With the half term holidays underway, we faced the prospect last weekend of spending a chunk of one of the sunniest days of the break in the car on the way to my parent’s place.  So we decided to break the journey with a family picnic at Kenwood House on the edge of Hampstead Heath to make the most of the sunshine.

It’s probably fifteen years since we were at Kenwood (I think the last time was for a rather splendid Singalong Sound of Music show in our early twenties!!) – I’d forgotten how lovely it was, and how peaceful and quiet the grounds are.  Although a lot of other people had clearly had the same idea as us, the lawn was so big it never felt crowded.

Once the kids were fed and watered, I managed to grab them for a few minutes to try and take some sibling photos.  So here is my duo in May 2016.  Sophie is looking so grown up!

And they are both as cheeky as ever!

Mostly, they fidgeted and pulled silly faces, so I didn’t keep them posing for long!

Free from my photographic demands, they set to work exploring the grounds – running back and forth to the lake repeatedly!

Sophie chased her brother everywhere.

The children soon found a fabulous climbing tree, and attempted to get as high as we’d let them!

Sophie looked like quite the explorer up high!  She’s so physical – it’s easy to forget she’s only three!

We spent a wonderful hour walking all over the grounds, getting a little bit lost amongst the woodland.  But the promise of an ice cream kept Alex and Sophie moving forward and eventually we found our way back to the house – and most importantly, the lovely little cafe!

Loaded up with lollies, we wandered through the stunning, vivid rhododendrons back to the car and onwards to the Midlands.

What an oasis in the city – we just need to come back to explore the actual house!