The girls & I hit the road on Wednesday after the gym and went to visit my cousin Jane for a sleepover. I hadn't been to her "new" house that that they moved in to 4 years ago and now I'm wondering what on earth took me so long!!!!
The drive wasn't as long as I'd thought and to say we were blown away by the property (100 acres!!!) and hospitality would be an understatement. As soon as we arrived, Jane started cutting up the freshly baked bread to make some peanut butter fluff sandwiches. She had Lovey at "spreadable marshmallows" :)
After lunch we hiked up the monstrous hill that is her backyard and ventured through the woods up to a meadow where the girls discovered the joy of cow patties but not too closely. We checked out the view but as CJ said, "it's just an old hayfield but adults think it's all beautiful and stuff". We headed back down and changed to go to the creek to cool off. That was another adventure in itself. The path was quite overgrown and the grass was as tall as Janie & I. Luckily all the kids brought a sword and they beat back the thistles and other menacing vegetation. On the way we discovered some blackberries and Sweetie was loving those!
The creek was fairly shallow in most places and hip deep on the kids at the highest parts. They explored all around, finding interesting rocks and enjoying the cool water in between sword fights. Jane showed them how to scrape the rocks together to get coloured paste to use as body paint. Wow!
When we got back from the creek, we got a tour of Jane's garden and she let the kids dig for potatoes aka "buried treasure" and this was a huge highlight. They were so excited to pull the plants and find all the potatoes in the dirt. The squeals of delight were pretty cute. As if that wasn't enough fun and games, they also got to pick the peas AND pull some carrots!
Supper was amazing! Besides the home grown, freshly picked veggies we had delicious pork souvlaki, cheddar and crackers, some jalapeño dip, fresh tomatoes with herbed goat cheese and olive oil. I brought dessert so we topped that monster of a meal off with chocolate cheesecake muffins, mmmmmmm!!!!
As soon as we cleaned up the kitchen, we hightailed it over to Jane's brother in law's dairy farm to see the cows get milked. We were actually too late for that but still got a tour of the barns, visited the calves, patted some horses, fed grass to some other cows and then climbed & jumped around on the bales in the haybarn. Not a bad evening's entertainment... but wait! There's more!
We left the farm and headed back to Jane's for a bonfire! and roasted marshmallows!!! then we walked across the field to where it was nice & dark so we could look up at the stars for awhile.
It was a happily jam packed day & the girls enjoyed it to the hilt! By the time I tucked them in, I was tuckered out myself and went to bed about an hour after they did.
The next morning was a little more relaxing, just wandering about in her yard. CJ & I went out to do some photography practice as he's interested in learning more about that. We did some shooting and got him a new profile pic while we were at it. While we were doing that, the girls helped Jane pick more vegetables in the garden. At one point, Honey ran up to me, smiling, and said in a hushed voice "Mummy, I just love it here!!!!" and ran back off to continue her swordfight.
When I gave the final boarding call, they looked at me slightly confused and said "but.... I don't feel like leaving yet...?" You can't pay a higher compliment than that can you?
