Harewood House

At the end of March, Harewood House opened it's gates for the first day of the season.  With Daddy off work it seemed like the perfect day to go and visit.  We set off fairly early to try get the most out of the day and the lovely weather that we were lucky to have.

When we arrived Luca made a beeline for the huge adventure playground.  The have two, a smaller one for little people and then a big one for older children.  Luca spent ages on the smaller climbing frame, sliding down the two different slides, climbing across the bridges and generally enjoying himself.  He then spotted the larger one with cargo nets, tunnels, slides and much more and managed to persuade his Daddy to take him on it.  Poor Ant is 6"4 so scrambling through some of the sections was a challenge for him but had me hugely entertained.

With the promise of an ice cream we managed to get Luca to come for a walk and discover what else was on offer.

With ice cream in hand we headed to the newly opened farm corner, where it was feeding time for the animals.  They have a rabbit corner, some pigs, alpacas and goats and we watched the pigs having their breakfast and listened to a little talk all about them.

Once Luca has looked at all the animals we headed to the start of the Easter Egg trail.  Hidden around the grounds were big eggs with letters on them that made a word.  Once you had them all you handed the sheet in and got a little chocolate prize.

Luca was really enjoying listening to the clues and hunting for the eggs before shouting out the letters he found. Fun & learning combined. 

Once we had found all the eggs we had a little sit down in the walled gardens to rest out legs and I took the opportunity to get some photos of my fast growing little boy.  I think some of these are my new favourite photos of my cheeky chappy.

 With our legs fully recovered we started to head back to the main courtyard to grab some lunch.  We took a different route back through the Himalayan Garden where we discovered this temple thing. 

 As we ventured further in Luca spotted the stepping stones over the river.  We waited our turn and went for it.  With me in charge of Luca and Ant in charge of the camera and important things in case we fell in.  Half way across we got stuck (blaming my little legs, I couldn't stretch far enough across with Luca holding my hand) and Ant had to help.  Luckily we made it all the way across without getting even the tiniest bit wet, it was touch and go at one point though.  

 After a quick lunch, pizza from the pizza van in the courtyard which was delicious, we went back to the adventure playground for one last go whilst we watched about a dozen red kites swooping around the trees above us.  

There is lots more to see and do at Harewood House that we didn't have time for, like the Bird Garden and penguins, the house itself, plus there are boat rides and more gardens and walks to explore.   There really is something for everyone and the grounds are absolutely beautiful. 

We had a great day out and I always love spending the day with my family.  Quality time in the fresh air, nothing beats it in my opinion.