Easter Holidays

The first week of Easter we headed down south to catch up with lots of family. As we are such a big family now there was no space for us at either set of parents so we decided to hire a cottage in Staffordshire close to the Shropshire lot and not too far from the Cheshire lot. It worked really well. The cottage was an old Post Office and was perfect for us. We had a Tesco delivery the day we arrived and lots of space to spread out.

Martin's sister and husband were over from Ireland with their 6 year old son and 3 year old daughter so there was lots of catching up to be done as we hadn't seen each other for ages. We did lots of trips out to local attractions and excuse me while I steal some photos from Martin's Flickr to show you some of it.

One trip was to Hawkstone Follies an Eighteenth Century park famous for its follies. Sounds idyllic huh? Well after a huge mix up we were two hours behind everyone else so a pleasant 4-hour visit turned into a 2-hr fast (and exhausting) hike where I ended up carrying Orla for a large bit of the return trek while Martin went searching for Morgan who had gone missing. We definitely earned the ice-cream at the end. The views were outstanding though and Martin got some cracking photos.

I think this one was taken just after I'd met back up with Martin and Morgan - I was relieved that he was okay and not at the bottom of a huge gully. (The things that go through a mothers' head when she is worried...)

Being so close to Ironbridge it would have been rude not to visit some of the attractions. Enginuity was a great hands-on science museum - aimed at children. I was very impressed although did spend more time looking for Ruaridh than actually looking at the exhibits. Was great fun though. Here's Ruaridh closing the dam on the huge water cycle:

This was Blist's Hill - a replica Victorian Town. Has a bank, a baker, a pub, a printer and a candlemaker where you can spend your 'old' money. Was a great day out with lots to look at and explore. Morgan and Finn (6) got on really well and found a shared passion with Football. Well, more accurately with collecting football cards. Neither of them really knew much about football at all. They did both declare that they were Man U fans - so to try and stop this they went to see a real football game. Wolves were playing (and won) Southampton.

They look they had a great time don't they?

Orla also got on really well with her cousin Tess (3) - here they are chasing bubbles.
On the way back home we went via my Aunt's house and met up with my cousin Liz and her three children. Was lovely to have lunch with them and let the kids play before heading back home. Here I am with Liz and her lovely daughter Martha.