"A mouse took a stroll through the deep dark wood..."

We had a lovely week last week with Mrs' M being off work and we've really made good use of the extra time that we have had with here. Sadly the writing had taken a bit of a hit because I was lazily enjoying being tucked up on the sofa with her every night, watching TV and cuddling. So now I am playing catch up a little. I would love to have time to write about every little thing we get up to as a family, but we pack so much into our weeks that if I did, I would be constantly writing.

Me and Opeie recently had another one of our London adventures and this time headed to some new places that our friends Sam and Jamie had told us about. We decided to drive to London this time, which isn't that great for Opeie being stuck in the car for three hours so we decided to detour when we were close to Buckinghamshire and visit Wendover woods as we knew from previous visits to Foresty Commission sites that there was a Gruffalo lurking somewhere in the woods. We had had so much fun visiting the ones at Wyre Forest and Cannock Chase that we were both eager to find another.

The sun was out and we were ready for adventure. It was great to find that there was a Stickman trail there too, Julia Donaldson is fully monopolising our UK forests. As expected the boards along route were the same as the other sites but it was lovely to take part in the activities in unexplored surroundings.

We built a tower of sticks....

...Rode on a bear and built a den (which to be fair I was really impressed with). We kept well and truly entertained as we searched for the star of the show...

...and then there he was! not lurking in the woods at all but standing in the sunshine looking out over sunny Buckinghamshire. There is something really magical about these large carvings out in plain site and Opeie has gotten so excited during every visit when we have found them. Our favourite though is still the sleeping Gruffalo in Wyre forest.

This was intended to be a post about the whole London trip but it has been dominated by our 'little' detour, so I will have to write a part 2. Wendover woods was a great diversion and really made a huge difference to the 3 hour drive. If you have a forestry commission site nearby, they are definitely worth a visit and if it is one of the homes of the elusive Gruffalo then it is even more special visiting that deep dark wood.

“The Gruffalo said that no gruffalo should. Ever set foot in the deep dark wood.”

Ever since our Super worm trail a week ago at Wyre forest Opeie has been craving some more woodland adventures. He loves being outside pottering around in the sun and I'm game for anything that takes me away from the mundane tasks of household chores.  The weather has been so lovely over the last few days and after dropping Seth off at school we made our way to Cannock Chase in search of another Gruffalo. Opeie made it quite clear that he would again be in full control of getting us to our destination.

 

As soon as Opeie had stepped out of the car and his feet were firmly on the ground he made a bee line for the first Julia Donaldson picture he could find, he was a four year old on a mission. I happily trailed behind while he rushed off shouting "come on daddy, run!".

I do love visiting Wyre Forest but i definitely prefer Birches Valley forest as it is filled with all manner of weird and wonderful sculptures and random things for Opeie to climb on. Opeie seemed a little confused by the giant wooden carving of a trainer though.  

The great thing about Birches Valley too is the area of forest set out for the hardcore forest adventurers. A huge area that has lots of fun dens made from large branches. The boys love making bases in the woods wherever we go and there is no end to the amount of den making material available. The branches here are the best we've found for making a bow and arrow too. so as Opeie ran through the woods pretending he was Hawkeye i added to a few more branches to some partially built bases.

Like i said... Weird and Wonderful!

Our Superworm trail went a little off course at this point and our attentions were on another of Julia Donaldson's creations. The little brown mouse took us away from our super adventure and before we knew it we were surrounded by all those less friendly animals.

And then in the distance there he was, the monster of the hour. With those knobbly knees and turned out toes and the poisonous wart on the end of his nose. There he was in all his glory...

 And then it was lunch time so we found a hill to sit on in perfect view of the Gruffalo and tucked in. We were also in perfect view of a school trip of a class of children which must have been a reception class. Watching all the children run about excited was lovely but what i didn't like was the lack of patience the teachers/helpers had and the tone of voice some of them were using with the children. Opeie said 'Dad can i just stay at Daddy nursery?', he's such a cutie.

Before heading out on our forest adventure we had popped in to Smyths to pick up some LEGO for Opeie's great behaviour and for the fact that he is now sleeping really well. Its made a massive difference to his energy through the day and has had a great impact on myself and Mrs M too so it definitely needed to be rewarded. So as we sat eating our lunch we built a bit of LEGO too, a perfect afternoon.

Maybe a little too perfect as while Opeie was building a Superworm from rocks he could find lying about i decided to check my phone, which i hadn't done for a few hours and realised it was almost 4. we were 45 minutes drive from Mrs M's work and we needed to be picking her up for 4:30, Oops. We were having so much fun i had completely lost track of time.

As we rushed back to the car we spotted a Hare and a Tortoise so i told Opeie the story as we made our way back. It was a fun afternoon of woodland adventuring and he's already asked to go back again this week, I'm thinking we go looking for a new Gruffalo at one of the other great Foresty Commission sites. Stay tuned for more adventures.

"He has terrible tusks, and terrible claws, And terrible teeth in his terrible jaws."

I feel a little bad sometimes when Seth sees the things that me and Opeie have got up to on the blog. We're always together so obviously we get up to all sorts. Seth missed out on our second Gruffalo hunt a couple of weeks ago at Wyre forest so as it was the first day of the school holiday yesterday (yey), that's where we started. I'm shattered after an eventful day so I'm going to be lazy and not write much about today. Instead, a series of pictures (you can make your own story up).

 A great start to the summer holidays but it has made me realise i need get a list sorted of things to do over the holidays as there may be some wasted mornings making decisions (we can be a little indecisive at times).