Have children will travel, on Holiday ….. In a bus!

Have children will travel on holiday ….. In a bus!

What was I thinking, a holiday for the 4 Munchkins and I!
What a hassle it is, so much stress and that is just to get the clothes and all equipment clean and ready to pack.
The night before I was hanging laundry on the line at 3am, it was beautiful, the sky was full of stars and so peaceful and a little bit fresh too, I was lucky it didn’t rain and my jeans were dry by mid morning!

Once we finally had the bus loaded up and I mean loaded, scooters, dolls and prams, a ripstick and safety equipment, travel cot, numerous bags, with clothes for the 5 of us, flexi tubs with all the towels we would need and then kitchen bits that we couldn’t leave without that is why we need our little people carrier, it’s a necessity with four children when travelling for sure, well we left 4 hours later than planned not too bad for me, hey you get it organised and packed up with the unhelpfullness of a 2 and 3 year olds and be ready on time, mind you could do with some tips if you have any!

Oh dear how I have come to rely on Satnav’s, absolutely fabulous inventions, sadly our little bus is a bit worn out and currently wont power a satnav (cigarette point, totally rusted out!)
So don’t laugh but I had generally worked out my route, then my mother tells me I am going the long way round and don’t need to, this she said when I popped by hers after locking my place up, so too late to get more directions off the internet, I thought I would carry on going down the M3, but oh no her voice was there as I saw a sign and took it, worst thing I could of done, with no map!
So lets put it this way, what a totally stunning countryside we really have in the UK, loved driving some of the roads and seeing such stunning homes and lovely farms, yes we really were in the country, though we got to our destination, so not so daft after all!

We finally arrived very late it was dark and I was dreading trying to unload, but am so happy to report that the staff were wonderful and helpful & helped me transport the contents of the bus into the little apartment we were staying in!
It was a squeeze, but once in we are happy!

So where have we ventured to, well somewhere the children are happy and very entertained, here we are in Butlins, Bognor Regis!

It’s when you come away as a single mum to four, you realise there are many pitfalls to doing it alone.
Though I have met some incredibly lovely and helpful people that offer to help at times.

Right tomorrow is another day and I am off to visit a very talented friend who lives locally, she has an amazing gift as a cake lady, Mrs Polly Cake maker extraordinaire, so we will get to try her wares, yummy yum!

Did I mention that last week I had a message to say I had won a prize, well it’s a little something to go into my non existent Christmas box, it was some Zoobles from Toys’r’Us well Geoffrey Giraffe, they look fun for the children too x

Have decided to run a little competition of my own, not sure what yet, but would love some suggestions please x

Cleaning up the mess, will it always be my turn?

Today the girls and I did some baking, its fun, but oh so frustrating too. I have to have oodles of patience whilst they take it in turns to stir the mixture, we do it the original way with a bowl and a lovely colourful spatula, we all have our own coloured spatulas so no arguments, but today I just used mine, so we could take it in turns! (was thinking speed, silly of me with the girls helping!)
The cakes turned out fine, well maybe the chocolate ones were a little dry, as I left them to cool in the oven whoops I wouldn't recommend doing the same, but hey we didn't mind, we still sampled them, 12 little cakes and there were 4 left of the original batch to decorate!

On the subject of food, I was so happy with the girls as we had chicken korma and rice for tea and there was none left in the pan what so ever, goodness knows what I would of done if my 7 yr old son had been home too, but he is having a wonderful time with his Grandparents in Spain.
(I am hoping to increase my daughters variety of meals and let there taste buds try new flavours)

Its been a quiet day, well no its never quiet unless late at night in our home lol, today the girls played well, but why oh why do they have to spread their toys into every single room, I go to the bathroom and there in the bath is toys waiting for a bath so the girls tell me, I go to my bedroom to put my baby boy down for his nap and I see fire engines and dolls put to bed in my bed, why can't they as easily tidy them all away, will I forever more be picking up after them :)

I will confess I have a bad habit, I am late for nearly everything, I try my best, but its never good enough, so I am going to try even harder, to be on time for things, today we baked cakes, as I wanted to send some little cupcakes to a lovely friendly young man whose birthday is on Saturday, I made it to the postoffice by the skin of my teeth, so fingers crossed they arrive edible tomorrow!

I got some fab cake toppers, a friend of mine does them, she is able to do almost any type of cake topper, so I highly recommend Kirsty, you can find her on FB at - Kj's cakecraft http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Kjs-cakecraft/104346656325650

Happy thought for today - Its only 4 sleeps until my son comes home :)

Doing it alone, with a sprinkling of grey!

I find myself specially in the evenings looking at what I have and just how lucky I am, not at what I don't have!
Yes I am a Mum to 4 children, Munchkins on good days, Monkeys on the more challenging days!
I am single and 40, but there are children in Africa aged so so young finding themselves the head of the family, so I accept I have it easy compared to many around the world!

Today my daughters decided to flood the bathroom, thank goodness we live on the ground floor, or I am sure we would of wrecked a few floors by now, they just love water, so when I have a shower, it seems lately never to be alone, I am joined by two little monkeys, who then pop the plug in, stay in and create a bath, or rather a water park and no we don't have a huge bathtub, just a ordinary one, that can at a push fit us all in on rare occasions lol!

I am so pleased to be watching the news as I type this and to see that things are finally settling down and that the rioters, criminals are now not terrorising the cities that they themselves live in.
Its been a very crazy and terribly sad time for England, but ultimately good prevails evil!
I salute the police, they do a very demanding job at times, with little reward!

Its the second day I have offered my little cookie a bottle of formula and again he totally refused to have it, so no change there then, I would love him to be more into a routine to enable me to catch up with every day chores, oh well another day tomorrow, if at first you don't succeed, try and try again!

My sister phoned me today and asked had I had a email from Bob the Builder, No I replied!
Well she has won some tickets to go up to see Bob and the team, they are giving fans the opportunity to come along to the ultimate Bob the Builder experience. Being held at The O2 on the 27th August 2011, little builders and their families will be able to complete a range of exciting activities, meet Bob and Wendy, watch a Bob live show performance and enjoy Bob's new feature length special The Big Dino Dig. Kids will also be able to get their face painted, receive giveaways, and take part in many more fun activities. http://www.bobthebuilder.com/uk/bobsbigbuild/?cid=bigbuild (if you go via the daily Express you have the chance to win £1000 toys'r'us vouchers and more, click on the drop down box when your saying where you heard it from)


I would like to share something funny at the end of my blogs- today's was my darling daughters, who are having such fun playing imaginary games, Mummies & Daddies seems to be a favourite at the moment, well the cheeky little monkeys started shouting Gran, Gran, I asked them what they wanted and they said again Gran can we have some juice please, I nearly dropped the clean clothes I was holding ready to put away!
I know I am 40 and envious of friends and family that are already Grandparents, but I do not want my little Monkey's thinking they can start calling me Gran, yes I reminded them I was their Mummy and went to check myself in the mirror, tomorrow I must buy some hair dye!!!

Insanity, well I went from 3 children to 4 children!

Since I first started this back in October 2010, I have had another addition to our family, so now we are five!

I am a Mummy to four little munchkins, I do it alone and am very happy and lucky to have my children, my littlest cookie was a bit of a surprise, but he has made our little family feel so complete!

So now there is me Mummy aged 40 this January just gone, they say life begins at 40, think I misunderstood and thought it was a new life begins at 40 and had little cookie the same month as my 40th.
Then there is Big brother, my little hero aged 7 now, going on 17 at times, then we have Miss NoNoNo aged 3 and then MissyMiss aged 2 both girls are quite delightful at times, oh boy are the teenage years going to be interesting in this home!
Then our little Cookie who is 6 months old, evens it out a bit by being the 2nd son in the family, my older son was so happy to not be alone in a house of females and little cookie is growing like a weed!

I have been on Facebook alot, and the most wonderful of days was on Friday 29th July when I actually won a much needed prize of a washing machine, I mean how lucky am I, mine really was on its last legs, only washing 2 towels at once and sometimes not spinning them, so now I have the best washing machine out there, the Samsung Eco-bubble with a huge 12kg load, it is certainly getting put through its paces in this our home, I have not one, two, but four dirt magnets!

Does anyone else have children that no matter how many times you wipe/wash their faces, I turn my back and a few minutes later its dirty again, I have a new mantra and I find myself saying it over and over!
A Dirty child is a happy child, a dirty child is a happy child........can you get why I do this, yes its to justify why my munchkins are dirty and happy and I have to stop grabbing the wipes every 2 minutes, I just have to chill out a bit, I mean a bit of dirt did none of us harm, just so long as the Queen doesn't pop round as a surpirse for tea, well anyone for that matter lol!

Right going to keep this short, so I have four children, dirt magnets, mess monsters, delightfully entertaining mini people, ooh I so could go on, but will write more soon.

Happy Monday to you all, hope all the riots in London calm down now and order is back in place soon! x