Butterfly World

Yesterday we went to a local lido.  Now that Freddie is 8, the world of swimming pools has opened up to us.  Before, I couldn't take 3 under 8s by myself.  Now it's not a problem!  The lido was great.  It cost £13 for the 4 of us and we were there for hours.  We swam, paddled and splashed, and had a picnic on the grassy poolside.  Some home ed friends met us there, and we went to the woodland playground afterwards.  A busy, fun day in the sunshine.

We had another fun day in the sun today.  Someone on a home ed Facebook group organised a visit to Butterfly World.  It's only 30 minutes from us, which is a bonus.  

There was lots to see and do.  We explored the gardens first.  I love this bit (we visited a few years ago when they first opened).  The first garden is giant, making you feel like a miniature creature.

There was a bug hotel garden.  The kids loved crawling through the tunnels.

My favourite garden is like a fairytale house, inside out.  There is a bed,  dining table with a magical feast, a desk, a mantlepiece, walls, but no ceiling.

We walked through a giant plant pot into a garden with metal spider webs, and walls made with reclaimed materials.

Here and there were interesting sculptures and objects.  

And the flowers were just beautiful.

We stopped and had our picnic in the play area.  It has a couple of good slides, big sandpits and a huge climbing frame.  After lunch it was time for the education session.  The staff managed to pitch it pretty well, considering the age range was 0-11.  They talked about the lifecycle of butterflies, and the kids got a chance to hold a stick insect and a cockroach.

We left after a while as the girls had itchy feet, and found the UK's largest colony of leaf cutter ants.  The rest of the group came in as the session was continuing in there.  Freddie stayed as he was really interested, while the girls wanted to go and see the tropical butterflies.

We went back to get Freddie, and then went to the play area again. 

 It was an excellent day.