Monday was penciled in our diary as our family day for this half term. We woke up to glorious sunshine, loaded the car with a picnic and wellies and made our way over to Wrexham. Keen to make the most of our National Trust membership we had arranged to spend the afternoon at Chirk Castle as they were running a Pumpkin Carving event.
But as soon as we left the house we realised that the sun had been quite deceiving and it was actually quite cold outside. We'd bought the kids' navy winter coats with us so I thought we'd be ok being layered up. It's only the end of October - surely it couldn't be that cold already could it? Oh, how wrong was I. It was almost Baltic.
When we arrived we decided we'd start off with having a Picnic, after being in the car for an hour and a half it made sense to feed the kids before wandering around the castle and gardens. It was a fair trek from Home Farm to the Castle itself, the views along the way were amazing. I wish we'd arrived a little earlier as I realised they had a play area for the kids.
We had a wander through the Castle itself first. When we first started with the National Trust, I worried how the kids would behave when we took them to places like this; would they get bored and run a riot? But in the in the most recent properties we've been to, they hide little soft toys in different rooms for the kids to find. This keeps the girls occupied as we wander around. They got to burn off some energy playing with the hobby horses in the courtyard while Mark and Osh went up to the turrets.
Shortly before 3pm, we decided to make our way back to Home Farm for some pumpkin carving fun. The kids had been looking forward to this all day. We paid £4 per child for the pumpkins, but they had already been cleaned out and all we had to do was carve our patterns into them. They supplied all the tools and even had templates to follow. I think the best part for me is that the pumpkins weren't being carved at home and making a mess in my kitchen. When we were finished they even gave us a tea light to take home to light in our pumpkins.
How proud do my babies look with their pumpkins? I love this photo.
Osh is now in France on a trip with the Urdd visiting Disneyland. He won't be back until Saturday morning. We have a bonfire party planned before I head down to Swansea with work on Sunday. By the time I arrive home on Monday, it will be time to get the kids ready to go back to school on Tuesday.
This year is whizzing by and I can't believe there are only two months left of 2018. It's been a funny old year really with a lot of ups and downs for us a family. But family days like this are what I live for.
GM
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