"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.

"He has knobbly knees, and turned-out toes, And a poisonous wart at the end of his nose."

The weather has been glorious today and we made the most of the sunshine this morning by searching for that elusive mythical beast the Gruffalo. They have been popping up all over the country at Foresty commission sites in celebration of the books 15th Birthday.

We were house sitting for our bestie Chris this weekend and before heading out to his place, his sister Stephanie posted a picture online of a Gruffalo not far from where we were staying so we knew we had to go. So while Mrs M did some work related things this morning I took the boys adventuring, searching for one of their favourite book characters.

The Gruffalo was hiding somewhere at Birches Valley Forest Centre. We had never been before so we were looking forward to adventuring somewhere new. The place is beautiful and was perfect for a hot sunny day as the really tall well looked after trees were the perfect cover stopping me from burning my head. Well we took that walk through the deep dark work but the first thing to grab the boys attention was the playground which was lots of fun, timber climbing frames that were asthetically pleasing and fit well in to the forest surroundings.

There was so much to look at as we walked along the paths looking for our friend with his orange eyes and purple prickles all over his back. Lots of lovely wooden carvings and art pieces kept us entertained along the route and the boys wanted their pictures taken with all of them.

Opeie spotted the back of the Gruffalo from quite a way back but then he does have the best spot perched on daddies shoulders. Before heading over to see those knobbly knees and turned out toes we had to walk through Fernley Thickett, which was a magical mini area of the forest with cute hand carved tree trunks with miniature doors where the fairies live. Opeie was hooked and before leaving that day we must have visited that area at least five times, I wish we had had our minifigures of us, it would have been great for LEGO photo's.

And then there he was, with his terrible claws and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws. As expected though there was nothing terrible about this very lovely looking beast and Opeie (with no fear of splinters) couldn't wait to give him a big squeeze. I would absolutely love one of these for our pack garden, it would look amazing.

I was busy taking a selfie of me and Opeie when i heard Seth shout 'Bases!". Stephanie had let us know about an area of the forest that had lots of huge branches for making dens and it was great to see so many built, the forest looked like so much fun so we made our way in and started adding branches to the dens. Seth surprisingly had other ideas and started looking for certain branches that we could take home as he has an idea of something he wants to make. More on this to follow.

It wasn't long before the Gruffalo hunters started to get hungry, I offered them 'Roasted fox' and "Scrambled Snake" followed by "Gruffalo crumble" with a side helping of "Owl ice cream" but as expected they wanted mommies lunch as she makes the best meals according to Seth. So we headed back to Chris' for a bite to eat. I loved walking around Birches Valley and its got me now thinking of visiting the other Forestry Commission sites harbouring that lovable beast.

Also the trip to Fernley Thickett and a picture in Chris' bedroom has given me a great idea for a new weekly feature on the blog so stay tuned.

Until next time adventurers....