coombe hill kids

Sarah April 13, 2013

15 minute tonic #CountryKids

The week leading up to the end of the school holidays we still had snow on the ground here. I know a lot of people were the same. Beginning to wonder if spring was ever going to show up. The temperatures had hit a bit of the dizzy heights of 9degrees earlier in the week and we all breathed a sigh of relief as we thought that this was it, spring was finally on its way.

But then we were plunged into freezing temperatures and snow flurries all over again. I get so frustrated with the lack of flexibility snow affords me for getting outside, my kids can usually just about cope with the school run before they start saying how cold they are and begging to go in. But after school one afternoon after I had, had a lousy day (dont ask) we piled into the car and took the dog for a walk.

Surprisingly no-one moaned and we bowled around a little local park in about 15 minutes, just long enough to jumps off and on some logs, run after the dog a few times and leave smiling with red rosey cheeks. Then home for a quick hot chocolate to warm up and maybe a little bit of a pick me up for me!!! *cough*

Now then, come on spring, get your best clothes on we are more than ready for you!

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Sarah April 5, 2013

the easter egg edition meets Mr. Darcy #CountryKids #NationalTrust

Easter Saturday we decided to go out and hunt for eggs! The National Trust and Cadbury have been running the great easter egg trail throughout Easter and so we decided to hit one of these at one of our local National Trust properties. We went to the beautiful Lyme Park which is where the BBC filmed a large part of their classic version of Pride and Prejudice with a certain Mr. Darcy *cough*

It is a really beautiful house and there is lots to do for the kids without adding the extra excitement of a easter egg hunt. We set off on our hunt, the kids answering questions and running round to count things, look for flowers, get faces painted and draw their own version of easter egg heads!

We walked around the Lake, you know….that lake…from that scene *fans face* 😉

Im pretty sure just a few 100 yards down from him was the path on which we walked round the lake *sigh*

It has such beautiful gardens, we are planning on coming back in the summer so that we can see the benefit of the gardens without the snow!

heading off round the lake

think this was the point that *he* threw himself in the water! 😉 the beautiful house

one happy hunter outside the orangery

This is the staircase that they were walking up in the first picture just the other way round….

After the house and gardens we headed over to the woodland play area. Which is massive with a big rope walk, slides and tunnels to crawl through. We finished it off with a little stroll through a woodland where one of my daughters discovered that putting your foot in the space between a flooded cattle grid is not a good idea! 😉

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Sarah March 30, 2013

Unexpected countryside in the city #CountryKids

Sometimes you dont need to be hitting the country side to be enjoying a bit of the outside. Often, because we live in a city there can be some very unexpected places where you can connect with the outdoors!

I had to take one of my girls into the city for a piano exam the other week and as i was concerned that we had to park and get there we set off early and arrived about half an hour before her slot for her exam. Half and hour wait in the waiting room for a piano exam with two wriggly, lively and not asleep as planned, toddlers was not going to happen.

So we wondered further down the road to The Bluecoat chambers, which is an incredible building in the city, which i believe was an old school and is now home to uber trendy craft shops and a museum. We wondered in and used the ‘facilities’ and then went for a nose around their sensory garden area where they have some sweet little exhibits made by local school kids and habitats for insects. Flower beds and cute little baby saplings, no doubt planted to be the dominating great city trees of the future.

Was lovely to see this little garden in the city. It was a welcome distraction and took enough time that my stay in the waiting room with the little ones went quickly and without too much hassle.

She aced her exam as well!!

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Sarah March 15, 2013

Exploring the outside in a macro way with #CountryKids

We went away this weekend to be part of the team of bloggers who are working with the national trust to encourage our kids to get outside and enjoy their childhood OUTSIDE!! You know away from the consoles, the TV screens and the computers and instant messengers and be in nature. It was a really inspiring weekend and we came back fuelled with ideas. I am going to do a longer post on motivational monday on what we got up to. But meantime you can check out the website here and check out their pledge and hey maybe sign yourself up!

So before we came back north we took the kids out in nature to see what we could find. It was fun, especially a certain little girl jumping in some mahoosive puddles!! I had my lovely macro lens on the camera so it was an up, close and personal look at the outside!