England Part 3

Ok! I'm nearly done posting about our six week summer holiday. Read about our first three weeks in England here and here, and about our week in Spain here. The day after we got back to England from Spain was Ella’s birthday. I’m sure I will say this every year, but I can’t believe my baby girl is 4 years old! She seems older and more mature every day, and I am constantly surprised and impressed by her creativity, thoughts and feelings as she learns more and more about the world around her. 

For her birthday we went to Paulton’s Park, which is a children’s theme park located in Hampshire. There are many different rides and attractions, including a whole Peppa Pig world which of course Ella loved. They play the Peppa Pig theme tune over and over which, yes, is as annoying as it sounds. (Side note: Peppa Pig is my least favourite children’s TV show and I rarely let Ella watch it. Of course that now makes her want to watch it more. I just think it is so stupid, although I use the word “silly” when I speak to Ella. She recently told me “It’s ok that Peppa Pig is silly mummy. Silly is good! Silly is funny!” How can I argue with that?)

We spent the day going on different rides with both Ella and Ollie, and we even managed to get Ella on an actual rollercoaster. Yes it was for children but it did have bucket seats and shoulder restraints and was far more thrilling than anything she’s tried before. I think she only did it as she was riding high on her delight at being 4 years old, so she did something braver than she normally would. When she got off she was laughing and said it was fun, but declined when we asked if she wanted to go again!

The next day Dave and I took Ella and Ollie to Staunton Farm. Ella and Dave had already visited the farm prior to our holiday in Spain, however she was happy for another visit. I don't think children ever get tired of seeing animals! Along with the usual donkeys, cows, sheep, goats and llamas, this farm has pretty extensive indoor soft play and outdoor playground areas so we spent our time between these areas and feeding the animals.

The farm wasn't very busy, so I think these two sheep were very hungry. They wouldn't leave Ella alone and she ended up just dropping her bucket of feed and running away. It was pretty funny!

A few days later Dave, Andy and I took Ella to the nearby Petersfield Lake for a walk and a play at the playground. It was a beautiful morning, and the café and playground were full of mums and toddlers enjoying the weather. There is a circular path around the lake which is about a mile long. We only got halfway before stopping at the café for coffees and a play at the playground.

Later that day I headed off to London, meeting up with my dear friends Jamie and Guillaume. After spending the afternoon in a beer garden, we ended up going to Wimbledon in the evening, lining up for nearly an hour for grounds passes. I loved going to the Australian open in Melbourne and had been to Wimbledon once before. The atmosphere at both are great, but there is just something special about Wimbledon. After a quick walk around the outside courts we headed to Henman Hill to watch the action on Court 1.  I was also so happy to spend some quality time with my friends, and the night came too quickly as I caught (actually nearly missed!) the last train back to Horndean, where Andy's parents live.

Apparently while I was gone for the day Ella and Ollie were looking for me on TV:

One afternoon that week Andy and I took the kids to Queen Elizabeth Country Park. It was a pretty warm day, so we started by visiting the café near the parking lot for an ice cream. Then we went on a hike through the forest, most of which was a pretty steep upward climb. It was a bit of a challenge to get Ella to keep climbing, but she was rewarded with a pretty cool playground at the top. Ollie had a nice sleep in the baby carrier for most of the hike, and then joined his sister for a play.

The rest of the week Andy’s dad was busy helping to set up for the main event: Andy’s brother’s wedding on Saturday. Andy's brother, Russ, was most excited about the car they had rented for the wedding weekend, a vintage Jag. He took everyone for a spin in it the night before the wedding.

The location for the wedding was gorgeous, a community hall in a small English town, overlooking green fields. The weather was perfect as well so everyone was able to stay outside before dinner and enjoy the view. There were lots of kids so Ella had some playmates, and there was a small mini-golf set up for the guests to enjoy. The kids, especially Ella, had a blast on the dance floor. She is quite the little dancer and many people commented on her very high energy levels all night. She definitely tired me out! Ollie was pretty happy bouncing around while people held him on the dance floor, but man he is getting heavy. I can only hold him for so long these days!

The week after the wedding we went to Centre Parks which I will write about in my next post. From Centre Parks we headed north to Liverpool to visit Andy’s dad’s side of the family - most notably his grandma who was not able to make it to the wedding. It was so lovely for Ella and Ollie to spend time with their great-grandma.

While we were in Liverpool we had a visit with our besties from Melbourne, Charlotte and Adam. They moved back to Leeds, which is about an hour from Liverpool, just over a year ago and we miss them SO MUCH. It was so nice to see them, and so easy to just fall back into our old friendship, chatting as if we'd only seen them yesterday. They have a little girl called Frankie who is 7 months old, so it was lovely to meet her as well. They are very happy in Leeds, but we were all reminiscing about how great Melbourne is, and the things we missed about Australia. Unfortunately Australia is missing the one thing we all moved back home for: family. Anyway, it was so fun to spend the day with them and I was sad to say good-bye to them once again. Hopefully now that we are living in Canada we will be able to visit England, and these guys, more regularly.

Once we got back from Liverpool we had one more day at Andy's parent's house and then it was back off to Canada for us. It was a wonderful six weeks and very special to be able to spend so much time with Andy's parents. As I mentioned above, we are hoping to visit England at least annually now that we are so close - once you've lived in Australia your definition of "close" is somewhat skewed! Seven hours on a plane is pretty easy for us now, even with two young kids! Although 2019 has been a busy year for us so far, so now that we are back we are looking forward to enjoying the rest of the summer in Canada, and taking a break from any airplane travel for a while.