Lammas Land Park

Tutu came back in August and one of the adventures we had with her was at Lammas Land. It has lots of grassy areas, trees, blackberry bushes, a nice playground, an outdoor pool (we even got to swim in it on another day when it was actually hot!), and the Thames River runs through it so there are ducks, geese, swans and lots of people go punting there (riding in a long, flatish boat, using a long stick to steer by pushing off the bottom of the river- to my understanding anyway). On this day, we did a lot of exploring and blackberry eating.  Then we had a picnic, played on the playground, and fed the birds.

You can see the punt behind Sophia.  You can click on the photo to see it larger.  I think they may have steered themselves into the bushes.

Silly face alert!

I was trying to get a nice photo of the three of us to send to Daddy, but wasn't really happy with any of them.

I think there was something wrong with this little one's foot.

On top of the play structure!

Climbing up a little ways...

Awww....

Tired girls after another fun day...



Here are two more photos from the first time we went to the park, a week or so earlier. That day was quite hot so the girls were able to swim with their friends but also played on the playground.

Finally a day where sun hats are needed!

Sophia, Joe and Ben riding the fun horse...Tessa was too quick to capture!

Riding lessons and Abbey Gardens in Bury St. Edmunds

She really wanted to wear her cowboy boots to riding at least one day.  They were actually my brother's boots when we were little kids so I usually don't allow her to wear them out of the house.

After Sophia's riding lesson on Saturday morning, we took Tutu to the local farm shop, La Hogue, for lunch. Then we drove to Bury St. Edmunds to go to the Abbey Gardens.

This is what I get when I ask for a smile during riding!

This is the serious expression she generally has during her lessons.

Tessa finds a friend at La Hogue Farm Shop

More friends!

About one minute after this photo Tessa got stung by a wasp for the first time! They were all over the place and she set her hand down on top of one sitting on the arm of her chair.  She was quite brave and her sister was jealous!!!  Sophia felt that she should have been stung first, as the older sister.  Really?!  That is taking jealousy a bit too far, Sophia!

We wanted a picture of the sign for our good friend Abbey!  Not sure why Sophia's face is covered and Tessa isn't looking at all though!

If you'd like to read more about Bury St. Edmunds Cathedral and Abbey Gardens, click on the name and it will take you to an informative site.  The quickest possible history though, is that an abbey was originally built in the 600s, named after King Edmund, but later rebuilt.  The current remains (that the girls and tons of other children now enjoy climbing on) are from the 16th century.  One really interesting bit of info is that this was the site where an oath was sworn in the 13th century, which later led to the signing of the Magna Carta.  Now its a fun place to climb.

Riding a very small Merry-go-Round!

Just right for a girl that tends to get scared on fast rides!

The Bury St. Edmunds Cathedral

Corn in the middle of the flower garden?  Sure!

Tessa will someday ask, "Why are there so many photos of me frowning?

relaxing cowgirl

Unfortunately, allowing Sophia to wear cowboy boots tunred out to be a bad idea as the soles fell off and could not be reattached.   She was able to walk around in her socks for awhile, but I decided it wasn't a great idea, so we finished up the park a bit quicker than we had hoped and decided to come back again soon!  That didn't mean we couldn't fit in a little more time for silly photos.

Next door to the Abbey Gardens was a bike shop and Tessa had been needing a new bike, so we popped in and she immediately picked this one out.  I decided to do a bit more shopping around since she didn't even take time to think about it, but she already knew it was, "the one."