The South of England Show, Ardingly

I forget just how massive the South of England Show is!  Nik and I went along on the Friday in June to explore the stands, displays and shows and found so much to see, eat and drink, it was epic!  There is so much going on with plenty to entertain little ones and grown ups alike. We happened to be there "on duty" without the kids in order to take photos and make notes but we kept seeing things the twins would love and had we not already had plans to be at Woodlands family festival that weekend, we would have gone back on the Saturday with them.

My personal favourites were the blacksmith competitions, the wine walk, the motocross stunt bikers, the WI displays and of course, the shopping!  I bagged myself a bargain waterproof coat in a gorgeous bright yellow with polka dot lining, it's come in handy already with our somewhat wet June so far.

The Young Artisans tent was so inspiring with some truly gorgeous designs by such talented young people, we spotted a few from Uckfield College!  The three crowned winners ranged in age from 17 to 21.

The blacksmiths made for some awesome photo opportunities with the sparks, fire and steam against the dark backgrounds, it looks like such hard work (and it really is, I tried it once helping make a spike for St. Marks' Church gate back in 2017, see my sparky photo I took back then).

There were some beautiful flowers and brightly coloured WI made crafts in the WI/flower tent, there were lots of categories with some amazing interpretations in each craft competition, of course I was drawn to the rainbow ones ;)

The Wine Walk was informative and fun, we really enjoyed learning more about some of our local vineyards, I never knew there were so many and we've now been inspired to plan a tour of some East Sussex vineyards this summer which will make a great feature so watch this space come Autumn time!  Of course, having a few tasters of the various offerings was fun too, the English sparkling wines we have locally are truly wonderful!

Of course, there's a lot more going on with lots of agricultural areas, various farm animal competitions and displays with sheep-shearing demos and the like.  There are lots of food stands with food to eat as well as plenty to take home such as local cheeses, meats, booze and sweet treats. We bought some Sussex Charmer to take home which is a mix of mature cheddar and Parmesan so has a lovely deep, tangy flavour and is almost gone already!

Despite the rather dingy weather with a few downpours, we had a brilliant day out!

Oast Farm Wassail 2019

So much fun, our second year at the Oast Farm Wassail, this time it was sunny!  We loved the morris dancers again and the torchlit procession up to the orchard, the chanting, singing and draping the tree with cider soaked bread.  And of course, the apple cake and hot apple juice afterwards followed by some shopping in the farm shop.

Wilderness Wood with new friends on NYE

You might be getting bored of seeing Wilderness Wood on my blog but I never will, I love it there and we went back again on New Year's Eve with new friends we met at a school visit so hopefully the kids will be starting the same school together in September and the twins are managing to expand their friend circle already as am I.

Of course I took lots of photos again and loved seeing Kalyan hit it off with William as he's been left out of the fun a little when Priya gets together with Bella.  They're mutual friends with each other too so that's great for future play dates too :)  Since Christina's husband was also working on NYE, we met up for some company outdoors to tire the kids out, it worked perfectly and I had a lovely morning!

Ice Skating at Calverly Grounds in Tunbridge Wells - review

We booked a session on 22nd December for the ice skating at Calverly Grounds in Tunbridge Wells and had a fab time!

Christmas at Wilderness Wood

Right at the very start of our Advent Adventures (post to follow!), we headed to Wilderness Wood for the first of our activities behind door one...  Buy a Christmas tree!

I knew they had festivities planned so we went there in the evening to choose this year's Nordmann Fir and check out the outdoor kitchen in action.  What I didn't realise was that when you buy your tree you get a free wood-fired pizza included - bonus!  Tonight's the last night they're doing it so make sure you head there if you still need a tree and enjoy your super fresh pizza too!

Tulley's Farm Spook Fest 2018 - review

A Halloween festival, hell yes!  I was so excited to visit Tulley's Farm for their annual Spook Fest (the family friendly daytime version, not to be confused with the terrifying looking Shocktober Fest which is on in the evenings for older kids and adults).   I'd never been before but had heard it was good and was excited to spend a Halloweeny day with the twins since Nik and I were away for Halloween itself.  You know how much I love Halloween and when my friend Steph asked us to join her family there for the day I was even more excited, Priya adores her eldest daughter Bella and they are all so cute together, holding hands and generally being cute!

PYO Pumpkins at Tulley's Farm, Sussex - review

I've been thrilled that more and more Halloween trends have been making their way across the pond in the last few years!  I love that Americans go all out at Halloween, I've always loved it (and been super jealous of the Halloween section in Pottery Barn) and with the new (as far as I'm aware, or maybe its just a recent Insta-trend) pumpkin patches popping up everywhere, there is even more seasonal fun to be had over here.

This is the first time we've actually made it to one and it was after a full day of Halloweening!  We went along to review Tulley's Farm Spook Fest (the family friendly daytime version of their super scary Halloween Festival) and had to stop at their pumpkin patch on our way home to grab some gourds.

Luckily as it was the end of a sunny day, we were lucky with the light too and I, of course, took a fair few photos of our fun and frolics as the twins and their friend had a whale of a time!

Willow & Wild Box Subscription - review

We recently received a subscription box from Willow & Wild Box to review.  The boxes were founded by local Mum Roz with the idea to share her passion for teaching her kids about planting and growing seeds.  Read more about the concept here, it's about making it easy for parents to enjoy spending this time with their kids which I love and appreciate as a busy working Mum with two of them keeping me on my toes!  They're for kids aged 3-8 and inspired by nature, designed to get the kids interested in cooking, crafts, outdoor adventures and conservation, learning and having fun.

Woodlands Festival 2018 - our favourite bits

Oh my gosh, the twins did not want to leave Woodlands Festival, Kalyan actually started crying when we said it was time to go home.  They had an absolute blast!  It was such a lovely event with so much going on without being overwhelming.  The beauty of a smaller festival in a lovely venue with fab bands and fun activities.

Observatory Science Centre at Herstmonceux

On the early May bank holiday Monday we met up with some new friends at Herstmonceux for the "Bubbletastic Weekend" event at the Observatory Science Centre.

Snow Days in Sussex!

It's pretty rare for us to get decent snow down here so I was a bit gutted when our first flurry this winter came when I was half blind with conjunctivitis.  This week, apart from the obvious dangers, I was really quite excited about all the snow!  The twins were so excited to wake up to such a thick covering and it was on my day off with them anyway so we didn't need to try to get anywhere and just got ready for some snowy adventures.

Wassailing at Oast Farm Buxted

We'd never heard of wassailing before we moved here.  You'll probably already know how much we love visiting Oast Farm shop & cafe and it's there we first heard about the wassail.  Until now, it's always clashed with Nik's weekend at work or the twins' nap time but this year we made it along and we loved it!

If, like us, you haven't heard of this ceremony before, it's basically a way to bless the orchard to ensure a good harvest come autumn.

The awesome Bob in his crown, excited to get wassailing

Woodlands Festival

It's that miserable time of year, Christmas is over, there are no more parties and the weather sucks.  We're all back at work/school and I need things to look forward to!  I'm trying to plan some fun weekends and looking forward to some other exciting adventures we have coming up this year.  After discovering the ultimate fun of a family festival last year, we're booked to attend no less than three this year already!  After our first (and second and third) family festival last year, we're really excited to be discovering more this year.  

A new one for us will be Woodlands Festival which is in June at Elm Wood, near Hawkhurst in Kent.  It's still not too far away so we'll be close enough if we do need to abandon camping with the kids and come home but fingers crossed it all goes as well as the Medieval Festival last year!

This festival looks like another amazing extravaganza of family activities, colourful fun and music.  This video of last year's highlights below looks amazing and I'm in love with that rainbow bunting above!

Wakehurst's Kew Science Festival - day two review

I already wrote about our first impressions of Kew Science Festival at Wakehurst but we also went back the following day for more educational fun.

On the Sunday, Kalyan's first thought was for the duck in the puddle we'd seen on our way out the day before.  He was so excited to see it and luckily the same duck was in the same puddle again!

Brighton Kite Festival - review by Bex

We went along to the Brighton Kite Festival for the first time this year and loved it!  It was definitely the highlight of Kalyan's year - he adores all flying things and was yelling constantly about the "flags" - "Look!"  "Look!"  He didn't have enough arms to point in all directions, it was so funny!  We actually had a great time too, helped by the fact it was a gorgeous day.

Elderflower Fields family festival - review by Bex

I cannot be more excited to tell you about Elderflower Fields family festival!  This blog post has taken me many hours to put together because of the sheer awesomeness of the event and the number of photos I just had to share to show you all how pretty and fun and exciting and varied and colourful it was!  I mean we really, really loved it!  We were so lucky with the weather, it was

Apple pressing at Oast Farm, Buxted - Adventures by Bex

I have a HUGE amount to catch up on with this blog (I feel like I'm always saying this and never managing it).  It's been neglected for far too long.  I've been so busy which is a good thing and I'm feeling much happier in general these days but I miss sharing our experiences have so many plans including another new guest blogger and continuing to improve our content and photography.  On that note, please see my new photography website - Bexphoto.com.  Apologies that the photos in this post aren't great, they're all iPhone as I hadn't expected this adventure and my jet lag addled brain/body wouldn't have coped with the heavy Nikon anyway!

We just got back from a couple of fantastic weeks in Malaysia visiting my parents for the first time with the twins so I have plenty to share about our adventures abroad.  It will take a while as November is already looking majorly hectic with the twins' birthday, my niece's naming ceremony and 1st birthday party and lots of meetings for my various clubs!  For now though, I want to share our jet lag fuelled walk to refresh us all and enjoy the crisp outdoors of Sussex again after our humid tropical escapades!

With a combined issue of jet lag AND the clocks changing, we were awakened by K at a not very bright but very early 3:30am!  I had some lovely snuggles with them downstairs for an hour before Daddy joined us and we all ate eggs (the only thing in the house, after our super tired arrival home at 8pm last night we regret the decision not to go to the supermarket!) for breakfast at 4:30am.  We unpacked and Daddy took the twins to the shop at 6:30am while I went back to bed for a couple of hours.  Shift change at 9 and Daddy went to bed so I took the twins out for a walk and some fresh air (and plenty of daylight which apparently helps with jet lag).  I decided to take them down our track as it avoids all roads and leads to our awesome local farm shop (where I could get coffee in their cafe!)

We had a lovely walk through the leaves and rotting apples en route to the chorus of "apples" (K) and "dabbles" (P) until I said not to touch as they were bad apples on the ground so the chorus then became "bad, bad bad" with a mixture of the above apple related exclamations!  They were, as often, super cute, holding hands and giving each other cuddles (these are usually one way from K to P) and when I asked them to stand over there for a photo, K put on a smile - the first time he's ever done this before they both proceeded to only look at the ground in front of me for some reason!

Anyway, we continued down and they walked all the way with only a little persuasion at the end as they were about to give up, demanding to be carried.  Turns out a friend's husband was there with the twins' friend Seb so we had some lovely company for our coffee and flapjack before Alan took Seb over to see the tractor which arrived with some apples.  The little ones (and big ones) were then invited over by Bob to help with apple pressing.  We jumped at the chance and the twins loved throwing the apples into the pulper and then catching the juice from the presser!  Bob was SO lovely and great with the kids, they had a blast!

Not to mention getting their first taste of juice (we are a fairly strict household when it comes to sugar with only water or milk being the usual) and it doesn't come fresher than this!  Needless to say, they wolfed it down and Bob very kindly gave us the first jugful to take home.

Of course, they both wanted to be carried back up the hill but I'd come prepared with slings so strapped them on and away we went with our spoils.  K was happy looking at me and looking at the leaves above us.  P was happy being bounced on my back as we hiked back home.  Phew, knackered is an understatement but I'm wide awake now so making the most of some peace to catch up on a few things.

Poor Daddy hadn't even managed to sleep so he missed out for nothing and is currently snoozing away while the twins nap but he was delighted with the juice and has frozen some to keep it fresh.

I'll be sharing a proper review of the new Oast Farm Cafe soon as my new brunch club is heading there for our next outing!

Wilderness Woods - Fun Days Out - Review by Bex

We had a brilliant morning playing at Wilderness Wood in Hadlow Down yesterday.  As well as being a beautiful, family owned and run woodland, there is lots to do including organised activities and adventure playgrounds and a cafe selling delicious homemade cakes and other food.

Caramel Cake

For the twins, the playground by the cafe was the best bit with a mud kitchen, pirate decks and a tyre swing (which they're still a bit young for but Priya did a great job of holding on!)  There are picnic tables outside, beautifully decorated with wild posies and there's an outdoor kitchen with wood fired pizza oven.

Kalyan wanted to push Priya on the tyre but didn't quite get the concept of it swinging back towards him!

After a play next to the cafe, it was time to head off and explore.  We found muddy puddles, a wigwam, logs (which K tried to lift before giving up and trying a piece of bark), lots of trees and birds.

 The adventure playground area was quite small with just a zip line and a slide but we all had fun!

And then we set off on another trail through the Christmas Tree field and down, finding bugs, brambles, butterflies and sticks along the way...

Before heading back up to the cafe for cake!

Mum and I had the caramel cake and Nik, Dad and the twins all had the orange cake.  Both were moist and delicious and extremely generous slices.  For 5 pieces of cake and 4 coffees it cost £23.  For entry to the woods you just "pay what you feel" to help maintain the area.

Afterwards, Nik had to go to work so he and Dad left and Mum and I took the twins for another little walk in search of the fairy garden we heard about.  We never found it (the map could be better!) but enjoyed another trail exploring through the woods.

It was a great morning out and we will definitely be returning!  We could easily spend a whole day there if the twins didn't get tired and need a nap.  I'd like to go for lunch next time and sample some more of their yummy food!

They run lots of workshops and activities for older children too with lots going on in the holidays and monthly BBQs.  You can also camp there or just hire a space for a BBQ yourself.  They do weddings and have a Yurt with fire pits and there's also a Forest School for little ones (age 2.5+).

See the Wilderness Woods website for more details and check out the Wilderness Cafe website for their menu and info too.