I’ve just spent a fun hour sorting out all the many photographs we’ve taken over the past couple of weeks.  We had a lovely and very busy Easter, despite the rather gloomy and wet weather, and it’ll take me a couple of posts to catch you up.

We spent Easter weekend up with my parents in Northamptonshire.  It’s becoming an annual tradition as the children love the neighbouring village’s egg hunt and duck race – they talk about it all year!  Before the main Easter egg hunt, we did our own little hunt around my parents’ garden.  And so the chocolate stock-piling began!

Soon after our mini hunt, the kids joined all the village children running around the local playing fields gathering handfuls of sweets and chocolate.  Then we walked en masse down to the stream (which was pretty high and fast-flowing after the recent rain) to cheer on our rubber ducks as they raced down the river!  For the first time, one of our ducks actually won a prize, so a big box of chocolate was added to the stockpile.

Rather than drive back to my parents’ place, we decided to explore the local countryside and walk back.  So we downloaded an OS map to our phones, pulled on our hiking boots and hit the muddy tracks between Blakesley and Greens Norton.

Many of the fields we passed through were full of sheep and new lambs which was quite a treat for the children (although they were hugely unimpressed that we had planned roast lamb for dinner later that afternoon!)

I loved getting away from the village and roads and into the rolling landscape – it’s a pretty part of the country.

Along the way, the children stopped to inspect sheep poo (!)…

…and even an animal carcass

They also loved passing farms so they could get up close and personal with animals that were alive! Here they are saying hello to a shed full of cows!

As they were watching, the cows lined up to watch them – seemingly fascinated by their visitors!

As we neared my parents’ village, the weather had warmed up enough for us to jettison our coats.

We covered nearly 7km and the children were still smiling when we arrived home in time for our lamb dinner (and their chocolate reserves!).