Aunty M and the gang came over for a BBQ, the weather wasn’t great, but in the scheme of the summer it was worth getting outside for. After lunch we took a stroll over to the park. The play area as usual had it’s arctic microclimate, but the kids were still keen to play.
Up to the sensory garden, where to everyone’s delight the fountain was running.
28th August
Me and the girls were invited to join one of Fidget’s school-friends Olivia at Horseworld. Olivia also has a little sister just slightly older than Squidge, and their Mum Nat is lovely so we all had a great day.
A particular favourite was grooming a pony, the older girls were very clear on what they needed to do, Squidge grinned from ear to ear and tickled the pony with her massive brush she had chosen.
We also went into the play barn, the girls enjoyed the astroslide, but I did have to run up to the top when I saw Squidge sat with legs dangling at the top of the drop slide alongside a bunch of other kids. I persuaded her it was not for her. On dismounting, a girl Squidge’s size came over and told me off saying that “she was able to go on the slide”, I politely asked the child how old she was, “er six?” and then I pointed out that Squidge was still not 3 years old yet, yer kid – that told you - in your face!
We had a lovely picnic lunch outside
A great and hilarious feature of Horseworld is a field that has jumps set up in it, so kids can run around pretending to be horses I guess.
3rd September
We hadn’t had a holiday away together over the summer break and to be honest hadn’t done many days out together, so I was determined we should have a proper day out before Fidget was back to school. We picked Longleat, none of us had been before but it came well recommended.
We got there pretty early, it was shaping up to be a lovely day weather wise, we started with the park rather than safari.
“loooook!”
There was a beautiful rose garden, with some lovely flowers…
The whole place was very polished and impressive, walking round the “Jungle Kingdom” and “Monkey Jungle” was accompanied by loud rousing jungle rhythms, it felt like being in a cartoon.
Catalogue pose…
We had a go on the adventure playground…
A particular favourite was the train, and while we were waiting for it to fill up and go, I managed to get some lovely pics of the girls.
In the butterfly house, a butterfly landed on M’s leg almost as soon as we entered and stubbornly stayed there the whole way round. It is difficult to see in these misty pics, but they are staring at a butterfly, not just M’s knee.
The animal encounters were pretty non-stop, we came out of the butterfly house and were accosted by a lady and a snake, I was impressed with how gamely the girls reacted in giving it a hold. Glad I was the one with the camera.
We had brought a picnic, and found a space by the water to enjoy it.
After lunch we went on the boat ride around the lake. I was amazed at how close the sea lions got to the boat. M, managed to get to the head of the scrum and win a cup of small fish for his beloved daughters to feed to the sea lions – thanks Daddy-o!
Fidget is always one for cleanliness was keen to feed the sealions but not keen on the fishy fingers.
we tried out the maze, Fidget kept worrying me by marching off ahead, it was a pretty complex maze, there was an annoying chap who had managed to get the centre where there was a raised house, and was yelling incoherent directions to everyone, so the 3rd time we passed the entrance we bailed much to Fidget’s disappointment.
The warmth of the day was making the girls cranky (they hadn’t seen warm weather since 2011 so not surprising they didn’t recognise it) so we went to the water fountain in the play area, which definitely lightened the mood.
We dried off and decided to try out the safari bit. At this point, I was a bit worried that we had chosen to do this section in the afternoon. Having lived in South Africa and visited a fair few safaris I was used to driving around a wide ranging plain with not an animal in sight as the day was too hot and the few animals in the area were fast asleep under some distant tree. I hadn’t been to a UK safari park, so was unprepared for the melee of animals positively jostling to give us a look-see.
We stopped at the “African Village” which had a great vantage point and the girls enjoyed feeding the giraffes. I enjoyed sitting down with a mocha!
the girls had a bit of food to keep them going
and then we drove off into the park propper.
an ostrich came right up to Squidge’s window, I turned round to smile and coo at how fab that was, but she was steadfastly reading a book she had found, ignoring the ostrich with all her might.
the rhinos were really cool, we were in a group of 3 cars, the rhinos passed right infront of the first car, i would have been freeeeking out if that was us. They were big and muddddy!
growly tigers…
the lions were cool, this one kept having to be rushed at by the keeper in a jeep to stop it menacing the punters…
We really enjoyed the day, and felt proper worn out from our adventures!
5th September
And then there we were, school holidays over and the girls were heading back to school and nursery. They were both excited by the prospect which was good. But I was looking forward to the next holidays when i could have them back again!
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