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Tree-Trunk Drum Fun!

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We love our country park!

After the adventure playground or the farm trail we go back through a woodland walk. Right at the start of it is a natural playground sculpted from tree-trunks: both artistic & fun!

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The taller trunks are actually drums. They have slits cut into them & in such a way that they make a different noise depending on where you bang them with a stick.

Jake & Ellie however are more interested in climbing & jumping!

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The game used to be that I had to lift them onto each stump then zoom them through the air  - while saying “WEEEE!”, of course – to the next one.

Now that they’re so much more physically able they just need me to life them on then they jump off. Which is just as well as I have a bad back at the moment, to go with my dodgy shoulder!

After we’d done that & run around for a bit they discovered something new: a low-hanging branch to swing from!

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This is another new activity here. As with many other things they’d seen some older children doing it & so of course wanted to try it themselves. Not always a good idea, but this time it was fine!

They hung, they swung – and they fell! But they’re physically capable enough they have no problem doing that either.

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And they had a swingin’ good time!

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1-DSC00907I may have spoilt the mood slightly however by insisting on singing “I’m the King  / Queen of the Swingers, the jungle VIP” etc. to them afterwards…

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Bad singing aside, it’s a magical little spot & one we all enjoy

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Country Kids from Coombe Mill Family Farm Holidays Cornwall

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Saturday is a Very Wet Caption Day!

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Got a witty, profound or just plain silly caption for this picture? Then leave it in the comments below! Then click on the little boy’s head here & you will be magically transported to the funsome Mammasaurus’ blog for many more pictures crying out for a witty / pithy #satcap caption.

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Saturday is a Wheely Good Caption Day!

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Got a witty, profound or just plain silly caption for this picture? Then leave it in the comments below!

Then click on the little boy’s head here & you will be magically transported to the funsome Mammasaurus’ blog for many more pictures crying out for a witty / pithy #satcap caption.


An Active Weekend

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I’m joining in with this week’s ‘The Gallery’ on Tara’s ‘Sticky Fingers’ blog, as well as Fiona’s ‘Country Kids at Coombe Mill’ blog-link. The Gallery’s theme is ‘The Weekend’: it was a long one, & we had an active one!

We’re quite an active family. When the twins aren’t at pre-school we try to get out & about to do something active at least once a day, & often on school days too.

This last weekend was of course a Bank Holiday Weekend. And just to make it more interesting we made it a 4-dayer, starting Friday!

We’d both managed to make ourselves available all day &, after a great Monkey Music class, took them off from their afternoon pre-school. Why? There’s a fantastic place in Cardiff called Techniquest: basically a 2-storey hangar-sized space full of fun, interactive science-based exhibits.

Once a month they have a Toddler Day, each with a different theme, where they also have arts & crafts play, water-play, story-telling & the like. They love it! There’s so much to see & do, so many buttons to press, dials to turn, balls to throw: it’s always a fight to get them go home! And this time we had another first: face-painting!

Ellie was very pleased

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Jake however didn’t seem so sure

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Saturday, the Mummy took them to the excellent nearby soft-play place. I was very pleased to hear that Jake had made friends with a couple of boys there; usually it’s Ellie who does that, often finding a little gang of girls to run around with.

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On Sunday, as the weather was getting progressively better, it was our favourite country park again. We went to a different part of it this time: past the 12th-century Monastery ruins & church & the 18th-century Orangery, & to the fairy-tale themed playground.

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Throwing stones into a fountain by the Orangery

The playground not only has the usual swings & slides, but also little houses each with nursery-rhyme themed exhibits, plus a child-scaled castle – complete with secret passages, moat & drawbridge. Needless to say, they love it there!

Monday was almost a scorcher! In the morning I took them on their scooters to the local playground, & for the afternoon we had planned to go to an indoor swimming pool but ended up in a nearby water-fountain & adventure playground instead. It would have been a shame to waste all that lovely sunshine! It was great to be able to go there again for the first time since last summer & they had a great time, even though it was very crowded.

The weekend ended with big ice-creams all ’round, & with everyone going to bed having been stimulated & exercised, tired but happy.

And that’s what this parenting thing is all about really, isn’t it?

For more ‘Gallery’ or ‘Country Kids’ posts just click the pics: 

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Country Kids from Coombe Mill Family Farm Holidays Cornwall

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An Active Family

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My Tiny Dancer. Dressed as Snow White, for some reason.

When Jaime from ‘The Oliver’s Madhouse’ asked me if I could maybe join in with her new ‘Active Family’ blog-linky I have to admit: I sniggered, a little. I may have even actually ’lol’d!

Trying to get our funsome twosome to be a bit active isn’t really a problem at the moment. Even when they watch TV it’s more likely than not to be ‘Lazytown’: a show whose main character is a health fanatic called Sportacus. Living on ‘sports candy’ (mostly carrots) & always going to bed at 8.08, this is a man who has never knowingly walked anywhere in his entire life. Why do that when you can double-flip, cart-wheel, run or jump instead? Lately Ellie seems to spend more of her time being his preposterously pink side-kick Stephanie than herself, & she loves trying to copy Stephanie’s dance moves. Jake is Sportacus of course; I get to be the chubby, middle-aged, bald Mayor. Yay me.

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Sportacus Jake!

No, it’s more of a challenge to get them to not be so active sometimes, please. Like when they’re jumping & doing forward rolls & headstands on the bed, or wanting to play ‘horsey’, when it’s late & they should be settling down for the night. Sometimes even after 8.08 (gasp)! Or a “Please stop climbing on the back of the sofa, especially when I’ve got a cup of hot coffee / a plate of lasagne!” sort of thing.

They’re at pre-school now for a few hours during the week, & that seems to use up a lot of their energy most days. We still take them to Monkey Music on Friday mornings, & have just started them in a dance class on Thursday evenings. They love both! We used to take them to a children’s gym on Friday afternoons & we’re looking for an alternative; that was probably their favourite activity & it would be a shame to lose it.

On the weekends we try to take them out for something active at least once a day: the country park, the fun farm, soft-play, swimming, or just scooting to the local playground. And there’s always the mini-trampoline & the flexible flyer in the garden!

So overall, yes: I think we’re a fairly active family.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I just need to have little lie down please…

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Saturday is a Sandy Caption Day!

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Got a witty, profound or just plain silly caption for this picture? Then leave it in the comments below!

Then click on the little boy’s head here & you will be magically transported to the funsome Mammasaurus’ blog for many more pictures crying out for a witty / pithy #satcap caption.


Slug at first sight

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So we were playing in the garden this afternoon, in the sunshine. We were throwing a ball, picking flowers & (I think) pretending to be characters from Lazy Town. As you do. I think I was the Mayor.

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This would be such a great photo if it wasn’t for those boxer shorts…

Ellie sees something moving on the concrete, & rushes over to it.

“Ooh look! What’s that Daddy?!”

I look. “I think it’s a slug. A baby slug.”

Now she’s really excited. “A BABY SLUG!! OOOH, IT’S GORGEOUS!!”

Ellie likes babies, & is refreshingly free from prejudice as to which particular species thay may belong to. Or how slimy they are.

She rushes inside: “Look Mummy: A BABY SLUG!! IT’S GORGEOUS!!”

The Mummy doesn’t share Ellie’s enthusiasm for slugs, even baby ones.

In fact I think it’s fair to say that she doesn’t like slugs at all.

Undaunted, Ellie returns to her new love. “What is it doing, Daddy?”

“I think it’s probably trying to find food.”

“Yes! It’s trying to find food for its Mummy & its Daddy & its cousins” (Ellie likes having cousins) “and its babies!”

1-DSC00712She & Jake then decide that it should eat their ‘wiggles’: worm-like fruity sweets that they don’t like at all & that they had already scattered for the birds. They were then duly distributed around Baby Slug for him to eat.

It occurred to me that it was probably trying to get out of the sun. And – of course – having listened to me as I explained that slugs ate leaves & the like they then set about picking leaves & covering Baby Slug with them.

Then it of course needed water. So a jug of said stuff was fetched, & poured for Baby Slug. They were very good, just pouring it around, & not on top of, their new friend. There was rather a lot of it though…

Satisfied that they had thoroughly provided for Gorgeous Baby Slug, they ran off to put more flowers on the trampoline. Which I think had became the Mayor of Lazy Town’s airplane, but I’m not entirely sure.

And what of our friend?

Have you heard the phrase “Killing with kindness?”

He appeared to be…sleeping.

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Although when I later went out to retrieve my boxer shorts he had gone, so maybe my lovely little carers really had looked after him well!

Wot So Funee?

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Scenes From a Country Park

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We’re so lucky here to be just a drive away from the most fantastic country park, which we love so much & which we’ve tried to visit weekly, all year round & in all sorts of weather.

The range of  things to see & do is fantastic, & the twins love it. Not only that but entrance, along with most of the attractions, is free; you just pay for parking. We of course have a season ticket!

Now that it’s (allegedly) Spring & the train is up & running again we’ve settled back into our ‘warm weather’ (ha!) routine.

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The little train runs from near the entrance & chugs past farmland; through woodlands where you can try to spot nesting birds; past farm animals; past a lake full of ducks, geese & swans and with wonderful vistas of fields, hills, the ‘castle’ & even an iron age fort emerging through the trees.  It stops at the castle, then goes back.

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If it’s the afternoon (meaning “after their nap”!) we’ll probably head to the cafe for lunch.

Then we’re off down the track to the lake to feed the birds. Jake & Ellie just love it. Yesterday there was a particularly aggressive & very noisy goose chasing off all the other birds, which Ellie was both frightened & fascinated by. They had a right old ding-dong of a shouting contest; & I’m pretty sure Ellie won!

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There’s usually an activity on the lake: for instance remote-controlled model boats, swimming rescue dogs, canoes, barrel boat racing.

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After that it’s down to the adventure playground: a great collection of stuff to climb in, up, down, through, over & around.

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The last couple of times we’ve gone it’s been in the morning, & after they’re had a good play here they’re usually ready for their nap. Otherwise we’d head down to the farm trail to look at the farm animals: turkeys, chickens, rabbits, goats, including rare breeds. Then head back through the winding woodland trail with its weird & wonderful wood sculptures.

Instead we then head back up past the lake & take the short route back to the car: which is great for heroic scooting!

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That’s if we can make it past the cafe…

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You know, I think I could get used to this country living! How do you think I would look in tweed?

Country Kids from Coombe Mill Family Farm Holidays Cornwall

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