July always brings one of our favourite events of the year, and a real local highlight for this Herne Hill family – the brilliant and overwhelmingly massive Lambeth Country Show!  We go nearly every year, and have done since we moved to Herne Hill, and I’m finding we’re having more fun with every year that passes.  This year in particular was excellent as we didn’t have to worry about pushchairs and structured nap timings, and both Alex and Sophie were so much more engaged with the range of activity going on.

We started our weekend with an old family favourite – the donkey rides!  Our pair got perhaps the most appropriately named donkeys in the herd – Alex rode “Gordon” (his favourite Thunderbird character) and Sophie rode “George” (her beloved Peppa Pig’s baby brother!).

The ride was very short – but Alex and Sophie loved every second!

We were joined by their friends Rosita and Rafe (and mum Sarah) – and they too loved their first donkey experiences!

Rosita, Alex and Sophie were engrossed in the eco zone at the bugs and poo stand!  Here they are trying to identify animals by their poo samples!  Perfect entertainment for preschoolers!

Alex spent most of the time at the Show begging us to go to the fair zone – and he wasn’t disappointed.  We visited both days and he loved the range of child friendly rides.  We was excited to take his friend Rosita onto his all-time favourite ride, the runaway train.  Sadly she bumped her head on the first corner and didn’t enjoy it at all – but I think a cuddle from Alex and an ice cream sorted her out!  Sophie braved the train on Sunday – she did so well consider how little she is!

She also enjoyed some more age appropriate rides, including swings:

Here they are on a much more sedate ride:

The boys hit the dodgems and had a blast speeding around:

And Alex had a go on the big helter skelter, although is nursing a bit of a friction burn from it!

We loved the live music – both children kept spontaneously bursting into dance when they heard the live reggae, it was hilarious watching them get overcome by the urge to move!

Here they are on video with their unique dance styles – Sophie’s doing a kind of funky chicken and Alex is attempting a rather aggressive looking robot dance.

What a fun-packed weekend.  I didn’t take nearly enough photographs – we were too busy running around exploring the fair.  But we also enjoyed judging our favourite vegetable animals and looking at the prize winning cakes, visiting some of the animals in the farm zone, eating vast amounts of stunning street food and checking out the sport and recreation in the activate zone.

Roll on 2016!