Photos of Elvaston Castle

We are really lucky with where we live, 20 minutes in one direction and we are in the peak district, and 20 minutes in the other direction and we are in the centre of the city, which has some amazing parks and open spaces.

One of our very favourite places is Elvaston Castle. With beautiful scenery and plenty of wildlife it is the perfect place to spend the day. I think the photos speak for themselves!

Sophie was very pleased to have mastered the play park! Shes getting so much more confident

Catch up Sophie!

We had lots of fun feeding the ducks and geese!

I love the contrast of woods and open spaces

One tired little girl!

Thanks for looking! x

Walkers Hoops and Crosses Lunchbox Creations

We try and spend as much time as possible outside when the weather is good, after all we have to make the most of it. This of course often means picnics. It can be quite challenging to come up with original ideas, rather than the same old sandwiches every time, which is why the Tots 100 and Walkers Lunchbox Creations competition is great.

It really got me thinking of how I can make our picnics more fun - while still eating healthily. I'm hoping to get lots of ideas from the other entries too :) Here's my entry.

Our lunch today consisted of homemade falafel burgers with lettuce in pitta bread, with cucumber, carrot and yellow pepper crudites and homemade tzatziki for dipping and of course a packet of Walkers Hoops and Crosses. The carrot sticks made a great board to play noughts and crosses :) We also had Mikado fruit skewers, which went down very well with the little one.

Highfield Happy Hens, Etwall, Derbyshire

Yesterday we visited Highfield Happy Hens at Etwall. I have been meaning to visit for a long time now as I had heard some great things about it, and I love the way it was started.

Over 20 years ago, the owners started inviting homeless youngsters into their home. They needed something for them to do, so they started helping out a neighbour by collecting eggs. They then built their own chicken sheds and it seems to have gone from strength to strength. They now work with both the youth offending service and the education authority.

Highfield Happy Hens now has a farm shop, tea rooms, childrens play areas, crazy golf, animals to feed and you can even collect your own eggs!

Unfortunately when we got up today we were faced with the typical British summer - it was chucking it down! We debated on whether to still go or not, but in the end we donned our wellies and waterproofs and off we went.

There are advantages of the rain of course!

When we arrived we walked into a very welcoming looking shop, which had lots of lovely looking fresh produce, as well as a range of childrens toys. We bought some animal food which was very reasonably priced at 50p for a bag. The tea room was clean and tidy and they had some lovely looking cakes, although we had bought a picnic!

Due to the rain we headed straight to the indoor play area where there were various toys and climbing frames - Sophie particularly liked the tractor sit on ride.

The rain soon eased off and we took this as our cue to head on towards the animals, we passed pigs and sheep then headed up to an indoor barn, which had pigs, goats, lambs and calves which could be fed. Further up the track there were various different breeds of chickens, before reaching the top of the path with lots of free range chickens in a field which we fed. Sadly the weather didn't allow us much time outdoors, so we headed up another track to the big barns where we could collect some eggs. I think this was definitely the highlight of Sophies day - she loved looking for and collecting the eggs! You then take your eggs to the shop to pay for them and they are boxed up.

We then headed back to the indoor play area, where there are a few picnic benches and ate our lunch. It was a shame the weather stopped us using the outdoor play and picnic areas, and spending more time looking at the animals, but we will definitely be back again, hopefully when the weather is better.

Click here to visit the Highfield Happy Hens website