How to prepare for 6 weeks away with 2 children aged 2 and 5 months ...

Lose 3 out of 4 bank cards in the week before you go away!

Suddenly inherit children who not only won't sleep at the same time, have decided to go off sleeping full stop. The result - very disjointed packing.

Realise 48 hours before you go on a summer holiday that you don't actually own any shorts! Good job that there are shorts for sale in Ireland! Who am I kidding - this is Ireland we are talking about, I won't need shorts!

Despite planning the trip 6 months ago, and vowing to keep weekends free to get organised, it definitely makes sense to book up all weekends a month before leaving so we have minimum time to plan and organise.

We have had some wins though

After researching whether the car's sat nav will work in Ireland (says it does!) a year and half into owning our car we have finally worked out how to enter an address in a format other than a postcode!

We now own 2 plastic wine glasses for all our travel needs; a greatest hits power ballads driving anthems CD and a car bracket for the ipad for back to back Peppa Pig!