Family Camping Essentials & Tips

This year we decided to bite the bullet and purchase a tent - it's something we've been talking about for the last couple of years but have never got round to actually doing it for one reason or another. I'm sure the idea of camping with small children is some people's idea of hell but some of my favourite memories are of my childhood when we used to go camping!

We got quite a good deal on a large 6 person tent from Go Outdoors - we spent a fair bit of time researching but it was good to go to the store and see for ourselves what they were like. It's a bit overwhelming with the choice of things to buy but we literally bought the tent plus a few items like campbeds, foldable cupboard and the all important drinks cooler. Since we bought the tent, we've been buying bits and pieces and it feels more manageable to do it that way rather than buy all of Go Outdoors at once!

It's a really good idea to put the tent up in the garden before you actually go away - it gives you an idea of how long it will take you and how straight forward it is. Although you can actually get self inflating tents these days if you're not too great with the traditional way!

With limited space, organisation is key - you might have to play a bit of car jenga but at least you will have all the essentials!

Setting Up

- Tent (this is the one we bought)
- Pegs, plus spares
- Groundsheet
- Mallet
- Carpet
- Porch (not essential but handy for extending your living space and useful if it rains!

Bedrooms

- Air mattress and pump
- Camp beds (we're considering getting bunk beds to save room, the kids loved trying them out in the shop!
- Sleeping bags
- Pillows (you can get smaller camping pillows but you can't beat your comfy pillow from home!)
- Torch
- Head lamp (useful for nighttime toilet trips!)
- Spare blankets
- Fleecy onesies for the kids
- Clothing for all weathers, plus spares for the children incase they get wet/muddy/dirty!

Living Area

- Stove and gas
- Cutlery and plates/bowls/cups (we bought the infamous plastic set from IKEA that every parent seems to own!)
- Cooking utensils
- Tin foil
- Kettle
- Pots and Pans
- Cool box and ice blocks
- Washing up bowl, liquid, cloth etc
- Tin opener
- Lighter/matches
- Chopping board
- Black bin bags
- Camping chairs
- Fold out table
- Fold up shelves (really useful for storing kitchen bits)

Food/Drink

You don't really want to be slaving over a hot stove for too long when you're away camping so it's good to pack a few meals that are quick and easy to prepare.

For breakfast you might be able to pick up fresh bits from the campsite shop (if you don't have access to a fridge) but you can't go wrong with scrambled egg on toast! The mini boxes of cereal are good for the kids too, along with longlife milk. I always pack brioche buns too as the kids are big fans.

We recently got sent some Shaken Udder milkshakes* to try out and these were perfect for our camping trip. Aside from being really tasty, they don't need to be kept in the fridge so are ideal for camping.

Lunch/Dinner wise, hotdogs are always a hit and can be easily made on the stove. A friend of mine always takes a big lunchbox of chilli to heat up on the stove which is a fab idea! We usually take a few noodle pots as these are mega easy - our faves are Mr Lees* and they are so tasty.

I usually try and take a few bottles of frozen made up squash too, not only do they double up as cool blocks but the children are more inclined to drink it if it's ice cold!

Extras

- Mini first aid kit
- Sudocrem* (The folks at Sudocrem have created a mini version,  "My Little Sudocrem" which is ideal for camping and can be popped in your first aid kit. I find it really useful as it can be used for a multitude of things - insect bites, sunburn, blisters, chafing!
- Insect repellant
- An abundance of wipes
- Toilet roll
- Some small games to keep the kids busy - we love Top trumps!

Now we have our tent we are planning to go a couple of times over the Summer holidays and I hope it's something the children enjoy as much as I did as a child!

*Contains press samples

Summer of Play at The Dolphin Centre, Poole

Lets face it, the Summer Holidays can get expensive! It can also be a hassle finding new things to keep the kids amused...especially on rainy days. 

We seem to have had a run of rainy days recently so when our park plans were scuppered last week, we headed into the Dolphin Centre in Poole to check out the Summer of Play event. 

Summer of Play is a free event and can be found in one of the vacant shops in Kingland Crescent. We went along and didn't really know what to expect but were pleasantly surprised!

The room is decked out to look like a seaside and has a large craft area featuring beach themed activities, a giant sandpit, interactive games such as hook a duck, beach balls, drawing and loads more. There is even free face painting! Parents can watch their little ones from the deck chairs - if you close your eyes you can almost imagine you're sat on an exotic beach somewhere ;) 

We spent a good hour in the Summer of Play and Elliot really enjoyed the crafts and sandpit. It was nice to do something a little different and amazing that it was totally free! 

Unfortunately the event was only on until August 13th but I really hope the Dolphin Centre see how successful it was and make it a permanent fixture in school holidays. Perhaps they could do seasonal events, like a Halloween one in the October half term week!  

 

Looking back at Summer '16...

It doesn't seem 5 minutes since we were looking ahead at the Summer Holidays way back in July but here we are in September. I had two aims at the start of the 6 weeks - to have fun, and to try not to spend much money! I probably spent more than we should have but we certainly had lots of fun!

Here's some of my favourite memories from the last 6 weeks....

Beach Day

We are really lucky to live on the South Coast and we are spoilt for choice with beaches. Although saying this, we never go to the beach!! I'm not a fan of sand and the big beaches are always packed in the Summer but I made sure we had at least one beach day over the hols. We stayed local and went to a small beach that is nice and shallow for paddling. We met up with some friends and the kids had a great time! One thing though, why is it never possible to travel light to the beach?! I had picnic bag, picnic blanket, a camping chair, bucket and spade, child, beach stuff, various dinosaurs..!!

Kingston Lacy, Dorset

I've written about Kingston Lacy before on my blog but it is one of our favourite places to go in Dorset. It's a stunning stately home with beautiful grounds to explore and is owned by the National Trust. We are NT members so it's a great place to go for a cheap day out with the kids! 

We visited on a boiling hot day and we had a lovely picnic in the shade of the giant oak trees next to the house. We then wandered down through the estate to the Kitchen Gardens where you can find allotments, pigs and plenty of ride on tractors to entertain small ones! There's a little kiosk selling ice creams and drinks and these were certainly appreciated on such a hot day. 

Celebrity Stalking - A List Style!

I used to love a bit of celebrity stalking in my younger years....Boyzone, Jared Leto, Ant & Dec...um Peter Andre! Being a Mum it's usually limited to CBeebies presenters these days but over the Summer I found out that a new film was being shot in Swanage which is around half an hour from where I live. In that film were a couple of unknowns called Tom Hardy and Harry Styles, I doubt you've heard of them! ;) I'd been planning a day trip to Swanage so we thought we'd combine the two and see what we could spot. Not a lot happens in sleepy Swanage so it was a big deal! 

The majority of the filming was taking place at the railway station so we headed there and had a nosy around. The kids enjoyed looking at the trains while we tried hard to not make it look like we were on stalking mode!! We spotted some paparazzi so my friend managed to climb a wall (wearing a dress I might add!) and she did get a glimpse of Harry Styles! 

Apart from the wall climbing, I thought we were being quite discreet (not like some of the shouty 1D fans we saw!) but then I came home that evening to find we'd been filmed for the local evening news......cringe!!

http://www.itv.com/news/meridian/update/2016-07-25/crowds-as-town-transformed-into-hollywood-film-set/

Park Life

We have some really great parks near to where we live and we spent lots of time there over the Summer holidays. We have a brilliant country park just down the road which has lots of nature walks, things to climb on and in the Summer there are splash fountains which we have enjoyed lots over the Summer - good for cooling down on a hot day! We actually visited on a few rainy days too rather than being cooped up indoors. They also do amazing ice creams! 

Our other favourite park has a big paddling pool which Elliot loves and we've visited on numerous occasions over the last  few months - sometimes it's hard getting him out of the water though!! 

Days at Home

To keep costs down we've had lots of days at home and the paddling pool has certainly had a battering!! We moved house last year and our bungalow has a lovely little garden that catches the sun just right so it's perfect for playing in. The slide was a new addition and Elliot loves nothing more than hurtling down into the paddling pool! 

What did you get up to over the Summer Holidays?

Cruising the Jurassic Coastline, Dorset with City Cruises

Thousands of tourists flock to Poole every Summer and a boat cruise around the harbour is on many of their to-do lists, especially for those visitors who aren't lucky enough to have the coast on their doorstep!

For locals such as myself, it's easy to take where we live for granted but I really wanted to take a boat trip to show Elliot some of the sights of Dorset that he's only seen from afar. 

There are various different companies who offer boat trips from Poole Quay but I decided to book a Jurassic Coastal Cruise with City Cruises. This is a 2 hour (approx) return trip which costs £10.35 for adults and £5.18 for children (5-16 years) when booked online. 

Ahoy matey!

Despite the scorching sunshine of the day before, it was really muggy and drizzly when we boarded the boat but this didn't bother us - we decided to sit up on the top deck and we had it to ourselves as the other passengers didn't fancy getting wet! 

Enjoying the lovely British weather! 

Our boat departed from Poole Quay and made it's way past the Sunseeker boats being built at the shipyard, past the ferry terminal, and out towards Brownsea Island. Despite the weather, the sea was relatively calm and soon we were heading out of the harbour and past the golden sands of Studland Beach. 

It was such a pity the weather was so miserable as usually you can see for miles all the way across to the Isle of Wight but I struggled to see Bournemouth in the distance! 

We cruised along the coastline taking in the beautiful views of Old Harry Rocks (said to be named after infamous Poole pirate Harry Paye) - these mark the most easterly point of the Jurassic Coastline. Sometimes dolphins can be spotted in these waters but sadly we didn't see any today! 

Our destination was the town of Swanage and we were allowed on shore for half an hour. There is the option of catching a later boat back to Poole if you fancy a longer stay in Swanage but we were quite happy just to just have a quick wander along the pier. The weather took a turn for the worse at this point unfortunately and the heavens opened! Perhaps not the weather for flip flops and no raincoat ;) 

We jumped back onto the boat and ironically as we departed from Swanage, the sun decided to come out! It meant we could sit upstairs on the top deck again and the views across to Poole were stunning and certainly a lot clearer than our earlier journey.  

We had a lovely time on the Jurassic Coastal Cruise despite the weather and would thoroughly recommend it!  

*Disclaimer - City Cruises kindly gave us the tickets for this boat trip in return for an honest review

Summer Crafts with Baker Ross

With the Summer Holidays nearly upon us, you might be looking for some activities to keep the children amused on those rainy days....and lets face it, there's bound to be more of them than sunny ones! 

Fortunately Baker Ross have lots of fun and exciting Summery crafts in their new range and we were sent a big box of goodies to try out. Elliot always gets really excited when we get a new Baker Ross delivery and he couldn't wait to tear into the box and see what we had! 

The first thing we spotted was the Seaside Sand Art Pictures (£2.96) . We have tried something similar out before and it was great fun so I knew it would be a big hit with Elliot. There are 8 different designs on the pictures and you peel the individual stickers off to reveal the sticky surface. All you do is tip a bit of sand on it, give it a little tap and shake off any excess. As long as you've given it a shake, the sand will stick to the picture and it shouldn't create anymore mess. To keep things neat (and the sand confined to one place!) we used trays to do the pictures on. This meant any loose sand could just be tipped away once we'd finished. 

We really enjoyed this activity although Elliot did need a bit of help peeling the stickers off as it was a little fiddly. My only critism is that the bags of sand didn't come in resealable packets - this would have been really useful! The sand was really bright and vibrant and the finished pictures look really cool I think. 

Two of Elliot's favourite Baker Ross activities are stickers and stampers so he was quite pleased to see both in the box! The stampers (£3.49 for 10) are really great for his age as they are nice and chunky and perfect for little hands, You can use them with ink pads or paint and Baker Ross have lots of different ones to choose from on their website. 

We were sent a nice big bag of dog stickers (£2.99) and Elliot spent ages sorting them out! Included in the Baker Ross box was a packet of bright rainbow paper so Elliot used this to put his stickers onto - an activity that he never gets bored of! 

As well as crafts, Baker Ross also stock a large range of small toys, the type you get in party bags, the kind kids love!  We were sent a selection of these and I think they will be really useful in the Summer holidays when Elliot has his friends round...anything for a bit of peace and quiet ;)

He immediately spotted the pull back snails (£2.25) and these were the surprise hit of the entire selection! Who doesn't love a racing snail ;)

For more ideas on entertaining your children in the Summer holidays, check out the Baker Ross website 

Disclaimer: We received the products for the purpose of the honest review. All views are my own

10 Things I've Loved in May

With the months flying by so fast, I thought it would be a nice idea to write down all the things we've loved and enjoyed. We've had some great weather and have been out and about lots, plus we had a little holiday too. Read on to see my favourite things...

1. Just For Tots at Butlins Minehead

This is our 3rd year at Butlins for the Just for Tots break but I think it might just be our best year yet! For starters we had brilliant weather and it was sunny all week, normally we're dodging showers so it made a nice change to be out in shorts and t-shirts. 

As Elliot has got older we have found more and more for him to do at Butlins and this time he was actually tall enough to go on the go-karts with his Daddy - he was over the moon! 

We also had a bit of a special treat when we watched Treasure Island featuring Sid & Rebecca from CBeebies. Elliot was picked to go on stage to take part in a game so we were just a bit excited!! Now every time he sees Sid and Rebecca on tv, he says "we know them!" :)

2. Dunster Castle, Somerset

On our way home from Butlins we stopped off at Dunster Castle which is owned by the National Trust. As it was a weekday, it was really quiet and we only saw a handful of people whilst we were there. We didn't go inside the castle this time (we did this last year, it was interesting but a bit boring for toddlers!) but instead we walked around the castle via the wooden play area which Elliot loved. There were logs to climb on, stepping stones to step on and musical instruments made from trees! 

We had a quick stop in the Dunster Watermill on the way round and then finished off in the crypt which always gives me the shivers! Especially when a bat flies past inches from your face, eeek! 

3. Singing with Just Sing Choir

This is consistently one of my very favourite things! I read a report recently that said being in a choir is good for your health and I agree 100%, it's a great stress-buster and gives you such a high. We've been busy this month practicing for our big gig of the Summer which is at the Wimborne Folk Festival. We have two performances over the weekend and I can't wait! It's such a busy weekend with thousands of people descending on Wimborne and the choir always has such a fun time.

4. Bluebell woods at Pamphill, Dorset

Elliot and I finally got to see the bluebells in bloom when we visited Pamphill in Dorset. I've been meaning to go for the last couple of years but never quite made it! It was a beautiful sight and I'm so glad we visited, I got some lovely photos of Elliot. 

5. Sunshine!

Finally finally we've had some lovely weather and we've been trying to make the most of it by days out and spending more time in the garden. Elliot's got a new water table so he's spent lots of time outside dunking various toys in the water! 

One of my favourite places to visit on a sunny day is Upton Country Park - there is a lovely walled garden there that is a great place for a picnic but the best bit is the splash fountain! 

6. BBQ's and Alfresco Dining

This is our first Summer in our current house but we have a lovely decking area that is great for barbeques. We've had a few this week and I love eating outside, I don't know what it is but food just tastes better eaten in the fresh air! Looking forward to having many more bbqs over the Summer :)

7. Sports4Tots

Recently we signed Elliot up to a kids sports programme called Sports4Tots. He already does Little Kickers football on a Saturday but we wanted him to try out something different. At Sports4Tots they cover a variety of different sports such as rugby, tennis, football and hockey and the classes are really fun. Elliot loves it!

Elliot's first taste of tennis!

8. Scooby Doo

This isn't one of my favourites but Elliot has gone mad for Scooby Doo recently. We bought him the mystery machine and haunted house for Christmas and he has been steadily building up his collection with new figures, and the current favourite, figures in slime!

Universal Studios Sep 2015...this might have been the start of the obsession!

9. Eurovision Song Contest

This is one of my guilty pleasures in life!! Every year my family all get together at my parents house for a little Eurovision party - we have party food and one of my sisters will always bring a notebook to mark all the entrants. I know that UK never really stand much chance of winning (even this year with a great song!) but we're still holding out hope that the UK gets to host again one day in the future so we can get tickets!

10. Family Days Out

This month has been busy for us but we always try and do something together at the weekend...nice weather is an added bonus! Last weekend we visited Swanage which is a pretty seaside town located on the Jurassic Coastline. We had a little wander around the town followed by a delicious lunch in The Ship Inn - I love pub lunches! 

Family Photo!

I'm going to try and remember to do this each month so we can look back and see all the lovely stuff we got up to. Especially as Summer normally equals a packed diary for Elliot!

What was your highlight of May?