The Dogs...

Arlo demonstrating this season's 'must have' look - a happy outlook, snappy shades and a blob of tomato sauce just under one's lip. All the hipsters will be sporting this look in a matter of days...

CAMPING! The first camping trip of the year! Hooray! And after a hectic morning of rushing around, shoving things in bags, shoving bags in bigger bags, shoving everything in the boot, shoving kids into clothes, shoving them into their car seats in the car, shoving each other up and down the stairs and shoving grub into our gobs, at around 10am we finally SHOVED off on our campampampampamping trip.

It's alway so stressful getting everything ready for going camping - the only thing that keeps you sane during it all is knowing that within a few hours time you'll be sitting around a beautiful loch, beer in hand, smile on face.

This time was no different. Well, actually - it was different because we had a NEW TENT! Goodbye Monstrosity 2000 - you of the leaky porch, you of the sticking zips and the doors that let in rainwater in the middle of the night when you need to nip out for a pee.

By the end - I hated that tent. Our new one is lovely and bright, and whilst it is even more MAHOOSIVE than the Monstrosity 2000 (so I suppose we've upgraded to the Monstrosity 3000), it's just perfect for our family and has loads of windows and loads of little details that you never know you need on a tent until you camp in one without those things...no more waking up in puddles for us! Hooray!

So...new tent up, boys round the fire (Ida was at her Granny's), red wine in hand - happy days ahead.