Rustic living and broken nails...

We have returned from our camping trip and I have the sunburn and broken nails to show for it.

Richard says my sun-kissed face makes me look like a 'farmer's daughter'. I am going to assume that's a compliment..

After enduring our January camping trip with no table at all, we decided that it really is a requirement back-to-nature or not. So we set off on Saturday morning with our plastic garden table wrapped in a blanket and tied to the back of the car. To my sceptical surprise we arrived there with both the car and table intact.

On the way we played 20-Questions, although in our case we carry on until we get the answer, so 100-Questions may be a more apt name. Both boys understand how to play this game, but playing against Griffin is tricky because his objects are often pretty fantastical. Case-in-point we gave up trying to think of something he would know that was 'smaller than an ant'. The answer was .... 'a very small teddy bear... giggle giggle'. I mean really!

We got the camp set up and set about the important task of lying around reading, relaxing and snacking. Something we ended up doing a lot of (of course today I am wishing I hadn't done quite so much snacking, as I try to convince myself to go for a run... argh!).
The kids had a fantastic time again, evidenced by the fact that we hardly saw them at all. They met up with the same boy who was there in January, who was also back for the long week-end. They had a nack of popping by for a snack or drink or to tell us something exciting every few hours, at just about the time I would start to get slightly concerned about their whereabouts and wellbeing. Convenient.

We took a Richard Scarry book 'On the Farm' along for Quinn which he read very well, so we got a bit of homework in too. The book was very apt as the camp site is pretty much a farm, with the owner even calling himself Farmer Chris. There are chickens, FAR too many roosters, turkeys, ducks, geese, guinea fowls and peacocks wondering the grounds. Then there are tortoises, pigs, horses, cows and an ostrich in enclosures.

We also practised syllables - I say a word (stressing the syllables slightly) and he tells me how many syllables there are, and some recall of sentences - where I have to say a 7-10 word sentence and he needs to repeat it. He did well in all exercises. Aside: Quinn's teacher has made an appointment to see us tomorrow. Apparently she is concerned about him not always finishing is work. I hope the news is not too bad. I am trying not too think about it too much until we are there. More on that tomorrow....

There were 2 young couples camping across the field from us, and they had some cricket gear with them, as did we. Richard nudged me on saying it was my chance to finally live out my cricket playing fantasy. *hehehe*

It turned out that they live in Obs (quite close to where we live) so we are not the only people who go camping 30 mins away from home ;)

We did all start playing cricket soon after that and it was great fun. Who knew playing cricket could be so enjoyable? While the guys we were playing against were clearly more practised than us, I think we did a good job of playing along and didn't embarass ourselves at all. The other 2 girls joined in after a while, so I wasn't the only girl playing either - I was the only one to carry on for the full 3-day game though - and broke 3 finger nails in the process. Whatever!

It turns out all that lunging, running and stooping is quite the bum work-out too, because I have had a pair of stiff gluteus maximuses ever since Saturday evening! Hopefully it has done something about firming that area up!

We ended up playing for a good chunk of every day for the full 3 days. In between Richard and I made up a game. Volley-tenni-cricket. Which is soon to be an Olympic sport I am sure.

It involves one person using the tennis racquet, and the other a cricket bat and then attempting to play volleyball with a tennis ball using the bat/racquet to hit the ball. It sounds ridiculous, but we actually got quite good at it, and managed to get some good ralleys going. Additionally, we provided amusement for anyone passing by.

On Saturday night it rained, so we huddled in the tent and I taught the boys to play snap (the card game). This went on for a while until I got tired and decided it was bed time, so I got mean and evil and played on full alert so I could beat them quickly (what a cruel parent). *efg*
On Sunday night we made a fire and toasted marshmallows - a yummy new flavour I found 'Coconut Cream and Banana', and then made fireworks fairies with burning sticks. Dangerous and fun!

The air matress which is getting close to being more patch than matress gave us (well Richard) lots of fun again. Luckilly he has a scary lung capacity and blows them up in minutes. How the hell he does it, I don't know. I tried in January and nearly had seizure. Still the trusty matress managed to stay mostly inflated for the greater part of the night and would only deflate significantly by morning, signalling that it was time to get up, I guess.

Camping is fun, we'll do more of it.