Monday 25 August 2014

Spontaneous Castles and Knights Day (visiting Ludlow Castle)

Why is it that spontaneous days out are sometimes the best? We woke this morning to another rainy bank holiday Monday. With no particular plans for the day (other than a potential visit to our allotment plot which wasn't all that appealing in the rain) we were chilling out in our living room after breakfast. The kids were flicking through our library books, one of which has really caught their eye. A board book, lift the flap style, about knights. After reading it through a few times with them Eden said it was her favourite book, and the idea came to us to visit a castle today. A quick google search brought up Ludlow Castle, and Eden excitedly rushed upstairs, and reappeared wearing her knight dress up outfit. Half an hour later we were on our way. 

We'd read that Ludlow Castle is really dog friendly, so our guide dog puppy, Viking, now 20 weeks, came with us too. He was so well-behaved, even with the rain! 
He enjoyed exploring the grounds and attempted the steps up to one of the towers, getting half way up before changing his mind! 
Eden fitted right in wearing her knight outfit! She wasn't put off by the rain, refused to wear her coat and skipped along exploring the castle ruins.
Asher loved wandering through the castle rooms, finding hidden tunnels and climbing up and down the many steps. He also loved the muddy puddles! 
One of the highlights of the day was watching the Heritage Cup British Full Contact Medieval Combat Championships. Very entertaining! 
Despite the rain we have lots of great memories from today. Looking forward to a return visit to Ludlow Castle, perhaps with a picnic next time and better weather! 

Tuesday 12 August 2014

This year we're Frogs at Just So Festival! (Our Frog Craft day)

Only 3 more sleeps until the return of Just So Festival in Cheshire. Last year we had such an amazing time; taking in the carnival atmosphere, joining in with the vast array of activities on offer and dancing the nights away with the kids while listening to brilliant bands. There is such creativity on offer everywhere you look. 

This year for the tribal tournament we have decided to join the Frogs. Today we've been busy making accessories for our outfits. Eden couldn't wait to get started and ate her breakfast so quickly! 

It was Eden's idea to use a paper plate as part the craft session. So we started with painting and while that was drying made some legs (involved me thinking back to my childhood days of how to do this). 



Next up was badge making - these turned out a little bigger than we'd originally imagined, but at least they'll be clearly visible! 


Finally we brought the laminator out and have made some bunting to proudly put up on our tent.


Once everything was dry we assembled our frog paper plates - the tongue idea I found on Pinterest and Eden genuinely shrieked with delight when I demonstrated it to her - she thought it was hilarious! 

I'm finishing off our frog craft day by doing some frog-themed crochet as part of my dress up outfit for the weekend...