Toddlers, “toy shops” and an activity walk

Thursday = parents and tots as usual, half-term notwithstanding. Most of our usual older children were doing an activity at the Fitzwilliam, so J and K were pretty much alone, apart from a couple of visiting (and fairly boisterous) youngsters on half-term break. After a little bit of English and Maths (amazing!) we thought it would be a good opportunity to get on with painting the wooden fort we were given some time back, so J and K, with occasional help from others including L, tucked themselves away in the back kitchen with large paintbrushes and lots of stone-grey paint – am I mad???
After lots of clearing up 😆 we made our way into town to get lunch, but got waylaid by a couple of “toy shops” (the boys’ name for charity shops, which tells you something about our shopping habits lol) where we managed to pick up a few bits for the Christmas shoeboxes we’re doing as well as a couple of nice books for us 🙂
Today we had arranged to meet up with Rebecca, J and baby R but not decided what to do. On impulse I looked up Ickworth and found (as well as the hideously expensive luxury family hotel) that they were doing a garden discovery walk for children today 🙂 On the off-chance we went along and it turned out to be great 😀
After a picnic lunch and a long play in the park we assembled at the meeting point and were given clipboards, pencils and sheets with a map of the gardens and shapes to find there. Then we walked together past the orangery, round the rotunda and through the gardens (peeking at the posh hotel wing as we passed 😉 ) with pauses every so often for the guide to tell us interesting things and point out shapes for the children to match up and mark on their maps. J was very taken with the steps out to the garden which included a bridge over a dry moat where the gardeners would have to hide as soon as they heard the warning bell which indicated that the Marquis, his family or guests were stepping out into the gardens – wouldn’t want them to have to see the staff, would we? 🙄 As she told us this I was assuming that we were talking about times long past, but no – the staircase was built in about 1900!
As well as the shapes to find we did a mime and guessing game on the stage, a blindfolded texture walk in the stumpery and a colour matching activity in the Golden Garden; it was all very well thought out and the children had a whale of a time 😀
After all that we felt we had really earned a cup of tea and a piece of cake and then the children wanted to go back to the playground, baby R needed a feed, which meant a nappy change, another feed, another change… What with one thing and another we were rather late getting back, but it was well worth it – definitely a place to which we will return!