Camping with Kids - How to cope with wet weather!

We are off to Somerset tomorrow to camp for a week.

We are all very excited but as I have seen the weather forecast I am a little bit less excited than I could be.  It is hard to get things dry when you are camping and if you and your clothes get damp it can be hard to warm up again.  Children and wet muddy wellies are also not a great combination with tents and this can lead to a more stressful trip.

Some children are easier to entertain in small spaces - my son is not one of them.  Also a day can be a very long time when you are camping!

Whilst it would be great to say that I have a host of free options you can do on rainy days - the reality is that the wet weather does make the day more expensive.

However, here are some of the things we have done on particularly wet / rainy days.....

• swimming pools often have evening sessions (and lots of rural areas also have a pool within reasonable driving distance);
• a meal out - fish and chip shops with tables can be more of an event than other fast food outlets but aren't as expensive or formal as pub meals / restaurants;
• museums / local art galleries etc - often free.  Some of the national museums are huge with fantastic displays i.e - the national railway museum (York), the world museum (Liverpool); the RAF museum (Shropshire), museum of science and industry (Manchester);
• play barns can fill an afternoon - try and avoid meal times unless you want to spend a fortune!
• amusement arcades by the seaside with a big bag of 2ps (I don't think they take pennies anymore!);
• the cinema if they are not too young - look out for Saturday morning films (often £1 entrance though won't be the latest film!);
• small local attractions - we filled a very wet afternoon in a small aquarium in Pembrokeshire run by a charity.  Much cheaper then the large aquariums and it was very quirky with a games corner and an insect exhibition.
• underground attractions!  I.e. caves, mines etc.  I am not suggesting you go down open mine shafts - these are proper attractions which can be quite costly for a family but are educational, interesting and dry!  Save money by picnicking in the car!

If you have any other ideas to share I'd love to hear them as I have 3 young children (and a limited budget) to keep entertained.

But hopefully the rain will stay away (at least in the daytime) until we are back in work and school.  It doesn't hurt to be optimistic does it?!

Have a good bank holiday weekend whatever you are doing x

Great Website for frugal fans - Find the Cheapest Petrol in your area!

Petrol price make me want to do this.......

 (Photo courtesy of Hector Garcia, Flickr)

So I was really pleased to find this great website - has anyone come across it before?

http://www.petrolprices.com/


It is free to sign up, you put in your postcode and the type of fuel you use and it will list the cheapest petrol stations within a 5 mile radius to you.  It will then email you each week (or more frequently if you wish) with an up to date list.

The variation between petrol stations is huge with petrol stations within a 5 mile radius to us ranging from 134.9 - 138.9 pence per litre for unleaded and 139.9 - 143.9 pence per litre for diesel.  For me this also doesn't include any big supermarkets but I think I have the option of searching near other postcodes.

I don't know how many litres my car takes to work out the potential savings but I can only assume that over a few months it will start to make a difference.

I do know that our budget has really felt the increase in petrol prices and with both my husband and I having to drive to work it is an expense that is hard for us to cut by much.

Take a look - let me know if you think it is any good. I'd love to hear your comments.

Walking with kids – Penmon Point, Anglesey, North Wales

Prince William and his new wife couldn’t have chosen a more picturesque place to start their married life together.  When the sun comes out, the island of Anglesey at the far North West of north Wales is absolutely stunning.  With views of the mountains of Snowdonia in the distance and the fantastic Anglesey coastline beside you, this walk shows you some of its beauty.

This is a little walk (about 2 miles) which I found in a book called 

All Terrain Pushchair Walks: Anglesey and Lleyn Pennisula (All-Terrain Pushchair Walks)

You park in a small car park by the Priory and Dovecote for which there is a small charge towards the maintenance of the car park and toll road.  You can go inside both buildings which the children enjoy.

Penmon Priory

 The walk takes you across some fields, through a small wooded area and onto the headland in front of a lighthouse.  

Penmon Lighthouse 

 You walk along the headland for a short way and then you can access a pebbly beach and there is a café and toilets (you do have to buy something at the café to use the toilet though). 

View across the headland taking in the beach, lighthouse, Puffin Island and cafe (white building to the right)

(Photos of lighthouse and headland courtesy of Dangrey, Photo of Priory courtesy of Ted and Jen - all Flickr)

The views and landscape are gorgeous and people drive directly to Penmon Point to enjoy them but the walk is so easy that I certainly wouldn’t.

This was the first walk that my youngest, Josephine did in its entirety at nearly 3 years old and the changing landscape helped to keep her engaged as the lazy little monkey would have preferred her normal position in the baby carrier!

However, by re-enacting one of her Dora the Explorer books we found ourselves walking through ‘Mucky Mud’, the ‘Spooky Forest’ and by ‘Froggy Pond’.  (Ok – so Froggy Pond was the sea but call it creative licence!).

This is suitable for off road prams but you will need to lift the buggy over 1 or 2 stiles.  

A new family car - 5 or 7 seats?

We have reached the point where we desperately need a new car.

Our second car is costing us a fortune to keep on the road and has now developed a very strange habit of flashing its hazard warning lights when the doors are opened (regardless of whether the engine is on) and the windscreen wipers can't be relied on.

Unfortunately due to work we can't manage without 2 cars although I would love to be able to and did when I was at home with the children.

Our main car is a Citreon Bellingo.  We bought it just before the twins were born.  It was a year old and as the design is converted from the Citreon van was a lot cheaper than other family cars of a similar age.  There weren't many of these on the road at the time and I wasn't convinced that I liked it.

Nearly 7 years on I am a convert - it has been absolutely fantastic as a family car.  Clearly other people think so too as you see so many more on them on the road now.

It has a generous boot which is able to transport a double buggy, 2 travel cots and all the other paraphernalia you take with you when traveling with babies.  The seats are high up meaning that you don't have to bend to strap babies/children into car seats and the rear doors slide open meaning that all the stress of slamming the doors into neighbouring cars is removed when getting children in and out of the car in car parks.

(The children modelling the marvellous boot space the Citreon Bellingo has to offer on a camp trip last year).

More recent research has shown it to be fairly economical - certainly against larger family cars / MPVs.

So - we have decided that rather than buy another old banger we will bite the bullet and buy a car a couple of years old which will become our main family car.  Because of the above, the Citreon Bellingo or its counterparts, the Fiat Doplo or the Peugot Partner are the favoured car which even when a few years old are cheaper than traditional family cars.

The other element to our search is that these makes also do a 7 seat version which when we have looked is likely to take us slightly over the budget we have set for the car.  We are now debating the value of those 2 extra seats.  My feeling is that as the children are getting older it might be nice if they can bring friends along on family outings / birthday trips etc.  Also, my mother-in-law no longer drives and it would be nice to be able to take her out with us from time to time.

Mmmmm.....what to do?

If anyone has any thoughts on the value of a 7 seat family car when you have 3 children I'd be really grateful to receive it.  This will be the biggest purchase we make for some years to come and I really want to get it right - so any help would be appreciated.

In the meantime.....pray it doesn't rain!

Toddler Twins - should I buy twin reins?

My son always thought running off and being chased was an excellent game and as you can imagine having a sibling the same age means twice as much mischief and fun (although not always for poor mum!).  So inevitably my daughter (who I believe would have walked nicely with me) would disappear after her brother or often in the opposite direction.

On this basis it wasn’t safe to walk near roads or other potential dangers without the children in their buggy or on reins until they were old enough to have a better understanding of cause and effect!  (For us probably about 2 - 2 1/2 yrs).

As I was a member of a twins club with a group of children of similar ages we decided to try twin reins and were able to get a discount on the purchase of a number of sets. 

 

The answer to all my prayers?  Not exactly!  You could join the reins together and hold in one hand  but I didn’t find that it worked particularly well as one would want to walk faster or slower then the other, they would cross paths, one would trip and pull the other down.   

However, one definite advantage to these reins was that they came with an adult belt so I had the ability to secure the reins around my waist and I then had my hands free to hold the children's hands and teach them to walk with me nicely. (Well attempt at any rate!!).  You didn't have to join the reins together to attach them to the belt which prevented them pulling each other over.

(Photo courtesy of www.twinsuk.co.uk)

A friend also commented on the length of the reins and how much easier they were for her husband to use as he had found that ordinary baby reins were not long enough for him to use comfortably.

I did go on to invest in the wrist straps when they were slightly older but I should warn you that they can slip off the child’s wrist if they are not taut.  I lost my daughter in a children’s department store at the same time I was paying for the wrist straps because of this and of course she was far too small to spot over the rails and shelves.

Fortunately, I managed to find her before any harm became of her and the only casualty was my poor nerves!

I have found that I used the pushchair for longer with my twins than with their younger sister, predominantly to ensure that they were safe.  This is a key reason to buy a lightweight pram!  However, I don’t think that has caused any problems and in fact both completed an 8 mile walk last weekend at the tender age of 6 so don’t worry if it feels that that they’ll never be out of the buggy.  The two most important things are to keep the children safe and to retain your sanity! 

Does anyone else have any experience of twin reins and a thought on the value of buying them?

One to one time with twins?

 Question posted by Kandi of Twin-spiration on Multiples and more

(Kandi has beautiful 6 year old indentical twin girls)

The question posted on the site...

Do you have one on one time with your twins and if so what do you do? Do you feel guilty not being with the other one and how often do you do one on one time? We have tried it many time but enjoy being together with all of us better. I do think it's important to have that one on one time but am not sure where to go or what to do and how long and how often to do them.

My thoughts to Kandi's question:

I have 6 year old fraternal twins (1 boy and 1 girl) and another 3 year old daughter. Both my husband and I work (though I reduced my hours at work last October)so time is tight and we do tend to do lots together as a family. We also love camping and getting out and about in the summer so that again tends to be time we spend together as a family.

Your photos look great and you all look happy, healthy and connected as a family so whatever you are doing is obviously working

That being said we do from time to time have 1-1 time, girls days, boys days, quick trips to the shops etc and I think the option for that increases as they get older. It is probably easier for us because of the gender difference as my twins have very different interests.

We haven't done it for a while and the older 2 did suggest it the other day - so perhaps your girls have a view?

However, with your girls being in different classes (something I think is important for all sorts of reasons) are you finding that they are being invited to different parties / social activities? This could be the perfect time to enjoy some individual time in a natural way.

I found that when my twins were babies I did feel guilty on focusing on one more than the other and then I realised that actually I was focussing on which ever baby needed that input at the time (be it illness, development etc). It also seemed to even out in the end.

I think it is also very easy to feel guilty about choices that we make as a parent and I think that that is a shame as most parents are doing a great job. Did the previous generation worry so much I wonder?

Cashback websites - are you missing out?

With 3 growing children it is absolutely essential that we budget carefully and make every penny count so the discovery of cashback websites was so exciting!

However, having met up with an old friend yesterday I was surprised to find out that some people are still not aware that these exist.

These sites act as a portal through to other sites where, if you make purchases, you receive a percentage of your payment back.  It really is money for nothing.

There are an array of cashback sites available but I use the Top Cashback site.  To date I have 'earned' £128 from cashback on things that I was intending to buy anyway.  I think my sister is doing very well through this as she is going through this site in order to make her catalogue payments.

Sites I have received cashback from include:
The book people - £2.55
Ebay - £7.44
The Entertainer toy shop - £17.67
Travelodge - £4.65
Parcel Force - £4.04
AA Travel Insurance- £4.76
P & O Ferries - £8.64

As well as percentage cashback offers there are fixed price payments for certain transactions i.e I received £5 cashback on my first Tesco delivery.  They often do good deals on mobile phone networks and insurance brokers like go Compare often offer cashback on getting quotes.

You can get free payments through using certain search engines and entering competitions as well.

My biggest cashback payment was £33 when I purchased our new computer through the Dell website.

One word of caution - this is only a good deal if you were intending to buy from those shops in the first place!  Buying things that you don't want or paying more for the item or on delivery in order to receive cashback only works if the cashback is greater than the higher costs incurred.

Have a look if you aren't already using one - they are definitely worth using!

Let me know how you get on.

Family hotel rooms for 5 or more

We tend to go camping when we holiday in the UK but from time to time we have found it is useful to have hotel accommodation.  However, to my dismay, many hotel family rooms don’t accommodate a family of 5 and finding one that does is hard even with the internet.  Sadly, this also includes the budget ones – although the price of 2 rooms for a night is still often cheaper than for 1 room at a more expensive hotel.

I have recently found 'Roomfor5', a website that helps with finding accommodation in the UK, France, Spain, the USA and beyond for larger families (5+) which looks like a great resource.  Whilst I haven’t had reason to use it to book anywhere yet it is great to have a single site that links you to so many hotels.

 

Great idea and many thanks to Drina Murphy who came up with the idea!

Walking with kids - Introducing Dovedale, the Peak District

We had a fantastic time camping near Buxton in the Peak District over the Easter holidays.



We enjoy the countryside, camping and walking as a family and walking is a free activity which can bring loads of benefits.  Fresh air, exercise and time together as a family being examples.

And just because you have young children doesn't mean that you can't enjoy these activities although sometimes a bit of thought is needed.
Our twins (see above) managed their first 2.5 mile walk before they were 3 years old and I hope to post some tips of walking with children in future blogs.

Dovedale in the Peak District is ideal for walking with a young family.  The biggest challenge to accessibility would be the stepping stones (see above and below) but it is fine if you are using a baby carrier and I should imagine that you could get a buggy across with a bit of help.  I probably would have tried taking ours across though it may not be recommended!.  You would need some help in carrying a pram across and would need to ensure that the stones were dry and conditions were suitable before doing so.  (Or alternatively you can access the walk from the other end and stop before the stepping stones).

There are dirt and stone paths which would be more suitable to an off road pram or the option we use is a baby carrier for our youngest.  She is however quite a weight now so is being encouraged to walk by herself more often (Josephine is below with my ever suffering husband, Niall and the well used backpack!).

 The benefits of the walk at Dovedale for children is the varied scenery and focal points.  There are a range of caves of different shapes and sizes.

Logs you can sit on (for the braver and more senior amongst us) for the perfect photo opportunity.

There are also a multitude of birds to spot on the river and overhead.  We didn't see a kingfisher but we saw a number of very tame dippers.

And the children were absolutely delighted to find a tree stump and log bench stuffed with coins.  The photos below demonstrate their attempts to remove them (I'm pleased to say that they weren't successful!).

This is a linear walk (we started from the car park at the bottom of Dovedale) so you have the option to turn round when you have had enough and return to the car park or you can continue the full  3 miles  to reach the pretty village of Milldale, buy an ice cream or a cup of tea and sit by the river.  
(This walk would be 6 miles in total from Dovedale to Milldale return).


Milldale was busy in the run up to Easter and I should imagine would get very busy during the busy summer season - so it might be worth setting off early or avoiding the peak holiday periods.  But it is definitely worth visiting.

We went with family and left a car at the other end so we only walked one way on this particular day but the twins at age 6 1/2 years are capable of managing 8 miles with plenty of snacks but they are used to longer walks - so plan according to the needs of your family.


For full details of this walk see http://www.trekkingbritain.com/dovedaletomilldale.htm

Diary of a new blogger - the 3rd post

We have been away over Easter - camping in Derbyshire and this has had somewhat of a negative impact on my progress as a new blogger.

On the positive side we had a fantastic time in Derbyshire, the weather was fantastic and I have some great ideas for future posts but on the downside I have not been keeping up with the tasks that I have been sent through my weekly E blog course courtesy of littlemummy.com

I feel a bit like a naughty school girl although I know that no one is checking up on me.  Perhaps I feel like this because I am keen to master this new blog world and know that I won't do it if I don't learn more and continue with the lessons.

Either way - with the mantra 'I must do better' I will keep working through it and add some more content to this blog as well.

Keep your fingers crossed for me this week!