With a "Quack Quack" here and a "Baa Baa" there...

Waiting to feed the impatient birds

We love Coombe Mill as a family and taking Baby Boy there for the first time last week was a delight. He loves animals so we were pretty sure he'd love staying on a family farm where the feed run is a daily activity and there is also plenty of outdoor play space for our boisterous boys to wear themselves out in. This was our 3rd visit and we've stayed in a different type of accommodation each time. This visit we stayed in Honeysuckle, a three bedroom stone cottage with a lovely small garden out back and right next to the miniature railway, pirate ship and trampoline. I even managed to have a few bounces on the trampoline which made Big Boy very happy and we sneaked off for a go whenever we had a chance.

"Chickens !"

Of course the whole point of going to stay in Cornwall is that we love to spend time outdoors and the boys really did take to the whole farm routine. Me and Hubbie take it in turns to do the feed run with the boys so one of us gets a morning off to relax or go to the gym. As soon as we arrived we picked out some gear for the boys to wear. As return visitors we know that the reception room has plenty of waterproofs in all sizes that we can use during our stay. We also took advantage of the range of puzzles, story books and dressing up costumes which kept everyone busy.

My little tractor driver

The boys really enjoyed helping Farmer Nick and Farmer Amber to feed all the animals. As an old hand Big Boy also knew that he could volunteer to drive the tractor so he was first in line most days. It's a great incentive to behave if he thinks he won't get a turn to drive. Baby Boy was not keen to drive at all - hopefully on our next visit he might pluck up the courage to help with the tractor. Both boys really love to feed the animals and this visit Big Boy fed Sprout the baby goat with a bottle of milk. It's a responsible job and he was also very good at sharing the duty with other children.

Feeding Sprout

Baby boy has learned a lot of new animal sounds and keeps making loud 'quack' noises when he sees bath ducks which is amusing if a little ear splitting in the morning when I'm barely awake yet. There are a lot of birds including chickens, ducks and geese and some peacocks and a peahen - who was sitting on eggs while we were there - hopefully they will hatch before long. Last year they were stolen by an invader, possibly a badger.

"Quack quack"

One of other activities that really captured Big Boy's imagination was searching for and collecting eggs. He was so upset the first day he brought one back when it rolled onto the floor just outside the door and broke. He even asked Hubbie to replace it with one from the fridge so I wouldn't find out what had happened. To make up for it he found a duck egg the next day and was very proud of his special find.

Sunny feed run 

Of course being on holiday isn't just about working and we did take the boys to the beach on a lovely sunny afternoon. It was Baby Boy's first time walking on sand and in the beginning he found it a bit strange. He wasn't too keen on the wet sand and absolutely didn't want to go in the water, but he did like the feeling of sand and throwing it around. Until they both got carried away and it became a bit of a mission to get it out of his eyes that is - oops ! 

Beach boys

I hope that they boys have lovely memories of our family holidays in Cornwall - I know I do. 

This post is being shared with the #countrykids linky hosted by the lovely Fiona of Coombe Mill