We are coming to the end of our late and extended summer holiday now, and I’m staying at my mum’s house which gives me a little time to reflect on what we have been up to and begin to catch up on all the blog posts that are pending.  After a relaxed and quiet summer with the children at home, our family holiday time together with daddy started on Saturday 24th August.  We were staying at mum’s then as well, and we had a lovely afternoon at our favourite National Trust property, Chastleton House and Garden.

The short walk down from the car park to the house takes you through a field of sheep.  Rabbit was particularly excited, and after a close encounter with one of the sheep, she came running to tell me “I heard it do a actual baa!”

We got a timed ticket to enter the house shortly after we arrived, picking up an explorer backpack for the kids on the way in.  We have learnt from experience that it’s best to have one, not four, or we end up carrying them all!  The children were happy to share the binoculars, torch and magnifying glass which added a bit of fun without being too much trouble.

I thought we might have to move fairly quickly round the house but in fact we spent quite a long time in there.  I was impressed by the children’s ability to concentrate and they all found something of interest in every room.

Owl would have spent even longer there if he could, particularly in the reading room.  Monkey was fascinated by the typewriter and it felt strange to have to explain what it was!

I really enjoyed looking at the wood carvings around the house, and I think it would be fun to go back with sketch books sometime and draw some of them.

About half way round, I remembered that I had told the children we could take photos of their cuddly toys in the house which added a new dimension and kept them interested for longer.  Owl and Rabbit especially liked posing their toys next to a chamber pot under one of the beds, and they found out that it is one of the oldest items in the house.

As always we spent a lot of time in the long gallery at the top of the house, testing out the toys.

The teddies posed for a few more photos too.

After a quick look in the kitchen, we came out to the courtyard for a snack and a bit of browsing in the second hand bookshop. Then we headed out to the garden to enjoy the late afternoon sunshine.  All the children – and the toys – rolled down the slope which just about covered one of our #50things though it wasn’t exactly a big hill.

The toys – and the children – enjoyed the topiary.

They were happily occupied for a long time hiding in the bushes, jumping out and making the toys do the same.

Then – I’m not quite sure how this started – the toys did a bit of sky diving.  Owl, Monkey and Rabbit (with some help from daddy) threw their toys up as high as possible over and over again until they were satisfied that I had taken some good enough photos.

Tiddler had a go too, but his teddy didn’t get quite so high up.  There was just time for another roll down the slope and then we had to leave.

A little stroll back to the car park, with a chance to say goodbye to the sheep on the way, rounded off a lovely afternoon perfectly.