Fountains Abbey (Again)

We had a great day today at Fountains Abbey with cousin Adam and family. It was sunny and lovely and so we took a picnic. It was a lot busier than the last few times we've been (damn these fair weather visitors!) but still not too crowded. We wandered down the hill and had our rather large picnic sat in the ruins of the Abbey. I think we then could all have happily taken long naps but since Beth and Adam were bouncing (literally) off the crumbling walls, we decided to go for a walk.

We wandered to a part that we haven't explored before - up a big hill of course. It was worth the walk as the views were lovely and there were lots of interesting things to mooch around up there. First was Surprise View (where the first photo was taken), next we found the Temple of Fame, after that we came across the Octagon Tower (the building behind Toby) and finally, on the way down the hill, we went through Serpentine Tunnel (a 1730's tunnel cut through the hillside). They all kept the kids occupied and diverted then from realising how far they were walking. They also had a game of trains, half a game of hide-and-seek and a game of peek-a-boo.

During the day we were treated to the Adam Makepeace Spectacular - Adam performing Mama Mia on top of the wall with Beth looking on in something nearing confusion. Beth thought she might have a go but suffered from stage fright on the way up. There of course is the obligatory photo of Toby asleep in the pushchair but now he's got the use of his hind legs, there are more photo opps. William can begin to take his place - here's one to start.

Here And There

Just a quick update to let you know we're all alive and well. :) Since the last post we've done lots of bits of things and visited both sets of grandparents.

When we went to see gran and grandad we spent part of the afternoon at the new RSPB place, Saltholme, close to their house. We went with cousin Adam and family and had a good explore. Unfortunately the playground wasn't open yet - the whole place is newly opened so they are putting the finishing touches to everything. We all, Toby included, walked around the lake disturbing any birds that happened to come close (I'm sure much to the disgust of the serious birdwatchers).

We saw auntie Jane for the first time since Christmas when we visited grandma and grandpa, unfortunately it's rather a long trek to visit her so we'll have to wait till we're more mobile to descend on her! It was a lovely day and so we decided to test out our new English Heritage memberships and go to Kirby Muxloe Castle for an explore. I really enjoyed this as we use to go a lot as children and play hide-and-seek and I haven't been for years.

I think Beth really enjoyed it too. As you may have guessed, she's very into princesses and castles so it was right up her street. She would have spent the entire time running up and down the steps to the top but we have visions of her tumbling all the way down so put a stop to that (well, we did let her go up/down, up/down, up/down a few times but mainly because we were too slow to stop her!).

The rest of the day was spent in the sandpit, watering the plants or trying to catch/poke the tiny frogs in the pond.

Walks In The Woods and Brodsworth Hall & Gardens

Thursdays are rather quiet for us so for the last few weeks we have been going to Melton Woods for a run/splash and picnic with Beth's friends, Carl and Tim. It's a great place to go as we're sheltered from the wind, sun and light rain along with the fact that despite being pretty big, it's very hard to loose the kids (not that we're trying;)).

The last few weeks Toby has been having a little walk too and I know he is desperate to get a pair of wellies and leap into the puddles. This is something I'm not overly keen on since one week Carl jumped in a puddle and the water was higher than his waist and this week both Beth and Carl got stuck tight in the mud and had to be rescued.

I'm not sure what it is about picnics but all the kids eat far more when we're on the move than when we're at home. I'm not sure if it's a competition to see who can eat the most or if they don't realise how much they're scoffing or if they are just using so much energy they need the calories. I suppose I shouldn't complain since Beth is normally so disinterested in food and would happily miss all meals and survive solely on warm milk.

Steve has been on a course all week so has been getting home much later than normal. This afternoon I think I reached my limit of temporary single parenting and just had to get out of the house. We went to Brodsworth Hall and Park, an English Heritage property about five miles away. We've been once before but it was with a big group so we didn't really get to explore very much.

Despite it threatening to rain, we had a lovely couple of hours mooching around. To Toby's great excitement we saw a tractor and the playground was a great hit with Beth. I just enjoyed being outside, looking at the lovely flowers and finding all the different parts of the gardens. I think we'll probably go back there over the weekend to have another explore and play.

Sherwood Pines Forest Park

Today we went to Sherwood Pines Forest Park, part of Sherwood Forest. We took the bikes and the trailer, we also took Beth's bike but it was a little too uneven - she'll have to practice a bit more before attempting anything but concrete paths.

It was a gorgeous day, no clouds at all (you could almost be mistaken for thinking it was CA!) and the sun was pretty hot, thankfully it was quite shady. We started off doing the easy 'family trail' which took about half an hour. It was lovely as we had got there early so it was quiet and very peaceful. To give the kids a break, we then spent an hour in the playground; both of them loved it. There were mushroom houses to climb inside, lots of funny little hidey holes and a big wooden walkway thing.

We then headed off for another ride, this time on the harder 'adventure trail'. It took an hour an was really nice except for when we got stuck behind people who weaved and wandered across the paths and had no clue we were there. Lunch was a picnic in the playground followed by ice cream - I didn't take any pictures but have included ones from last night when Toby had his first ice cream cone.

After lunch we headed back home for an afternoon in the garden with gran and grandad, a bbq, and the water table. Just out of curiosity, can anyone help me identify a condition Beth has . . . No matter what she does or where she goes, she manages to finish the day with a black face, it's like she has dirt magnets around her mouth, nose and cheeks. She can be playing with a whole group of other children doing exactly the same thing yet when they finish they still look somewhat pristine whereas Beth is filthy!

The Boy's Done It!

He's done it; Toby is walking! For the last few weeks he has been attempting it every now and then and wants to hold hands and walk everywhere. Eventually on Saturday he went for it and walked and walked and walked, all by himself. He's still doing rather a lot of crawling but I think that's only because it's a quicker mode of transport and he's got tired legs from Saturday.

Our Bank Holiday weekend was very enjoyable. Saturday we were visiting gran and grandad and we also saw cousin Adam (and William too). Beth was very proud of her new bike and her and Adam went for a spin.

Yesterday we stayed around the house as the weather was beautiful. We were out in the garden before eight and stayed out pretty much until bedtime. Steve put the tent up - we couldn't remember what it was like as the last time we used it was at O'Neill Regional Park in Orange County. Both kids loved playing in it, I think they are both outdoorsy people. We also had the water table out and the house. Beth brought her own sense of fashion to the day!

Today we headed down to see grandma and grandpa. The weather wasn't quite as good as yesterday but it wasn't bad. We started out with a visit to the playground but soon headed back to break out the paddling pool for it's first outing of the year. Toby loved it - a bath outside, what could be better?

After a nap and a play in the sandpit, the water sprinkler came out. Toby wasn't quite so keen on this (a bit chilly I think) but he survived.

To finish the day off, grandma and Beth made a scarecrow for the strawberry patch - she was very proud of herself.

A Shiny Brand-Spanking New Bicycle

It was an exciting day in our household as today Beth got her first bike. It would make perfect planning sense to buy a bike that Toby could inherit but of course the bike manufacturers realise this and produce only very pink or very blue bikes . . . it goes without saying what colour we came away with.

From there we headed straight for the park to try it out. Both kids fell asleep on the way and by the time we arrived, it was raining rather hard. In hope that it would clear up, we drove on to Clumber Park. Thankfully it was sunny and lovely when we got there and Beth jumped straight on and off she went.

The weather didn't hold out for long but we sheltered under a tree and ate our sarnies and sausage rolls until it passed. Toby joined in with lunch and looked longingly at Beth's bike (imagining himself with it, but obviously not in that colour!), for the time being he will just have to make do with the carrier or pushchair.

After a break for ice cream we went to look around the walled garden. It was beautiful, lots of fruit trees, vegetables and masses and masses of rhubarb. Beth was most interested in the scarecrows (actually, she was only interested in those). It was a very enjoyable day. :)

Clumber Park

We tested out our new bike rack yesterday and headed over to Clumber Park for a ride. We hadn't been to that park before but I'm glad we did as it's beautiful! The road into the park is lined with two rows of Lime trees on either side giving it rather a grand feel. There isn't a house there as it was demolished last century but the walled gardens and huge greenhouses survived. We didn't look at these but plan on going back to explore. I didn't have time to take loads of pics so these are courtesy of others . . .

We actually didn't get to see as much of it as we'd have like since we ran into a few problems. Steve's bike had a puncture that he intended fixing with a spare inner-tyre once we arrived. However, it didn't fit and the puncture was right by the valve so couldn't be patched. So, I took the trailer (quite hilarious since I'm a bit unsteady anyway) and Steve was going to catch up once the bike shop opened and he could get fixed up. It was lovely riding, along the lake and through the woods. Unfortunately there are so many paths, Steve and I missed each other and had totally separate rides eventually meeting back at the car. It was Toby's first time out for a bike ride and first time wearing his helmet, he did pretty well.

From there we headed down to grandma and grandpa's house for the rest of the day. The weather was lovely and Beth and Toby spent the majority of the afternoon in grandpa's homemade sandpit making flower pies and Bob the Builder pies.

Today I took the big pushchair and both kids for a walk from the house. We walked along the river for about four miles following part of the Trans Pennine Trail. It was a lovely walk though a bit windy. Beth walked for just over a mile before moaning herself into the pushchair to join Toby. There was hardly anyone about and we had the path to ourselves, passing an unused viaduct, a castle and lots of lovely views. Steve met us at the other end and drove us home.

Just thought I'd bung these two pics on the end. One of Toby enjoying his spaghetti bolognaise - can you tell he's spoon-feeding himself these days? The other is of Beth wearing two of her birthday presents, a Tinkerbell t-shirt (thanks T) and a ballerina style skirt (thanks H), the perfect princess!