A weekend of walks - Bedford River and Wrest Park

What a busy few days of walking lil Kez and I have had!
On Friday mamma and us Hooper gals met for a walk along Bedford River, which was lovely. Mamma had bought Kez a lovely red and white polka dot top which she wore out for the day - and she looked scrummy in it! chuckle.
And then today us Hoopers met the Watkinsons for a walk round Wrest Park again. It's only five mins away from our house, so makes for a brilliant lil day out. The weather was really quite warm considering it's November - no need for a coat today, although the dark rain clouds overhead kept threatening to break. Thankfully though our brollies were useless!
Photos of our two days out:

Bedford River and Wrest Park blog

The Baby Show - Earls Court

Wowee - did we have a brilliant time at the baby show or what! chuckle.
We had tickets booked for the Sunday and so we all got up at about 5.30am and had our brekkies etc so that we could walk to the train station and get the 8:15 train to London. Bit of a busmans holiday for Chance, but he didn't seem to mind too much! It was quite a cold and crisp morning, so the walk to the station was brisk but lovely at that time in the morning.
We managed to negotiate the tube trains really well - I took the baby sling because I thought lil Kez might be a bit frightened by the noisy trains, but I needn't have worried. She sat quite happily in her sling watching the world go by whilst daddy wrestled with the pushchair! chuckle.

We were at the baby centre at Earls Court by about 10:30, so managed to get quite a few early freebies. Ching ching! :D

We had a thoroughly lovely day there and came away with quite a lot of freebies, as you can see when I unpacked everything at the other end!

It was well worth going, especially as I had my eye on a few things that Kez needed anyway, and the people selling the bits and bobs were at the babyshow with certain % off, so we even had a bargain in the bits that we bought.

In fact, it's well worth going on the last day and staying until the last hurrah, as the people on the stalls are so desperate to get rid of all their freebies that they're practically shoving them into your lap as you go past!

For Kezia I bought a lovely swimming cozzie which is made of neoprene (same stuff wetsuits are made of) I'd seen these online and lots of parents had recommended them to me and then, lo and behold, the people who make them had a stall at the show, so I was able to speak them about which of their products would suit us best - and we got quite a big saving for buying there and then instead of purchasing it online which was an added bonus!

We also got an original print by a children's illustrator who does lots of kiddies books. It's numbered and signed and we thought it would lovely in her nursery. The artists details are on the back and he also sells online, so we though we might get some more for her upcoming birthdays nearer the time as he does loads of lovely bits and bobs. :D


I also fed my cloth nappy addiction whilst we were there and we bought some Itti Bitti nappies to try out. They are absolutely gorgeous! They have boosters and liners that are secured inside by the cunning use of poppers and they have a completely waterproof fleece outer lining to them, so you don't need to put a wrap or anything over the top of it all. The idea with getting these wraps was for when people babysit lil Kez, as they can change her nappy without worrying about using the terry nappies. The fasten just like disposable nappies and so far, touch wood, they have been lovely to use and pretty bombproof. :D

We had so much stuff to bring back at the end of the day that I had to carry Kez all the way home whilst Chance took control of a seriously overloaded pushchair and we both had to act like pack mules! chuckle. Well worth it though. Definitely worth the price of admission. :D

A day out at Emberton Park

Today Kezia, mamma and I had a day out at Emberton Park, which is about twenty mins away from Ampthill, and a perfect opportunity for Kezia to wear the lovely pink knitted coat and hat that her Granny Hooper made for her. Which, incidentally, she looks totally scrummy in!

Emberton park used to be a quarry but it was opened as a park in 1965. It's an amazing place with lots of play areas and lots of lovely green space to walk round. It even has a conservation area with slightly raised walkways - which is where lil Kez had her lunch of sweet potato and butternut squash followed by an whole jar of pureed pear and mango ... all home made, of course!

The trees were beautiful - real oranges and reds. We wandered all the way 'round it and found lots of sculptures, including one of a lil family of sheep that was carved into some wood. They were lovely and it presented a perfect photo opportunity ... and I even managed to nearly fall backwards over one. Elegant as ever!

We also found a sculpture of the hare from that story that Jean was telling us about a few weeks ago ... the story about the hare and the moon and a piece of jewellery that was buried in Ampthill Park ... well there is a wooden carved statue of the hare looking up at the moon which is lovely. Actually, it was a good job that we had mamma with us, as I thought it was a sculpture of a legged cobra to start with - what a numpty! chuckle.

On the way back to the car we had a go in one of the adventure playgrounds. Kez, grandma Lynn and mummy all had a go on the see-saw, the swings and then a seated roundabout -which actually left us feeling a little bit dicky! chuckle

All in all it was a lovely day out, and we will definitely have to take the Hoopers along for a day out there soon.

Click picture below for photos:

Emberton Park blog photos