Easter Fall Out

And so after the long weekend where everyone, despite just having recovered from noxious tummy bugs, loaded up on chocolate. Children are great, aren't they, as bounce-backable as a rubber ball. Basically, almost nothing could hold them back from enjoying Easter!

It's been absolutely freeeezing here, but what a joy to get out, see some flowers, frogs mating ('mummy - look that big frog is giving the little one a piggy back') and spring lambs.

Top days out at Hinton Ampner where the National Trust were doing their now traditional Easter Egg Trail. Thankfully this year, not only was there a quiz for the older children, but the trail allowed younger ones to just stamp the boxes. A relief - I can't count the number of quizzes and trails I have been forced to almost entirely do myself because whoever set the quiz didn't quite manage to appreciate the academic level 3 year olds work on. No, they can't spell 'medieval' and neither can they say what type of stone this is built from. Can we just have our chocolate egg now please?

Another interesting place we discovered this holiday was Butser Ancient Farm. A recreation of an Iron Age farming compound, complete with frozen-to-death volunteers huddled around a smoky fire dressed in woollen capes, and some rare breed sheeplings.  Brilliant. Such a great place to show your kids the (very) past. Oldest daughter looks around one roundhouse, at the cooking fire, at the wooden benches and manky furs and promptly says 'I'm so glad I live Now'. They also celebrate some of the pagan rituals there like Imbolc and Samhain, which I imagine is pretty fun if you're into that kind of thing, although I don't know how 'historic' those are. There is also a reconstructed Roman Villa which has a working hypocaust heating system in one area. Nothing says 'ahh finally, civilisation' like finding a heated room on a -2 degree day! If you want to know more about the place, the link above takes you to their website, or you can go to the Wikipedia entry highlighted in the photo caption. It really is a fascinating place, and the staff and volunteers there are obviously really into it too.

Via Wikipedia

Now husband is back at work, the sun is shining and I have all 3 kids for the rest of the holiday on my own. Deep breath! And continue...........