Coming back from a busy summer holiday period in very sunny climes, I was not too confident of continuing with the searing heat we had got used to but the good old British summer came up trumps for the bank holiday weekend and boy, it was a scorcher!!!!

Our annual family camping trip is one of the big highlights of my boys’ summer and although I never thought I’d be a camper, I’ve really grown into it. The main reason for this is because we go with eight families who happen to be our closest friends and pretty much professional campers.

We chose Henlow Bridge Lakes this year for our venue, we’ve tried plenty and this was a new one on us. Not too far from home and close enough to a main village for essentials, we chose SO wisely if I do say so myself!

Secure but easy to find, this place is huge, with several individual fields around a central entertainment are which are easily accessible from all angles. Some fields have varying sizes of children’s play areas integrated within them and each field is spacious enough so you are not all camping on top of one another!

How many blokes does it take to put up a small tent????

So each year our range of camping gear expands and we added a few nifty items to our load this time around.

One of the coolest was this fab wagon from the kids favourite people – Microscooter – and whilst it was supposed to be to transport essentials to and fro, it ended up being the main source of endless entertainment for the children all weekend as you can see from these pictures!

Foodwise, we always have issues trying to keep everything cool and this time was no exception with the glorious heatwave we were gifted with.  Our VW cool bag with integrated BBQ was not only a much admired carrier of treats, but genuinely practical too! And yes, I do have a groundsheet, but I also like to make the tent look cosy with our rugs and throws lol!

I always run out of juice for the phone when we are camping (although at Henlow we had electrical hook up which made life a whole lot easier!) so this water resistant bluetooth speaker from Brightsounds with built in powerbank and ambient light was a lifesaver – we also got the party started as darkness fell and it played out our tunes beautifully.

At bedtime, I took it back to light our way to the tent and Dominic was super grateful for the comfort it brought him as he is not a fan of the dark. It provided just the right amount of light as you can see here….

Family camping is a brilliant bonding time for us, I love the time with the kids without devices and spending quality time with our fabulous friends.

We lived in our hoodies from Bax & Bay! The boys love them and they are SO camping cosy!

The venue was high on the fun factor, with brilliant entertainment provided for the kids and activities galore, (it was so good we couldn’t help but join in!) – we were really impressed!

I highly recommend Henlow bridge Lakes if you are around Bedfordshire, we liked it so much we have already booked for next year.

Where is your favourite camping venue? Or are you a camping phobe?

*Disclaimer: The items highlighted in this post were gifted for the purposes of this review but everything I recommend are my honest feelings and opinions.*