What still no snow?

Last week on Country Kids was packed with so much snow inspiration. I loved the home made sleighs from Mad House Family Reviews, the snow paining and ice marbles with The Mini Mes and Me , the snow painted cat from My Little 3 and Me, the huge snow man from Mummy of Two, not to mention snow dogs and the tale of the snow mouse from Actually Mummy and a fantastic igloo from A Srong Coffee. Most of all I marvelled over so much family fun with rosy cheeks from parents and children alike, what a great way to enjoy being outdoors. I have serious snow envy from my own children who saw sun and showers all week but not a flake of snow.

Bite sized outdoor time

I have been inspired by Jenny Paulin and Cerys Parker who are challenging themselves to 15 - 20 minutes outdoor play a day with the children. I played the "Mums off duty" card last weekend going up to Birmingham for a girl's night and have found my time with the children this week played out in smaller bite sized chunks around my trip and the school day.

I thoroughly enjoyed a rare early morning with my oldest boys feeding the animals before I left for Birmingham. When you have children over age eleven, early is erased from their vocabulary, hence the "rare". 

On my return on Sunday Clio delighted in a farm walk with me filling me in on their time with Dad, which I largely deduced to be kids doing as they liked while Dad carried on working! I loved watching her balancing across fallen logs and running time trials around the newly laid train track.

One of Nick's jobs over the weekend was concreting in the new outdoor gym equipment. When this had set all the kids were only too keen to come home from school and give it a test run and me too!

How have you enjoyed your time outdoor with the children recently? Whether you have seen fresh snow to play in or been to the park, the seaside, the woods or the garden I would love to hear about it here on Country Kids. Please grab the badge and check out some of the other posts linked up here too.

I have set up a Google+ community for Country Kids and I'd be delighted to see you there too. 

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A Mum and Daughter Afternoon

We are finally reaching that time of the year where our busy changeover Saturdays are slowing down. This week I was able to take advantage of a couple of hours in the sunshine with Clio between checking our freshly cleaned properties and welcoming in our newly arriving guests. Heading out onto the farm with a stale loaf of bread we were warmly welcomed by all the animals.

Wondering back up the garden path we decided on a quick check of our over grown and somewhat abandoned green house. Despite a huge burst of enthusiasm when we planted it back in the spring, we have been very remiss with our subsequent tending and I really didn't hold out much hope of discovering anything edible between the weeds. Clio's squeal of delighted when she as she foraged through the greenhouse told me I might just be wrong. Indeed so wrong I had to back track to the house to find a container for our haul! Tomatoes, cucumber and perfect little red chillies were just perfect for picking and the herbs were all thriving too!

Encouraged by our findings here we checked the vegetable crop we thought we lost round the back of the green house, the sweetcorn and carrots were nowhere to be seen but beetroot must be more hardy and had survived just fine.

Back in the house we added the splitting tomatoes and red chillies to the chilli I had left simmering for supper and used the rest to make a salad together. Boiling the beetroot we made a simple beetroot salad too. By the time Nick and the boys returned with the grocery shopping Clio and I were able to pronounce supper already well in hand and just 3 properties left to check in. 

Joining In with Country Kids

How have you enjoyed the outdoors with the children? Fresh air is good for us all, wrap up and enjoy, then pop back and share your fun here on the linky. Do take a little time to see what others have been up to; there are some lovely ideas each week.

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Sunday Photo of the Week from the Farm

Capture The Colour...

The Rules

Colours from Coombemill

Yellow 

Our lovely new born Polish Banthan chicks, they are a joy each morning for the children to hold, get's an "ahh" every day! You can read their life cycle here 

Red

My boys walking Lazy the goat on the farm supporting their new England shirts which now have to be prized of them for washing!

White

Our snowy white Alpaca are so soft to touch and can't resist coming right up and sticking their nose in every ones business who cares to pass their field!

Green

This was such a happy day. It was one of the Coombe Mill garden parties with all our friends and holiday guests in celebration of The Royal Wedding. All the children skipped around on the lawn and in the play areas while the adults chatted over a glass of wine and our amazing BBQ feast. See more about the day here.

Blue

I am so torn on this one, our beautiful North Cornwall beaches on a Summers Day with the Sea and sky or the highlight of Coombe Mill, Farmer Nick's Little Helpers with their blue hats on the blue Tractor! To keep in my theme I have gone with the tractor. It is the main reason family's holiday with us after all! 

I pass this lovely blogging challenge onto these 5 people who always have a good photo to share:

Angie who blogs at http://www.cakesphotoslife.co.uk/ It is her little boy on the tractor with Farmer Nick above! 

Lucy Heath who blogs at http://capturebylucy.com/

Debbie JJ with  http://www.johnsonbabies.com/

Lucinda Barton who blogs at  http://bakesbooksandmyboys.blogspot.co.uk/

Emma ‏with http://www.theminimesandme.com/

The Easter Holidays

After last week's gorgeous warm sunshine this week felt like a bit of a letdown with the weather. Or at least it did to me;however the children are far less demanding of the British weather and carry on regardless. With school holidays upon us mine have been only too keen to come out and meet all the guests staying and show them all their favourite corners of the farm! This and an eventful week with new animals being born and needing tending has kept my children and those of our guests enjoying the great out doors. 

Hats galore!

Check out all the lovely "Little Helpers Hats" This new addition is proving popular this season. I am also posting one to Ali for this post http://www.plus2point4.co.uk/2012/03/13/lackham-lambing-weekend/  as my chosen Country Kids post for March. There were some really inspiring outdoor activities and plenty of children clearly having fun; I spent a happy hour revisiting them all, which made it very hard to choose! In the end it was Ali's perseverance to get the children out for the day with no car which did it for me.

Please keep them coming, new linky every Saturday, I love to share what we have all been upto outside, whatever the weather! 

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