Summer holidays!

The Summer holidays as every parent knows can be totally crazy passing in a sea trying to keep the children entertained, trying to stay on top of all the extra housework, keeping up with cooking & washing, trying to get all next school years school uniforms, shoes & stationery all bought & ready, labeling them all & above all trying to stay sane!
To keep ours busy & give them a fun experience, we took our kids away for a week in a static caravan by the seaside on the Lincolnshire coast. It was total chaos packing for everyone & on top of that I also had to pack up the cat & take a couple of tropical fish in a bucket to my sister in Peterborough on the way - talk about over-load! There was so much to organize that I was sure that I would forget something!

We had decided to stay overnight in Peterborough to break up the 4.5hr journey & it was ideal to catch up with family. I hadn't seen my sister's new house & I hadn't seen my parents for months as they had only just got back from Turkey.
On the morning of travel I took the kids to a play scheme, because I find nothing harder than trying to pack the car up quietly while tripping over kids who are whizzing in & out of the house & up & down the street telling every random stranger that we are going away! I find it a nightmare & always worry that I will come back to find the place burgled! Although any burglar breaking in would be sadly disappointed as they would find very little worth taking, unless they wanted industrial quantities of washing powder, nappies or baby wipes!
Packing without the kids around was much easier & done in half the time. Once everything was in including the cat & fish (the fish were safely in carry bags inside the bucket), the plan was to collect the kids & then drive straight on up the A1. However with kids & animals, nothing goes quite to plan...
I packed my eldest son's 3DS but his favourite game was missing, he is autistic with ADHD & it was the end of the world to him that his game was missing. Knowing I would not hear the end of it for the next few hours & I wanted to drive up in peace, the only choice we had was to go back to the house & get the game... so far so good. Suddenly while I was in the house getting the game the kids started shrieking "Mummy the cat's pooed in the carry box & its all over him!" Argh! Yuk!
Oh help! I had never bathed a cat before & was not in the mood to start now! The old joke of "How to power wash a cat in the toilet" briefly flashed through my mind, but knowing it wasn't a serious suggestion I had to think of something else! Luckily I managed it in the shower (with the shower room door locked!) & not having "cat shampoo" I had to use "baby shampoo" instead. The cat didn't seem to object too much as he is pretty laid back (he has to be with our lot!) We wrapped him up in a towel to dry him off as best we could. I cleaned & dried the carrier & put the cat back in it. I felt a little sorry that Felix was probably traumatized by his first shower & then was going to be dropped off at the cattery for 8 days not long after. I really hoped that he didn't think it was a punishment!
Anyway after all that we finally got off on holiday OK!

I haven't got any photos of our holiday to hand yet because my first laptop went wrong & then my phone was stolen with all my pictures on it :-( I did take more pictures right at the end with a different phone, but I can't get them uploaded until I get my laptop back from repair. I'm borrowing my daughters' laptop atm & I am really not getting on with it at all! It is running so badly it needs a re-build!