Plymouth Museum

On a rainy afternoon during our visit to my parents, we took the Podlings to Plymouth Museum for a couple of hours. I haven't been here for over twenty years, but I have some very fond memories of visits during my childhood. Although fairly small, the museum didn't disappoint and we had a lovely afternoon. The Natural History section was a huge hit with the Podlings and we spent the bulk of our time in here. Tom, in particular, enjoyed the many insect specimens they had on display and spent ages pulling out drawers and studying the contents. I am so thrilled the the Podlings enjoy Natural History as it is a subject very dear to my own heart.

Museums are so child friendly these days. There was a lot to engage the children and even little Emma had a wonderful time. Lily had a lot of fun in the Naval History exhibition learning about warships through history and choosing appropriate weapons, crew, fuel and provisions for various historical vessels. The museum was one of the highlights of our holiday for the Podlings. It was one of those magical afternoons where the Podlings had a tremendous amount of fun whilst learning a lot of new things. That is education at its best!

Tom loved the drawers of insect specimens and spent ages studying them. They were hands down his favourite part of the museum and seem to have sparked a new obsession.

Lily looking at one of the botanical exhibits

I've recorded these for Tom who now really wants to go to France so he can try to find some Rainbow Leaf beetles.

Tom studying a drawer full of beetles. He really was in his element here and it was lovely to watch him.

Emma playing with the toys in the Natural History section

Emma plays some African instruments

Lily attempts to reassemble pot fragments, an exhibit designed to demonstrate what a tough job archaeologists have. It wasn't easy!

This was a little clockwork exhibit in the foyer that the Podlings loved. 

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Devon 2013 - Random Photos

There is a fibreglass triceratops at Gordano Services on the way to Devon that the girls always want their photo taken with. Every. Single. Time.

At Gordano services

Grandad made the Podlings a tent in the back garden. Flash was rather taken with it too!

 

Watching the National Firework Championships from Shaugh Prior on Dartmoor. The Podlings like to watch fireworks, but don't like the noise, so watching from ten miles away was a good option for them!

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Callington Revisited

Before we moved to Staffordshire, we used to live in Callington in Cornwall, which is about half an hour away from where my parents live. We wanted to go and have a look at the place and show Tom and Lily where we used to live (we moved away when Lily was one). We drove through the town and past our old house and then took the Podlings to play in the park. The park has had a major overhaul since we lived there and has completely changed. It now has a really fun play area, built to look like a Cornish tin mine. The Podlings had a great time playing here before we headed back to Nanny's for tea. Mark and I really miss living in Cornwall, so it was lovely to see it again.

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Cousin Fun

On one of the days we were staying at my parents, my sister, brother-in-law and nephew came down from Bristol to see us. We took all the children, my parents' two dogs and my sisters dog up to a nearby field and ran the socks off them. We had a lovely afternoon and it was so nice to see my nephew Rowan, who is growing so fast. We don't get to see my sister and her family as often as I'd like, so it is always nice to be able to spend some time with them.

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Yelverton Rock

One afternoon, we took the Podlings and the dogs for a walk at Yelverton on Dartmoor. This is somewhere I played a lot as a child and it was lovely to see it again and watch my own children playing there. The Podlings had fun playing football with Grandad and exploring the rock. The area near the rock was the site of RAF Harrowbeer during World War II and there is still plenty of evidence of the airfield to point out to the children. We had a lovely afternoon.

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Home Again

Sunset over Widemouth Bay, Cornwall

We are now back home again after a lovely two weeks' holiday in the Westcountry. We stayed with my parents in Devon for a week and then we spent a week in a caravan in Cornwall with Mark's parents. It was a delightful time of fun, family and, unbelievably, good weather! Needless to say I have a great many photos to share from our time away. However, much as I am dying to get them on the blog*, I have very little time to blog at the moment. I have all the attendant laundry of a fortnights' holiday to deal with (I washed my sixth load this morning and I'm still not at the bottom of the laundry basket!) and my Podlings are all off to school next week, which means that I am more inclined to play with them and enjoy our last week together than I am to wash, clean or blog! Finally, whilst our shiny new Internet connection has a lovely fast download speed, the upload speed is pants! This means that blogging lots of photos is a very long, tedious thing for me to do at the moment. Slowly, slowly might catchy monkey, but it doesn't make for fun blogging! Mark assures me that he can get the upload speed sorted out, but until then I am not inclined to spend my evenings watching my photos uploading at the speed of a sedated snail. Rest assured that when time (and upload speed) permits, I will be posting a great many photos. You will be begging me to stop!

*I have an almost compulsive need to record our family life so that I will have something to look back on when I am rattling around my empty nest in future years! I love our life right now and I don't want to forget a moment of these wonderful years.

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Emma in her favourite dress

Emma was heading out to play in her favourite dress (and wellies of course), but she was happy for me to snap a few pictures first. She calls it her 'twirly dress' and would wear it every day if she could!

"Take one of me sticking my tongue out."

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Double Trouble!

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