20 days of Easter break

Easter holiday in the UK. It is shockingly long.  Unbeknownst to me this is a highly travelled holiday. 3.7 million from this country travel during this time.  I think next year we will plan better because we only travelled for 4 days.  Next year- somewhere warm, for 2 weeks. We did manage to do a lot during this break and here are some pictures to prove it. 

We spent 4 days at Longleat Center Parc (and yes, I'm spelling it right as this is the way park is spelled in the UK).  How would I describe Center Parcs? Good question.  It is like camping on crack.  Set in hundreds of acres of woods are lodges and houses, travel by bikes, baby ducks in the ponds- then ENTER- large subtropical swimming center, ten pin bowling, mini bowling, pottery classes, pirate parties, take-in delivery, mini golf, 5 restaurants ...you name it, it is there.They have them all over the UK and they are consistently packed. We all had fun- especially on the bikes.  

Lookin' good babe! 

Like riding a bike...kind of. Not as easy as I remember it and I look like a dork. 

Anyone remember the diaper shot? I must say, it gets pretty good results. 

Dinner and show 

A magic show after dinner- these people are brilliant. I've never seen the boys laugh this much and for a entire hour. 

It was so fun to watch them.  I'm talkin' deep belly laughs. 

This is the first time we have seen our kids sit for longer than 10 minutes. Genius. 

I won't discuss how long it took to get the face paint off. Man. Totally worth it though. 

                                        Thanks for a great weekend Longleat Center Parc!

Also during break, the boys had their first horse ride.  Our wonderful sitter Annie, invited us to her yard to ride her horse Bailey.  He is a beautiful, peaceful horse and the boys loved him. They each got several turns on Bailey- and even got him trotting!  It was great and the boys were naturals! 

No, I'm not showing you a dead duck.  It is very alive, it's just taking a nap. After Easter, Mark took the boys to a posh hotel up the road from us (Danesfield Hotel and Spa) where they had a little something going on for the kids. Duck herding. What you don't do this at home?  The woman below is simply showing the kids that if you hold them by their feet, it puts them to sleep. Really? I wish it were that easy for us. What does duck herding entail? Well, thankfully Mark documented the entire event so we have a  better understanding. 

Essentially it works like herding sheep, you use dogs and sticks to get them to do what you want them to do. For instance, going down a children's slide.  

They boys were allowed to chase them in a certain direction to get them to enter a tunnel. How fun does this look?

Success. 

Then they were given sticks. Shillelagh actually. 

Henry is actually in disbelief that someone handed him a stick and told him to run with it. 

Then they told them to coral the ducks...

and it worked. It is amazing no one got hurt. Boys, sticks, terrified ducks....you would think there would be  blood somewhere. Mark was happy to report that they actually did really well herding. 

If only ducks could talk...although I think his face says it all. 

At least the duck got a goodbye pat on his feathers.  

Duck herding, horse rides and glamorous camping - just some of our Easter break for you.  We did other things like play dates, home days and the park as well. Busy for everyone.  It's now the second week of them returning to school and just as they get back into their schedule they will have another break. Sure, why not. I have a UK calendar and all it says is May 26, Spring Bank Holiday- come on people, you have to give me more than that if this is worth an entire week off. 

Nana (Mark's Mom) is arriving on Saturday for a few weeks and the boys are pretty excited- we all are!  It's her first time travelling internationally- that in itself is exciting! Can't wait to see you Nana, safe travels. XO