Kenilworth Castle: Time Travellers Go... Rogues and Villains

We always make the most of our English Heritage passes by making frequent visits to our local Kenilworth Castle throughout the year. During the summer holidays, English Heritage sites run a series of Time Travellers Go... events for children. Each week there is a different theme, and the children have a Time Travllers passport which they collect stickers/stamps in each time the visit. Once they have collected two stickers, they get a medal, once they have collected four stickers, they can fill in their details and post off to English Heritage who send them a reward.

This was our second trip, so each of the Small People got their medals. This week the theme is "Rogues and Villains". We arrived after lunch thanks to a delayed morning start, and having to wait for the next available bus out of our village. Robin Hood was already in full sword-fighting swing in the Chapel Ruins, so the Small Person went and joined in. She was extremely enthusiastic, and I wouldn't be surprised if there were a few adults sporting injuries, despite the swords being made from foam!

We followed straight from there to meet the Highway men (or highway man and woman), who expalined the concept of an ambush. The Small Person volunteered herself (before knowing what she was volunteering for!) and took on the role of part of a coach :) So the Coach had to make it's way from the rocky outlook, through the monkey forrest, through the village/town an over the bridge without being ambushed by highway men. After a while they introduced the soliders who were there to prevent highway robbery by themselves ambushing the highway men. The children could choose if they wanted to be soldiers or highway men, plot amongst themselves and then select a spot for the ambush. The Small Person chose to be a crook every time (and they won)! Not quite sure what that says about my daughter...

The highway ambushes carried on for a full half an hour, through the short but frequent rain showers, and the Small Person wasn't the slightest bit bothered - she was having far too much fun. The Smaller Person, stuck in his pushchair, took great pleasure in shouting out "Ali" every time the human coach whistled by. He was starting to get fed up by the time it was over though, so he was released to join Robin Hood's band of outlaws, to fight against the grown ups.



Lady Marion

Lady Marion found Sir Zacky very difficult to keep under control, and she labelled him mad. I would agree with that assessment :) First Robin instructed his archers (the older children), then he instructed the next group, but I didn't quite catch what they were supposed to be doing as I was trying to chase the Small Person back into the arena! I do remember they had imaginary swords though, and the audience were the sound effects team: "Sching" as they drew their swords, "shonk" as they holstered (is that the right word? Probably not.) them. Then came The Small People's team who were the littlest. They were the outlawed knights who had traded sides to fight with Robin. They had to gallop up on their horses with foam swords and fight the evil grown ups. They each got a  Knights school certificate. Zack just thought it was great to be running around free with a weapon!

That was the last event, so we started to head back up into Kenilworth Town. We were going to go to the cafe for an hour until Mr Bogert finished work and collected us (saves on bus fare!), but then it starting raining again, so we took refuge in the gift shop until it stopped. Half an hour later, we left the gift shop with lollipops, a new bag of marbles for the Small Person, and big, brightly coloured bouncy ball for the Smaller Person. There really wasn't time for the cafe, so we made a quick stop into the library. The Small Person chose a book with stories from Egypt, and I got the Smaller Person his very first library card. He got a book about animal noises (he likes those - especially "Mooo!" and "RAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRR!!!!"). I checked out a couple of crochet books which have some lovely projects in. Will any of them get made? I might just Oooo and Ahhhh at them a bit, if I get time to make anything, I'll be sure to post my efforts, but for the time being it's back to "The Politics of English" for my uni work!

Jubilee Family Fun

Just before I tell you all about our extended Jubilee weekend I just wanted to let you know, Mrs Woo is having a give-away of a fab magazine. Head on over for a chance to win!

So, after all of the excitement from the St Barnabus Church Art Competition and the the NAC Kenilworth Show, we still had three days left to enjoy ourselves as a family - they joy of an extra long Bank Holiday weekend!

On Sunday we went to my Cousin's baby boy's Christening at our Village Church with a little tea party at the British Legion Club afterwards.

My sister doesn't sew much and only occasionally makes cards or other papercraft things, (she's perfectly capable but I guess just doesn't get much time), but she does bake quite often. Great for us because she's always dropping samples around to various family houses. (We all live so close together, it would be rude not to! ; D) She baked and decorated some cupcakes for the Christening.

Unfortunately, we had to leave quite early. I still had my assignment to finish for U214 (Linguistics Open University Course) which was 1500 words and, at this point in the day, I had a reasonably detailed plan, but no actual essay yet! I sent myself to my bedroom to finish it, whilst Mr Bogert and the Small People watched The Smurfs Movie and ate all of the fudge up that we bought from the Kenilworth Show.

Monday, the sun was shining which was great as we had planned to visit Kenilworth Castle. We have Heritage passes and as Kenilworth Castle is an English Heritage site we get in for free all year round. They had a special 'Royal Weekend' for the Jubilee.

The Small People went dressed up as Royals. I used Alexandra's costume from the Jubilee tea party at school with a large Union Jack flag for a cape, and Zachary wore a knight's tabbard that I made for Alexandra way back in 2007.

The Small People completed a Royal Trail had loads of fun running around and eating ice cream.

The Small Person had a go on the archery

and the jousting

and then Mr Bogert made up half of Team Newman for the Royal Top Trumps game.

To top it all off, Alexandra was awarded best fancy dress costume by the staff. She won an Usborne Kings and Queens sticker book and a giant lollipop.

We didn't even realise there was a fancy dress competition, so that was pretty good going. With the Small Person on such a long winning streak, we are giving serious consideration to her picking our lottery numbers!

We recieved a last minute email invitation for a Jubilee breakfast at the pub at the end of our road. Mr Bogert is on the Parish Council with the landlord and he helps on the events committee with the landlord and landlady. It was lovely. There was a long table laid out with rerd white and blue and flags. We all had a full English breakfast and Bucks Fizz (or 3!) and orange juice for the Small People. We sat and watched the start of the thanksgiving ceremony at Westminster Abbey of the big screen there with the few other neighbours who were invited. I really wish we could have stayed all the way through, but we had accepted an invitation to a Jubilee tea party for the kids with friends.

The Jubilee tea party was good too though. We rarely seem to have time to see our friends the older we get. We're all busy with work, children and other commitments. We took bits of food and dressed in red, white and blue (well, most of us did) and just had a brilliant catch up and the kids got to play with each other and get the many many toys out. Poor Becky was forever picking things up!

I really wish we had four more days to do things, it went too quickly (and it didn't help that I had TMA03 of my course hanging over my head for half of the time!). Mr Bogert went back to work today, but I do still have the Small People at home with me because of half term.

I hope you all had a great weekend are those in the UK are enjoying the half term break!

The Summer Revisted #1

I can't believe the summer holiday is over. I had such big plans for the summer, and to be fair, I achieved quite a few, but it's gone by so quickly. School time is here again and I foresee much labelling of clothing and shoes in my immediate future....

We just made the school shoe shopping trip today. That was nice and expensive. We also bought new bags for swimming, PE and dancing. I'm disappointed they are bought and not handmade like last year, but I have just ran out of time. I'm hoping by Christmas to have made a set of bags to replace them, but including a few extras (Tap shoe bag, Ballet pump bag, both to fit inside her dance bag, drinks bottle bag, because it is compulsory to take a filled bottle of water to her school, 2 small zippy pouches for hair things, one for dance, one for swimming). We shall see if I can fulfil this one small goal.

Today was also a party day. One of the small person's school friends had a birthday party at Umberslade Farm Park. She was so excited to see her friends again ('cos you know, when you're 5years old, six weeks feels like six years) and even more excited to have a pony ride.

So, our summer? How did we spend our time? We made lots of visits to places that were running summer holiday activities.

The very first Saturday of the holiday we still had one last dance class to attend, and Mr Bogert had a wedding to photograph, so he dropped us off on the way. As we had time to kill after dancing but before the village bus came (It runs roughly every, ummmm, week maybe :D), and we have our English Heritage membership, we walked down to Kenilworth Castle.

Elizabethan Garden

They were running an archaeology event as part of their 'Time Travellers Go...' summer events. The small person took part in a tomb raider race, where she had to loot each different place using only a hook on a pole, and then race back to the finish.

Tomb Raider Race

She also learnt about how to uncover real objects by gently brushing soil/sand  away

Discovering buried artefacts

and that you must not pick the objects up, you must leave them where they are and draw them as they lay.

We went in Leicester's Gatehouse to do some drawing, then sat outside in the garden having a picnic. Luckily, we had nice weather!

Leicester's Gatehouse

Picnic time

On the Sunday we had Mr Bogert back, so we took a trip in the car to Ryton Pool. This is not far from us. There is a lovely big pond with ducks and geese you can feed, several walks where you can also take your bikes, a large grass area for picnics and games (frisbee, football etc), and a few play areas dotted about.

There is also a small cafe near the information hut, and a model railway, that when it is open the children can ride (for a small fee).

Unfortunately, the small person ripped her dress climbing a tree. Mr Bogert was worried it would be beyond repair. His only concern being 'she looks like a Rocket ice lolly in that dress'. It should be a simple repair (I hope) and then he can continue to call her 'Lollipop' or 'Rocket' when she wears it. That will make him happy.

We also managed to fit in a game of frisbee and nerf guns at the Millenium Field (in our village), visit my Dad and go for Sunday dinner at Mr Bogert's mum's house. A very busy start to our holiday - A for effort, Wishes :)