Happy little campers!

We went camping.  Five couples, five toddlers and four babies.  What the heck were we thinking?

Well truth be told it wasn't really camping.  More like glamping.  We stayed in four safari tents and one tent site all in a little cul de sac.  There was a big communal area with a fire pit just close to our tent where everyone gathered.  The kids wandered around as if they owned the place but thankfully managed to avoid getting lost, burned, etc.

Occasionally the children all stayed still.  Occasionally.

Check out Evie Peevey's cool boots.  Ol's country cousins gave these to him when he was little but because he had such big feet he grew out of them before he walked so they never really got used for anything other than to look cute.  Thankfully Eve gave them a right proper wearing over the weekend and just looked super gorgeous wearing boots and leggings the whole time.

We also busted out our baby backpack that we took Ol to Indonesia in.  I must admit that Eve wasn't such a big fan at first but begrudgingly agreed to be carried around the bush.  We found an absolutely gorgeous stream and small waterfall and the boys had a great time throwing rocks into it.  Actually we all agreed that throwing rocks was quite a good stress relief.

The kids had a little dance party out the front of our tent with all of them rocking out to our fave tunes.  Even Eve got up and dropped it like it was hot.  I think she got a real kick out of joining in with the big kids.

The dance party was followed by a movie night! Actually all three nights had movie nights which was fabulous as it meant the kids could have a great time while sitting still and all the adults could sit happily around the fire and chat (and drink!).  By this time all the babies were tucked up in there tents with the mummies watching them via the video baby monitors.  See I told you this was most certainly not camping.

Late night movie snacks of cold sausages.

Other camping culinary delights included two minute noodles, awesome breakfast fry ups and popcorn.  We even had a meal out at a great big pub nearby which appeared to be biker heaven.  We got there on Sunday afternoon and it was packed out with heaps of people listening to an extremely loud rock band. It was brilliant, the kids clambered around the playground while we sat and had a drink.  But after that first drink it went a bit downhill with sooky sick Ol stacking on a bit of a silly turn.  Never mind.  We still had a nice early dinner before we all headed back to our camp to get the fire going again.

Here are the boys going a bit feral.  We had heaps of glowsticks in the evening so we didn't lose the kiddos.  But turns out they also make awesome frisbees when joined together.  Even when they stop glowing the next morning they make great hula hoops, swords and whips.  Good cheap fun.

Here is most of the group.  We didn't get around to doing a group photo until Monday morning when two of the five couples had already left.  Actually it worked out quite nice having just this small group because the other couples had girls and as everyone knows, Ol doesn't like girls!!

We had some visitors there as well. Lots of wildlife.  The birds were pretty tame and loved to devour the muffins and scones that I'd baked.  We also had a bandicoot in the evening but thankfully no goanna sightings!

This is a wonky family Dower photo.  The camera was on self-timer but it tilted as the timer was going off so we thought we'd just lean over to compensate for it!

Here we are roughing it in the great outdoors.  I want to say that Ol didn't sit in front of the TV the whole time but he did get quite a nasty cold and was pretty miserable so sometimes it was easier just to plonk him in front of a movie until his wheezing calmed down.

And here are the three boys, all packed up but looking forward to future camping trips.  We will definitely be doing this again.  Nick and I are very inspired to turn into happy little campers.  We both have such fond memories of camping as kids, and while the holidays themselves might be pretty cheap, the experiences they offer our children are priceless.