We have gone on Holiday!

Even living in a holiday environment we still like to take a break when we have the chance. This week we have left the farm in the capable hands of Farmer Ted and Farmer Kym to take our week away "on tour" in Sussex, London and Buckinghamshire catching up with family. It makes a change for Nick and I from daily farm life and ensures we return full of enthusiasm and new ideas for the farm. For the children it is a chance to enjoy town life, catching up with cousins and friends and having Mum and Dad to themselves for a week.

One thing is for certain, you can take Country Kids to the town but you can't quite take the country spirit out of them. Climbing is in their nature, and if there are no suitable trees, well the park climbing frame, the side of a building, a statue or a lamppost become substitutes!

The scooters, bikes and skate boards Grandma has accumulated in her garage are always put to use from the moment the kids jump out of the car from the long journey. The close is a perfect scooting ground as is the town skate park. Sorry kids we are not building a skate park at Coombe Mill, it will have to stay a holiday treat!  

What no sand? Brighton beach has a Pier and pebbles, so different from the sand and surf in Cornwall yet perfect for a February Picnic. Of course it wasn't long before they were down at the water's edge playing dare against the waves. Needless to say the waves won and 6 soggy pairs of shoes and trouser bottoms trooped back towards the car.....

 but not before having a go in this one on Brighton Pier, if only to compare with ours!

Negotiating London by car and tube to visit family and friends has been stressful at times, counting the children on and off the tube my least favourite part, but it was all worth for it some great days out together.

The only casualty of the week was Clio who managed to break her arm on the first day scooting too fast at the park. she was very brave and we only took her to hospital as a precaution not thinking it was broken! If you look closely you will see her sling in all the photos here.

Joining In with Country Kids

I hope you have had a fun half term week too with plenty of outdoor fun in the sunshine. Please do grab the badge and come and share here on the linky. Please try to pop over and see some of the other posts here as there are always some lovely ideas to inspire. Last week I was really taken with An Impromptu Adventure from Taming the Goblin, Finding Letters in Nature from Rachel and the lovely Muddy Puddle video from 2 of Everything.

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Merry Christmas!

I hope you and your family have been enjoying a lovely Christmas break. The fact you are here reading Country Kids suggests that like us, you enjoyed some fresh air in between the Christmas feasting and pouring rain! 

Puddles & Floods!

Well the news has been full of the rain in the south west and being down on the river at the bottom of the valley we have been swamped in it! That didn't dampen the Spirits of our lovely hardy guests staying with us this year or do anything to deter our own children from having fun.

Some Wet Animals to Feed

Despite the rain we had some little helpers each morning, and their help was much appreciated as the animals are munching their way through so much food to keep themselves healthy and warm in these short rainy days. 

A New Bed Required!

The Goats found their field a wash with rain water pouring down the valley right through their shelter. Thanks to a cunning idea from Farmer Nick we set to work building a platform from pallets with hardboard over and straw to give them a toasty dry escape from the relentless rain.

Happy New Year

Thank you for following and supporting Country Kids throughout 2012, please join me on the last linky of the year here with your festive fresh air fun and I look forward to sharing more outdoor adventures in the New Year. 

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Coombe Woods

We had one of those Sundays where it is hard to go out and do anything. Dotty the pig had given us a proper fright in the morning and we were keen to stay around in the afternoon to check on her. Furthermore, the eldest two children were away on Scout camp, the youngest off to a birthday party, one was off playing with one of the guests leaving Guy and Theo at a bit of a loose end. They caught up with me checking on Dotty and asked if I could play with them. How could I refuse? I knew the woods backing onto our deer field was awash with bluebells so I was delighted when they suggested taking me to some of their favourite camps in there. Just a hop skip and a jump over the style and we are in a woodland wonderland

Evidence of my children stretched far and wide with several half made camps on the go. We worked together building them for a while; they relished being in charge and advising me of where the branches should go. I was happy to oblige soaking up their enthusiasm.

There are some beautiful old trees and I was soon treated to how high they could climb on their favourite ones. To save my nerves I diverted then into looking for wildlife. We saw a red deer in the distance, much larger than our fallow deer, and  inspired by the fairies and mystic of the woods by  More than a Mum and You Me & The Mindee's on the Country Kids linky last week we searched for rabbit holes and tree crevices and wondered who might live there. 

Using the granite outcrops as a trampet I was treated to some gymnastics practice then nearly came a cropper trying to copy them! They both laughed their heads off at Mum on the rope swing; I must say I felt far from safe!

This was my favourite part. The densely growing bluebells made a magnificent purple carpet, lying down we could hardly see each other. These snaps of us fooling around together are ones I will remember fondly for a long time and well worth the damp bottoms!  

Joining In 

Country Kids is all about children enjoying the outdoors, in any way they can. If you have an outdoor experience to share from fun in the garden to a day out with the family please join me on the Country Kids liny here. Do take a minute to read and comment on what others have been up to too, there are so many lovely ideas each week many of which cost next to nothing. 

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A Taste of Summer

This week has felt like Summer is just around the corner which makes being out and about enjoying some good old fresh air so much more pleasant.  We took the chance to enjoy the last ice skating of the winter season at the Eden project at the weekend.  It was so lovely and mild that the children happily spent all afternoon on their favourite outdoor play places and once again I was left with just 10 minutes in the biomes before our skating time was up. Much as I am determined to explore the biomes properly one day I am also loathed to bring them inside when they are having so much fun. We have annual tickets so there is always another day! 

The Eden project has posts all along the walkways with fun signs for the children challenging them to skip, jump, hop, crawl and such like; mine happily followed the instructions along to the ice skating tent you can see ahead of them.  

I have so enjoyed seeing all your lovely pictures from the February Country Kids link up and it has been extremely hard to pick a favourite for the Coombe Mill Sun Hat this month but I have finally settled on this one from Nikki Thomas http://www.stressymummy.com/2012/02/hooray-for-sun.html because I love the look of that park and the fun the children had there. A huge thank you to all the lovely posts with some great Country outdoor play and learning.

Please keep the outdoor fun going and inspire each other by linking up here. 

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A first Ski Lesson for our children

Plymouth is our closest dry ski slope, as virgin skiers but with Ally facing a school ski trip next month, we treated him, his school friend and our other 5 children to a first lesson.

2 minutes from Coombe Mill and I was cursing leaving my camera behind! Making do with the Blackberry in the fading afternoon light was far from ideal, but still worth showing for this week's Country Kids post, as the children had such a wonderful, if exhausting time.

Suited and Booted.

That took 15 minutes for all 7 to begin with, then off they stomped with their very patient instructor, while I attempted to find camera mode on my phone. 

 After the warm up they were away to go, if I had worked out videoing I would have some spectacular falls, in the event they look quite good for their first go!

We had booked a family fun day which involved a wacky half hour of snow tubing. This comprised of being hurled down the slopes inside a tyre in pairs, a long line or spinning solo by a poor ski instructor, then running back up to do it all over again! 

My favorite snap, their beaming faces say it all

Three super zoom toboggan rides rounded off the day. Nick and I had to accompany the triplets for each ride. I ended up concentrating so much on regaining my balance between rides and fighting Jed for the brake, that I forgot to take a photo; but safe to say they loved every minute!

Linking up

What have you been upto outdoors with the children this week? Do link up a snap or two on the linky below and help support healthy outdoor play for kids anywhere from the garden to the ski slope! Why not also link up to Family Frolics with Multiple Mummy.

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