Le Langon Holiday

Time to escape from it all for our Summer holidays, this year we're heading to a wonderful looking French villa in Le Langon, France to relax with other family members, ten in all of us. 

As you can see from the map it's a bit of an epic journey which we did in a 3 car convoy with as few as breaks as possible, although possibly more than necessary.

However traveling this far with 4 children under 8, especially as one of mine gets car sick, was not going to happen in a day so we planned a stop just outside of Calais for the night. 

                               

Tips for long car journeys with kids(or how we survived 2 days driving with kids):

Portable DVD players

DS/tablet device (fully charged)  

Bottles of water/juice

Snacks (but not cheese if they may be sick, as it stinks) 

Colouring books/felts

Blankets

Loom bands(in lock tight tub)

Lego(in lock tight tub)

Activity books 

Teddy/dolls

Sunglasses

Sickbags

Easy to reach change of clothes for all family members

Wetwipes 

It was my Mother In Laws birthday the first day of travel which led to a lot of present opening at the rest stops along the way. We made really good time, unfortunately there was a delay of a few hours on the Chunnel which set us back. So it was a bit of a rush to get to our hotel in France in time for supper, where we had a cake waiting for Sue, who was caught totally by surprise.

L'Escale Hotel is a wonderful stop off before or after the Chunnel, the flowers everywhere are stunning and the rooms pleasant and well sized. The restaurant served an amazing array of seafood to get our taste buds tingling on our first French evening. 

The seafood platter below was my delight, although I wasn't very taken with Oysters and was slightly shocked it was served ice cold, it was a fantastic meal. 

The next morning we all met up for breakfast, the kids were taken back with the amount of choice they got, an array of breads, cereals, pancakes, hams, cheese, and fruits. 

Although I think the biggest joy came when they were given their own pot of hot chocolate when the grown ups got coffee. Well as you can see we're raring to get on to the holiday house. 

Bon voyage!

Belsay Hall, Castle and Gardens.

Taking advantage of our National Trust membership we got as gift we headed off to somewhere I've wanted to see for such a long time, Belsay Hall, Castle and Gardens. I've seen pictures of the gardens and they reminded me of the book The Secret Garden, I was not to be disappointed. 

They currently house an exhibition on The Wildman of Belsay, normally these historical titbits go over the heads of our children who are more interested in the activities, but the thought that there could be a Wildman and Women running around the gardens had their interest piqued.
At every twig snap or shout they were looking out for the them.

The gardens were indeed magical, maybe because I love gardening but don't have my own I find total peace admiring blooms such as these. My instagram account ins normally full of flowers and I like it that way. 

Maisie and Lucas loved the gardens too, it's wonderful to show them historical places and yet not have to worry they'll touch the wrong thing or be too noisy. With it being a Bank Holiday the National Trust normally have trials and competitions to do, here we had to look for small wooden treasure chests with a clue in and all the clues formed the answer you had to give to win a gold chocolate coin. The boxes were hidden all through the gardens, and castle.

Didn't I say it was like the Secret Garden, this door led to the path to The Castle.

Belsay Castle is an imposing and grand building, with much of it still intact we actually walked all the way up to the rooftop. There was a reenactment characters wandering the Castle grounds and the children had to give their puzzle clue to one of them and they both got the hugest chocolate coin I ever saw. 

I think the chocolate helped power them round the rest of the gardens, it's an easy pathway but quite a walk when you go all the way around. Lucas especially loved looking for the little clue boxes and filling in his sheet, although he needed help understanding the puzzle.

We had a fantastic day out at Belsay, Maisie and Lucas loved be free to run around, jump and be free; walking back through the Quarry Garden in the sunshine was my personal favourite part too.

This was the quarry where the stone was taken to build the Hall, the owner Sir Charles wanted to keep the space exotic and filled it with rare varieties of plants and trees.

Lucas having a rest while showing the full height of the quarry walls, he certainly was tired out but loved spotting more blooming flowers for Mummy.

Grizedale Forest Gruffalo Trail

Heading to Grizedale to attend the opening day of Grizedale Go Ape we ended up going the scenic route(my fault for not taking the ferry button off)and taking the ferry across Windermere; if you're heading to Grizedale for a set time don't go this way as the queues can mount up and the ferry isn't exactly speedy.  

However for us it was a nice break, with the chance of an ice cream and time to take in the scenery. 

Even though I've lived in Cunbria all my life the view still amazes me. For the children at the end of the whole day this is what all 3 of them remembered and wanted to do again. 

Due to us finishing early on Go Ape we were able to catch up and head around the Gruffalo trail with my friend and his Daughter(she was too little to Go Ape). Below is them trying to jump out on us.

The trail is a very pleasant amble along one of the easy routes, you can purchase a guide for the trail at the shop and it gives fun activities to do as you round. However we found so much else that was interesting along the way too.

I love seeing kids find their own playgrounds, and Grizedale is well stocked with things to jump on, climb across and hide in.

We also discovered an art installation along the way which comprised of these huge metal turning keys, when you got a good speed on them music started to chime in a tree further along, not all these worked and the keys were quite tough for even Maisie to turn. It was a great idea though, lovely to hear the music in the forest and great fun trying to find all the keys.

It is a beautiful trail with plenty of great spaces to explore along the way, we were too early to see any Gruffalo sculptures (unveiled on 7th June) but this didn't distract any from our adventure.

We all had a splendid time, with a picnic along the way and the sun shining how could you not?

Clip n Climb - Maryport

We had the pleasure this weekend to get up and about on the Clip n Climb at Maryports Wave Centre, the centre houses several different climbing walls for all abilities. Children under 10years have to be accompanied by an adult, which Stuart didn't mind one bit, and he had as much fun as the children did. Here's Lucas and Stuart going head to head.

Maisie loves climbing but did get really cross with herself for not getting to the top of any of the walls, I think the sheer amount of choice was overwhelming but I'm sure she'll make it next time.

It cost £6.50 for Lucas, £10 for Maisie and £15 for Stuart but these were peak time prices off peak is normally half this and they run special price offers too. I think it was good value even paying the peak price as the children and Stuart enjoyed it for the full hour.

If you're looking for some indoor fun during the school holidays or weekends this would be a great choice, there are centres across the country and it can be booked online.

Fairy Day 2013

This weekend we headed to Cumbria Fairy Day, it was held at Ivesgill Sculpture Valley, an amazing place normally for a wander but on this day it was truly magical.
It was hosted by Cumbrian Fairy Magical Mel, she runs Relax workshops for children but had wanted a whole day for children to experience fairy magic. My kids absolutely loved it.

The day was filled with free activities for kids to dance, story tell, play, run around and be kids at. The weather turned out great, and with so much open space to run around in, the children really could spread their wings, literally.

I think the pictures speak for themselves about how much fun the children had at this child friendly Fairy Festival, but this picture for me stood out. It maybe my favourite picture of these two all year.