Kensington Gardens

Our first London outing was Kensington Gardens.

We headed off on Thursday to meet up with Kelly and the girls and have a picnic in the sun.

Noah wasn't with us, as he had gone off to work with my dad for the day.

My dad works in the Natural History Museum, so Noah was having a whole day of fun himself.

Bea had her first-ever train journey, and she enjoyed it much more than her usual car journeys, where she normally screams from the instant her bottom touches her car seat until the moment it leaves it.

After we had our little picnic the kids all ran around the pond and then fed the swans

Once everyone had finished their lunch and were done running around the pond and feeding the ducks, we headed off to the Princess Diana Memorial Park, I'd never been before but it has been on my bucket list of places to go.

It really did not disappoint. We had to queue up to get in but we weren't in it long, and the kids kept themselves entertained. Once we got closer to the entrance the girls showed the boys the fairy tree, they were all very impressed as was I!

When we got in, Kelly, my mum and I headed off to find a place to sit down and the kids all kicked off their shoes and ran off for an adventure.

For a day that was meant to be all rain, we got really lucky as it was beautiful and we all managed to catch a bit of a tan!

The park was amazing, the best park the boys have been to. They all loved pretending to be the lost boys from Peter Pan, as it was so hot kelly started a water fight, which resulted in all the kids being drenched to the skin! Obviously, none of them complained, and once our kids had started a lot more started their own water fights.

Unfortunately towards the end of the day, Oscar cut all the back of his leg up by falling off one of the pirate ships and Alex got punched by another child in the park. So we decided that we would head off on a walk and explore the rest of the gardens.

On the way out of the play park, we saw the carousel so cheer the boys up we let them all on it, it did the trick and everyone came off much happier and more willing to go and run around the rest of the gardens.

We went in search of some parakeets, as Kelly said they were really tame and would come and take bird feed out of your hands.

We did see some flying about but none came down for the seeds, so the kids all fed the millions of pigeons instead.

We at Kensington Gardens till at least six o'clock, so before we jumped back on the tube to head home we treated the kids to McDonald's dinners!

Definitely a winning end to a winning day!

 

... Cousins, Beach Walks and The Funfair ...

Last Thursday Kelly and the girls came to stay.

It was a bit of a spur of the moment plan and it was lovely having them all here.

Esme slept in the twins room, as the twins share a bed normally so Esme got a whole bed to herself, Kelly took Ru's bed as that's usually empty and Isla shared with Noah on the first night then the next two nights shared with her mum in Ru's room.

Our table was full and it was nice to see all the kids happy and together.

Friday.

We headed out early to soft play getting there for when it opened in a bid to miss the mad rush but thankfully it wasn't too busy and the kids had two hours of running around like crazy loons.

Afterwards, I tried to get a nice photo for my mum of all the kids together but as you can tell from the picture about they really weren't feeling it!

After lunch, we decided to walk to North beach and let the kids run around and have an ice cream.

I bought them some bucket and spades after the ice creams and they all ran off to build sandcastles, the tide was out so they had plenty of space to run around on and try and build a sandcastle village.

Ru gave up pretty quickly but then ordered me to build him a sandcastle rainbow...

As the weather was nice and we had no real rush to get home we decided to attempt to walk along the beach to Hunstanton.

I had told Kelly it would only take 10 minutes....even though I had never done it before.

Thinking about it now, it takes 10 minutes in the car so I should have known it would have taken longer.

...... It took about an hour or so.

The kids were actually really good and hardly moaned at all!

Esme, Isla and Noah ran along the sand collecting shells and bits and bobs as they went, Ru was in the stroller and I knew he wouldn't walk from our house to the local beach let alone all the way to Hunstanton, and the twins both walked beside me looking at all the lovely holiday houses along the seafront.

They were all really impressed that they'd walked to Hunstanton and can't wait to go back to school and tell their teachers!

As a treat for the kids being so good, we took them into the funfair, we all went on the caterpillar roller coaster and everyone enjoyed it, though Ru is still a little unsure if he liked it or not.

His favourite was the car merry go round and he went on those a couple of times.

Everyone apart from me and Ru went on the bumper cars ..... turns out Noah's a bit of a dangerous driver!

Before we left Isla and Noah went on the twister and from the ground, it looked as though Noah was going to cry but apparently he loved it.

Saturday.

We spent the morning lazing around at home, letting the kids do as they pleased.

After lunch, we took them back over to Norfolk Lavander and went into the Animal Gardens and Play Park, hoping they would get the rest of their energy out there.

On entry, they were all given a little quiz and a sheet to use in the maze to collect stamps so that they'd win a goodie bag on the way home.

They all ran around looking at all the animals and trying to find the answers to the questions, we let them loose into the maze by themselves.... to which I'm pretty sure they all cheated as it didn't take them long to find all the stamps and they all came back out the way they went in.

Their best bit was getting to handle some of the animals, the boys all loved holding the snakes and Noah made friends with a bearded dragon.

Ru loved the Tenrec as he had a wet nose that wriggled around!

I tried to get a good photo but it was just too wriggly.

After they had finished looking at all the animals they went and played in the play park.

The girls and Kelly headed back to London on Sunday morning. 

It was lovely having them here and the house felt rather empty once they'd left.

It was really nice having a few busy days and we all felt better for it.

We are all missing them now and Rupert keeps asking when they are coming back.