Gracie is no longer in a cot, she has now moved to a toddler bed!! I’m so proud of her – it’s such a huge milestone!

She made the transition easily and once she is in bed she generally doesn’t get out again. Having recently dropped her lunchtime nap she is usually completely exhausted by bedtime at 7pm. On the first night Mark and I heard a thump upstairs at about 7.30pm, but as it wasn’t followed by tears or other noises we thought nothing of it until we went to check the kids before we turned in… Poor Gracie was asleep on the floor – she must have rolled out!

I remembered a little trick that my sister-in-law had mentioned so thought I’d give it a go. Kerry used to roll a towel and put it under the mattress on the outside edge so that the mattress was slightly raised. This means that if your child rolls in the night he/she will roll towards the wall and not out onto the floor. We have had no more rolling out issues since!

My sleeping beauty

We all loved Disneyland Paris!!!! The kids are still the perfect ages to enjoy it, and really believed that they had met Mini Mouse and all of their Disney friends. The place is so well organised it really was a magical experience. OK, so it is very commercial, VERY expensive, extremely busy and full of fast food places, but it is so worth every minute just to see the kids’ faces. We stayed in the New York hotel which was clean and close to the parks. We all stayed in one room, which we thought would be a nightmare but at the end of the day we were all so tired from Disney that kids and adults crashed straight out. I’ve included some pics of us all having a great time.

After three days and two nights at Disney we drove down to the South of France – so far down that we were almost in Spain.
Holiday myth no. 1: The kids will sleep in the car if we drive at night… not a chance. They were up for a lot of the way (and way back). We also discovered they get car sick if we drive too fast!
Holiday myth no. 2: It is cheaper and easier to drive to the South of France – again – not a chance. With fuel costs, channel tunnel fares and the motorway tolls we could have flown first class!

At 3 o’clock in the morning we arrived at Argelès-sur-mer. It was hot, the car stank of vomit (and still does even though we have been back for a week) but do you think we could find the campsite? NO!! I’d managed to navigate the length of the country but couldn’t find the campsite! We pulled over in a car park and all slept until 8am!

As it turned out we were just round the corner from the Key Camp site – it was so much easier to see in daylight, we must have driven past five or six times in the night! The reps were fantastic and booked us in to our mobile home straight away. We had a fabulous week – the site was clean, the mobile home was large and had everything we needed, there was even a Fun Station club which Alicia couldn’t get enough of. The pool area was large and kid friendly so we hardly left the site all week. We made some great French and German friends. It was strange but great to see the girls communicating with their little French friend Simon even though they couldn’t speak the same language. We did encourage the girls to speak a little French while we were there, and since getting home I have resolved to introduce them to languages. I bought a French/English nursery rhyme CD from www.babyboomboom.com. I’ll let you know how it goes! Au revoir!

Alicia in front of the Cinderella castle

Gracie with her tiger face paint

Dad and his girls

The girls enjoy their day

Sonny staying covered up in the sun

Alicia and her French friend Simon

Snack time by the pool

Our luxurious mobile home