Mud what more can I say



We headed out to a local Christmas market, but decided to walk the dogs first. The very start of the outing was not very promising, with a half hour trek back up the motorway when we realised that the dogs leads had been left hanging on their peg in the house. This was undertaken with a very large chorus of moaning from the kids.

However things then got a little more annoying when we arrived and found that due to no parking they were struggling to find spaces for all the cars, and we would have to take a shuttle bus up to the market after we walked the dogs. This may seem like a mild inconvenience, but with three kids, a baby, all the associated accessories and a buggy I never hugely enjoy trying to get all of us onto any form of bus.

 



Once we were parked and in the woodland things started to pick up. The kids did'nt have their crabbing lines, but they headed out onto the pontoon and had a good look ( and I suspect that Aidan may have tried fishing with his hands, based on how wet his gloves seemed to be).

Then they practiced their favourite hobby of tree climbing, most of the poor trees suffered the indignity of having the three monsters attempting to climb up them.

All was going well, and I even managed to get a nice photo, when I say all was going well that was until........

The oldest two decided to ignore my instructions to stay off the mud in the river bed. You know those times when you look away for two seconds, and then kick yourself when they do something either amazingly stupid or down right dangerous.

Well I looked back and saw Alex slowly sinking above boot level into some very stinky and very deep river bed mud with Aidan besides her also slightly stuck. Poor Elliot was in the sling at the time and was almost thrown at his dad while I ran down to assist them.

They were well and truly stuck and I had to jump in to drag them out. The only option with Alex was to lift her out of her boots and to hold her aloft while I fished for her wellies with the other hand, she is a skinny thing, but sure weighs a ton when held up by one arm. I managed to get both of them towards the bank, but now was severely stuck myself, so had to drag myself out, covering my jeans and hands in the process.

Nearly on the bank Aidan lost his welly and fell forward absolutely caking his trousers and coat in the foul smelling stench. Lets just say that my anger was very apparent once we were back on the bank. Both of them were very sorry and immediately promised to never do it again. You can tell when Aidan feels very bad and ashamed about something, as he usually very politely asks not to talk about it anymore.

Typically we got back to the car to find the toilets closed for the winter, so I had to do my best with two packets of wipes and strict instructions not to put their hands in their mouths. Needless to say we had to give up on the market plans and the kids had to be undressed before getting in the car. I use big blue ikea bags as a welly carrier, so luckily the bag was able to hold all the foul outcomes of their little adventure.

At home the only option was to dump it all in the bath, and to keep hosing it down. The wellies then went into the airing cupboard, while the clothes then had to be washed three times to get rid of the majority of the fetid mouldy mud smell

Me and my girls

This morning we had a lovely short walk around our local field.

It did not start out well with my oldest girl having a melt down as we were heading out of the door. I have to admit that I am the least patient person in the universe when it comes to moaning and whinging.

After a little screaming and well more screaming we eventually headed down the very slippery path. Its no easy job to walk on a ice covered path, with two beagles straining at their leads, and two girls alternating between holding hands and running off. Running off that is to a chorus of me hollering don't run or you will fall on your butt. I am an excessively load voice, so you really would not want to be one of my neighbours.

It was lovely to be out with just us girls ( sorry Kelvin I know you are a boy dog, but for the purpose of this walk you can be a temporary girl).

We let the dogs off in the field, and the darlings behaved really well for a change. Although I did have to play a game of hunt the poo when Abby decided to poop a fair distance away from me. I know in some area they tried spray painting turds rather than cleaning up,  to show the scale of the problem and I guess to shame the culprits into scooping the poop.

I wonder if I could feed the dogs the spray paint, so their poo comes out brightly coloured and easy to find and identify. There is very little more horrid than hunting the poo, thinking you have a successful find, and then being tricked into picking up another dogs ice cold old stool, yuk!

The field has a little park and the girls spent a while pushing Reg in the swing. Reg is one of Santa's Reindeers, he has come to stay for the month so the kids can teach him to be good, and if he achieves this goal he will be awarded the honour of pulling the big man's sleigh.

At the end of the walk we headed into the shop to get some sweets to sneek into the theatre later, ummm yummy revels. I am planning on a diet in the new year, so hopefully I won't explode from excessive junk consumption before then.

More poorly kid news

Sorry this blog sucks big time at the moment.

We have gone from Elliot having a chest infection last week, being given the all clear on Thursday, and then rapidly heading back down hill to spike a temperature of 40 yesterday and to get a diagnosis of an ear infection late last night from the on call docs.

So very little going outside for decent walks until Elliot is recovered.

Babasling rocks

As you know Elliot has been poorly, so getting out and about has been a bit of a challenge, especially as he can't breath when he lies down or when the cold air or wind hits him.

The dogs were going to explode in a mess of dog guts if I didn't get out and walk them, so we headed out with the sling. Elliot is a bit of a big lad now, so I only tend to use the sling for the school run and shorter walks.

I put Elliot in his sling, stuffed a bottle into his mouth and luckily he quickly fell asleep.

Trudging through the mud in my wellies was a bit dodgy at times, and a few times I thought I might slip and squash Elliot into a little baby pancake. However I managed to stay upright, and walking through the deep mud and water must have done the world of good for my thigh muscles.

Nearly two hours later we headed back to the car with a sleeping Elliot, two tired dogs and only a very slight ache in my shoulder from carrying him for so long.

Of course it had to go pear shaped at the last minute. Kelvin decided that it would be fun to run across the very busy road several times, leaving me having a panic, and waiting for the sound and sight of a car smashing into him. Luckily he eventually came back, had a good telling off and was quickly shut into the crate in the car.

No going out for us at the moment

We are seriously housebound at the moment. Sadly Elliot has a bad chest infection and the doc is worried that it may turn into pneumonia, so he is one seriously poorly baby.

Every time we set outside into the gale that has been raging for 3 days, it triggers a massive coughing attack, and the poor little man can hardly catch his breath.

Today I even had to call in some favours and get a couple of mums to pick the bigger kids up from school.

So no great stories from me for a few days, unless you want to hear about coughing, grumpy not walked dogs and lack of sleep!

Do not try this at home - getting lost in the woods

Today we had a late start, and proceeded to get very lost in the woods. Covered in mud and exhausted, this was not a good walk!

The afternoon walk started out well, with the kids coming almost willingly, and only a very small amount of "can we go yet" the second we stepped out of the car.

The kids really enjoyed catching and throwing beanbags at each other, although I am not sure the poor beanbags will survive being so covered in mud.

I was well prepared, in that I knew it would be cold and muddy, so the kids had nice warm coats, and we had even gone to Sainsburys to buy new wellies for the girls after I realised they had gapping holes in their old ones.

 

 

 

Elliot is 1 next week and he is a bit of a challenge now, as he can't walk yet, but hates being in the buggy for too long. I would have put him in the sling, but felt a little lazy after being a bit ill this morning, so he had to travel in the slightly lightweight buggy we currently have.

 

 

I think it all went wrong on the return leg, we managed to go down the wrong path, and ended up having to walk for a very long time down a very muddy and wet track. At first it seemed ok, but then we got to that point where we were all too tired to turn back, and we just kept following the straight path hoping and wishing that it would soon turn ( which it didn't!).

 

 

Imagine us with 3 exhausted kids, two bonkers filthy dogs, a buggy that was so mud soaked that the wheels would no longer turn ( and so baby and buggy had to be carried over most of the big sections of mud), and a path that clearly was a disaster choice........

 

In the end we found a road where the kids and I waited while Ali went in hunt of the car, roll on 20 minutes or so later and I was soooo glad to see the car coming along the road, phew!





Portsmouth and Southsea

 

We had some Tesco club card vouchers that needed using up before they went out of date, so we headed to Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth for the day. I would have cried if we didn't have the vouchers as the admission seemed very expensive, but maybe I am just getting tight with money in my old age.

 

On entering the tower we were grabbed to have a photo taken against a blue screen. I love photos of us all together, but I hate paying a small fortune for them, so later in the day we quickly skipped past the photo desk, I really am turning into an old grump

 

The lift whizzed us up to the first floor and the kids loved taking their shoes off to go on the glass floor, I was brave and walked over it a few times, but their dad stayed a safe distance away. Cat is a little bit mental and decided it was great, especially trying to jump through it, and laying down on it, that child definitely has a few screws loose.

The café was expensive, very slow, and lacking in room, so I would not choose to take kids in there again. However they did enjoy the top floor. Although it was annoying that no one had told us that we couldn't get the lift up there and we were not allowed to leave the buggy unattended, so we had to take it in turns taking the kids up.

It was actually much better than I expected, but at that price its definitely a one off.

After the tower we headed into Southsea just a few minutes down the road. As usual it was cold and the kids made a beeline for the shingle beach. Elliot was asleep in the sling, so we stopped for a while as the kids decided they simply had to play on this freezing cold beach.

Caitlin set about burying a bucket, and the other two started world war three with the sea, building a shingle wall, hiding behind it and firing stones into the sea. Its always brings so much joy just watching them playing, but I find this is more frequently tinged with sadness nowadays, knowing that Aidan will soon be too old for the make believe world that he currently loves. Arghh why can't they stay kids forever.

I did ask them all to stop having birthdays and to stop growing, but they refused, although Alex did offer to stop when she gets to 9, so thats very kind of her. Do any of us really take the time and enjoy this precious limited time with them as much as we should!

Disaster with a capital D

Lets see:

Forgetting wellies

Going for a walk in a swamp with an insubstantial buggy

Forgetting both babies and my hat and gloves

Weather being somewhere in the minus a million degrees area ( or at
least feeling like it)

One tired mummy with tooth ache

Two dogs who are being naughty, including rolling in copious amounts of the most foul smelling badger/ fox poo that has ever existed

One nanny talking on the phone for the first time in a while.

One baby screaming like a banshee most of the way around, due to teething and the cold weather.

One baby very much in need of sleep, but refusing it 100%.

One bottle of formula dropped like a bomb, teat first into a pile of mud

Then the torture not ending when one arrives home, having a combination of trying to get baby to stay asleep from car into cot, and also trying to bath a white dog covered in big patches of brown animal poop.

Do I need to say that this was not a good outing!

Crab hunting in mid November

Its mid November and rapidly heading to the arse end of the year, so I tend to be someone who likes the idea of hibernating. Shut those curtains, whack the heating on, cuddle a hot water bottle, and slurp up a very naughty mug of hot chocolate ( with all the trimmings of course).

However with the dogs and the kids hibernating all the time, is sadly not an option, ummm just the thought of spending 4 months of the foul winter snuggled in the warm gives me a warm glow. Back on track, the kids need a walk as much as the dogs, so today we headed out to a river and wood that has a great little crabbing spot.

You know those days when it all goes wrong, well today it actually miraculously nearly all went right.

In the car the kids, the baby and the dogs all behaved, with a bare minimum of fighting, in fact at one point I think I had a little nap while hubby drove. That's what happens when a teething baby keeps you up all night, you turn into a toddler and end up needing an afternoon nap.

When we arrived I hoped the little café shop would be open and was pleasantly surprised to see that it actually was.  The owner had popped down for the last time this year, as it was a sunny afternoon, in case anyone wanted a cuppa, and to empty out the perishable stock ready for the long closure.

I really fancied a cuppa, but more importantly we had no crabbing lines, and he generously sold us 3 for the price of two. I have to admit that it was completely my fault that we had no lines. Being a bit brain dead I had been certain that I had emptied out the bags after the last trip. However roll on many weeks later and I am stood in the garage wondering what on earth the foul smell could possibly be. You can only imagine how nasty 3 crab lines sealed in a plastic bag with crab sticks, river water and seaweed can be!

While we enjoyed our cuppas the kids ran around in the mud covered play ground. I hate mud, its so fun when you are a kid, and yet as a mum all I see are the problems ( and the washing it brings). Where has the joy of mud gone for me :-(

After a while we dragged them on towards the pontoon. I am no expert on crab behaviour, and we have never been winter crab hunting before. Due to my ignorance I thought we might not catch any, based on my assumption that they may hibernate, slow down their lifestyle or at the very least move to some deeper water.

How wrong I was, we caught loads, and they were whoppers, and sadly so were their nasty nipping claws, argghhhh. A little lad appointed himself our head crab grabber and helped to get the crabs into our bucket.

I started off waiting with the dogs in the path, but they were being a pain so I decided to tie them up while I helped the kids. Imagine this me on a wobbly pontoon, hanging on to a very bulky and heavy 11 month old Elliot, trying to tie up the two dogs. Kelvin went smoothly, but the lovely Abby slipped her collar. So there is me with Elliot under my arm, one hand holding Kelv and the empty collar, and the other grabbing a handful or mud covered Abby fur. A lovely lady offered to help, but luckily Ali came back to help before I dropped Elliot over the side.

Ali took the dogs off for a run, and all went well for a while. Until Abby decided that it would be fun to race down the pontoon like a greyhound. Now this would not have been too bad if it was not for the 3 year old little girl that she nearly sent flying into the water every time she passed.

We emptied the crabs onto the low tide line and rewarded them with the left over raw bacon.

Aidan had the task of releasing the crabs, and managed to walk in the stinking low tide mud in his new shoes.

We decided to take the longer path back to the car, and luckily this went smoothly, especially considering the kids were heading towards the hungry and tired world of the grumpy.

Rivers, cold and mud ( yuk)

Aidan was not impressed at the idea of having to walk the dogs again, but he came along with a little encouragement.

However it soon turned into a great fun walk in the woods when the boys decided to tackle the river. Personally I hate being cold and wet, but this state of being seems to have great appeal to a 9 year old lad.

They walked a very long way in the river regularly stopping for emergency code reds ( or whatever colour was appropriate) to unblock the leaves, branches and dead trees that had blocked the rivers flow.

We tried to keep the girls out of the river, and so they found their amusement with sticks and lots of mud on the river bank.

At 11 months Elliot has now got to an age where he is not keen on the buggy and being restrained, but he can only crawl and has no sense what so ever. So its now great fun trying to keep him happy while out walking. Roll on his ability to walk and another year or so, so that he can start to enjoy being out as well.

A two year old diving straight in....

I am sorry that I don't have a picture for this blog, but it was a typical mummy moment.

Imagine the scene, a very cold and over cast morning at the backend of October. One of those days when you really know that winter is well and truly on its way to bite you on the bum ( or at least leave you with cold feet).

Our setting is a very muddy and wet woodland, with my friend and 7 kids between us. Very sensibly all children were attired appropriately in coats and wellies, and we were ready to head off on the play trail for some slightly chilly fun ( while myself and my friend gossiped the morning away).

However her two year old lad had very different ideas. He started out in a sane peppa pig fashion jumping in a few muddy puddles, how very normal for this age group.

He then decided to get his hands into the muck, again gross but fair enough, I am sure as kids we all would have loved to have felt that goopy yuk in our hands.

Anyway we separated the kids from the puddle and headed up to the little play park. As we arrived my friends little boy made a beeline for the pond, did he stop - NO, did he falter - NO, did he slow - NO. Instead he ran straight into the pond right up to his middle, caught his foot and went flying into a very stylish dive.

Now only a mum will know the joys of stripping wet and muddy clothes off of the body of a shaking and blue toddler who is not impressed at the fun being stopped.

Needless to say my friends time with us was cut short as she had to borrow one of Elliot's blankets to wrap the shaking lad in, and hurry back to the warmth of her car as quickly as possible.

Nature detectives

This is a truly amazing site from the people at Woodland Trust:

http://www.naturedetectives.org.uk/

Its packed full of top class activities to do with your little ones in the great outdoors, and most of these activities are free, its so nice to get such a great resource for free!

We decided to join the club to get the little extras, and because I am lazy beyond belief, so the weekly emails guilt me into doing something interesting with the kids, rather than sitting on my ever increasing fat bum.

Pumpkins, scarecrows, and heavy hail

 

http://www.jst.hampshire.org.uk/index.html

 

It was a bit of an overcast day, but looked like it would turn out nice ( or at least not too foul). We were torn between 3 events that were going on locally, but decided to try a Pumpkin and scarecrow event in aid of charity.

 

This was running at a seaside park,so gave me the chance to get the kids to help me hunt out some treasures for my arts and craft projects ( http://ofsoilseaandsky.blogspot.co.uk/ )

 

I suspected that the park would be heaving when the event started at 12, so we headed out early and decided to walk the dogs first. Walking along the sea shore Abby did her usual barking at every dog insight, she just is not improving with her fear of other dogs, I fear this is a battle that we will loose.

 

Then we headed into the woodland on a path that we have walked many times. Its funny how something can be right under your nose, and yet you just how no knowledge of its existence. Half way along the path Aidan suggested we take a little path that branched off and this immediately led to a previously undiscovered play park and big field. This was a really lovely find.

 

 

 

On the way back the kids decided that it was necessary to make hats out of leaves, I never know why they do these slightly odd things, I don't see many other kids walking around with leaves on their heads ( normal is certainly not something you can accuse my family of!)

 

Aidan then found a very steep hill and being a boy just had to clamber down to the bottom, and back up again. I on the other hand see a steep hill and think about how best to avoid having to waste energy climbing it, and head off for a nice cup of tea instead.

 

At 12 we headed into the festival, and it turned out to be a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon. I managed to distract the girls so they didn't see the face painting tent with its queue from hell. How many times have we been stuck in those queues waiting for hours with increasingly irate children. I hate face painting at festivals there is always too much demand and too few painters. Luckily we stumbled upon a tent supporting guide dogs where they could get very quick and very lovely face stencils done for 50p with no wait, so they were happy bunnies.

 

 

We rounded the corner of the big central building to find two ponies, so immediately had two very excited little girls upon our hands. They got to do a lap of the circuit for £3, and very much enjoyed themselves, what is it with girls and ponies!

 

 

Having only snacked we decided to find a late lunch, and this was when the weather decided we had well and truly had enough fun for one day. As we were queuing for hot dogs the heavens opened. The kids found space in a tent, but Ellie was in the buggy asleep so for a while we were stuck out while I worked on my drowned rat look. Luckily as the heavy hail set in a chap found a space for the buggy and we sheltered while the hail pelted those that were still unlucky enough to be trapped out.

 

I am not sure I faired a huge amount better being under the tent as the awning had to be regularly prodded to dislodge the water on top, and on several occasions the weight of the rain managed to run off and straight onto me in the tent.

 

Once the storm eventually cleared the kids were keen to do more stalls, especially the tombolas and other games, but us adults do not enjoy being wet through to our pants, so we headed home.

 

This outing was: 

 3 words = Majorly child friendly

Fun 7/10

Amount of moaning and whining 20%

Chill out factor 7/10

Anyone in Hampshire area with some good suggestions?

Is there anyone out there that lives in Hampshire or has visited the area.

We are always looking for fun new outdoor places to visit, so please do share your special places with us. Then we can nick the ideas and make them our new special places!

It could be a good dog walk, a nice day out, a great woodland, a beautiful seashore or anywhere else where we can drag the kids.

Any ideas?

Is it ok to pretend to be about to eat fairies!

Aidan was at a chess tournament, so the rest of us spent the morning in a wood we had not been to before.

 

We headed out and quickly realised our mistake in letting the girls wear their new shoes in a very wet and muddy wood. Oh for a couple of pairs of wellies!

 

The girls quickly found lots of sticks that had been made into some kind of short path:

 

 

The girls loved following the path, but being a little accident prone Alex managed to get tangled in brambles, so daddy had to set out on the path to undertake a rescue attempt.

 

Further along the path we found a great climbing tree

 

 

However the lovely Elliot decided that this was the perfect time to fill his nappy to the point of bursting with teething poo ( if you have ever had a teething baby you will know how disgusting this is). So there I am with him hanging out of the buggy, poo covered bum hanging in the air, and typically several dog walkers took that as a prompt to turn up and walk within inches of the stench.

 

Once I had salvaged what I could of his clothes and got him into a semi decent state the girls decided that they need to collect some natural bits and pieces. Somehow they decided that the nut shells were fairies, and they were going to cook them. There is certainly nothing normal about my kids, how many 4 and  year old girls spend several hours discussing the fine details of how to cook fairies!

 

Later we found a tree with a little hollow that had filled with water. Alex decided to dip her stick into the water, to chant some "magic" words and then attempt to poison me with her now magically poisoned stick, lovely.

 

Here is the outcome of their cooking the "fairies"-

 

3 words = slightly bonkers girls

Fun 9/10

Amount of moaning and whining 20%

Chill out factor 8/10

Is is normal to go into the sea on a cold October day?

 

We went to a country park by the sea for the afternoon, which may not have been the best idea for a slightly chilling October day!

 

The kids had a great time despite a little afternoon tiredness moaning. We started by heading straight down to the stone covered beach. I am not a lover of sand, and its ability to get into every nook and cranny, so a stoney beach is my idea of heaven.

 

I collect things for my art projects, so for a while the kids helped me to hunt out some beach glass and drift wood:

 

http://ofsoilseaandsky.blogspot.co.uk/

 

Then Aidan found a little stream bubbling up at the top of the beach, so their mission quickly became to dig up the water and create a river down to the sea.

 

Off we wnt along the beach, but as we were dragging along Elliot in his buggy we didnt get far before deciding to sit down and let the dogs and kids have a play. The girls are avid hunters do they were soon filling up their own dog poo bags with stones, shells and anything else that took their fancy.

Being 10 months old everytime Elliot got out of the buggy and anywhere near the floor, he quickly preceeded to munch on mouth fulls of sand or stones, babies yuk!

Back at the cafe the kids had an ice cream ,with Caitlin  deciding on a packet of crisps instead. I am sure she must be a cuckoo baby, as I have no idea how a child of mine can not like sweet things, how very odd.

There was a great park and Elliot loved having a go in the baby swings. However our aim was to walk the dogs, so we dragged the kids on for a little walk. With all the recent bad weather the track was about 80% composed of very deep and large puddles. On the way out the kids obliged in avoiding the puddles, but this may have been because we were play fighting, and I was threatening to actually hurl Aidan into the deepest puddle we could find.

The second time we reached the beach all bets were off, and the kids started their "can I go in the sea and get my feet wet", which always then leads to " can I jump over the waves and go a little deeper in", which then somehow ends up with them soaked and putting their heads in.

As they were dripping wet we made a hasty retreat back to the car, and they certainly ensured that they walked or jumped through every puddle possible, like they were not already wet enough.

Having no towels or spare clothes it was a typical Taylor strip them in the car park job, and then driving home with the hope that we don't break down on the motorway with 3 nude children.

3 words = water, water everywhere

Fun 8/10

Amount of moaning and whining 30%

Chill out factor 6/10

Just did'nt click in the woods today

You know how some days you have a great family day out, and other times it all just does'nt quite work.

This was one of those days which should have been fun ( and it was at times), but it just all seemed like a bit of a stress.

 

We headed to the woods for their fun day, and it started out badly when we accidentally paid the wrong car parking charge, arggghhhh. The fun day looked good and the kids enjoyed making masks, building a den, and creating a clay critter. However the dogs wanted a run, so we did'nt manage to see all the stalls.

 

In the woods the dogs seemed determined to bark at or hump other dogs, and when they were not doing that they were annoying kids or trying to sniff ladies bums. Not not not what I would call good doggy behaviour!

 

 

The kids enjoyed the playing, but spent alot of the time wanting to go back for the picnic. As you can see Cat enjoyed being with her baby brother as always. The mini Taylors were not naughty, but were a little bit challenging and the mild fighting was just ANNOYING!

 

Even the picnic that is normally a hit was not great, with the kids either not wanting to eat or insisting on running through the food. At one point Alex managed to land in a pot of humous.

 

This outing was:

3 words = something missing today

Fun 3/10

Amount of moaning and whining 40%

Chill out factor 2/10

Hitting each other with sticks!

The theme of todays outing seemed to be sword fighting and poking each other with sticks. I know many mums would'nt approve, but I do positively encourage a bit of rough housing.

Its great fun to have a stick sword fight ( atleast it is until one of them hits the others fingers). This was a lovely fun walk full of collecting, play, and just chilling in the last of this years sun.

 

 

 

 

We had no whinging, but as usual its not possible to get through a whole walk without any issues. We had to contend with some kids riding around like loons on a mud bike. These drive me bonkers, and its only a matter of time before one of them hits a child, pet or adult and causes them serious harm. It worries me silly that they are so popular at the moment.

 

The other issue was a Taylor special with one of the kids insisting they needed a poo, so we had no choice but to get her to squat in the woods. So many others mums seem to really struggle with even getting their kids to use a public toilet, whereas I struggle with getting the little darlings to not wee or poo anywhere, especially  not in the great outdoors.

 

This outing was:

3 words = play fighting rules

Fun 8/10

Amount of moaning and whining 15%

Chill out factor 8/10



Wind wind go away

We headed off to the seaside this morning. We did not expect sunshine in September, so were just going to have a walk and to get some fresh air. However we also did not expect the wind to pick up and the rain to set in.

The start of the walk was lovely, a little breezy, but almost pleasant. We had a little play around on the beach and then headed off into the woods. The woods were damp, but lovely. Its so nice to see all the lovely autumn colours setting in.

However the shelter of the woodland path hid from us the fact that the weather was turning quite nasty, and when we emerged back into the open space, it was a bit of a job to stop poor baby Elliot from being blown away.

The dogs loved the run, and had at some point decided that being clean was no fun. The little darlings had found both some disgusting poo to roll in and some kind of muddy puddle to run through. They were beyond dirty and definitely entering the realm of filthy filthy filthy.

We attempted to walk back along the front, as which point Kelvin decided to do a disappearing act, Elliot decided he had well and trully had enough of being blown about, and Abby started barking at everything we saw. With all of this going on I was suprised that we managed to get back to the car all in one piece.

This outing was:

3 words = wind, windy, winds

Fun 6/10

Amount of moaning and whining 20%

Chill out factor 4/10

Why does it always rain on me?

I head out, and to be fair its not glorious sunshine, but its certainly not looking like rain. Then why is it that when I am 20 minutes from the car, across a very open area of fields, with no buggy rain cover, and no rain coat for me that the heavans decide to open.

This outing was:

3 words  = wet, wet, wet

Fun 3/10

Amount of moaning and whining 40%

Chill out factor 4/10

It's history!

Yesterday we headed off to a historical day out at "its history".

I was looking forward to this glimpse at various historical eras since hearing about it last year.

Aidan loved the shows, and especially enjoyed grown men acting out fighting and stabbing each other ( then arising from the dead at the end). Sadly the girls found it a little boring, and instead decided to roll around in the cut grass, and build a large bird nest, god only knows what type of bird needs a metre wide ground nest made of grass!

They all enjoyed the slightly odd dragon puppet show, and Elliot loved having a crawl while the others were watching it. Another baby came and sat next to Elliot dressed in period costume. To which I promtly put my foot in it, by telling the kids to be nice to the baby girl, only for the mum ( dressed as a very busty wench) to inform me that he was actually a boy. Blonde long curls, bonnet and dress, how was I supposed to know!

I am sure its great fun, but I really don't get the dressing up and pretending you live in the old days thing.

This outing was:

3 words = ok but disappointing

Fun 3/10

Amount of moaning and whining 30%

Chill out factor 4/10

Treehouse slight disaster

A few weeks ago I went on a new walk and found a little tree house hidden high in the trees. Being a bit of a mean mummy my lad had broken his finger, and I had to immediately tell him about the great treehouse, and the fact that he could'nt climb it, hehe ( cue evil laugh).

Fast forward 2 weeks, and one hand that was no longer bruised or swollen, so now my lad is well ready to climb the tree.

Off we head in the foul wet and windy weather, the wood was a bit more sheltered ( but not much). We find the right tree, but are stumped at the last post. Nailed to the tree were small planks of woods to make foot holds for the adventerous children to climb to the little house. Sadly one of these planks had broken off, making it impossible to climb, argghhh!

Aidan was very good about it and is making plans to take his rope along next time. Fingers crossed!

This outing was:

3 words = nice Sunday stroll

Fun 6/10

Amount of moaning and whining 25%

Chill out factor 7/10

Screaming teething baby and 2 very naughty dogs

Elliot has been unsettled for a few days ( and nights), but I foolishly thought that a bit of fresh air and a dog walk may give him the chance to chill out.

What a fool I am!

We headed out to the local woods, and no sooner had we got in the car, then the screaming began and continued for 2 hours, ow the joys of parenthood.

After being given a headache by the screaming, getting covered in sticky yukky calpol, having to carry him most of the way, and many attempts to feed him, give him a bottle, or give him a toy to chew on, we headed back to the car.

As usual in these situations the universe conspired against me and both dogs decided to go AWOL!

I loaded Elliot into the car and waited, and waited and waited. A friendly dog walker let me know that he had seen them and they seemed to be heading towards the car park. 10 minutes later they finally decided to grace me with their presence.

Not a happy or impressed mummy/ dog owner!

However being someone who needs to look on the bright side to stay sane I did fine some more tiles for my art projects:

http://ofsoilseaandsky.blogspot.co.uk/

Wish me luck for a quieter afternoon and some sleep tonight.

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The best farm park we have been to by far.

http://cotswoldfarmpark.co.uk/

Today we packed up and headed out to meet the grandparents and aunty Gill at the Cotswold farm park. We arrived at about lunchtime, so we headed straight to the cafe.

Suitably stuffed with sausage chips and beans we hit the farm. Now we have been to many farm parks in our 9 and a bit years as parents. Some have been a great treat, while others should feel complimented to be described as just inadequate. This was the farm park of all farm parks!

Its hard to find an attraction that keeps 4 kids happy, when you have an age gap of nealy 9 years between the oldest and youngest, but todays venue kept them all happy, and so we had an almost whinge free day.

The play parks were great and as usual the kids seemed happy to just spend the day running like headless chickens around the first play area they came to. Having paid to get in we felt that it would be wise to drag them onto the next area after a while. We had bought some bags of animal snacks, so the kids merrily set about seeing if they could feed the goats until they exploded. I am not certain, but I think the bigger 3 got through about 9 bags of food!

Despite it being later in the day all the animals seemed more than keen to come over and take their snack from us. The kids had been warned about the goats ability to eat anything and to snatch the food bags at any opportunity. Of course Cat soon forgot this warning, and managed to get one of her bags eaten whole by one particular greedy goat. This sparked a little moment from Cat, but she soon calmed down when presented with yet more animal food.

The goats and sheep loved the snacks, and I think we would still be there now feeding them if the kids had their way.

The farm had a pig that seemed to be the size of a house, and several litters of the cutest little piglets you have ever seen.

After the little farm walk we played on the bouncing pillows. I have never seen these before, but they were great, and way better than a boring old trampolene. The kids also loved the woodland adventure trail and the big sandpit.

After a lolly break we headed to the animal handling barn, and the kids loved the chance to stroke more goats, chicks, guinea pigs and rabbits. Ali ( their dad) was very tempted to start a chicken farm in our garden, from the chickens for sale.

The little electric tractors, and the sliders were a huge hit with the kids, and kept them quiet for ages. They tractor ride was also great fun, but the dust blowing up, and the wriggling baby made it and interesting challenge not to fall off the seat as we bumped along.

We had a great day, and we would certainly head back if we were ever in the area again. Sadly the day was finished in a slightly anti climatic way when the lovely baby Elliot managed to explode his nappy with the most foul poop ever created by a 9 month old bum.

Treasure Trove Baskets

 

http://treasuretrovebaskets.blogspot.co.uk/

watch this space......

The glorious, the stunning and the beautiful Brownsea Island

We headed down to Pool Harbour to spend a day out on the National Trust owned Brownsea Island. The ferry was not cheap, but it was great fun for the kids, and being NT members gave us free admission to the Island.

Sadly the Island is dog free, so we had to leave Kelvin and Abby with a friend for the day, but they would have loved the day out if they were allowed.

Of course we headed straight for the cafe where I had a very pleasant cream tea, Caitlin meanwhile practiced feeding/ covering her baby brother in as much chocolate biscuit as possible.

The Island were hosting an orienteering day, so we headed to their tent to get our map, instructions and "dabber". The dabber is a little gadget that you swipe over teh check points to log your timings.

We chose the medium level trail, which should have taken us a maximum of about 45 minutes. The trail led us up the path by the church and we followed a lovely scenic trail through the trees, while Aidan attempted to climb every tree possible.

You may or may not know that the Island is famous for its red squirrel population.

 

 

The squirrels were out in abundance, but were way to speedy for us to get a really good picture. They were sooooooo cute and frisky.

 

Half way into the trail we stopped for a snack, where I sat with Elliot, while the others went to investigate the maze. Little did I know that as I was sitting there I was being eaten alive by insects. It was that evening and the next day when I puffed up like a balloon with a hundred or so nasty little bug bites, ouch! Poor caitlin managed to get bitten all over too, to the extent that I had to explain to her new teacher that her head scratching was not in fact nits, but actually bug bites.

 

After a very nice wander around, we found a pile of kids games, and enjoyed some impressive over weight mummy skipping, not a pretty sight.

 

We ran a dramatic dash to the finish of the orienteering course, but sadly it was to no avail. Our time was a very pathetic 3 and a bit hours. In fact I think we were so rubbish that the orienteering chaps were struggling not to laugh at us. They did admit that ours was definitely the worst time of the day ( and I suspect they meant the worst time ever).

 

 



Crabs, crabs, glorious crabs!

Crabbing don'ts:

- Don't drop the crabbing line into the water, the weight on it tends to make it sink, arggghhh.

- Don't attempt to pull up a crab line with a babe in arms.

- Don't touch the little horrors

- Don't forget to take the bait out of the bags at the end of the trip, ( unless you want to start a maggot farm in your garage) ops!

- Don't try to handle 4 crabbing lines, 3 children, a baby and all the accessories of a day out while balancing on a wobbly pontoon.

- Don't let teh kids release the crabs on teh pontton, as they will definitely head away from the water, doh!

We headed off to a good crabbing spot, but had to start by parking in a very busy car park. Not fun when your parking skills are as bad as mine, in fact my parking skills can only be described as deficent in every way. It took a little while to find a tank sized space before we could start our day.

Once out of the car we headed to the great play park. The girls played while Aidan took charge of pushing the very large communal swinging log.

We were very well equipped for crabbing with nets, lines, buckets and bait all ready to go. Money being very tight I decided to forget the expensive bacon option, and instead used much cheaper fish sticks as bait. What a genius I am!

The jetty was very busy, but we managed to find a spot and were soon reeling in crabs, with our total being somewhere in the region of 50.

Aidan nearly managed to loose his head. Leaning over the edge to see if a crab was on the line he was paying no attention to the rest of the world, when a tour boat chose that moment to dock. Luckily another mum spotted him and pulled him away from his near decapitation.

By the end of the day the kids were all very wet, and tired, and we were all very much ready to head home.

Moo, baa, quack, quack, a day at the farm.

Today we headed off to the farm for the day.

The kids love a good trail, so they were more than happy to be sent on the hunt of 9 lost little piglets. Not long after leaving the reception we came across about 7 or 8 real life lost piglets. Actually they were not exactly lost, they had just snuck under the fence leaving their poor little mum behind at home to worry about them (now that sounds familiar).

Cat played with the piglets, and was fascinated with them, to the point of almost joining them and leaving the human life behind forever!

Passing some sheep pens Alex started to collect the wool that the sheep had rubbed off on the fence. She quickly decided that we were going to make mittens from the scraps she had collected.

Walking on towards the farmhouse the darlings found a three seater outhouse, and proceeded to have a discussion about how good it would be if all 3 of them could poo together - lovely!

We paid for some chicken food, which the kids loved chucking around for the hens. Elliot loved watching them flocking over to us.

Its rainy and windy, stay in or head out?

We do like to be besides the seaside.

We arrived at Mudeford on a typical English Summers day. Getting out of the car we found that the wind was more than just a little blustery.

The kids immediate reaction was a very grumpy chorus of "I'm tired and its cold". In our usual very sensitive parenting style we ignored the moans, added a few extra layers of clothes, and dragged them out anyway. How kind are we?

With the extra layers, the moaning subsided to a dull roar, so we headed to the cafe for my ritual cup of tea. After the cuppa we all felt ready to tackle the not so sunny Summers day. With crabbing lines, buckets, and bacon in hand we headed to the quayside.

I don't imagine that anyone ever enjoys stuffing raw bacon into crabbing bags, buts its even more of a chore in the howling wind. The kids had high hopes of filling the bucket, but sadly the crabs ( and very fast flowing water) were conspiring against us. 30 minutes and only 1 crab later the kids had well and truly had enough.

We decided to head for the little ferry that crosses the harbour. Aidan was in a foul mood after the crabbing conspiracy, this mainly showed itself in a teenage type sulk, a refusal to move, and taking pictures of us while he held up his hand in the loser sign in front of us. Its true what they say about 9 year olds being tweenies ( and almost as bad as teenagers). It took a little shouting, a little persuasion and some ignoring to get him back on track.

 

 

The ferry took us to the very exclusive area of Mudeford Sandbanks. Imagine rows of very expensive perfect beach huts, maned by 24 hour security. These huts sale for up to £125,000!

 

 

 

 

We wandered onto the beach, and enjoyed a game of lava monsters ( apparently we were monsters trying to get Aidan off of the rocks). This was fun until Aidan managed to fill his eye with sand, and so the moaning recommenced.

 

The little cafe was not cheap, but the food was impressive, who expects a fish pie that is the size of my 9 month old! The pie was full to the brim with squid, mussels, salmon, and pretty much every creature that lives in the sea.

 

Stuffed to the point of needing a nice nap, we headed for the land train. The train was a nice scenic little 15 minute sit down. The kids found a hill and proceeded to continue to damage their brain cells, by rolling down it as fast, and as many times as possible. The sight of their 40 something dad joining in was something to behold! You have not seen true beauty until you have seen a slightly over weight dad rolling down a hill.

 

The beach was a stunning long stretch of sand and stones with regular gurnards of massive stones along its length (and unusually it seemed to be very dog friendly). The girls amused themselves by finding stones, Elliot the baby decided eating handfuls of stones would be fun, while Aidan found a tub which he threw into the sea about a hundred times ( and soaked himself in the process).

 

As usual Aidan headed home soaking wet, and we all headed back to the car in a very tired state.

 

 



Grandparents and their endless supply of sweets argggghh!!!

We decided to meet the kid’s nanny and cousin at Avon Heath this afternoon. 

It was absolutely heaving, with very few parking spaces left and no picnic tables, how am I supposed to enjoy a cup of tea while the little monsters play with no table to sit at and to tie the dogs to!

Alex was having a bad day, and was feeling very tired and emotional to start with, in fact I was tempted to give her away after the first half an hour of moaning. Luckily the fresh air and wait for nanny to arrive, seemed to get her into a much better mood, thank goodness.

There is a very real reason why Aidan calls my mum “sweety nanny”, and after two chocolate bars from her bag I had to cut them off from the sugar supply. This is usually a struggle with nanny smuggling them sweets at every opportunity, but today it was relatively east.

Aidan is currently very keen on ropes and spends every moment he can playing with any rope he can get his hands on. Today the rope was mainly used as a pulley system after he climbed a tree, and as a pull cord to drag along a massive dead tree.

It’s amazing how a lad with no concentration, who struggles at school, and won’t try at anything academic, can spend over an hour hauling a dead tree stump up hills and over lumps and bumps. This activity was carried out to the extent that he even ended up with sore and blistered hands. At one point the lads even combined the two activities and tried to haul the dead tree up to the top of a very big and very much alive tree that they had climbed!

The girls opted for the much more sensible activity of riding a large stick and pretending they were horses in need of sugar lumps and apples.

What more could you possibly do with the humble blackberry?

What more could you do with the humble blackberry ( other than actually eating it!)

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/AH_Marketing_leaflet_2010.pdf/$FILE/AH_Marketing_leaflet_2010.pdf

We packed the bags, threw the dogs in their crate and jumped in the car. Alice Holt is a Forestry Commission run Country Park, where a day’s parking ticket costs £6.50. At 9.30 in the morning there was plenty of parking, but later, on a really busy day in the summer holidays the car parks were all pretty full.

Feeling in dire need of a cup of tea  I decided to be very naughty,  and to let the kids have a lolly to start the day, tut tut. At least filling them with sugar kept them quiet for a few minutes, and gave them the sugar high to get walking with no moaning.

The play area was great, with a large pirate ship, and a nice variety of wooden play equipment. As usual Cat my youngest girl and ET ( my baby) loved the swings, while their older siblings ran amok on the climbing frames.

Our destination was the easy access trail, so Elliot could travel in his buggy, rather than the sling. It was a lovely clear path, which is a mile and a half long. You would expect to do this in a relatively quick time, but as usual my lot took ages and we only emerged from the trail over 2 hours later.

Blackberries rule! and the various uses for them seemed to be the theme of the day. Obviously its fun just to pick them and eat them, but the kids thought that idea was just too simple. The kids started picking them, and Elliot enjoyed having them shoved into his little mouth on a regular basis.  Its just not so adorable when the bigger kids eat one that is not so sweet, and decide that spitting it out is a good option, this usually involves a ton of blackberry juice dripping all over their clothes. Its no wonder they always look grubby!

After they got fed up of eating them they decided it would be fun to splat them, to see how big a mark them could make. Cat chose the stamp on them method, while her brother Aidan decided that throwing them was way more fun. The conclusion was that squishing them a little by hand before the big splat left a bigger and much better mark.

Aidan then decided that it would be fun for us to chuck them at his face, don’t ask! Cat went one step further and  washed her hands in them and then her face, until she used the baby wipes she looked a lovely shade of purple.

This year no blackberries have yet managed to make it home for me to attempt to use them for a crumble or cake.

Balance between the great outdoors and childminding gadgets?

As a mum of four and a parent supporter I have spent months and even years hearing all the horror stories about what we are doing to our children. Obesity, unhealthy food, lack of exercise, too much time spent watching TV and playing computer games, limited social interations, and only a tiny amount of time spent outside.

We are not meant to admit it, but this message is starting to get a little repetitive and boring. In the modern world us parents are usually busy enough just trying to keep our heads above water, without the added stress of dragging our sons and daughters kicking and screaming away from the electrical gadgets.

I am certainly very fond of my little electrical babysitters, and there are times when I would lose the will to live without their help. At the end of a busy day, when all four of them are at that point of exploding exhaustion, and I know that the crying and fighting is just around the corner, a little TV is just the cure they need to find a little brain and body turn off time.

Luckily Abby and Kelvin ( our two beagles) have forced us, as a family out of the house, and into the great outdoors on a regular basis for over 2 years now.

 

Say hello to Abby!

After reading an article in the National Trust magazine, I thought it might be interesting to make a note of some of our best and worst outdoor adventures. The article made me think again about this issue, as it had some scary statistics about the activity levels, health and mental health of the current generation of children.

Stephen Moss ( the author of the article) mentioned that:

- 11 - 15 year olds spend over half the hours they are awake in front of a computer or TV screen
- Only 1 in 10 children regularly play in wild places
- Children recognise fictional characters before they can identify common wild animals
- 50% of children are predicted to be obese by 2050
- In the 11- 15 age range 1 in 8 boys and 1 in 10 girls have been diagnosed with a mental health problem

Is this what we want for our kids, its certainly not the future I had in mind for my lot, what do you think?