A record of our family history
The National Trust describe it as a “quirky playful paradise” and that sounded perfect for us. Sometimes when we go to these beautiful gardens I watch the people without children walking around, admiring the plants and reading the tags on the trees while they discuss it in their low voices and nod at each other and I think “maybe one day”. For now I am busy trying to keep up with the children, counting heads to make sure that no one has wandered off too far.
Taking the kids to a quiet garden is never a good idea if we didn’t get much sleep so I didn’t want to be there for very long. The plan was to have a walk, go to the toilets and grab a sandwich then leave before they can make too big an impact on the place.
In 2017 Ben was away for my birthday WEEK. It was summer holidays and I didn’t want to be at home on my own with the children, so to cheer myself up I took them on a little holiday to Kent and Sussex. It is my ‘hood so I know all the best places to visit, and with a newborn baby I wanted to go somewhere that was easy and familiar.
Today I took the kids to Wrest Park. We have recently become members of English Heritage so I am excited to go to new places. Wrest Park was a good choice.
I love Hastings. It’s where I lived for the first seven years of my life, so there are lots of things to do in the area that I have done several times before. This time we wanted to do something different and what better than the thing that “1066 Country” is famous for – Battle Abbey and Battlefield.
Today we took the children and one of their friends to Legoland, Windsor. That’s 6 children vs 2 adults! Not great ratio for a theme park but we managed to do everything that we wanted to and had a great day.
Today I took my 4 boys to Sywell Country Park to get some fresh air and burn off some energy. I think that some days the house just isn’t big enough for all these boys and it’s hard work trying to calm them down indoors.
This year Alton Towers has been more difficult because now we have a big age difference between our children, including a child with ADHD, a preschooler who wants to go on everything but is too short, and an 8 week old baby who can’t go on many rides.
Sam was only a few weeks old when we had our first day out as a family of 7 at Whipsnade Zoo. Special Children’s Day is an annual event for children with additional needs, and their families.