national trust

Sarah November 24, 2013

Sly fox in the kitchen after school #ordinarymoments #whatsthestory

We have had a bit of a re-jig with our hard drives recently and it has unearthed some real gems and i thought i would share some of them. This little bunch of shots made me smile. I can actually remember it like it was yesterday. It was in fact not long after our youngest was born. I think she must have been a couple of months and we were deep into winter.

This was after school one day when it was dark soon after we got home. Only two out of my five were actually in school then! It was one of those times before the extra activities had invaded our schedules as they have now and so when we came home from school it was down time and some snackage and play time.

The school kids were showing me a game they had learnt at school called sly fox and we were playing it in the kitchen and i kept turning round and taking shots as they tried to creep up behind me and be the ‘sly fox.’ They thought it was hilarious when i didn’t turn round and they managed to get to me in time!

It feels like a simpler time actually without the crazyness that now fills our lives and all the running around. That is the nature of the kids getting older i suppose. Its fun to look back and see the kids all little too!!

c Motivational Monday the ordinary moments

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Sarah June 3, 2013

Being beside the seaside #motivationalmonday #themondayclub

The beach.

I love the beach and i hate the beach. This juxtaposition may be a recent thing for me, as in the last ten years really. Having children changes your view of the beach i think. Not the actual beach but just the enormous task that becomes going to the beach. It can almost be a camping trip the amount of stuff you have to take. There should be some kind of lift arrangement to get stuff from your car onto the sand, maybe one of those delivery supermarket things, you could just order your stuff to be delivered to a pre-deteremined spot. Or maybe a new career for those beach-ride donkeys? There must be a better way.

Then there is the small thing of the sand…the sand…e v e r y w h e r e…..for the next couple of weeks. I swear i have put clothes through the wash and still shaken sand out of them when they come out of the washing machine. When we had a sand pit in our garden my OH used to say that at any given time of the day no matter how much you tried there would always be sand in the house. But how the kids love digging in the sand. I get it, there is something therapeutic about it.

When we go ahead and go for a walk, we can aim to stay away from the water and up here the tides can be a long long way out so you would think that it was doable. But it always turns into a partial swim regardless of the weather. There is something about the sea that draws my kids in..even when you shout ‘we have NO dry clothes with us!’ at the top of your voice. The words seem to drift off with the sand in the wind, carried away from unhearing ears and they plough into the water.!!! 🙂

But you absolutely HAVE to love the joy that it brings to the kids faces, the sound of the sea, that salty air, the connection with the awesome force that is a mass of water…

even if it does result in a very wet and soggy walk home.

🙂

Please dont forget to link up to motivational monday this week! This weeks giveaway is a choice! WOOH! of one of four beautiful Mini Boden summer dresses for girls. You can enter via the rafflecopter below! The winner of the Nike Running shirt is Faye Huntington. Congrats please get in touch to claim your prize! Please dont forget that you can still enter to win a Fab LUSH giftbox by going and showing some love to the beonepercent charity. Just follow this link to last weeks post!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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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 17, 2013

The art of skimming stones… #motivationalmonday

A week ago we went down to Nymans House to be part of a group of bloggers who have a real interest in giving our kids a passion for being outside. Enjoying nature, being kids, being wild. Tapping into that childhood that we had, freely available without the fears and distractions that exist now. The fear of strangers, the traffic, the dangers. The distractions of the screens….the s-c-r-e-e-ns. It just gets into everything doesn’t it. So early as well, you can check out babies less than a year old doing the Apple swipe on mummy or Daddy’s phone. They just pick it up so quickly and it becomes part of the norm for them. Plugged in before they are 12 months. Is a natural childhood possible anymore? It is scary stuff!

As we were chatting about the boundaries that our kids face now and by contrast how easy it was for us as kids to get out into the wild. Made me think about how easy it was for me as a kid, we lived in front of a large wood and used to disappear all day and our parents would ring a bell to get us all back. That would never happen for my children where we live now. N-E-V-E-R and that is sad and it is a loss to their childhood and to us as well as parents. What parent wouldn’t want their kids to be out of the house, exploring the wild all day and not tearing each other apart inside and arguing over who goes on the wii

hands up?? 😉

The nice folk at National Trust had put on some seriously cool activities for the kids. In the afternoon they got to hang out with gnarly outdoors man and musician Rob Cowen. A guy who has a real passion for re-discovering nature and connecting with the outdoors. He showed the kids how to build a den, which they all got really enthusiastic about and lined up ready for a lie down in once it was put together…along with all of the adults as well!

Ever meet one of those people whose passion for a subject just draws people in? Rob is one of those guys. He cares enough about getting re-connected with simplicity of having an adventure in the outdoors that he has written a book called Skimming Stones – a book inspiring us to have an adventure, get out into the wild…and for the practical ones out there it is a full on ‘how to’ book. Things like how to build a den, make a kite, forage for food, catch a fish..and no its not saying trot down to your local outdoors store and buy a shed load of north face equipment..it is mostly things that you can find and use in the wild. Minimal spend to your pocket, maximum benefit to your soul.

We have been inspired to try and work through the 12 sections in the book, there is even talk of starting up a skimming stones blog! Getting our kids to work through the 12 challenges and coming back to share how it went and what we got from it. Which im thinking is going to be a whole lot more than a fish…!

Go on, google the book and see what comes up, it has been reviewed by some heavyweights in the media with massive positive feedback. I have yet to have a proper read of it as my OH (who is a bit of a mountain guy it has to be said) has had his head in it, even planning some ‘den’ building activities already!

So head on over to project wild thing and take the pledge to get outside as much as you spend on screens! Then jump into the rafflecopter this week for my giveaway which is, I am thrilled to say is a SIGNED copy of the book Skimming Stones. You’ll notice on the rafflecopter that you can get 10 extra entries for liking the Rob’s facebook page and following him on twitter. So please make sure to do those ones!!