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.

Do you like the four feral children blogs?

If you are enjoying the Four feral children blogs please consider becoming a follower, or "like" our facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Four-feral-children/382313158508278

Many thanks

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.