Woburn Abbey, gardens, and deer park

My goal is to take a lot of little trips around England during our time here.  I am certain that it will be time for us to leave before we realize it and many places that I would like to visit will be rushed or skipped altogether.  So I had this great plan to take mini trips.  However, Chuckolate's schedule makes my planning difficult and the weather and various minor illnesses have put a bit of a damper on them as well.  I decided to just go for an overnight trip to see something fun.  Many of our trips are to see old houses and gardens and historical types of places that the girls enjoy, but I wanted to plan something that they would really love.  Sophia had received an invite to go to Woburn Safari Park with her Brownies group but the transportation costs made the ticket price more than double!  Plus, I knew Tessa would like it and thought we could do it as a family trip for almost the same price as just Sophia.  Well, before hotel costs, petrol, meals, hmmm, well, saving money isn't the entire point of the trip anyway!

On our first day we went to the other parts of Woburn, so that we could have a full day at the safari park, if we chose to stay that long.  The deer park was interesting, although there wasn't anyplace to leave the car near the deer so we just stopped and watched them a couple of times from the car.

lots and lots of deer (9 different species in the park!)

Woburn Abbey

Hello? Anybody there?

Tea/snack at The Duchess Tea Room

Yummy scone with fresh raspberry jam and clotted cream!

Mmmmm.......

Scrummy!

 After tea, we went through the Woburn Abbey, home for 400 years to the Earls and Dukes of Bedford (including the current 15th Duke and his family).  Photographs are not allowed inside, but it was a very interesting, fancy, old house.  We followed along a specific route and the girls were given booklets with questions to answer on their way through the house.  By answering each of the questions correctly, they were given a prize at the end!  They had a second booklet of questions to answer while we went around the garden, although they weren't really interested in finding the clues by that point in time, so I found many of them and pointed them out to the girls.

This cute little building, "The Folly," was built as a playhouse for a child that lived there at some point in time.  One of the girls' questions was how many spires are on the house.  They loved that question, as they had to run around the house to count them all.

Grumpy Tessa and Cheerful Sophia (someday Tessa will wish she could've hid her momentary unhappiness for more of my photos-oh well!)

The Chinese Dairy

Sophia and Tessa wanted a photo with each of them looking through one side of the glasses.

I wanted one with each of them fully framed in one side.

Then they just got silly!

Sophia, Mommy, and Tessa on the bridge

Closer!

Tessa met a friend!

Sophia found someone to share a book!

Having a chinwag in the gazebo!

Once again, a tree stump becomes a stage!

Very very old tree!

Sophia pets an eagle.

Tessa rides a pig.

Sophia tries to take a stick from a dog to play fetch!

Tessa rides the dog, as well!

Tessa with fields of daffodils

Sophia and Tessa

Sophia made an airplane out of leaves and twigs.

Their prize was a butterfly mask!

April Showers

This picture was taken on the last day of March, when it started raining.  April 30th was when it stopped.  OK, OK, it didn't actually rain nonstop for the entire month.  However, it did rain every day and I read that there was more rain this past April than there has been since records of weather have been kept!!!!!!!

Thetford Forest- High Lodge

Since we bought the trail gator (the bar that connects Tessa's bike to mine in this photo from May 2011), I have wanted to go back to Thetford Forest High Lodge.  We had fun with some friends there last April, and I knew it would be a favorite spot for us.  The only problem with it is that it is a huge place and getting around with Tessa was tough.  She is too big for a pushchair (stroller) generally, but gets too tired with a lot of walking.  Biking also tires/frustrates her easily, but when Mommy is doing all the work, no problem!  Now that we have a bike trailer, we were ready to go!

Unfortunately on the day we planned to go, we had a hard time getting out of the house.  The weather was decent that morning, but the girls were dragging and I was tired of rushing them to go do fun things.  So we took our time and arrived there right at lunchtime.  We had our picnic lunch close to the car so we could just leave the cooler and picnic basket when we went for our bike ride.  After eating, we set off to explore the park.  We rode on the trails and tried out some of the mini playgrounds along the way.  Sophia decided she wanted to lead and led us away from many of the playgrounds, much to her dismay later.  Maybe someday she will learn that Mommy occasionally knows what she is talking about....I won't be holding my breath until she figures it out though!

"Don't take my picture when I'm eating!"  You can see our car with the bikes on the back behind Tessa to the left.

Tada!

Tessa the wood lark

Sophia the wood lark

Sophia posing before sliding down the pole

The girls picked this nice rest/drink spot after riding for awhile.

A new fun addition to the playground

Tessa was a bit scared, but lasted a minute or two.

Sophia loved it and could have stayed all day!

This pole showed the sedimentary layers of the earth.  The girls are standing at the base, so you can see it was very tall!  We thought it was cool!

Tessa(rina) Ballerina

Tessa has been doing ballet since she was a baby.  Well, almost.  When she was a baby we would take Sophia to ballet and I would hold Tessa while she watched the girls dance.  Later I would retrieve her while she crawled into the dance room to join them.  Then I would hold her hand and walk her out of the room when she ran in to join them.  Then I would bring books, colouring books, and snacks galore to bribe her into staying out of the dance room.  Then I signed her up for ballet.  Well, actually there was a slight gap between because Sophia had quit ballet.  She decided that she really only likes doing ballet recitals, not the classes where you have to practice.

Sophia the ballerina (she was about to go do her recital, so yes she was wearing makeup!)(May 2009).

How could this tutu cute girl not do ballet? (April 2010)

June 2010

June 2010

June 2010

Another day before ballet in NM (September 2010).



On her way to ballet in NM (October 2010).

I did find a ballet studio for Tessa once she turned 2 and she did classes there for a year before we moved to England.  She loved it every minute of it so I found a class for her here.  Lately she has had mixed feelings about ballet, as the class has become quite repetitive in order to prepare some students to take a certificate in ballet.  I'm not exactly sure what that is about, only that it means a lot of practice for the same thing, and Tessa got a bit bored.  We'll see what the next class brings, as she will soon be moving up to a five year old class, after a few weeks off.  Whether in ballet or not, we know she'll always be dancing!  Here are some pictures from the last class of the term (and her last 3-4 year old class!).

They do this finger exercise where they touch each finger separately.

Posing for Mommy

Ribbons!

Tessa, blurry in the foreground, and her friend Megan, clear in the background.

Tessa and Megan with their sweeties from Miss Jane.