Country Kids: All Creatures Great And Small

Last week was time for me to go back to school after a glorious six weeks off with my precious son. It's an incredibly difficult time of the year for me emotionally, with mother's guilt kicking in at its strongest, and takes until half-term to settle back down again into a routine where I don't cry every night. However last week we were lucky because I worked the first half of the week as opposed to the second half which left me with almost a week off before going back in. We decided to take advantage of this and headed off for a long weekend down to one of our favourite places; Peppa Pig World.Peppa Pig World is one of the best places to take a pre-schooler in the United Kingdom and as it's our third trip there, we now consider ourselves 'a bit of an expert'. And don't think we were fooled by the sunshine because we've also been there in the pouring rain as well! We arrived at 10.30am and were some of the last to leave at 6pm. In that time we went on every one of the seven rides, the tractor ride and The Boy and Mr. TBaM went on the waterslide three times with The Boy shouting, "Again, again!" every time they came off it.

The next day we met up with Mr. TBaM's parents in nearby Marwell Zoo which I'd been eager to show The Boy. It had a fantastic range of wildlife there, and we were fortunate enough to see the giraffes being brought in from the paddocks, albeit very slowly because they turned out to be stubborn animals! It was an incredibly hot day and The Boy found it a bit tricky to muster up the enthusiasm to enjoy seeing the animals. I suppose it's also very difficult for them to understand the significance of such a place, but he was enamoured with the play areas and the scooting facilities!

And then to Sunday when we headed home in the glorious sunshine. On the way back, we decided to detour to Beale Park in Reading and partake of the paddling pool to cool down.

The perfect end to a hot weekend!

And The Cow Went Moo!

Last Sunday was Mother's Day, and on these National Hallmark Days we try to get out and about and do something together as a family. When it's warm then it's a little easier to choose what to do, when it's for Mr. TheBoyandMe it's easier. However, an activity we can do with a focus for mummy always causes Mr. TBaM issues. He suggested a few and I vetoed them, until he suggested a local, community farm which is free. We hadn't been there since last Summer, and even then have been only twice before, so we jumped in the car and shot down there for an hour or two.

It was incredibly quite there, and so we had a great deal of peace and quiet to wander around, admire the animals and the start of Spring bursting forth.

We saw new life bursting forth amongst the debris of Winter

We tested the depths of puddles:

Interacted with the environment:

And we talked to the animals!

He absolutely loved it there and it'll be great to visit this farm throughout the year with The Boy and see the developments in each season.

The Gallery: Animals

The theme this week provided by the lovely Tara is animals:

I'm sure we're going to see a lot of photos of pets, but try to branch out, be a bit different. Test yourself. Go off in search of a cow or a ladybug or something a little more exotic.

Tara will be pleased to hear that I'm not even going to touch the idea of pets. We haven't got any and I don't want any until I can no longer avoid it with The Boy. Although before he was born, we had some gorgeous fancy goldfish including a Bristol Blue Shubunkin called Bob who was stunning. Absolutely gorgeous! He originated as a classroom pet along with Daphne, Derek, Clive and Cynthia. Daphne and Derek were sent home with two children, who adored them, at the end of the school year. Clive and Cynthia came home with me. Unfortunately they didn't cope with the move very well and turned up their fins. But Bob was indestructable. I almost killed him twice through keeping him a plastic box which, it transpires, was slowly poisoning him in the sunlight. However, I managed to save him and from then on in (for three years) we were inseparable. Until I had The Boy and couldn't face cleaning him out regularly. So he and Betty, her with the deformed mouth, were dispatched to a good home.

I've waffled on about pets when I wasn't going to.

We've had a summer of animals!

This last weekend, we have been up to Manchester with the initial purpose of seeing Mr. Fletcher at MediaCity, but ending up socialising instead. On Saturday we went to Blue Planet Aquarium, Chester with MammyWoo, AddyWoo and the Irish One. I've long wanted to take The Boy to an aquarium to show him fish, this is a really good one as it has an aqua tunnel which is 70 metres long and takes you into the world of sharks, rays and stunning tropical fish.

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Earlier in the summer, we had another tweet-up with some other fabulous bloggers (Wendy and family from Inside the Wendy House, and Helen and family from The Crazy Kitchen). Here we joined the traffic jam which is normally synonymous with Birmingham, but this time relocated to West Midlands Safari Park. As amazing as it is, two and half hours driving around a load of Safari animals who are mostly asleep in the trees is a tad frustrating. That was until we came to my favourite animal of all time. I'm not saying anything else on the subject…

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