Staycation, tubing, Kinver, new food, the park, visiting , swimming.

As Blokey is off this week we all enjoy a lie in bed. Then the children spend most of the day alternating between home and the park. 

The next day we go tubing at the ski slope with our home ed friends ..as always it was a hoot.

I will not smile..a little smirk crept in though.

The next day we went to Kinver stooping off for lunch at a new place to us, Harley's Smokehouse. The portions are massive. It's a Spanish fusion type of place and we will definitely go back.

Owen went in to a daze at the awesomeness of his dessert. Despite attacking it all with relish he still needed a doggie bag. There were dipping sauces of chocolate, toffe, raspberry and ice cream to accompany his churros and mini doughnuts ..can't quite remember the name of those ..something beginning with B.

Sam loved his slab of brownie with chocolate sauce..he thought the ice cream was the best he has ever had and ate the lot.

We visited the alpacas out the back of the restaurant.

Next we went to Kinver Edge to visit the Rock Houses.

We learnt about the history of the houses and the families that lived here.

Sam by the well. One of the women who lived here was a washer woman..imagine carrying laundry up all those steps to the house!?

There were beautiful views across the valley

The National Trust have restore the houses to the Victorian period.

We saw some of these fires in the Coalbrookdale museum too, so it was good to see some similar here in context to the houses.

Very cosy inside and surprisingly light.

Sam tried on one of the hats hanging up in the bedroom.

Blokey and I decided we could quite happily live in the houses.

The layout is much more spacious than some of the houses we visited at Blists Hill and the industrial areas of Ironbridge at the time.

View across the valley from the houses.

That's not a wooden beam but where the owners used the cave entrance to build their house.

The National Trust is also restoring the cottage gardens too.

Sam loved the bat cave and listened carefully to noises they made.

One of the bedrooms.

Lots of Victorian housewares and goods.

Sam enjoying a little rest

Another view from a different house.

The children were intrigued and a little appalled by all the graffiti carvings.

The tea rooms where walkers refuelled.

We found a strange hobbit hole too.

We walked all round the woodland.

And climbed trees

Even if they needed a little help.

Found Nannys Rocks this is were a herbalist used to live Owen enjoyed climbing round the caves.

Inside the caves.

Then a very long walk back to the car, where Owen thought we were trying to kill him. 

Lots of interesting stops along the way to play at.

And thankfully back to the car with an exhausted Owen..luckily I had had the foresight to make extra drinks available for the thirsty walkers to have on the drive back.

We popped into town today, bought some fruit and veg then played at the park.

Owen tried a friends roller skates.

With mixed results and took landing on his bum a few times quite well.

Sam hung off the climbing frame and played tag, charging around. 

Owen and I had a walk round before heading for home.

A visit to Nanny and Grandads on Saturday ..Nanny is 77 this week, so we took her present and played for a while.

Inbetween the tradition of playing dominoes, there was the tradition of measuring how much taller they have got and cuddle time. Despite Owen being nearly as tall as my Mum, he still managed to squeeze on her knee. ❤️

Since the children decided they didn't want to carry on with their swimming lessons, we got up early and went for a for a family swim together. Sam was very excited indeed to be back to this familiar routine of us all swimming together, he also loved the new googles I bought him. Owen worked extra hard on his diving and lengths and we all felt we had, had a great workout.

Afterwards we popped into Milkshakes and Oatcakes for breakfast, it's was still very busy but we finally managed to grab a table and order without queuing out of the door.

Later the boys played out with their local friends and went to bed tired and happy. We will miss Blokey tomorrow when he goes back to work.

New friends, new skills, Westport Lake, St Chads, Bogget Hole and swimming.

Our dog Piggle is a little better today but we still aren't happy with the way she looks, so I make an appointment for the vet to see her later in the day.

Sam and Owen work on their maths skills.

Owen and I do some exercises and more sessions to help with his writing technique.

Their friends call round and Owen goes off to the park to play. Sam is trying to work out Linux in his PC and is too engrossed to go out till later. 

There are more games of chess with Blokey before bedtime, then the children fall asleep remarkable quickly, tuckered out after all the fresh air.

Today we waited for the phone to ring. The vets did a blood test for Piggle to try and find out why she has slumped so badly, they are looking to see if she has renal issues. She is still incredibly tired and is difficult to move once settled. Her colitis is gone and so is the swelling in her tummy thankfully. I suspect being an old girl, the colitis has really knocked her for 6 , along with the Rae reaction to the medication and maybe taken its toll.

After the shopping is done I help Sam with his maths. By this point Owen comes down and we work together on Easimaths as we chat. We are doing quick relaxed activities at the moment to allow them time to play with the local children at the park during the holidays.

Next Owen and I do his coordination exercises and practice his pen holding techniques. He's getting better and now has more idea about holding the pen correctly. His muscles are still weak in his hands but he is gaining confidence.

Next we take care of Orel the giant snail and pick some beetroot and chard from the garden.

Piggle is still a bit wiped out but is definitely improving day by day.

We did more maths.

Finish watching the Battlefield discovery series. This has been pretty interesting, not just because of the finds and war history behind them but the ethics and manner in which the digs are being made. I explain to the children how there was a lot of controversy over the programme and the methods used to excavate the artifacts. I must try and show them some Time Team programmes, so we can compare how things are done.

We went to Westport Lake to meet up with our friends who are Pokemon Go wizards. We had a great time walking and exploring . The boys really liked this graffiti we came across too.

We found some wild raspberries .

Dodging the heavy showers we still managed to walk a few miles.

We visited the Shire Gallery, they had a beach themed exhibition on that we all loved.

Earthenware sardine tins 

We all loved these pewter and glass pieces .

 

We then walked round Stafford centre car hung Pokemon and discovering places we never knew about in the town.

St Chads Church was open and as I have always wanted to look inside we nipped in. Wow! A kind gentleman showed us round and explained many interesting facts about the church and its history.

 

We were all fascinated with the carvings and our tour guide explained they dated back to the 12th century and little is known about them. We took guesses at what we thought they were. And the boys hunted for the dragon carvings.

One of the 15 Dragon carvings

We then went for lunch before heading to the shops so Sam could spend more of this birthday money.

After we had got home he children played in the park.

The next day we went over to Mancester to visit a friend, then did some Pokemon hunting in the park behind her house 'Bogget Hole ' . 

We enjoyed walking her dog Mika on the way.

As Blokey is now on holiday we have started our staycation. Kicking off with a late breakfast in Stone and some more Pokemon hunting.

Owen enjoyed a massive hotdog.

Sam had chicken and a huge chocolate milkshake, which he declared was the 'best I have ever had!'

We did a bit of shopping  then went to the children's last swimming lesson. Later I prepared a BBQ meal whilst the children played at the park.