National Trust Mottisfont

After our petrol head day at Beaulieu  we opted for a lower key day with a hike and a National Trust property. (There is a video at the end of the post). We followed part of the Monarch's Way from our accommodation over to Mottisfont. 

My mum and I enjoyed seeing the churches on the route but my son was not at all impressed:

After a 3 mile walk we were very relieved to reach the estate:

It wouldn't be a National Trust property in the school holiday without some sort of trail. On this occasion it was scarecrows. My son had had enough of trails so we didn't join in:

I spotted that there was an adventure playground so after a bite to eat we headed over to find it. There were some lovely carved pieces of wood to show us where it was:

It was all made from wood and there were opportunities to balance, climb and jump:

For a rest we explored the rest of the gardens. The gardeners had cunningly set up leaf bins to encourage children to collect them up! We didn't manage to bag one of the child sized wheelbarrows but my son did his part:

Of course we had to look around the house as well. It is built on the old abbey and the cellar is part of the original buildings. The inside of the house is currently celebrating the life of sons of Maud Russell who lived in the house after 1934. There was also a chance to play the harpsichord and grand piano that they had played:

We had a final wander around the gardens including the Font that the house is named for, the rose garden (sadly we missed most of the roses) and a chance to do a Hobbit impression at the foot of a venerable oak tree:

All in all a good use of our membership. Here is a little video of the play area and music:

Beaulieu Motor Museum

After a day exploring gardens we went for a change of pace with a trip to the Beaulieu Motor Museum. We booked tickets online the day before to knock a bit of the entry fee! My son and I had never been to the museum and my parents hadn't been for a few decades so it was a good place for a three generation visit. This post includes the YouTube video of our day.

We kicked off our day with a ride around on the Monorail. This was a great way to check out the layout of the grounds and also to learn some fascinating bits of information on the way round:

Then we headed to the Top Gear section of the museum. Not only did we see excerpts from the shows but could get up close to some of the vehicles they actually used:

Another fun way to avoid walking around the grounds was to catch the vintage bus. We had a couple of rides up on the open top deck:

Hillier Gardens

On our first full day in Hampshire my mum chose the Hillier Gardens and Arboretum for our trip out. We were hoping that there would be plenty of colourful foliage like this:

My son was relieved to find that the gardens were well geared up to entertain younger visitors with a Spooky Halloween trail:

We got a trail and used the map on the back to follow the clues and to complete activities. The first of these was counting pumpkins in the Children's Education garden. Not the real ones like these but over 30 numbered plaques:

Heatherton World of Activities

The biggest day out on our trip to Pembrokeshire was to Heatherton World of Activities. We had enjoyed this trip last year and had wished that we could do more, we also needed to budget for going with both groups of holiday makers! It proved to be an incentive to get my son out of bed for 2 weeks on the trot to do car boot sales to raised enough money for our credits - you pay to play. We were able to buy a decent amount of shared credits and this is some of the fun that we had:

8 Track Slot Racing

This is so much more fun when you have a group to race against so perfect on our break. Even I got to have a go, although I swear I always get the slowest car!

Bumper Boats

I really need to have a go on these next year as my son and the other children had a wonderful time crashing into each other!

Mini Landrovers

#CountryKids at Warwick Castle

As part of our single parent break we had a day at Warwick castle with three other families. We were lucky to get special £5 a head tickets to make it an affordable trip. First photo opportunity was the stocks:

It is an amazing sight with its medieval walls:

We decided to brave the rampart walk with its 530 steps. A bit of exercise and fresh air:

Worth it for the views:

Eureka The National Children's Museum with Little Live Pet

Sponsored Post

The children and I were invited along to Eureka! in Halifax today as part of a weekend promoting Little Live Pets. We each had a free entry into the museum which would normally have cost £11.95 each. I am sure I went to the museum when it first opened in 1992 but hadn't had an excuse to return until now... Before we even got into the museum the children found loads to do:

After I had persuaded them off the musical instruments and play equipment we headed for the museum itself:

#CountryKids in Hawkshead and Wray Castle

It's only just a week since we went to Wray Castle but having a family friend needing entertaining today we headed back over to the far side of Windermere via the car ferry:

First of all we drove to Hawkshead and had a hot drink and a cake in a cafe before heading into the village for a wander. I spotted the Beatrix Potter gallery so we all dug out the National Trust cards and popped in:

#CountryKids A sunny afternoon at Wray Castle

It was a nice day yesterday so we decided to head up the shores of Windermere and go to Wray Castle. Lots of other people had the same idea so we had to go to the overflow car park and came at the castle from a different angle:

We quickly grabbed a picnic from the cafe and I spotted this cheeky little addition to a hole in the servery:

Well supplied we took the wiggly path down to the lake shore:

A picnic rug was established in a combined shady/sunny spot and the children very quickly changed into swim wear and were into the water:

The water wasn't was very warm but they were happy enough paddling, my daughter wasn't too happy when she slipped and fell right in:

The local swans didn't seem to mind either the cold water or the noisy children:

After recovering from her impromptu dip my daughter attempted to catch some of the other local fauna:

Her little brother did what little brothers do best, cause as much disruption as possible too stop her succeeding:

I then persuaded him to have a go at swimming despite the coldness of the water. He didn't do too badly:

Big sister had given up on  catching anything and instead had fun skimming stones:

After a while they both needed to get out and warm up whilst they ate their picnic:

Once they had warmed up and got dressed my son was keen to get into the castle as on his last visit he had discovered a new table tennis table in one of the old servant's rooms:

My daughter made butterfly feeders in a free crafting session whilst I had a wander around. I love that they have dressed one room to look like another of our local properties Allan Bank

You can see why the original owners had chose to site their castle in this beautiful spot when you look through the windows:

The castle is geared up to entertaining lots of different ages including a full sized billiard table:

Even away from the adventure playground there was plenty for the children to do including croquet:

On our way back to the car I couldn't resist taking a shot through this strategically placed picture frame:

My children were much more interested in the volleyball net:

I am planning on going back next week just with my son and to hopefully spend time in the new adventure playground!

#CountryKids at National Trust Allan Bank in Grasmere

We hadn't been to the Allan Bank at Grasmere since the week it opened to the pubic in 2012. So when an acquaintance wanted to meet somewhere child friendly near Langdale I immediately suggested it as a rendezvous. Several members of my family decided to copy us too so that we had 3 generations visiting the place. 

After finding a car park space at the right end of the village we walked up the lane to the property as there is only limited disabled parking on site. My children couldn't resist climbing the rock formation to the side of the drive:

It was interesting to see how much had changed in the last 2 and a bit years! As it was gutted by fire in 2011 it has been a slow job to restore any of the rooms:

fire damaged door panels

#CountryKids on the Heights of Abraham

The Heights of Abraham is something I remember seeing on Blue Peter as a child but don't ever think I went on before Saturday. Three families teamed up together to get it slightly cheaper as between us we had 3 adults and 4 children so it added up to an extended family! 

It was a shame that the windows were covered in rain drops as we couldn't fully appreciate the views from the cable car:

Once we got to the top we discovered we had timed it perfectly to go into the main cavern:

We descended a little way down some dark passages: