A weekend of sucesses.

Camping is a thing we have always done and always enjoyed. Getting the children to fit in seemed like an easy thing to do when we first talked about it. We focused on the practical. We got a much bigger tent so they had room to sleep as well as room to play if the weather kept us indoors (hasn't yet but the puddlesuits we have are worth their weight in gold). We made sure they had the right bedding to be comfortable and warm in the night. We made sure they had the right clothes from the fleecy onesies to sleep in to the puddlesuits and wellies in case of rain.

What we forgot about was the sheer excitement of it all and the effect that it might have on their ability to sleep.

One of the big things that I have learnt since the children came home is that sleep is vital for us all. I need it, they need and we all need it in a sufficient quantity. It is nice, however, to allow the children a little bit more freedom and they enjoy the occasional 'staying up a bit later'. But it does leave them tired. Our other challenge stems from the fact that, in reality, we bought the wrong tent. Don't get me wrong, it is a good family tent but the children are in sleeping compartments next to each other. The can poke each other through the canvas and they hear every single sound the other makes. Next time we plan for a different format.

Usually at home the go to bed at the same time. The above meant that when we are camping it is not practical as, when we tried it, it took them hours to go to sleep because they kept waking each up. It left me incredibly stressed. We tried putting oldest to bed first, he tends to go to sleep quicker. It failed as youngest woke him when she was put to bed. We tried putting them to bed with a book each and that failed as it ended in the poking and shouting. We tried getting them to sleep whilst sat with us but wrapped up and that failed as they are not used to falling asleep on people and they woke up when we moved them. We tried the other way round - youngest first, with a book. It took her a while to go to sleep but she did and oldest could go to bed (having spent some time sitting with us) and go to sleep quickly. Looks like it might work. Our next challenge is encouraging smallest to go to sleep in less than an hour and a half.

The rest of the weekend was great - they played nicely, made friends and were generally polite and overall I was really proud of them.