Tiptoe Quietly Through The Forest

We had another little adventure recently, Squeaky and I, along with PirateGirl, MiniMe and their outrageously glamorous MummyMandy took off to Mountain View Ranch, just outside Caerphilly for the day.  Somewhere I'd never even heard of until a couple of days before.  As with many of our adventures, it started out with hurtling down narrow country roads feeling like a rally driver before screeching to a dusty halt in the car park.

Blinging Birdhouse

For somewhere we never even knew existed, it was a definite hit.  The girls took off immediately into the outdoor play area, smeared liberally with sun cream, and spent a very happy hour climbing, swinging and sliding while we caught up with a chat and lots of cries of "higher, faster". We rented a trolley cart to pull along our bags and/or children, possibly the best £2 ever spent, as it seems an hour of playing takes it's toll on little legs, and even a picnic and decorating gingerbread men can't revive those achy feet.

There were three in the trolley, and the little one said...

We pressed on, exploring just part of the ranch's grounds, with the aim of exploring the Fairy Forest. Well, did you think three small girls would be able to resist that?  And truly, it was magical. A clearing in the forest, fairy doors in the trees, a few hidden fairies watching over us, the blingiest birdhouse I've ever seen, and even a grumpy looking frog as guardian of the fairy realm.  We could happily have spent all day in this one section, looking for more evidence of the fairies, and running around the trees.

We finally left the fairies in peace, and headed back to our cars, well and truly exhausted, with plans to return another day.  There's bunnies to be petted, ponies to be groomed, High Ropes & Segway tours for the grown ups (though I'm not sure my balance is really up to either of those), so we'll have to pop back in the autumn to explore some more, as I know there was lots of the site we didn't see.

But for now, I'm away with the fairies, as if you didn't already know.

I'm linking the fairy adventure up with Coombe Mill's Country Kids linky. 

Disclosure: I paid for our tickets to the Mountain View Ranch myself. I have not been asked to write this review, or offered any compensation for doing so.  All opinions are my own, and links are provided for convenience only, I am not a member of any affiliate schemes and will not receive reward for their use.

The Bottle Fairy's Visit

We've all heard of the Tooth Fairy, right?  Some of us have heard of the Dummy Fairy.  But have you heard of the Bottle Fairy, who paid us a visit recently?

The Bottle Fairy does a similar job to the Dummy Fairy.  She keeps an eye out for boys and girls who have grown up now, and no longer need baby things, in her case, bottles.  The boys and girls leave their bottles out for the Bottle Fairy, who collects them up and gives them to babies who need them, similarly to the Dummy Fairy.  If the boys and girls are very good, the Bottle Fairy might even leave them a special gift.

Well, as Squeaky turned 2 this week, we'd been expecting the Bottle Fairy to come and visit us for a little while, and had been talking about what would happen.  Squeaky finally accepted that milk comes in beakers about a week ago, so it was perfect timing for the Bottle Fairy's visit, so we didn't slip back into bad habits.

Oh! Look! I can edit, badly.

Squeaky helped me write a letter to the Bottle Fairy, which we left out on the sideboard with all her bottles, hoping that the Bottle Fairy would stop by our house on her rounds.

Lo and behold, the next morning, the bottles and the letter had disappeared.  In their place was a letter back from the Bottle Fairy (since destroyed, hmph), and a Chuggington book, as we're currently obsessed with the Choo-Choos (and Peppa Pig, Upsy Daisy, and Tang from Zingzillas)

I wondered, what fairies visit your house?  Are there any others we should be looking out for?