weekend

Ours was spent here

The weather was cold but dry, the park didn't disappoint , especially not these two....
Its getting near the end of the season so was quiet enough that they could go in the soft play without getting leapt on and quiet enough to let the baby out of his pushchair to enjoy the freedom (aka wear himself out so he hopefully slept in the hotel room that night....worked too well as he was asleep during our second tour of the road safari!!!)

We stayed in a faultless Premier Inn in Milton Keynes...we usually use this chain as we know that we will be getting a comfy, well equipped room thats not so posh that we have to worry about kids crushing bread sticks on the floor.....it had a lovely restaurant attached which served up the biggest kids meals I have ever seen!!

Thanks to the world of online deals we got the room at half price too, and we also have Mr Tesco to thank for paying for our safari park tickets and a lovely meal on Saturday in Bella Italia (if you still use your vouchers in the shop go here and see what you can treat yourself with, sorry if thats teaching my grandmother to suck eggs!!!)

So that meant a few extra pennies for a bit of retail therapy here....

(even this was an enjoyable experience, we went on Friday night, the boys were very well behaved, the good people of MK had decided to stay at home and not invade Ikea meaning we got round quickly...also we didn't actually need anything so no bickering about drawer sizes etc!!)

I strongly deny that our holidays are organised around Ikea stores ;)

I was very excited that the Christmas department was open, as I have mentioned once or twice, we live on the edge of the earth with no Ikea for miles around...and I mean miles, and last years Ikea Christmas pilgrimage was cancelled due to the worst case of mastitis ever thanks to a feeding babies dirty scratchy fingers!!! (I could post you a pic - yep thats how sad I really am - lovely husband had to get his camera out to record it - but I won't its gross!!). So I now have some lovely red and white scandanavian style decs...my fave..which I can't show you as lovely husband packed them in the loft as soon as we got home on Sunday!!

So I will dig them out to photograph another day.

Our weekend ended with a visit to some friends who have recently moved to MK and a stress free journey home...very stress free for me as I was sewing not driving!!

Just what we needed. I think it was so stress free because we just took the small boys. Although I can do the maths, our 4 boys are actually 2 and 2!!! The big boys have such different needs and wants than the tots and family outings get fraught. Its the first time we have taken a trip with just half the children, but after our French holiday, though lovely, we realised it is too much to expect teens and tots to want to do the same thing. And it causes hissy fits - including mine - when you try and please everyone!! The big boys get lots of age appropriate trips with their dad so I have no reason to feel any guilt, but us mothers are programmed to feel guilty from conception!!

Ok back to the sewing...I have 3 swaps on the go aswell as the gifts and decorations I want to make so I better get moving!!!