Monday, 20 March 2017

Finding Fairies



On Saturday, we headed off to a very special place with Molly and her Mummy.



We bought our adventure trail books in Arthur's Cottage and began to hunt through the woods for fairies.

The first few were easy to find....



Our next stop was at the Troll's headquarters, where we had to be extra careful not to be eaten....



We were spotted by a Troll, but thankfully the sunlight had turned him to wood...


Our maps lead us across a bridge made more for little people than for us...


...and then it wasn't too long before we found some fairy houses...


They were easy to spot as the doors were gleaming in the sunlight.


Then we were on the lookout for our next clue...


The map lead us past the car park to a huge fairy village.


Then we strolled past the Songbird Ceramics gallery and past the old waterwheel deep into the woods.

The fairies had put up many signs to remind the big people how to behave... like this one...


... and this one...


Some of their signs reminded us of the dangers we faced...


Indeed, there were many dangers!


We managed to find ribbons to tie onto a wishing tree (for future visits I must remember to bring some ribbons)




Just before we came to the Tooth Fairy's cottage (where you can leave any teeth should they have wobbled out) there was a place where you could leave your worries with  the fairies.



All worries gone!

See...


Nope, this one is a better picture :)



Then it was up to visit the Tooth Fairy







Wandering deeper into the woods we passed through many pixie doors.



Molly and Bea were unimpressed with the smell of wild garlic here and it added credence to the nearby presence of Trolls...



It was tricky counting all the fairy doors here!


We kept walking through the woods and finding little house like this...




Then we finally found our way to...


...where there lurked a Dummy Fairy (should anyone require one)


Can you see why it is called "mushroom meadow"?


There were also storybooks in the fairy library to read...


But eventually, we came out of the woods and wandered past Galgorm Castle, definitely worth a picture.


Then we were on our way to the Fairy shopping village...


and then back past the castle on the way to the Fairy Hotel.


Quite a spectacular hotel...





Of course, no Fairy Hotel is complete without some giraffes!


Molly collected the final clues and then...


It was off to the Garden Centre for some lunch
(once we'd got past the guard dogs of course!)



The End
of a lovely adventure.















Monday, 11 July 2016

Emily Under the Sea


To celebrate Miss Emily Bubbles 4th birthday, she choose an Ariel inspired "Under the Sea" party.  


The weather co-operated and turned the garden into an ocean.


However, knowing how unreliable the weather in Northern Ireland can be, her Mummy and Daddy had also prepared some aquatic themed indoor crafts....

There were scratch art mobiles and magnets to make.




Peggy mermaids to create...



Photo frames to decorate...


Pirate treasure chests to decorate and fill...






There were under the sea props to be photographed with...




(Finn and Emily are definitely besties... you can see that here)

... and here...


Jellyfish you had to push your way through...


Ariel had brought along a few books and some comfy cushions if you needed a bit of a rest in the reading corner...


And if you can't read yet, there was always someone on hand to help...


If you didn't fancy doing any of the crafts, you could always play with the epic lego table.  Some little people did not leave it!




Then of course, there was the party food...



Chocolate pirate treasure





Even the chocolates were themed...


...now if you thought that there weren't enough buns, Uncle Andrew was on hand with a fresh delivery from Abbie's Bakery...



Then all of a sudden, the rain stopped, the garden dried up and the bubbles came out...



...as did the football...


Then it was time to sing "Happy Birthday" and for the birthday girl to blow out her candle.


She was also tempted to gather the sugar flowers from her cake...


...while her Mum became Mrs Maud of the ice-cream parlour..."Yes Max you can have strawberry and chocolate sauce"


Happy 4th Birthday Emily


(To see more of the action, click here)