Donkey rides

This weekend we went to Staunton festival - pox and all.
I have been trying to get Albert on a donkey for ever and first time round he totally wasn't going for it. Mostly I think because it was next to pond dipping and Daddy, Pop and Deadly 60 have been nature brainwashing him! We passed it again though and he totally went for it - he got the slowest donkey they had ( probably a good thing) and had a great time.
Once Rowan saw him having fun he wanted a go to and when the man said he looked just exactly like a cowboy his day was absolutely made!
It was a great festival day out lots of crafts and rides just right for a morning out while Adam recovered from the lawn bowl stag do hangover.

Holiday

We just got back from a fantastic holiday with the Campbell's. It was brilliant. We flew to Portugal and rented a house near Coimbra which was lovely and had pregnant pigs next door and lizards in the garden - what more do toddlers need. Maybe a small pool.

It was hot, so we spent a lot of time at river beaches and using nets to catch water snakes and fish which Albert quickly became obsessed with.

We also found a shady little zoo with cute baby boar and baby lynx and a crazy mini portugal place with tiny houses and dodgy entertainers. The shop also had hundreds of toy animals - thanks for the spending money Nana and Pop.

Checking out the wolves - hoooooooooooooooooooooowl!

Everyone was so friendly and loved the kids they were totally spoilt everywhere we went - although I think Eve's strawberry sweets went mysteriously missing hmmmm.

Amazing two weeks - miss the Campbells now though.

Pond dipping!

A couple of weeks ago we went pond dipping at queen Elizabeth park. It was great, Rowan sort of fell in but Gem Gem pulled him out so no harm done. We caught a million tadpoles and someone lent us a fish which Albert managed to get stupidly attached to in the 30 seconds we had him.
They do love pond dipping!!!

Spinnaker tower

The other week we decided to brave the spinnaker tower. It was really good fun.
Albert loved the see through floor and ran back and forth over it, pressing his face up against it.
Rowan a little more hesitant but we walked it once together. They also have a little cafe on the 2nd floor - good ice cream and pop.
Also not too bad a view!

Party.

Albert was 4 and we decided to have a little party at home as it would be easier - ha! It was very exciting though. He loves superheroes and so do his friends so we had a superhero fancy dress party. They all have loads of costumes and Albert decided to come as Iron Man (thank you Aunty Gem Gem) and Rowan was the Hulk ( appropriate).

It was very exciting setting up the house. We had superhero balloons and batman water, bunting, a giant superman and spiderman and loads of party games to play.

This is giant spiderman who came for breakfast and then hung around in the hall generally getting hit by anyone that walked past. 

We played musical stop on the bad guy, pin the bat on the batman and of course pass the parcel. Great fun until you have had your go then you lose interest - to be fair our mature 5 year old party guest had it sorted and stayed focused to the end knowing the best prize was the last one, a worthy winner.

We also had a pinata which was cool - it took ages and 4 adults to break into it and by that point all the non chewy sweets were powder on our lawn. They loved hitting it though - sticks, fists total annihilation of donkey Dr Doom.

After the chaos of party games the rest of the party was just fun there was even a bit of pond dipping thrown in and a cake.

Check out the booze ruining the pic thats how you know its a kids party!

Slack.

Which is what I am - but I am still recovering from the epic celebrations that go with being 4.
Also can't figure out how to put photos inbetween writing so am just going with a few phone photos so I don't forget what we have been up to lately.

Goggles!

We bought googles the other day as daddy has them and they think its cool?
We have a pool (sort of) when we go away later in the year so they have them for that. I've been stepping up the swimming to whenever we have a willing extra adult around to be splashed mercilessly in the pool. They are both swimming the little pool with floats, and rowan is just dangerous with his throwing himself in - ready or not! Anyway the googles are worn whenever water is involved!

We've been rocking the various local soft plays to. Albert has always loved them but this year he is tall enough and brave enough to do it all - dressed as Cap Cap he is super fast on the slide too!

They are thick as thieves also - the bars have to come of soon, far to much climbing going on.