A-MAZE-ING! #countrykids #flashbackfriday

One of our favourite places to go that is local but good for a few hours of getting the kids outdoors is the National Trust property. It really is one of those places that we know inside out, its like a local park. But we love it. It has little hidden gems and is a perfect way of spending an ordinary weekend afternoon or a place to go with a group of friends and a large picnic for a special time.

I have to confess that we have only ever once ventured into the house. A lovely lady said that we could have a little handy hip shelf thing to pop our youngest on instead of using the buggy (there isn’t room). Which i did use, probably incorrectly as it was really uncomfortable and then we spent about 30 minutes running after lively toddlers and telling them not to touch anything. So i can’t really vouch for the house. Im sure its lovely. 😉

But we know the grounds really really well. Recently they have added a Maze. They have planted smallish trees and so at the moment the maze is actually quite handy as the kids run off and yet we can still see them and not spend hours trying to work out which corner they have gone round.

By the time the trees are going to be big enough for us to actually loose our kids in the maze, the kids will be old enough to not be bothered by it. I think its a fabulous addition to the grounds and the kids love it. Especially the bit where they get to the last bridge.

Our other favourite bit of Speke Hall is the fact that it basically backs on to the airport and we have, since my son was young, walked round the perimeter and watched a few planes land and take off. Lately they have added another walk which means that you can walk along side the works access to the runways and then sit on a disused part of the runway.

The new walk means that we can get down to the estuary, which was fun until we pretty much got stuck in a load of mud and had to make a swift about turn and get back to the track!

I love the new walk though. It feels a little unkempt and wild, which doesn’t really fit the house and the grounds that we know…but i think it really adds a new dimension to the place.

We still love it there and no doubt we will be back soon!

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Colour Splash #Countrykids #clairehouse

A week or so ago my girls and my OH ran the 5K colour splash run for Claire House. This is an amazing charity that works to help terminally ill children. They arranged this great run around one of the city’s massive parks with the added interest of at every KM mark the runners get doused in powder paint of different colours. I guess the idea being when they complete the race they are a rainbow of colour! Its such a lovely idea and i was keen to capture it on camera.

We were running a bit late getting to the park and so the kids and OH ran off to join the race and of course i foolishly thought that i would be able to track them down again…

Yeah…that would be not.

So my son and our two little ones jogged round to a few of the markers then gave up and headed back to the finish to wait….

Its all fun till someone gets hit in the mouth with a load of paint!!

One of the first people across the line and he got to high five the red bear!

running across the line meant taking on a LOT of paint!

My amazing girls and OH who made it round in fine style. Yes it took ages to get all that paint out of their hair!!

Country Kids from Coombe Mill Family Farm Holidays Cornwall

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A moment of summer remembered #countrykids

Last week we were lucky.

Sunshine was here, warmth and a little left over fragrance of summer danced around our nostrils. We headed out, it has to be done. I can’t stay in, cooped up and away from this wonderful blue sky. We didnt venture that far, just to a local little park, with some bossy swans and over-familiar ducks but never-the-less. It felt a little like summer. Of course my daughter is always dressed for summer. I have no idea why, she won’t wear anything else, I have no energy to fight it.

Today she was right! It was warm. Warm enough to see t shirts and skirts, picnic blankets and fishermen lazing in the sun.

We walked and chatted. Sat down a while and watched the world go by and then discovered some flowers (for as long as we could before some of them were beheaded!) and played a little on the swings.

I like it when summer comes back for a visit.

Country Kids from Coombe Mill Family Farm Holidays Cornwall

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A bit of a big kid #countrykids

Can’t resist going back to our holiday photos. I know it was a while ago but because i have been so slack at blogging lately there are still loads of cool things we got up to on our jolly that i have yet to post to the blog. So here we go again.

The title of this post is a bit misleading i suppose. I don’t actually mean it. Im referring to my OH who, when we were rock pooling and kite flying discovered some other things to get up to. Which, to be honest, is not a surprise at all. Not long after I met my husband I got a phone call telling me that he had, had a fall from a climb on a sea cliff in Devon. He isnt just ‘having a go’ at climbing. He is a climber and it, sometimes properly freaks me out as the height that they go is scary and also the small bits of ‘gear’ that is preventing them from plummeting to the ground gives me a coronary.

But one thing i do know and can be assured of is that if there is a bit of craggy old rock on a walk or somewhere near where we are…this will happen…

and I wonder why i am tearing my hair out with these bunch of lunatic, adrenaline junky kids i have on my hands? hmmmm. 😉

Certainly our youngest has got a fair size smack of her Daddy’s climbing gene. She has done it since she could walk. I was looking through some images the other day and i came across this one, which is her climbing a stool that is UNDER a bench!

One thing that does happen when my OH goes on a bit of a climb is that the whole bunch of kids are compelled to follow him and then I have on my hands a bunch of over enthusiastic mountain goats climbing any which way to get up to the top of the rock. It can get pretty scary! Even the littlest is given a bit of encouragement to have a go! 😉  excuse the nudity in this shot! 🙂

After a bit of climbing and a lot of grey hair grown by me. We all scrambled to the top of the rock and then there was some time for admiring the view, the odd shoulder carry and watching the kites again. One of our favourite things to do we found.

Family Farm Holidays Cornwall

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Rock Hopping #countrykids

We really enjoyed the beach in France. We managed to go a couple of times and do a ‘proper’ beach day. As in, swimming and surfing, playing in the sand, eating sandy food and being chased up the beach by the rapidly advancing tide. It was beautifully hot on so many of those days but as is the way with the atlantic coast the breeze keeps you cool.

But on a few other days we went to a more rocky and rockpool part of the coastline. I was really amazed just how long the kids enjoyed looking for little crabs and fish in the pools. We had toted the fishing nets all the way from the UK so we were determined that they get an outing. Lots of the French seem to be out near the shore looking for muscles i think and there was a good many kids and families all slowly walking through the networks of little pools examining what was living there.

There were a couple of hard learnt lessons, like you need to wear your shoes when you are walking on wet rocks otherwise you slip..oh and a toddler and deep (ish) pools of water mean wet clothes. 😉

There were little craggy beaches hidden amongst the rocks with dank, eerie caves that i just peered into but the kids explored with enthusiasm. Of course if there is rocks then you can bet that it wont be too long till the OH is dangling from one on his fingertips. Once a rock climber always a rock climber. 😉

It was still lovely and warm and as we had a few of our kids down with a little bit of a dodgy tummy that afternoon it was a nice low key activity to do before we headed back for tea.

No fish to cook though!! lol

Family Farm Holidays Cornwall

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