The one and only Tearoom, to be sure , it is.

[UniS]

To pinch an intro from the very first one and only tea room thread. in 2009.

The tea room is now officially open, serving hot chocolate, tea, freshly-squeezed orange juice and a range of home-baked muffins. Tablecloths and crockery are charmingly mismatched antiques (no Cath Kidston here). We overlook an attractive although somewhat overgrown garden, with a distant view of rolling countryside.

Everyone is welcome but house rules dictate that anyone indulging in fisticuffs will be ejected.

Please come in.

2011
We seem to have fetched up in Ireland, this place looks remarkably like a pub,There is even a guiness barrel over there. The NMBs are all sporting shamrocks. The mirror ball is here, but I leave teh rest of the unpacking to someone else.

I want the duckbill one!!!!

you're all quackers!

Scout: my number one rule with dealing with people who want to wind you up for no reason (other than their apparent amusement that is): smile, say "no/yes really?" and no at a lot more. This works well (and can be quite fun) once you have said it 5 times in a row.

Shame on your BIL. I think that whatever he might have been going through he has no right to question your mothering. Don't let it get to you, if you can.

UniS, have figured out a way to use your duck hunt idea to get the girls around the whole camp. Now I just need to do the clues. Thanks!

I think I need fairy lights for camp!

Cat, I am very good at smiling sweetly and being purposefully awkward. FiL doesn't like when I have a go back/at him, but boy is it fun. I occassionally feel guilty as it is FiL (I should respect my elders, he's MrScout's dad, etc) but after comments like the one today that I refuse to feel guilty any more.

At garden center today, TS grizzled slightly at being removed from a spinning display of watering cans and FiL said "That's because that boy has been given too much freedom" -- nothing to do with the fact that he's 19 months old and exerting his own mind/independence, then? Yes, we give TS a lot of free rein (as in we don't helicoptor or generally wrap him in cotton wool) but we stop him from doing things he shouldn't, getting in the way, being destructive, shouting in pubs/restaurnts/shops/etc. Twirling the spinning display to look at the cans was not bothering anyone as no one else was around and TS likes things that spins and watering cans (used for sunflowers, baths and swimming) so I let him look then guided him to where I wanted us to be.

Really, is allowing TS to look at something (not hurting it, not pulling the display down) giving him too much freedom? The minute he gets over-enthusastic or destructive we remove him from the situation, screaming or not.

(Prepared to be flamed/told I'm wrong)

Shame it's not availble

You are not wrong. Your FIL is an idiot.

And I will never understand 'respect your elders'. There is no achievement in getting old. It just happens. And takes some time. A person can be older than you and still be an idiot and not deserving if respect.

My brother made some- plastic ducks, fairy lights and appropriate size drill bit. may have been some glue involved.

You will be singing this song won;t you.

Oh, be kind to your web footed friend, for a duck may be somebodies brother.
He lives all a alone in the swamp, where the weather is always damp.
Now you may think that this is teh end, well it is, but to prove that I'm a liar.
I'm going to sing it again, but this time I shall sing it a bit higher.........

ad infinitum. You will recognise the tune... I have problems staying straight faced when stars and stripes is played by military bands

Aah, nostalgia. I had forgotten that song. I must teach it to the Brownies.

Scout - Forgive me, but I am beginning to think that Mr Scout may be the only member of his family who isn't a bit, well, odd in his ideas. Yes, there is always plenty of scope for disagreement about all aspects of child-rearing, but what TS was doing sounds so harmless that your FIL's comment is somewhat bizarre.

Thanks, I feel better now. Two of my three SiL are quite normal/down to earth/reasonable, too. I just tend to moan about the one who isn't (though it's her husband that drives me batty, she's okay/a nice enough person). FiL would have hated our trip to Tesco Home later in the day -- I sat to TS "Should we go and look at toys while Daddy goes and looks at his toys (electronics)?" So we walked to the toddler toy aisle and since no one was there let him wander the aisle himself to look at the toys. He stopped in front of one he liked the look of and kept trying to play with it, investigate the package, etc. He never took it off the shelf or tried to remove it, but he did keep grinning at me like "I like THIS one, Mommy!" And again, he grizzled slightly at being removed several minutes later but no tantrum and he understood "find Daddy" so happily took my hand for a walk.

Oh, I think I (try to) respect FiL more in that he's MrScout's father and I try to treat his parents with that sort of respect (the type I give my parents who are much younger than his and I'm biased wonderful.

UniS -- hehehehe. I still have a problem remembering I'm not supposed to talk during "God Save the Queen" since it's a different patriotic tune for me.

Ahhh, TS is up. Should go get him before he tries to climb out of his travel cot and falls out (and screams) like yesterday. 6 a.m., though only an hour later, feels so much better than 5 a.m.

Happy Father's Day to all of the tea room daddies.

6am is definitely better than 5am - still hideous IMO, but psychologically 6am is a hideously early morning whereas 5am it the middle of the night.

Yesterday morning (my lie-in) DD appeared at 6.45, half an hour earlier than she has to be crowbarred out of bed on a schoolday. I suggested she go back and read to her toys for a while to let poor daddy have a BIT more time in bed. This she did. This morning (DH's lie-in) at about 7.45 I could hear her reading to her toys - result. At 8.15 she came in, tried to give him his father's day cards, but he wanted to stay asleep a bit longer, so I said 'we'll go downstairs and get some breakfast, then come up a bit later'. She misheard, and trundled off downstairs by herself, and started getting her breakfast! Now I know this is no huge thing for a 7yo, but she's really not keen on being by herself so it was rather good ... I did follow her down shortly afterwards, leaving DH to be pounced on by the cats.

Scout, my in-laws are also bonkers, but happily benignly bonkers. They also think DD can do no wrong, so we'd have no incidents like yours - however having grandparents who think their grandchild can do no wrong can be problematic in itself. Cos, you know, she CAN!

Morning all.

I think all inlaws are bonkers. Mine are here visiting. I'm slowly losing my mind. At least they leave tomorrow.

?

would be great. Yes please.
No parents or grandparents left here, so we are out of the fun 'n games of relatives and their opinions of the way we've brought up FineLad. Though it's a shame for him that he's not had that older generation there to make a fuss of him in any way. Good job we have good friends that have filled the gap
Really enjoyable event yesterday. Quieter day today to recover my senses (er, ok, there's not a lot of sense at the best of times )

Morning!

Totally agree on the in-laws front... Mine drive me bonkers. Fortunately we don't see them that often but it always feels as if I am being judged on my parenting ability and compared to SIL. The generation gap doesn't help and DH's parents are about 15 years older than my own.

Taking Mr Bean out to lunch today for Father's Day. Catch up later.

DCMB that was Oxboys first proper joke too. Actually, it remains his only proper joke. He can vary it with other fruits but that's about it. All others are "made up" and hence not really funny at all....

UniS yes, we are of the pack and carry school of camping but possibly not for much longer....Did I tell you how last year I was quite overwhelmed by the Cath Kidson Glamper who arrived next to us? She spent about 4 hours unloaded her lock and lock boxes filled with helpful and labelled itens, there was bunting, there were flares there were all manner of things, including a sort of rug runner, all shoes off in the exterior room (it wasn't camping at all really)

Anyway, I was slightly torn between envy (it was the laminated packing lists that tipped me over the edge) and horror. We pitched tent and went to pub!

Laminated. Packing. Lists?

That's just too far. I mean, how could you amend them at the last minute? You'd have to use a permanent marker or something, to change 'wine' to 'more wine' and then annotate it 'even more wine next time' at the end of the holiday.

Oxeye how old is Oxboy? It's intriguing when a proper verbal sense of humour kicks in.

He's 4. Nearly 5. Doesn't really "get" humour but is starting to laugh when others do. Wants to find things funny. Makes up "jokes" that are random questions with random answers and is just starting to get humour based on words sounding same but meaning different things

Oh and laminated list woman would have written on list with waterproof marker then gone home and updated master list and re-laminated list
I mean her cup cake papers matched her bunting

I know she never gets back from camping, throws all in corner and then spends the night before her next trip fighting mildew...

I kinda envy Laminated List Woman. I expressed this view to oxbloke who briskly told me to get a life

I have camping lists, but more of the paper in a plastic pocket variety. But that's because we borrow/use district kit and I like to know what we took so I know what needs to go back.

Ah, 4, that figures. :) Definitely an age for random 'jokes'. DD is 7. Interrupting Cow was from last summer (courtesy of India Knight on Twitter in fact), and probably marks the beginning of her really getting jokes (not that Interrupting Cow is an example of sophisticated wordplay). Now she gets puns etc. And likes to make sure WE get them. "Not PEELING well, mummy! Like feeling! But it's a banana so it's peeling! Do you get it, mummy?"

Oxboy is right to experiment with other fruits, but of course it's funniest with a banana, as the banana is the most comedic of fruits.

Laminated lists and matching bunting? What the...! Somewhere in our garage is the Rugby Players Event Tent, a megastructure that will hold an entire team and their kit and requires several strong men to wrestle into submission. That's as sophisticated a camping experience as any of us have experienced thus far in this household. I'm trying to image any of the players with a laminated list or decorative cup cake holders, but it's not working...

I'm enjoying a glass of . Or rather I'm drinking a glass of wine whilst imagining I can still taste wine, which I can't at the moment, grr.

Ahh.

I know nothing of camping. I have not been since I was a wee lass. Thank goodness!

Really good weekend with my inlaws (I have to say that my MIL is sitting next to me ). No, it really was!

Once again, though, LCT didn't go to sleep for nearly an hour! Too much excitement.

Back to normal tomorrow, including major house hunting.

And now...to bed. Night Tea Room!

A major house would be just the thing, I'd think?