Puddles, rockets and bubbles in the New Forest

On Sunday there was a rare break in the rain, so we legged it outside amid the usual complaints of, “A walk?  But why? What are we doing to do??”  I blame the National Trust.  If it wasn’t for their efforts to make nature interesting with trails and so forth, maybe walking for walking’s sake wouldn’t seem such a bizarre prospect to my children.  So we compromised and packed few props. 

Some bubble mixture and a rocket launcher that it ominously said on the packet could travel 400m.

We live in the middle of a forest, which just sometimes can be a bit claustrophobic.  So we went out to the open moors.  As luck would have it the first (and best) prop turned out to be a natural one.  The trails across the forest had turned into a network of puddles, and the unexpected news that we didn’t actually care about how wet they got for once turned around everyone’s moods.  Ok so Katie took about 10 minutes to accept this.  But this was only to be expected seeing as she normally spends the entire school run in puddles.  And she is 3 (something I sometimes feel like I should have tattooed to my forehead to save explaining to strangers).

And then we stopped, and Katie set to work with the bubbles.  I say Katie, although she doesn’t really do holding bubble mixture.  It’s sticky, isn’t it, and there are slaves for that kind of thing.  The rocket launcher turned out to be unexpectedly cool, with a launch pad you jumped on and Katie discovered a new mission in life as chief rocket retriever, a springer spaniel in training (the packet didn't lie about the 400m).

A good afternoon when we didn’t need to hurry or worry about anything.  And all that exercise was a great excuse for hot chocolate and brownies.  On the way back we discovered a secret millionaire’s lane, a hotchpotch of houses leading down to this amazing concrete architectural house built into the side of the hill.  It felt a bit like the start of a novel.

I’m linking this post up to Cas at @MummyNevaSleeps ‘s new linky, ‘All the small things’.  A typically wonderful idea.

<div align="center"><a href="http://mummyneversleeps.com/small-things/" title="All the Small Things - MummyNeverSleeps"><img src="http://mummyneversleeps.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/SMALLsmallthings.jpg" alt="All the Small Things - MummyNeverSleeps" style="border:none;" /></a></div>