Allons-y, Alonso!
Hurrah, all the bits of this summer's family holiday in France that need booking (ferry crossings, gite plus B&B) are finally booked! Have been juggling various jigsaw pieces for weeks and was starting to fret, as Channel crossings were visibly going up in price (and getting fuller) as the days passed. But now it's all nailed down so we're Clearly Really Going!
(Which just leaves the travel, car and health insurance, the breakdown cover, the currency, the maps, the things-to-do...)
The gite sounds blissful though, in a small village near Villedieu-les-Poeles in Basse-Normandie (to which I am sentimentally attached as Villedieu is where we went camping on my first ever family holiday abroad when I was about 7, probably because my Dad as a lifetime bellringer liked the look of the bellfoundry!), with a big garden, swings and slides etc and a splash pool for the kids - and a gite owner who is happy to babysit! (The Resident Geek and I looked at each other at this point in the online-exploration process and said "That one!")
Go me!
Now I just have the orchestration and ring-mastering (sorry, mixing metaphors horribly) of First Small Person's dinosaur-themed 6th birthday party on Sunday to pull off. This includes my first ever attempt at making a stegosaurus-shaped birthday cake. (I have a book of children's party cakes which makes it look Really Easy, so I'm hoping this is in fact the case, or at least that enough green butter icing will cover a multitude of cockups sins, and that I have not, AIW, bitten off more than I can chew.) I'm not sure if First Small Person's faith in Mummy's ability to make a cake look like anything he requires is endearing or alarming...
(Which just leaves the travel, car and health insurance, the breakdown cover, the currency, the maps, the things-to-do...)
The gite sounds blissful though, in a small village near Villedieu-les-Poeles in Basse-Normandie (to which I am sentimentally attached as Villedieu is where we went camping on my first ever family holiday abroad when I was about 7, probably because my Dad as a lifetime bellringer liked the look of the bellfoundry!), with a big garden, swings and slides etc and a splash pool for the kids - and a gite owner who is happy to babysit! (The Resident Geek and I looked at each other at this point in the online-exploration process and said "That one!")
Go me!
Now I just have the orchestration and ring-mastering (sorry, mixing metaphors horribly) of First Small Person's dinosaur-themed 6th birthday party on Sunday to pull off. This includes my first ever attempt at making a stegosaurus-shaped birthday cake. (I have a book of children's party cakes which makes it look Really Easy, so I'm hoping this is in fact the case, or at least that enough green butter icing will cover a multitude of cockups sins, and that I have not, AIW, bitten off more than I can chew.) I'm not sure if First Small Person's faith in Mummy's ability to make a cake look like anything he requires is endearing or alarming...