Aaron's Blog

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. 😉

Aaron has also joined the Tag Rugby club on a Wednesday after school, which did surprise us as he isn’t very sporty really. Several of his good friends are doing it and we did manage to convince him to try it, just so he did some exercise! He said it was ‘alright’ afterwards, but he said he didn’t get much of the ball. I think they were just teaching them the rules this week so hopefully he will be more involved next week! Well done Aaron for giving it a go though!

Aaron has joined the sign language club which runs after school on a Monday. Ben has also joined it and so has a few of his friends. He said he enjoyed the first lesson this week so hopefully he will enjoy each week and come back and show us some words in sign language!

During the Summer holidays, two more of Aaron’s front teeth fell out. That makes it 6 in total that have fallen out now. He got £1 from the tooth fairy for each one as well, so he was very pleased! Some of his adult teeth are coming through now as well, so his mouth looks a right state! 😉 In fact, he looked like a Pirate for ages as one of his front teeth was being pushed forward by a new one so it was sticking out in a funny way. Luckily, he doesn’t look quite that bad now as that was one of the teeth that came out. haha

Aaron has only been back to school for 3 weeks and he has already accumulated enough merits to get his Headteachers Award (I think for the 3rd of 4th time now)! So he was presented with it by the headmaster in assembly yesterday. He smiled and seemed pleased this time as the last time we went to see him get an award, he was very grumpy. He is doing so well that he is already a few merits in to getting his bronze award, so I expect it will only be a few weeks until we have to go in again! This is completely different to last year though, when he got hardly any merits. Last year, he had a new teacher at the school who seemed to want to do her own thing with rewards, so none of the children got very many merits. They are certainly making up for it this year! Well done, Aaron!