Family day out

Yesterday we went for our first family day out since Eve was born. We wanted to give Charlie a final summer day out before the weather turns colder and we were lucky, it started off misty but became sunny with blue skies when we reached the seaside.

We went to Hastings and Eve was so good (sleeping, feeding, no crying!) that on the way home we stopped off at Bodiam castle which Charlie really enjoyed.

Apart from meals, petrol and parking our day out was free! We played Crazy Pirate golf at Hastings with the 3 tickets we won the last time we visited and used our National Trust passes for Bodiam.

Bodiam had special events on, we listened to a talk about armoury and Charlie got to try on a 13th century style iron helmet.

Eve behaved beautifully, I fed her in the car a couple of times (front seat is much comfier than a bench for feeding) and she seemed to enjoy being on the beach in the carrier.

Toddler days out - Emmetts Garden

 Day out number two with our National Trust membership and a toddler.

 

The sun came out today so we packed a picnic and looked for a NT place within easy driving distance of South London. As we're mid potty training we didn't want a stately home so somewhere with lots of outside space sounded perfect, we decided on Emmetts Garden in Kent. This is the Edwardian garden of a stately home, but only the garden part is open to the public. Perfect.

 

There was so much to explore so we'll go back again another time, but we did a quick loop of the first garden and then made our way to the picnic field where we sat up camp. The National Trust run this place with family fun in mind. There was a little log cabin filled with outdoor lawn games (bowls, cricket etc) and as I sat down with Charlie (whilst Daddy went back to the car for the picnic) a kind member of staff brought me over two deckchairs. The boy loved the deckchairs, he hopped in and out of them and I was relegated to the picnic blanket as we ate our lunch.

 

We took the slingshute and the boys had fun throwing it up up into the air and running to catch the parachute and Charlie was a potty training genius. He sat on the travel potty in the toilet stall with me and again by the car, proving that we can take him out for a day without any embarrassing accidents. We ate cheese and ham sandwiches, teddy bear crispies, strawberries and raspberries and homemade gingerbread. And I took LOADS of photos, making the most of the blue sky and two happy boys.