding. But we didn't make it.  Bizarrely, a moth flew into Rob's ear on the Friday night.  He went to the local A and E, but they couldn't get it out.  He got back really late, and because the moth was right in his ear canal he was feeling dizzy and nauseous.  So we missed the wedding, and he had an early appointment at the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford.  The finally managed to get it out with micro forceps. 

I'd made dresses fr Betsy and Meg to wear to the wedding. They wore them anyway!

We went to Zoe's for the day.  She was making a shelter in the woods behind her house, and Fred helped with cutting some branches.

I bought a Moshi Monster hat in the sale, and Betsy was inspired to make a mask.

We've been collecting vegetables from the allotment.

We went to Bedgrove playground, and walked along the stream nearby.

We went to Warwick Castle.  It was very very crowded.  We watched the fireball being launched from the trebuchet, sword fighting and jousting.

Fred's had a couple of fishing sessions with Grandpa, and caught lots of fish.

Rob and the kids collected lots of blackberries and elderberries.  Rob and I made jars and jars of jam.

Apart from that the kids have played with their local friends, played various games on the Wii/PS3/laptop/tablet, and played lots of board games and Top Trumps.

It's been a lovely summer.