Beach Days

 A week's holiday in Cornwall, in our favourite cottage at Rinsey.  We arrived to a thick sea fog, but that didn't stop us from going and checking out Praa Sands.  We drove down to a carpark previously unknown to us, and we couldn't tell where on the beach we were, it was that thick, and incredibly eery.

 An evening later we went back to Praa sands, this time walking along the coast, with buckets and spades at the ready, and yes, Ethan walked the whole way there with a bucket on his head!!

 A lovely evening walk.

 We ate out every night, and this one evening we ended up at Gwithian.  A surfer hot spot, which was Luke was quite pleased with, and wants to go back there for surf lessons, perhaps for his birthday.

 Lots of pebbles meant we ended up creating a bit of a Zen-like garden.  As well as discussing sedimentary and igneous rocks!

 Along with some sand dunes to explore.

 And finally, what Luke had been wanting to do all holiday, but the weather was too cold!  He spent the whole day in the water! I think next time though, we will have to invest in some waterproof sunscreen!

 Alec joined in the fun too.  Sophie also had a fantastic time in the sea, no photos though, too busy trying to stop my skirt from falling in the water!!

 What to do though, whilst all the children are down at the water with Daddy, and in the absence of knitting?  Find cuttlefish and carve sculptures of course!!

We got up to many more things which will be subjects for subsequent posts.

Woodland days

Meeting up with friends at a local woods, personally my favourite woods, which are so quiet even on the most summery of days.  Walking up a hill to a nearby church we spotted a rather impressive looking caterpillar.  He was a very big chap, probably about 6 or 7 cm long.  Research, when we got home, suggests it is a drinker moth caterpillar, apparently named as they like to drink dew drops.

 We reached the top, admired the views, investigated the church, and decided we'd retreat from all these very strange, black flies that were everywhere, to go and have a picnic in the wood.

 Some impressive bark.  Easily pleased, me!

 Some recent woodland management left a wonderful playground for the children.  Sophie spent a while playing with the sawdust.  Others were walking along felled trees, and we also looked at the rings of the tree, but it wan't clear enough for us to tell how old it was.

 Some bracket type fungi adorned this tree stump.  I showed Sophie and asked her if the fairies lived there, her reply was "why not?"

 This wood, in the past, has had loads of dens made from fallen branches.  Many of the dens were not there anymore, but we found one, which the boys added to, and then Luke went off to build his own den, with the help of younger friends.

 Sophie reckoned it was the little piggies house from the three little pigs, here she is taking Stuart along to look. 

 A wonderful afternoon passed, with the adults sat on a mossy bank, watching the children playing to their hearts content in such a natural setting. 

This evening, Ethan said that today had been as good as legoland.  So it sounds like it was the perfect way to finish our Easter break.

A long awaited trip

We have been promising the boys a trip to legoland for about a year, but the time has never quite been right, combined with the schools making it very difficult to take the children out of school during term time.  However, as the boys broke up early for Easter, as well as having a teacher training day on the Friday, we jumped at the chance to take them.  For Alec and Ethan, it is like Mecca!  But we were all very impressed with what we saw.  A dinosaur made to look as if it is made from tecnic lego, but is actually made up of normal lego made to look like tecnic!

 Sophie wanted to play with the lego!  But was placated by an ice-cream!  (food prices were astronomical, we'll have to be better prepared should we go again!)

 Miniland, with all the lego models was really impressive, and we all enjoyed marvelling at the detail, and scale of it all.

 There were rides to be ridden too.  Sophie really enjoyed this little train, going on it multiple times, this time with Stuart.

 The boys all went on the driving school, although Luke stayed well hidden from the camera!

 We ate our lunch (more money!) whilst watching a puppet show, Sophie liked meeting this little duck close up.

 A fun time was had on fire engines, which required alot of effort on Stuart and Luke's part to propel the engine with a pump action, and then pump the water through the water cannons that Alec and Luke got to control.

 There were models all over the place, small ones, big ones, but I think my personal favourite was this dragon.

 We stayed overnight in a hotel by Heathrow airport, thankfully there was very little noise from the airport itself, well, Sophie drowned out any planes, as she was over-stimulated, tired, and wanted her own bed!  But, putting that behind us, on Saturday we had a lovely breakfast, followed by making use of the hotel swimming pool, where Sophie made leaps and bounds in her confidence, with the undivided attention of Stuart, and the distractions of her brothers.  We then returned to Legoland to do the few last things we wanted to do.  However, Saturday was a completely different kettle of fish, schools had broken up, and there was a Star Wars event on, it was absolutely heaving!!  We had a few photos taken with Star Wars characters.

 And then made for the sanctuary of the discovery zone, where they each had a kit to make up.  Quiet, cool, and relaxing, just what was needed.

We didn't last much longer, a mini golf course, and yet more extortionate food, and it was time to head home (via the lego shop!!)

We had a lovely time, but it has reinforced how we could never cope with doing such things in holiday time, just far, far, far too stressful! The boys continued the lego theme on our return home, with building and playing with more lego.

Welsh Adventures

The last 5 days have been spent camping in Wales. The largest tent only campsite in the UK, apparently. The drawback of this is lots of other campers about, but that didn't stop us from having fun. Luke spent the first day with us before going to his cousins house on the nearby Lleyn peninsula. We were camping amongst sand-dunes, which added a certain element of excitement to it all when we managed to ground the car, soon after our arrival! Once we made camp there was lots of playing to be had...

A walk to the beach included a detour to go down the BIGGEST sand dune they could find, and then climb back up it! No mean feat! Just to give you an idea of how big it was, that little red dot is Alec at the bottom of the sand dune!!

Once we got to the beach we found all sorts of treasures. Lots of cockle shells, oyster shells, razor shells, and then some crab shells. I was particularly excited to find a little starfish inside one, unfortunately it was dead.

And then we found a skull. Probably a herring gull. Alec and I were intrigued by it. It is so nice to have a companion to go beach-combing / rock pooling with. I was in my element!

There was some down time too. Alec is very much into his graphic novels at the moment. Currently working his way through Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl books.

We managed to visit the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) which is near Machynlleth. Apart from it being a breathtaking part of the world (oh how I would love to live somewhere like that) it was a wonderful afternoon out. Learning about the water powered cliff train...

Wave power...

Dynamo power, wind power, solar power, looking at the wonderful vegetable gardens, and getting inspiration for a green roofed house. It had been my suggestion that we went there, and had fears that I would be the only one that got something out of it, but I think everyone enjoyed themselves.

We also went to Harlech castle. Ethan was particularly excited about this as he had learned about castles at school last year. Alec and Ethan at one of the guard room look out points in the gate house.

Another lovely spot to do some reading, this time about Harlech castle. I can't believe I was ever worried about him learning to read, it is so wonderful to see him reading at every opportunity now!

An impressive castle even in its ruined state. Built over the course of 6 years in the 13th Century. Which is an astounding achievement. Unfortunately it isn't particularly toddler proof, and we spent alot of time trying to stop our littlest adventurer from climbing through the barricades which are supposed to stop people from falling! I must admit, despite its splendour, I heaved a great sigh of relief when we walked out of there all in one piece.

On our way back from the castle we called in at some waterfalls that were signposted from the road. Oh, what a find it was! Magical woods surrounding the waterfall, we found a little elf house...

And some beautiful toadstools, just the right size for the magical creatures of the woods to rest upon...

Alec made friends with a grasshopper we found on the moorland above the waterfall...

And we found a tree man! Can you see the face peeping out of the tree between the two lighter bits of bark?

It was a beautiful place, full of nature, serenity, and we all came back to our tent feeling refreshed, and vowing that it would be our next campsite when we return to the region. (I forgot to say that there were lots of rope swings too, which made it for the boys!)

To end our Welsh adventures we bought a sky lantern. Waited til night fall, and then lit it.

Each making a silent wish to go with the lantern into the sky. It drew our adventures to a close in such a peaceful way.