Thursday 18 April 2013

Our Urban Adventure

Whenever the kids are on holiday, I always ask they what they want to do and one of the first things they reply is "go on an adventure". That's our code for grab a bag of snacks and a bottle of water then head off in a random direction or possibly with a loose plan of where you'll end up and just see what you can find. Some of our favourite parks have been found in this way. Best of all, you get a whole day's entertainment (and some exercise in the fresh air) and it doesn't cost a penny ! Lots of people say to me : "But there's nothing to see where I live". There are always things to see, whether it's looking out for wild flowers, pine cones and feathers or heading to the centre of housing estates to find new play areas.

Here's what we discovered on our mammoth walk on Monday :


While I was getting everything prepared, Pierre and Juliette discovered the pavement chalk in the garage and decorated outside our house !


I bet we have the brightest drain cover in the world !


First thing we discovered - a completely burnt-out car being towed away, which the kids thought was very exciting ! They also thought this big, shiny, half-submerged ball was great fun and spent ages running and jumping so that they could sit on top !


"It's Chuggington", yelled Pierre ! We had to stand and watch the digger filling up the train with gravel for ages. Pierre pointed out the red flags that the railway workers put out to stop the trains. I'm pretty sure he'll be reenacting this little adventure the next time he gets his train set out !


We sang the song from Dora the Explorer about the grumpy troll living under the bridge when we crossed this bridge. But as you can tell from everyone's faces, they were getting hungry and tired so it was time for a break.


Picnic time ! It may not have been blazing sunshine but at least it was reasonably warm. And it wasn't raining !


After our pit stop, we were ready to continue. Juliette found a novel approach to doing hurdles !



We found a tree that had been blown down almost horizontal but was still bursting to life, covered in pale pink blossom that the photo doesn't do justice. We decided it was a good meataphor for life and never giving up.


It may look like a rotten tree stump covered in interesting-looking fungus and nettles to grown-ups but to the kids, it was a fairy village and the nettles were there to stop humans and animals getting in !


We saw a whole family of ducks and fed them the leftover bread from our picnic.


We got up close and personal to a couple on the bank and Pierre laughed at their webbed feet.


We also laughed at this bird - is it a moorhen? - picking the absolute worst place in the entire pond to build his nest. Doh !


We hunted out the first signs of spring.


And had a looooong play in the playground.


Juliette again found a unique way of enjoying the facilities !


The kids were delighted when we stumbled across a roundabout in the middle of nowhere.


Especially when Pierre managed to grab the tassel and won himself a free ride !


Almost back home, we stumbled across an ice cream van and had the first ice cream (outside) of the season. We left our house at 11am and got back home at 6pm so it was an epic adventure !

I checked on Mappy when we got home and from our house to the park is 3.4km. Add on the random wanderings to explore unknown areas and the circuit at the park and we must have walked about 8 or 9km in total so that's about 5 miles. I wonder how many calories that burned ?!

Other blogposts you may be interested in :


Mama's taking us to the zoo !

8 comments:

  1. looks like you had a fab day. ive never just gone out with the kids with no idea where we;re going. i might try it!

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    1. LOL We do it all the time. They love it if you walk to an interection and say "right, you choose - which road shall we take?"!

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  2. Lovely - so much to see and do just walking. I used to use chalk like that and so do my kids. Best thing is it gets washed off by the rain.

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  3. Certainly looked like you burned enough calories to enjoy those ice creams, looks like a great day out and all with walking from home. I love the idea of just heading off, my kids love to do this too, we do sometimes loose our bearings which just adds to the fun!

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  4. Love the drain cover! Tee hee. A budding Banksy!

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  5. chalk activities seem to be the 'in' activity this week on Country Kids - i must get some for my two. great drawings x

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  6. I love your attitude - you're right, there's always something to do and something new to see & investigate if you go out and look!

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  7. looks like a great fun day, just shows you dont always have to spend money to have a great day out

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