What about the boys ?

We have two boys coming with us aged 4 and 6 soon to be 5 and 7. They wax and wane sometimes enthusing sometimes threatening to stay behind depending on what they have been doing. Every one we talk too seems to think that this is a good age to move them and the longer we wait the more problems there will be. They currently attend a small village school and have some close friends and a regular social scene down on the beach at the local harbour playing on surfboards, rockpooling, swimming and kayaking; its an idyllic life compared to what a lot of UK kids are faced with and it is a lot to leave behind. There are a few people from the local area out in Galicia and a fair few say they would like to move out there soon and everyone says how lucky and brave we are - all of that does help them face up to change but having to wait four months between selling our house in Cornwall and moving to our new home has been a mixed blessing. Staying on a camp site they are getting used to having transient friendships as they meet great kids and play together for a week or so then the great kids go back home and mew kids arrive. This week there are a couple of girls staying next door to us and life outside school really revolves around seeing them just now. We know that the weekend will see grumpy mornings until new friends replace the gap I am sure it is a good learning experience for them and it might be helping them prepare for longer breaks with their school friends but the grumps are hard work. We intend coming back to stay in our caravan every summer to see friends and family and that does give them some comfort. They both seem torn; when they look at our pictures of holidays in Galicia they can't wait to get back there but when they come back from a few hours with their friends on the local beach here they really don't want to leave. Our answers to "Why are we going ?" don't hold water in their world - more land, bigger house, less crime, better weather, warmer sea, better health care, villages full of people who actually live in them rather than just owning second homes in them.....they are interested more in the 'what friends will we have?' issue...as is often said its the people not the place that makes somewhere home.