Our 1st Camping and Caravan Club Rally

A few weeks ago we made the decision to join the Camping and Caravan Club as we love our tent that we purchased a couple of months ago, and we have really embraced camping. The Camping and Caravan Club costs around £45 a year to join, and you can get many benefits including discounts in shops, special rate campsites, and access to campsites only open to members. When you join you're assigned to a local district. The individual districts hold rallies throughout the year, some based on themes and others just to get together.

I noticed on our area's website that they had planned a family oriented rally and we thought this would be a great opportunity to meet up with other families; I have to say the weekend did not disappoint at all. 

On arrival we were warmly greeted and showed to our pitch, we were also given a welcome pack with all the activities that were planned for the weekend as well as some modelling clay that was to be used to build a children's character model, with a prize for the best one.

Whilst my hubbie and I were pitching our tent, Ruby and Lottie went on the bouncy castle and happily made friends with some of the other children. We then cooked dinner before it was time for the girls to go off to the disco; the girls had a lovely time dancing the night away and there was even a Disney quiz where we had to link the soundtrack to the Disney movie. The more answers we got right, the more tokens we were given to be used on the final day for a mini fair!

Come 9pm and both girls were very tired so they went to bed whilst hubbie and sat drinking hot chocolate under the stars. 

We were up very early on the Saturday morning as the campsite was near to where the girls have swimming lessons, so we decided to venture off site to take then to their lessons. When we arrived back at the campsite the marquee was set up with various different craft activities and then a movie was played to keep the children entertained.

On Saturday afternoon the sun was shinning; the decision was taken to get out a roll of plastic and several bottles of washing up liquid and bath bubbles to make a water slide. I'm not sure what was more entertaining, watching Ruby slide down, or seeing fully grown adults trying to compete to see who could travel the furthest! 

Saturday evening was fancy dress and party games time, Ruby had so much fun, especially during chocolate bar game where you have to eat as much chocolate as you can whilst wearing winter clothes. By 8pm Ruby was saying she wanted to go to bed so we headed back to the tent before she quickly fell asleep, I don't know about you, but Saturday nights are not the same at the moment unless you are watching X Factor, so we watched X Factor in our tent! I was amazed how well the tiny TV and portable aerial worked. It was really lovely to be snuggled up in blankets with a hot chocolate and the TV on :) 

I really don't like the morning of the last camping day, as it means packing everything away! So far, every time we have had to pack a wet tent away, well this weekend was a 1st time we had a dry tent! It made packing away so much less stressful. 

At 11am it was coffee morning in the marquee so we all went up for a hot drink and a chat with people before the mini fair opened.

 
There was numerous games that both girls had fun playing; the organisers made sure that every child won a prize!

I think it's easy to say we can't wait to be back out with our local branch of the Camping and Caravan Club, we were made to feel really welcome and Ruby certainly wanted to stay longer; I could have done too!