I'm sat here writing this on the eve of our very first family camping trip. We're planning to go away in Spring Bank week (end of May) but in an attempt to be really organised when I joined the Camping and Caravanning Club (which lots of seasoned camping friends recommended we do) I also found out where our nearest site was and booked us in for one night. And that night is tomorrow! Argh!!!!! The logic was that I wanted a practice run before our first proper camping holiday. It'll be the first time the kids have ever camped, and the first time we've used our new tent, so we figured that if ... read more
Crossing the Solent to the Isle of Wight
In case you didn't gather before, I was pretty excited about our recently family trip to the Isle of Wight. Not only was I generally looking forward to going there and seeing if the island was as nice as I remembered from a school trip all those years ago, but I was also hugely looking forward to the ferry trip over and the kids' first time on a ferry. I'm not totally sure what the kids expected a ferry to be like, but we'd talked to them a fair bit about what would happen and how we would take our car on to the boat. Master C did keep getting a bit confused and thought we were travelling ... read more
Have tent, will camp
It seems like a lifetime ago that I blogged all about how we were on a quest to buy a tent and become campers. So much has happened since then that it seemed like it was time for a little update. I'm delighted to say that we are now the very proud owners of a family tent - after spending crazy amounts of time researching tents and camping equipment and spending our weekends dragging the kids round camping shops across the south east. The big tent purchase came though after a trip up to the NEC to the Caravan, Camping and Motorhome Show on Mr C's birthday - we know how to celebrate a ... read more
Round the world by ferry
A couple of weeks ago I took part in a twitter party for Discover Ferries. I heard about it by chance as one of my friends was helping to run the twitter party and as I'd just booked ferry tickets for us earlier that morning for a Easter holidays trip to the Isle of Wight it seemed appropriate to take part. Especially as there were prizes to be won. I always love a chance of winning something after all! As it happens I didn't win (damn!) but I did have the most amazing hour reminiscing about various ferry journeys that I have taken over the years. If you'd asked me before hand if I'd ever ... read more
Criccieth Castle
When you think of north Wales castles have to be one of the first things that come to mind. There are apparently over 600 castles in Wales and as you drive around you certainly keep coming across them. The castles, along with the gorgeous scenery and coastline, were one of the big driving reasons for wanting to visit Wales in the first place with the kids. On the first full day of our stay at Haven Hafan Y Mor we decided to get out and visit the nearest castle to the site - Criccieth Castle. Just a few miles along the coast Criccieth Castle is high up between two beaches and has some of the ... read more
10 Top Tips for Travelling with Children
It's time to dust off the passports here in the Carr household as very excitingly I managed to win some holiday vouchers at the start of the half term holiday - just hours in fact before we headed off on our first family holiday in ages! Having now tested the theory that we can get further than the local supermarket with two children and all their kit I'm determined that this is just the start of our family holiday adventures. But, as any parent knows travelling with children isn't always straightforward so here are my top ten tips for making it as stress-free as possible. 1. Plan, plan, ... read more
The weekend I went to Amsterdam and won a new kitchen bin
When you become a stay at home mum after years working in a career where you were actually someone with quite an important busy job it can be a bit of a shock. Looking back, managing multimillion pound projects with stakeholders with conflicting requirements actually seemed quite easy in comparison to trying to get a Duracell fuelled two year old to lie still whilst you change a particularly nasty dirty nappy. Even those arguments about conflicting requirements were a piece of cake compared to two children both wanting the same toy. Back in my working days I would have thought nothing about ... read more
Featured Post: Manchester – beyond the cobbles
When I was a lass growing up in Yorkshire the first thing that sprang to mind when anyone mentioned Manchester was Coronation Street. Eastenders was never a big thing up north you see. We watched Emmerdale, as it was from Yorkshire, and Coronation Street so we could keep track of what was going on on t'other side of the Pennines. We were always wary of them over there - after all, look at any map and it's clear to see that there's only one "right" side of the Pennines. So in my mind Manchester was this large city of small cobbled streets, local boozers like the Rovers Return and people with ... read more
Summer 2014: Day 17 – Castle Drogo and the journey home
After our journey down to Cornwall we were pretty sure that the journey back wasn't going to be fast, but I don't think we realised just how long it was going to take. We said our sad farewell to Fiona and everyone else at Coombe Mill and headed east with an aim of stopping off at the National Trust's Castle Drogo. We'd seen signs for the castle on our journey down, but had run out of time then to be able to visit. Now, the thing that's slightly unique about Castle Drogo at the moment is the fact that they're in the middle of a huge piece of conservation work there whilst staying ... read more
Summer 2014: Day 16 – Boscastle and the Beach
The penultimate day of the holidays at Coombe Mill can only mean one thing - the last feed run! The children had come to love the feed run and were sad that it was their last one, but this also meant that time was running out for Little Miss C to actually drive Farmer Nick's tractor. Luckily though she finally plucked up the nerves to do so and she now talks about it as one of the highlights of her whole summer. As if driving the tractor wasn't exciting enough, this was also the day that she actually managed to find an egg herself too. A perfect end to a week of feed ... read more