We made the most of the nice weather last weekend to go camping. We didn't go far, only to a country park 7 or 8 miles from where we live, but the scenery was still lovely, and the campsite had everything we needed. We decided that the easiest thing for everyone was for Danny to stay at home with baba Luda, so only Olga, Lara and I camped. Lara made friends with the other children on site very easily, and they played for ages on the little playground that was there. It was well after 10pm before she settled down to go to sleep on Friday night. I was worried about her waking very early because the sun was due to rise around 4am; to get around this we'd bought her a little pop-up tent, and she slept inside that, inside our tent. I'd bought some blackout lining from the world-famous Bury market, and we draped that over her tent, and it was pitch dark in there at 7.10am when she did wake up.
We left early on Saturday morning so they girls could get to their ice skating lessons, and on the way back we picked up Danny and Luda so they could spend the afternoon with us. Even Grandma popped by for an hour, before I took Danny and Luda home again. In the evening we had a barbeque, and Lara conked out a bit earlier this time, she was asleep by 9pm, and Olga and I opened a bottle of champagne, it was proper glamping!
On Sunday morning Olga nipped home to walk the dogs and check on Danny while I made breakfast and started to pack up. After Olga had returned, and we were enjoying coffee and croissants, we called Lara over to join us, we nodded at each other and took the plunge, and explained to Lara that in August we'd fly to Canada, and that we were going to buy a house and live there. She started at me, opened mouthed, but in a good way. She certainly wasn't upset at the idea, and the more we explained how we would take everything with us, like her bed and toys, and even the dogs, the more she seemed to get excited about it. She went off again to play with her little friends at the playground, and when Olga went over to check on her a few minutes later, Lara was already telling one of them that "I'm going to live in another country".
Over the course of the day she didn't mention it again to us, but we brought it up a few times, just to see if she was upset at the idea, and she didn't seem to be. Really she seems to have just taken it in her stride, as if it's a big deal, but not a really BIG deal.
This morning I mentioned to her teacher that we had indeed broken the news to her this weekend, and we've agreed that they will keep it low-key at school at the moment. After school I asked Lara if she had told her friends she was moving away, she said she had, but she didn't elaborate. She did say that she wouldn't be going into Mrs Greenwood's class next year, and Year One children get to play in a big playground, not the little one she plays in at the moment. I said the playground at her new school will probably be big too, that Canada is a really big country, and they have lots of space. Her reply was to tell me that they had puddles bigger than oceans in Canada, "but they're not very deep".
I'll be happy if she keeps being this untroubled by the whole idea :-)
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