Ben's Blog

For Ben’s birthday trip this year, he wanted to go camping, so we managed to get a good deal at Perran Sands Haven for the weekend before his birthday. Alex, Josh, Caleb and Sophia also camped for the weekend with us. The weather was good for the entire weekend until the Sunday afternoon when we had to pack the tent away, when it lashed down with rain and the wind picked up quite a lot. It was typical! Before then, it had been nice enough to go out in the outdoor swimming pool that they had, although it was very cold above the water! It was also noticeably dark early in the evenings as we ended up sorting the tent out in the dark on the Friday evening, which was an experience. We also had our new awning to put up which delayed things a fair bit as we didn’t know how to put it up properly. Luckily, our pitch was right next to a play area so the boys all went off and played in there whilst we were setting up camp. We didn’t have tea until late though as it seemed to take ages to get sorted.

On the Saturday, we went swimming in the morning and then, in the afternoon, some family came over to the campsite for some party nibbles. Nan Nan and Pops were staying on the site already in their caravan, and they were only a few rows behind us, and Alex and Josh had the pitch right next to us, so it worked out very well. Mike, Vicky, Charlotte and the kids also came and so did Gramps and Nanny Helen. All the children were playing together and they scoffed all the food, which included hot dogs. Aaron and I also went for a walk with Gramps and Nanny Helen to the main area of the site to show them the arcade, shops and restaurants, etc. Once everyone had left, we relaxed for a bit before we went for tea in the BBQ Grill restaurant with Alex, Josh, Caleb, Sophia, Nan Nan and Pops. The food was very nice, and so were the cocktails! After the meal, Nan Nan and Pops went back to their caravan and we went to the evening entertainment, which was interesting but funny. After we had got back to camp and gone to sleep, we were woken in the night by some rustling in the awning. We knew there were gaps around the edges as we hadn’t set it up correctly but we got up and had a look and found a Badger in there! Kelly started opening the zips to it and the Badger shot off out of the awning, past the park and off into the sand dunes. The rascal tried it again 20 minutes later but then didn’t come back again. The boys didn’t even wake up during it all so we had to tell the in the morning! hahaha

The following day, we went for a swim again in the morning and then went in the arcade for a little while so the boys could spend their change. I had a game of Pool with Ben and he played very well and pulled off some really good shots. I was surprised but it did make me very proud! The boys won a few things from the penny machines and had a good go on the games, before we went back to camp, had some dinner and then started to pack things up again. We didn’t leave until late afternoon so stopped in for McDonalds on the way home. All of the boys were tired out and so fell asleep on the journey home!

We had all had a good weekend and the weather was good for the most part, but our night visitor on Saturday was a bit of a surprise! We would definitely go there again as the facilities were excellent and clean.

This term, Ben has signed up for several during and after school clubs. On a Monday, he has Singing Club during lunchtime and then then Sign Language Club after school. Aaron goes to this one as well and for the first lesson, Ben ended up teaching some of it as he new the vowels! He then has Netball after school on a Wednesday and Running Club during lunch time on a Friday. Phew! Unfortunately, he forgot the first 2 Singing Clubs, but finally remembered to go this week. He has been enjoying them all so far, which is good.

This morning, Ben was given his MOTH award from football last week. Here are some pics.

Now that Ben is in Year 5 at School, it is time to start thinking about Secondary Schools for him. We weren’t sure whether it was still too early but, after speaking with his headteacher, he advised that we should definitely start looking around now. So over the past 3 weeks, we have been to see a couple of the top schools that would be, probably, his first 2 options. These were Ivybridge Community College and Tavistock College. Ivybridge is seen as the best one, and it was the best. Ben has already said that he would like to go there, and we both agree it would be the top choice, even if it is a trek on the bus every day to get there and back. The school looks to have excellent facilities and is quite modern – we were blown away by it actually, especially the computer room. Tavistock was also good, but much more old school, in that the facilities were good but not as modern as Ivybridge. However, Tavistock had more of a ‘family’ feel to it, probably because it is much smaller than Ivybridge. Ben said that he liked it there as well, especially as they were doing Science experiments and getting the children involved, which actually made Ben like Science now (he said before he didn’t like Science). But he still prefers Ivybridge. Next June/July, there will be more open days to attend as we want to see the schools in action during the day, but I think we have already narrowed it down to one of these two schools.

Over the August Bank Holiday weekend, we again decided to camp at Diggerland. It was nice and cheap last year, which is what we were after, even though the facilities were extremely basic. Unfortunately, the facilities didn’t look to have been updated or fixed from last year, so we were really disappointed with them and won’t be going back again, even with the cheap price.

We arrived on the Friday after work again and set about getting the tent up as quickly as possible as it had been a day of heavy showers. We just about managed to get the tent before some heavy rain came in but I still got drenched and muddy as I was sorting out the guide ropes during the rain whilst everyone else was inside sorting their bits out. So, once finished, I dashed off to clean myself up in the shower whilst Kelly warmed up our Spaghetti Bolognese for tea, which she had made earlier in the day. We had to sit and eat inside the tent due to the weather, but it was nice and yummy. The weather did clear up a bit later on in the evening, so the boys were able to go out and run about and play on the grass before coming in for bed.

On the Saturday, we went to Combe Martin Wildlife and Dinosaur Park, as the day was dry and sunny. It was nice and hot as well in the sun! We had a great day there looking around the animals and viewing the animatronic dinosaurs, but the best part (as the last time we went) was the Sea Lion show. We also had some nice food there for dinner. We stayed right until closing time and then drove back via B&M, as we stopped in to get a bluetooth speaker so we could listen to music properly instead if from our phones. The evening was lovely so we were able to eat our tea outside and the boys had a good play around. It did come in very cold though so, unlike last year when we were sat out till quite late, we ended up in the tent practically as soon as it got dark. It had been a very nice day though.

Sunday was different weatherwise, as it had been forecast to be horrible with heavy rain and wind all day long. They actually predicted it correctly as well, but we went prepared by taking some games to play. We had decided beforehand that we would have a quiet day on the Sunday anyway, so this was fine. We stayed in the tent all day and played Scrabble cards and normal cards, and watched things on the laptop. It was actually a very nice day! Just after tea time, the rain finally stopped and it came out dry so we were able to go for a little walk down the adjacent path to the fishing lakes at dusk. We had also started packing our things up during the evening as we had to be off the pitch by 12pm on the Monday. It was still cold that evening and the tent and surrounding grass and gravel was drenched and very muddy. It was difficult to stop the much from coming in the tent after we had been outside. 

Monday morning was spent packing our things away and taking the tent down. There were massive puddles under the tent on the ground sheet, and it was all muddy and horrible as well.  It was dry whilst we were packing up, which was useful. Unlike last year, when there was loads of children camping, there were none really this time, so the boys didn’t have anyone else to play with, which was a shame, so by the time we left, there were only a couple of other tents still in the field. 

We had had a good weekend, even if the facilities were quite shocking this time, but we won’t be going back again anytime soon. It was definitely much quieter this year but that was maybe due to the forecast for the weekend with the heavy rain on the Sunday. It probably put a lot of people off. We didn’t mind though and had some fun inside the tent and still managed to go somewhere on the Saturday anyway. 😉