Visiting me in Canada!!

Our eldest has been to camp already, one week of "outdoor school" so that is her quota.

the younger ones are either too young or too apathetic to want to do anything....

We have several family camping trips planed though - a couple of days just going out on "speck" to camp for the night somewhere, and are planning a trip to the mountains for a couple of days.

We also have a week's holiday booked at the end of Aug...

All this is helped though by the fact that Mr Chookie was signed off from work on full pay for 2 months due to stress... they didn't give him any choice in the matter - while HR were talking to him about it the rest of the IT department were suspending his user account!!!!! They were so worried about his health the want him to "go home and relax" - his comment was that "you are aware that I have 4 kids and it is the start of the summer vacation right??? )

Same here, my lad (14) went to a leadership camp during the school term. He really enjoyed that.

Also he plays Soccer in the Ontario Youth Soccer League, the highest Youth league in Ontario so we are committed to that for the summer, 3-4 evenings a week are taken over by soccer practice and games. Summer season is from May till September. He has also traveled with the team and played two tournaments and a winter league in the USA.

Well "A" is only just 12, but the week away did her the world of good - very reasonable prices compared to parents I know in the UK who were bemoaning 3-400 or more for similar weekly trips for similar aged kids too...

and she had a blast - came back exhausted, smelly (Mean mummy made her strip in the laundry room and empty her bags there too!), but full of tales of what she got up to... and it did wonders for her self-confidence as well.

But with 4 kids, I have to be fair - if one goes on a major school trip like this, that precludes any serious organized activities over the summer... I have to let the other kids have a chance at doing somethign too. Mind you, A seems very happy to just hang out with friends or go swimming at the moment and has been having fun helping her dad do some basic car maintenance too (ie the 2 of them have done a full service on the car over the last weekend and they are now colluding on the idea of them going to "pick and pull" to see if they can find a similar car to our own to get some parts... apparently 2 new back seats are on the shopping list (or more accurately the covers that hide the seatbelt housing on the rear seats as it is shagged on ours - seatbelts work fine but you can see all the innards and it doesn't look pretty) along with a rear wiper assembly and some other stuff...

For some reason, I thought that having all girls would have meant nice girly pursuits .... my girls seem to have inherited a healthy dose of "ugg-factor" from their father and like nought more than messing with cars!

Probably good in many ways, but it leaves me high and dry in the kitchen, clutching my knitting needles and sewing machine wondering who I am going to pass my skills on to!

My two (age 9 and 12) are off into Kananaskis for a week of camp at Camp Cadicasu www.cadicasu.com Outdoorsy activities, lots of water, lots of mud and s'mores...they are super excited and can't wait.