#CountryKids at Coombe Mill

I am linking up with Fiona from Country Kids From Coombe Mill, which is all about getting outside with the kids and having fun! That is something we love doing here and try and get out on a regular basis

This is one of our favourite parks. No matter what time of the year we go, we always have a great time.

We went on the hunt for conkers as last year we found lots and lots. This years we weren't as lucky but Megan and Ben weren't too bothered as they found lots when they went on a bike ride with Mr W. 

The play park is great, different things from other parks so both Megan and Ben love playing here. As the sun was shining, the ice cream van was here too so we sat in the autumn sun and enjoyed an ice cream!

We had a stroll around the park and visited the birds in the aviary and checked on a geocache that we had previously found.

A lovely autumn afternoon!

Balancing Skills!

Careful!

Beware of Mr Crocodile!

Don't get too close Ben!

Conker Hunting

Got one!

Yummy!

Faster Megan!

We spent a lovely couple of hours at Walton Park this morning. The weather was a bit cooler, which was not a bad thing. 

Ben amazed me with what he can do now. We haven't been here for a couple of months and the last time we were here he really struggled with climbing some of the more difficult pieces of equipment. Not now though, he was great!

We also went on the miniature steam trains that run here at the weekend. Great fun! The only thing missing was Megan, who is Brownie camp. It was lovely though to spend some one on one time with Ben and I think he really enjoyed having Mummy and Daddy to himself, something that never usually happens!

The climbing net posed no problems!

Faster Daddy!

Up and over the climbing wall!

Piggy back fun!

Jump!

Hold tight!

We spent Sunday at Formby beach....when we eventually got there! We had never been before but had heard it was lovely so we fancied giving it a go.

I think everyone in the north west was heading in the same direction! We had to park about 15 minutes walk away so we set off to the beach with our granny bag! This has to be one of our best buys ever! As we don't often take the buggy to the beach (who in their right mind likes dragging a buggy over sand?), we needed something to carry everything in. With two young children we never travel lightly and a trip to the beach, especially when camping, is no exception. Towels, buckets and spades, beach tent, picnic rug, wet suits to name just a few bits....so our gorgeously coloured granny bag was purchased and it is fantastic.

When we got to Formby beach we had to climb over a big sandy hill and then the whole beach was stretched out in front of us.

We set up our beach tent near a warm pool of sea water that had been left from the sea going out. The kids got straight into building sandcastles so we took the opportunity to lie down and sun bathe for 10 minutes.

 We then had a wander to the sea, which took about 5 minutes to get there.

   

   

 One thing I was surprised at was the amount of jelly fish lying around and Megan had great fun reminding us not to stand on them!

The sea was lovely and warm, just beautiful so we spent a while paddling and collecting a few shells. We then wandered back up and had a picnic lunch and then went for a play in the sand dunes. They were amazing. Beautiful warm and sandy. Great for playing in.

 

   

   

Before we left we treated ourselves to an ice cream.....which was certainly needed after trekking back up the hill to get off the beach!

Check out the granny bag!

Beautiful sunny day again! We spent the morning in the pool. We were so lucky as we were the only ones there so it felt like we had our own exclusive pool!
The children had a fab time, playing, jumping, splashing, and it was so warm!
We had a lovely picnic lunch at the tent, with the most gorgeous views of the coast.

The kids all chilled out with cucumber eye masks!

After lunch we headed into Tenby and had a wander around the front and found a geocache on a talking telescope.

Look at that view!

We had a look in a couple of shops then stopped for cream tea and ice creams for the kids.

Tea anyone?!

Delicious ice cream!

Yum!

We strolled down to the harbour beach and spent half an hour relaxing and collecting shells.

Here come the girls!

Tenby was lovely, really seasidey, and all the better for the weather.

We came back and had Mr W and Stu made a delicious chicken curry washed down with a couple of drinks whilst the kids had a play.

We woke up to another beautiful day and decided to head off to Saundersfoot beach.
After making up a picnic lunch and loading up our granny bags with wetsuits, buckets and spades, towels, spare clothes, beach tents and filling the cool bags with enough food for 9 people we were ready to go. Saundersfoot was only about 10 minutes away in the car. When we arrived, it looked lovely, a beautiful bay, bright and sunny and not overcrowded in the slightest. A proper beachy resort.
We unloaded everything and walked straight onto the beach where we set up beach tents and within 2 minutes all the children had changed into wetsuits and headed off to the edge of the sea to squeal when the water touched them!
We spent a lovely time building sandcastles, eating and relaxing.
The dads and the older four children went off for a wander around Saundersfoot and to search for a couple of geocaches that Mr W had found out about.
Whilst they were searching, Suzanne and I had a lovely relaxing time, sunbathing and keeping an eye on Molly.
We came off the beach about half 5 and had an ice cream sitting overlooking the beach. Delicious!
We headed back to our camp site for a late fry up tea. The kids had a bit of chilling time, watching DVDs and playing before bed and we relaxed with a drink or two.
Another fab day - just like camping should be.
















On Friday 31st May we set off bright and early with the Sephtons for our annual camping trip. This year we had planned a week in Tenby as after last year, when the weather was so bad, we struggled in find indoor things to do near us in Barmouth and our thinking was that if it was raining a lot at least we could find play centres and museums to dry off in.
But before I go any further, let me just say the weather was fantastic! In our 6 years of camping we have NEVER had weather like it. From driving down on the Friday to coming home just over a week later, we had the most amazing weather. Weather where when we woke up we were so hot we were pulling off pjs and socks. Weather where we could throw open the tent at 7am and the kids could run off into the sunshine.
It took us 6 hours to get there, which wasn't too bad as we had a number of stops.
When we arrived we checked in and was shown to our pitches. The first thing that struck us was the fact there was NO ONE else on the camping field! And it stayed like that till Wed afternoon when a lone tent arrived at the back of the field. The second thing that we realised was that the pitches were huge, with their own water tap and as an added bonus there was a small play area in the corner of the field that the children made a bee line for. Mr W and Stuart started unpacking the cars and trailers and discussing where to pitch and very soon, footprints were down and tents unpacked.







Suzanne and I took the kids for a wander to see where the pool was and bar etc and when we came back the tents were up so we started to pile everything in. This always takes ages, but we are getting quicker! Not long after our Tesco delivery arrived (very organised) and we managed to get part of that away. By now though, everyone was getting really hungry and tired so we headed off to the tavern for tea. That was lovely, if a bit overpriced, but I was pleased with the way they provided colouring sheets and crayons for all the children. Not long after we headed back to our tents and snuggled down in our sleeping bags.
The following morning we woke about 8am to gorgeous sunshine. It was so warm that we were happy to jump up and open out the tent and off the children went, running to the play area in their pjs!



It was Charlies 5th birthday so we went into their tent so he could open up his pressies. Very exciting! We were planning on having a day out for his birthday but as it was so nice and we were having a really lazy morning we decided to finish unpacking and go swimming after lunch.






We were really lucky as we had the pool to ourselves too! The children had great fun, jumping and splashing and it was lovely to cool off after the warm weather.
We came back and had a BBQ for tea as well as Batman birthday cake! The kids were all dancing to Gangnam style and having a ball!
















We spent the day at Lyme Park yesterday. It's about 50 minutes from where we live, but we have never been before.
The sun was shining so we took a picnic with us. The first one this year!
It was lovely there. There was a children's play area with slightly unusual things for the children to climb on. Megan and Ben enjoyed that and had a great time on the slide which was a bit fast!
We had an ice cream and sat and enjoyed the sun. Ben was kicking his football around and Megan and Mr W went to join in too.
We fed the ducks, although they weren't too interested as I think they had been quite overfed!
Before we left we climbed up a big hill and took in the gorgeous view of the peak district.
A lovely family day, with the added bonus of the sunshine!

Saturday 11th May 2013

This week the sun was shining and we got out to do some planting. We plant veg, but Mr W has already got that going so today we started off some flowers, sweet peas, my favourite and sunflowers because they are so easy.

 Ben carefully filling up with compost.

 Ready for the seeds.

 See the sun sometimes shine!



 Megan planting sunflower seeds.



 Ben planting sweet peas.

Saturday 4th May 2013

This week has been a busy week, but we have tried to get out a bit, especially when the sun has been shining!

  Ben enjoying the sunshine in his new crocs!

  Scooter fun!

  Double fun with Megan and Jack on the rope swing together!

  Grace and Uncle Martin having a swing!

Saturday 27th April 2013

Garden fun!

 Where's Grace?!

 Megan helping Grace down the slide.





 Washing basket fun!



 Megan and Jack teaching us how to street dance!

Saturday 20th April 2013

A couple of weeks ago we had some very strong winds around here. They were so strong that this huge tree was blown over, just down the road from where we live. This week we have walked to and from school quite a bit and the trunk, branches an d twigs have provided endless fun.

 Megan and Jack had fun trying out the rope swing that somebody had made.

 Megan managed to get on and was swinging quite high!

My gorgeous two, scooting along through the woods.

 Jack trying to get on the higher rope swing!

 Miss Creative made a fantastic den!

Saturday 13th April 2013

I have got a new obsession. I only discovered it this week and already I am hooked.
Geocaching. Treasure hunting at its best.

I registered on the web page and downloaded the free app to my phone and got searching. I cannot believe how many caches there are around where we live! So on Wednesday, armed with the GPS on my phone, Ben and I set off to find our very first cache.

 We strolled along the brook, enjoying the sunshine.

 We played Pooh sticks.

 Baby came too!

 When we got to the area highlighted on my phone we read the description and looked at the clue again. We were definately looking for a tree, but which one??? A quick SOS text to a friend, along the lines of "what are we looking for?!" and then...

 We found it!!! In the hollow base of a tree, just where we had been looking! We made sure no muggles or four legged muggles were around and brought it out. It was a little plastic tub containing a log book and pecil, which we filled in, some coins, toy car, some old concert tickets and a few other bits and bobs. Ben chose a coin and we put in a stripy rubber in exchange, then carefully put it back just as we had found it. Excellent!

 So that's it. I am hooked and have spent the last couple of nights looking all over the country at where we can go caching!

This afternoon we set off again in the other direction with Megan and Mr W. The weather wasn't great so we wrapped up and took waterproof coats. We had ear marked three micro caches to look for. At our first one we had no luck, the clue didn't help us and we gave up after a bit of searching. On our way to the next one we met some fellow cachers who gave us a hint about where to look for the first cache.

We all got the caching bug and instead of just looking for the three we had picked, we ended up searching for seven! Out of those seven we found five which I think was great considering how small four of them were!



 Our first find of the day!


 Searching and searching...

 We found this hidden really well under the moss. This one had little bits in so the children swopped some little trinkets.

If you like the outdoors and having a bit of a ramble, give this a go, trust me, you will be as hooked as us!

Friday 29th March 2013

Today we went out to Splashzone for Megan's birthday. You can read about that here.

Saturday 30th March 2013

We had a busy day with Grace and shopping.

Sunday 31st March 2013 - Easter Sunday

We had a lovely day full of Easter egg hunts, chocolate, fun and family. I am going to write about this when I get a minute!

Monday 1st April 2013 - Megan's Birthday

Another day that deserves a post of its own! You can read a bit about Megan's actual birth day here.

We went to Wythenshawe Park which is always good fun and had a play in the park and a wander around the indoor jungle and around India, Asia and Australia to name just a few places!

                                              

Tuesday 2nd April 2013

We went swimming with Laura, Jack and Grace to Hyde Leisure Pool. It is great there and Megan has developed a new found confidence in herself to go on water slides since Splashzone. We couldn't get her off it! Ben and Jack enjoyed floating round the rapids, especially when the wave machine was on! 

Grace liked the water and lasted about 50 minutes before she was getting cold.

A lovely day out with Laura and the kids.

Wednesday 3rd April 2013

On Wednesday, Jack and Grace came for the day as Laura was working. It was lovely and sunny, but very cold. 

Megan and Jack went outside roller skating and Ben and Grace had a play in the garden.

   

   




 Grace was very taken with the Cozy Coupe car and kept getting in and out, in and out, over and over again, usually through the window!

After an early lunch we went to meet some friends at the park. Considering it was so cold (it's the wind that is awful) we were there for a couple of hours and the kids loved it. It isn't our usual park, so the different equipment provided endless fun.

   

  
         

Thursday 4th April 2013

We went to Wales to visit our very lovely friends and had a really nice time at the Ice Cream Farm, where we played crazy golf, had a ride on the go karts, bumper cars and went panning for gold and gems! We saw the animals and had hot chocolate to warm us up and tucked into gorgeous ice cream. A fantastic day and fingers crossed there we will be lots more coming up and we will get our holiday get togethers back on track.









   

   
      
   

Friday 5th April 2013

After all of outdoor fun in the cold this week we met up with friends at an indoor soft play place where five lively children burnt up lots of energy!

Saturday and Sunday will be back to normal as we prepare for being back in school next week.

Roll on Whit holidays when we are off camping to South Wales with our friends!!!

Saturday 30th March 2013

This week we have been out in the garden a bit more. It has been cold, but dry so we have been hunting for worms, digging them up and keeping them in plant pots, till they wriggled away!

The swing has been in much use again. That is the best thing we got for the garden, all of them love it. And we have been perfecting our climbing and twirling skills!

We are off this coming week so we will hopefully outside a bit more this week, and at least a bit further than the back garden!

Saturday 16th March 2013

We haven't been out much this week. The weather has been rubbish, I have been feeling lousy and have worked two and a half days too.
But this morning I woke up feeling better than I have all week so we had a visit to the park and Megan and Ben had a good time playing football with Daddy before running off to the slide and swings.



Saturday 9th March 2013

This week has been wet and cold. However that didn't put Ben off and he spent a happy morning watering my plants with his water pistol!









He had great fun splashing the door and Grace was kept entertained too!



The shed gets a soaking too!













I am really looking forward to some warmer weather now, roll on the spring!

Saturday 2nd March 2013

We spent a lovely morning at Walton Park. The weather was just beautiful!
There is a great wooden play area, large playing fields and a train track, that unfortunately wasn't open today.
Ben and Mr W played football, Megan practiced her hand stands and Grace snoozed.

Saturday 23rd February 2013

It has been a funny one this half term. The weather has been cold and bright so we have spent quite a bit of time outside, even though Ben has had a sore tongue, which has made it hard for him to eat and drink anything and has resulted in practically no sleep for me for three nights which is probably why I have come down with a stomach bug and am writing this after a long day of feeling unwell, but hopefully on the mend.

Saturday
Went out on bikes and scooters to the park this morning. Played pooh sticks on the way.
Megan was sleeping at nanas tonight so she went there after lunch while the rest of us went shopping.

Sunday
We picked Megan up and went to the fish shop to buy some new fish for our tank. The tank is in the kitchen, it used to be tropical and is a bit of a mix at the moment, which surprisingly works.
We then had a McDonalds as a treat.
Ben was at a birthday party, so we went there and Megan decided to go to the park with auntie laura, Jack and Grace. Finished off with blowing bubbles in the garden before it was too dark.











Monday
Megans friend was coming for a sleepover so we picked her up and popped to a friend of mine who I haven't seen for a while for catch up.
Home with giggly girls, who were making each other up! They had a lovely evening together and I think they dropped off about 10.30pm. Not to late!

Tuesday
We went out to Wythenshawe Park with S and K and all 7 children on bikes, scooters, balance bikes etc. Lovely day again but very cold.
We had a picnic lunch, a play in the play area, a walk around the farm and a ride round the park itself.
We then headed to The Coach House, which is a Brewers Fayre with a soft play area for our complimentary meal as our Christmas meal there was such a disaster. Let's just say it wasn't success and we won't be returning there again. Shame really when we have been there so many times and always had a Christmas get together there. We will have to have a look for somewhere similar for next Christmas.







Wednesday
Grace and Jack were here today so after lunch we headed to the other park for a play. We went in the car as it was so cold and I knew Ben wouldn't walk that far not feeling well.
We didn't stay too long as it was cold!















Thursday
Ben still wasn't well so we had a lazy morning. We baked soda bread and made soup.
After lunch we went to the community centre for an afternoon of family fun. Loads of activities, all free of charge, face painting, glitter tattoos, decorate your own plant pot and fill it, make a moctail, circus skills, making things out of recycled materials, Megan made a purse out of a juice carton! And loads more!

Friday
We should of been going to MOSI today with mum and Laura, but Megan went as me and Ben weren't feeling well enough.
They had a lovely time, we always do when we go there.
So that's the week so far, and we have still got the weekend to go, which I think will be quietish before back to school and playgroup next week.

Saturday 16th February 2013

We had a fantastic walk this morning. The sun was shining and it was a gorgeous morning.
We had our usual stroll along the brook, collecting sticks to throw in at the bridge.
Megan took her bike, so was whizzing along. Ben was on his scooter, it is amazing how fast he can go on that! Grace was with us, well wrapped up in the buggy, having a snooze.
We spotted a few birds, a plane and very excitedly saw little flowers coming through! Not sure what they were. (My mum would know!) Spring is on its way!
We had a little play at the park before heading for home. Ben is getting very brave on the swing and wanted to go HIGHER! Megan can swing all the way across the monkey bars now too!

 "HIGHER Mum"

 What a clever girl













 Pooh sticks







Saturday 9th February 2013



We spent the afternoon having a lovely walk around Lymm Dam.
It was cold and muddy, but dry so we wrapped up with hats and scarves and headed out.
We took lots of bread to feed the ducks and they certainly enjoyed it, almost as much as Megan and Ben enjoyed feeding them!
Megan was a bit freaked out by the swans, probably my fault as I don't like them, started by a flock of them chasing me years ago at Sale Water Park!
After feeding the ducks we strolled around the dam. It's a lovely walk, over little bridges with little waterfalls, fallen logs for climbing, and a few carved animals to spot too.
Ben was on the hunt for mice. He kept looking for 'mouse holes'!
Megan was looking for things to climb on and even climbed a tree!
We stopped and had a drink and some biscuits and talked about coming back when the weather was warmer for a picnic.
A fantastic afternoon stroll.
We also treated ourselves at 'The Gob Stopper.' This is a lovely sweet shop, with lots of sweets from long ago.
You can't go for a walk round Lymm Dam without stopping at the sweet shop too!



















Saturday 2nd February

This was us at the park, enjoying the cold weather. Megan and Ben had a great time on the slide and wooden play equipment, and we even managed a bit of a walk, but not too far as it was so cold.