I’m writing this sitting on a campsite in France, the boys are asleep and Barry and I just managed to have a game of Scrabble without falling out!

Last week was another busy one – on Monday we went into Preston to spend all the book tokens that the boys have accumulated over the last few Christmases and birthdays, and we did a bit of holiday shopping. On Tuesday they were at Street Monkeys all day while I did more holiday prep and spent a couple of hours helping to tidy up at the Scout hut.

Wednesday was a big day though… it was Gabe’s 7th birthday! His birthday always seems to be a long time coming, especially when he’s had a joint birthday party with Toby a month ago like he did this year.

I asked Gabe how he wanted to spend his birthday this year and he wanted to go to the zoo so we went to Blackpool Zoo with my mum.

We did have a good time but I think my boys like the idea of a zoo more than the actual experience! Toby enjoyed seeing the gorillas on their island (you can just see one in the background on this photo).

Of course they both had to buy even more cuddly toys from the gift shop! To be honest I think they would have been happy if we’d just gone to the shop and not bothered with the zoo at all!!

Anyway, that was our week. Thursday was all about packing and Friday we drove to Dover ready for our ferry to France on Saturday morning. We’re here for a week so hopefully we’ll fit plenty in and I’ll have some photos to share with you next week…

This is my ninth year taking part in this linky celebrating childhood, based on a poem by Kahlil Gibran, “You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth” .

If you’d like to see the rest of my Living Arrows posts you can find them all here.