A lovely winters day

I don’t like winter when it is grey, wet and gloomy, but give me clear blue skies and fresh frosty air and I absolutely love it. I love to get bundled up warm and go for a walk in the crisp air before heading somewhere cosy to warm up afterwards. After a wet week last week the forecast for the Saturday was for a perfect winter’s day, so we made plans to walk over to our local country park. It started out just as us then we thought we would see if the in laws fancied a stroll with us, then hubs’ younger brother decided he would like to come for a bit too.

We strolled over then after meeting up with Granny and Granddaddy had a play on one of the playparks.PhotoGrid_1453220093982

Uncle Simon arrived shortly after and we headed in to one of the cafes to warm up with a cuppa and cake.

My teacup is empty at thhis point by the way!

My teacup is empty at thhis point by the way!

Then it was out for another explore. It was interesting making sure LM stayed away from the lakes as she does love water! She enjoyed strolling along with her family though.PhotoGrid_1453220373293

There was a really funny moment where another little one of a similar age saw LM and began ecstatically waving and shouting to her. They had a little meeting of minds here I think and then LM wanted to follow him and his mummy instead of coming with us haha!PhotoGrid_1453220433587

We continued our walk via the site of roman villa that hubs and I remember playing on when we were kids.PhotoGrid_1453220693786

Randomly there was loads of pretty shellfish shells about (assuming they were dropped by birds but did they get them from the lakes?) some had ice in and Monkey very cutely
decided that they were “baby ice” that were missing their mummy. Daft little cutie!PhotoGrid_1453220742447

We got the selfie stick out at this point to get a shot of us all and didn’t too badly with hehe.20160116140127

By now it was getting toward lunchtime so Uncle Simon headed home and we popped into the other cafe for a bite of lunch and to warm up with another cuppa.

Food obviously tastes much nicer from Mummy's plate

Food obviously tastes much nicer from Mummy’s plate

Last stop of the day was feeding the ducks with LM repeatedly shouting “dah” “dah” at every duck she saw haha. She says dah to other things too but will always shout it at any duck picture or duck she sees so I am pretty sure she means duck some of the time. PhotoGrid_1453221025658

Then it was time to head home, with a quick stop for a family selfie along the way.20160116_131512

20160116_132147A lovely winters day.

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Country Kids from Coombe Mill Family Farm Holidays Cornwall

Wintery Walks

The last couple of days the weather has been more what I expect at this time of year, after such a wet and miserable Christmas. We are lucky, I know, that we don’t live somewhere that has been remotely affected by the extreme rainfall and flooding and I am so very grateful for that. Nevertheless the weather has been weird this year, warm and wet! So I have enjoyed the colder turn the last couple of days.

The air has been crisp and fresh and though very cold at times it has been the perfect weather to get out and have some fun with kiddies on a couple of wintry walks.

The first was just us as a family. It didn’t get off to the best start as Hubs asked me to pick up his flask of tea and, not realising it was open, I managed to spill it all very me. Cue one very painful scalded hand. Ouch. But after some cold water and aloe vera we carried on and walked to a nearby shopping centre and then stopped at a park on the way home.
The kids loved being out and about running round like loonies and especially enjoyed the play area.

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On New Years day we were out again. My parents popped over and we went for a lovely walk to a park at the local school. There was lots of fun and smiles and larking around before heading home to warm up with some yummy hot soup.
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Nice to get out and about and burn off some energy in the fresh wintery air.

The Stick Collectors

Monkey has always had a thing for sticks, I think a lot of kids do don’t they? When he was I think 20mths old I wrote a post about his little obsession after one particular walk where he was collecting hundreds of the things. It was just so funny watching him that we named him the stick collector. Why am I telling you this? Well it seems a love of sticks runs in the family, as on a recent little walk LM reminded me so so much of her big brother as she started collecting sticks too.PhotoGrid_1449249582894

I actually really loved watching her pick and choose which ones she wanted and it is also wonderful to see her learning and working out how to hold them all, how to open her fingers to take one more without dropping all of the others. The concentration on her face is adorable.

Monkey was not to be outdone though and showed his little sister that he is still the master stick collector, insisting I take pictures of him collecting them too.PhotoGrid_1449249723047

She found their stick collections hilarious.

Monkey then decided they should have a little sort of sword fight with their sticks, and man did she find that funny! I was obviously constantly warning him to be gentle, and keeping a close watch in case he got close to poking her eye out but with them both enjoying themselves so much I couldn’t bear to spoil their fun.

Love this pair and love her chuckling 🙂

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An almost perfect Sunday

Sunday was a pretty perfect day for the most part. One of those days that are just lovely and reminds you how much you love your life. We have been so busy the last month and there seems to be an endless list of to-do things but Sunday we decided to take things a bit easy. We had some leftover roast ham in the freezer and decided to do all the rest of the roast bits to go with it. We had planned to pop and see hubs’ parents that morning but invited them to ours instead to share our roast with us.

We had a lovely morning playing and cooking then I have to admit a lovely roast dinner. It was one of those times when the roast potatoes, veg and yorkshires all miraculously turn out right haha. The negative was that both kids decided to kick off as we sat down to eat. Monkey was eventually reminded tha he does like yorkshire puddings, stuffing and sausages (though of course wouldn’t even try the veg) but LM was pretty miserable, she has back teeth coming through which is causing her a lot of pain. She has always been a good eater but at the moment she is getting fussier and I am hoping it is just because her teeth are causing her problems rather than her going down the same path as her brother!!

Anyway she did eventually settle thanks to cuddles with her Granny and then her and Monkey had some very lovely times together while we were at the table. She thinks her brother is the funniest person alive and laughs her head off when he is silly and tries desperately to copy him!PhotoGrid_1448382683546

After lunch while we cleaned up Monkey and his Granddaddy had a fab playtime. Monkey was basically throwing balls at his Granddaddy and while that isn’t normally allowed, he and his Granddaddy were laughing so hard that I didn’t have the heart to stop it. They were having so much fun together it was really very lovely.PhotoGrid_1448382857615

Later that afternoon after G & G had headed home, hubs’ younger brother Uncle Simon popped round for a play. We had so much fun playing with a couple of Monkey’s games together and it was a lovely peaceful afternoon while LM slept.20151122_142150

I also managed to get a template done for the picture wall we have been planning for ages, in the hope of finally getting it on the wall. Once LM was awake the kiddies and I wrapped up warm and went outside for a good old explore and run around while Daddy was hanging the pictures for us. Monkey has suddenly got the hang of scooting and goes so fast so we soon left the confines of the back garden and went on some of the longer paths nearby.. and he was miles ahead! I do love seeing LM toddle about in her wellies and wooly hat too 🙂PhotoGrid_1448383080187

Monkey then decided he would like to go on his bicycle that we got for his birthday back in May. He has been on it a few times but so far can’t get the hang of pedalling. Daddy came out to help him and though it was getting pretty dark by now he did manage to make a bit of an improvement with his pedalling so hopefully he is getting there.20151122_163303

Soon it was back inside to check out the finished photo wall which I have to admit I am totally in love with! We wanted to do something with the photos from our awesome family photoshoot back in the summer and the photo frame we did have in the hall had fallen off a couple of times so was looking a bit shabby. I love the colour and variety of these frames and am just so pleased with how it has all worked out. I love a good photo wall!20151122_172224

We did the kids some tea (we both ate so much at lunch we weren’t hungry!) then they had a lovely bathtime together full of laughter and lots and lots of splashing. PhotoGrid_1448383368958That evening with the kids in bed hubs and I snuggled up and watched The Secret Life of 5 Year Olds on catch up which is just hilarious. Then, just as were going to bed, we suddenly heard Monkey coughing with the distinctive bark like cough we have come to know and dread. Croup. Again.

We were terrified the first time he had it and again when LM had it and couldn’t believe he had it again. His breathing was laboured and he was very distraught and struggling to catch his breath, so as ever we don’t mess around with breathing, and we called 999. (For the 3rd time ever and the previous twice also being because of croup!) The fast response paramedic was wonderful and so good with Monkey, and Monkey was so brave with all the tests that he did. We managed to calm him down so he was breathing better and his stats were fine so we avoided a trip to the hospital.

It was a night filled with worry though as he still had the horrendous cough and obviously lying down made things worse and his breathing was very laboured at times. You can’t help but worry and it is so hard to sleep as horrible thoughts just fly round your head, while you also feel really daft and like you are over-worrying. Hubs spent over an hour at one point sat outside his bedroom door listening to him until his breathing settled.

So our pretty perfect Sunday had a less than perfect ending, but all is well that ends well and it could have been so much worse. He is still poorly as I write this (Tuesday) and last night he was still barking in the night. Hopefully tonight will be better and he will gradually improve.

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A day out at NT Canons Ashby

Last weekend we went out for the day to meet up with the very lovely Sarah from Run Jump Scrap and her family. Our husbands go back a long way and have been good friends since school. Sarah and I have met a few times over the years and went to each other’s weddings but living so far away from each other there wasn’t really a chance to get to know each other very well. Since she started blogging it has been great as I feel I know her so much better now and that we have a lot in common. We decided to meet up and with both being National Trust members chose Canons Ashby near Daventry as it is about an hour away from us both.

It wasn’t the most beautiful of days, being a bit grey and damp but at least it wasn’t raining and the autumn leaves brightened our day.

Canons Ashby 1

I always find National Trust places are great for kids and Canons Ashby didn’t disappoint as they provided us with a treasure hunt checklist of things to find. We had a good run around the garden ticking things off the list and it was great as it gave the kids a purpose while we grown ups were catching up!canons ashby 2

The gardens were lovely and surprisingly blooming despite the time of year, adding to the gorgeous autumn colours. They were tiered giving gorgeous views of the surrounding countryside.canons ashby 3

There was a croquet lawn which was the hit of the day, particularly with Monkey as it was a job to get him away from it! We grown ups had fun on there too of course!canons ashby 4

The house itself was very grand though very dark, especially on such a dreary day. One of the favourite rooms was the playroom which had toys that the kids were allowed to play with. They all had great fun on the playhorse and Sarah’s Gremlin loved playing with what we thought was a rather creepy doll – as it had lost its eyes!canons ashby 5

Monkey was chomping at the bit to get back to the croquet bless him and he played that some more with the daddies and Gremlin while Sarah and I caught up and I tried to stop LM from eating mud and stones! We eventually tempted Monkey away from the croquet with some running and hiding behind some fab bushes in the next garden. It’s safe to say we all had a lot of fun running around hiding and chasing each other!canons ashby 6

Then with tired out children it was time to head home but we all had a very lovely time and will be meeting up again soon.

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Playparks

When I looked at photos taken over the last week, my word of the week was obvious, playparks. We seem to have spent a lot of time at various playparks this week and it is lovely to look back at so many pictures of smiling children. It is also nice to have a happy word of the week agan last week after feeling everything was so relentless last week.

Last friday we met up with my best Mummy friends and all 8 of our children and it was so so much fun. We had a great time together and the kids had a great time together too. The weather is lovely and warm but not too hot and it was an afternoon full of smiles.

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Saturday I had some time off with a good friend of mine in Cambridge which I so so needed and enjoyed so that was a day without playparks.

Sunday our little loonies needed to get out of the house by 9am so we headed to a nearby playpark as a family to get out of the house and let the kids burn off some steam! We had a lovely time all together and was much nicer to see the kids smiles rather than getting wound up with them bouncing off the walls at home.

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Monkey loved going down the slide with Daddy & LM and tried just aboout every seating combination possible!

playpark 1

Monday I did visit a playpark on my morning walk with my neighbour (again around 9am) but didn’t take any photos.

Tuesday I met up with one of my Mmmy friends again at our local country park for some fun at not 1, but 2 different playparks! Yet more photos of smily happy kids having fun playing together, and mucking about ‘saving’ each other on the field too!

playpark 2

We have needed tog et out of the house quite a lot this week as the builders are back and our new room (which was the garage) is nearly finished, and the utility and new garage are taking shape too! I will share a post more about that another day but oh the dust and the noise this week! We had a few days off from Playpark visits though as the rain set in on Tuesday afternoon and it was very, very wet… Lots of splashing in puddles instead 🙂

splashing in puddles

Then this morning with the sun out again (albeit a bit chillier) it was time for another 9am playpark visit!

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How has your week been?

The Reading ResidenceCountry Kids from Coombe Mill Family Farm Holidays Cornwall
Life Unexpected