First proper family camping trip tomorrow - here's what I'm packing - have I missed anything?

[DottyDot]

Blimey I'm nervous about it... So far have got:

camping mats x 4
sleeping bags x 4
oh yes,the tent - we've put it up once as a practice a few weeks ago...
1 ring burner
2 gas canisters
4 x plates, bowls, cups/glasses
1 x chopping board + cutlery
3 x cheapo towels for drying out tent
1 x dustpan and brush
2 x collapsible crate boxes (1 for shoes and 1 for washing up)
clothes including 4 pairs of crocs and 4 pairs of trainers
matches
1 x lantern
1 x torch
2 x headtorches
1 x pull string radio (my favourite camping purchase!)
1 x tent rug (homemade from fleece + carpet foam underlay backing )
1 x fleece blanket for me and dp
gazillion x sweets
1 x chicken casserole, already cooked
1 x pesto and pasta meal
cereal, bread, sugar, coffee, teabags etc.
2 x towels and 1 x tea towel
1 x toilet roll
1 x pack of playing cards
2 x new books for ds's

Phew!

Shame we don't have 1 x large car or 1 x roofbox - got to fit it all in a Peugeot 306!

tesco value - approx 90p

when we went the other week (first trip since DS3) I noticed someone with one of those squashy garden bucket things to carry their dirty pots to the sinks (which were lovely and clean so OK without bowl). good idea? we had a bowl though (bought especially), a folding basket also good idea.

If you're short of space you really don't need washing up bowls (most campsites have washing up facilities) or tables and chairs, they take lots of room in the car.

We are going camping this weekend too, to an organic farm on Bodmin moor. It sounds lovely. supposed to be sunny here, what about where you are?
(or have you already gone?)

squashy garden bucket

Even met with DH's approval as a washing up bowl (but then we were camping somewhere with NO sinks!). Don't forget you can use it as a crate when packing.

You might need some kind of night time wee bucket for the DC, saves endless trips across darl fields in the middle of the night.

oh and waterproof jackets

In Tesco the big black trugs are 1.69...ish... normally 3.50 but the coloured ones are still full price. I got one last night and it'll come in handy for camping.

reporting live from a lovely campsite just outside York! so far we've had baking hot sunshine and a couple of heavy showers but we seem to have everything we need - hurrah!

dp's already talking about a couple of chairs next time though...

we're trying to get ds's to just do nothing/chill out, but this is an alien concept...

freakily though, ds1 started reading a book dp had bought him for the trip - he's not a natural reader but he just lay down in the tent and started reading! dp was filling up...

we're quite a way from the loos so am wishing we had a wee bucket - but other than that I've made 2 coffees so far so am very happy!!

I always take a brolly for midnight toilet treks, nothing like getting your pjs wet!

Quick!! I've started an urgent thread - it's tipping it down - do we cook inside the tent (my preferred option) or outside (dp's - she's bonkers).
we won't get any tea until the MN great and good have spoken - and quite frankly I need to open the wine soon...

ooh and I have tent envy - someone's arrived and put up a teepee in our field - looks lovely!

You go to the pub if it's raining. simple.

Or cook in the porch if you have one. Doorway otherwise. don't burn the place down though on your first trip, that would be a mistake.

and then you crack open the wine. and snuggle up in sleeping bags and just enough the snug feeling.

first aid kit

oh read on now and see your there - you will have to nam,e the camp site when you come back as we love york too - is it a tepee like a vango or a mans tepee like canvas jobby? Hold a brolley over the cooker - we have a fishing brolley for this purpose

I would definitely get chairs if you can, you get awful back ache sitting on the floor all the time!

brolly for cooking is brill idea. I'll have to get a big one.

Hope you're enjoying the rest of your stay dotty. Dp and I camped out last night was very noisy though next to main road. Other than that enjoyed it.

It might be useful to take some of those foil disposable BBQs and then for after whilst drinking your wine try this www.greenfingers.com/superstore/product.asp?dept_id=200314&pf_id=LS8729D you can buy something similar from Tesco in the firelighter aisle.

I love a campfire.

has anyone said Torches?

sorry - I've now read the whole thread and you're already there (and you have got torches)

dottydot - could you let me know how the gas cannisters go? Thanks

I also have one of those stoves with 2 cannisters.

I'm back!!

Had a fab time - it was Naburn Lock, York and was fantastic - loads of really clean toilets and showers (with piped music! ) and fab campsite shop open in the morning and afternoons for pretty much everything you would need.

Best thing we took - the water bag - it was great to have water on tap (literally!) for the gazillion coffees I needed to get me through each day.

Yes we had torches -I'd bought 2 headtorches from Aldi the other week and they came in very handy, plus a lantern to hang in the boys' bedroom.

We just used one gas cannister - it had a small amount left by this morning and did me about 5 coffees each day, plus cups of tea for dp plus cooking 2 meals, so very good I thought.

Other than the torrential rain on Thursday we had glorious sunshiney weather and would definitely stay there again - just a few miles outside of York and dead easy to get to from Manchester.

I really missed sitting on a chair by yesterday and bought one of those tripod thingies in York for £3 - was lovely to be off the ground and handy to sit on for cooking.

So glad you had a good time. Off now to start my own camping thread, in the hope that MN's expert campers will help me wise up ....

Glad you had a good time. I'm not far from York so will add that site to my ones to visit

I am defo going to stay at that site - was it toddler friendly?? Were the pitches all cramped together or was there rooom enough to curse each other without the whole site hearing?

Hi - yes, toddler friendly from what I could see. There was one field where the tents were (the rest of the site was for caravans - and what is it with awnings attached to caravans??!) which is at the far end of the site - huge big field with lots of room. When we arrived on the Thursday there was only one other tent in the field and by Saturday there were about 11 in total but lots of room in between each one - we didn't feel crowded at all. Most of the tents had children - the teepee one was fab - not sure what type it was but I was particularly jealous of their wood burning stove and chimney poking out of the top!

If I had a criticism it's that the field for tents was a bit of a walk from the loos - but only a few minutes and it meant that by night 2 I'd perfected the art of weeing outside!

excellent - we have a a porta bog . Though i would rather squat behind my tent than use it. It is for emergency little people wees at night only.