It’s nearly time to get up, now go to sleep!

How to get two very excited children to sleep early especially when they’re sharing the same bed, any thoughts?

It’s 9 pm on Sunday evening and we’re at the premier inn near Heathrow. It’s been a funny old weekend. I finished packing up the house whilst Jo drove the kids down on Friday and that was a little strange, leaving the house all bare and then driving myself out of Wales for the last time for the next 6 months. The drive down was not a great start to our travels, wet and diverted through Birmingham. I arrived in Wheathampstead at 2.30 am, knackered. Jon and Anne kindly put us up and organised for cousins Sam and Charlotte to come over but I’m afraid I still had that long list of last minute jobs to get through. Another late night but I managed to check in on line, so a minor victory there.

Today, I spent the morning on more list items and, with the exception of sending the van tax back, think I managed it all before meeting all the family at the Crooked Chimney for a farewell lunch. Oh no, forgot a few things, so a quick rush to Tesco before the final “30 min of packing” (yeah right more like an hour). Parents delivered us to the hotel and we’ve spent a couple of hours repacking (!) before trying to get some sleep. We have to be on the transfer bus at 4.15 in the morning but I can see that there is little chance of William or Ellie sleeping. In fact I think they’d rather spend all night watching the planes land outside our window.