A Day out at Cefn Mably, Cardiff

Somewhere I've wanted to go for a long time is Cefn Mably farm park - it's not far from where we live, it's not too big and by all accounts it's very popular.  Now that Squidge can look around at things and take things in, I thought it would be the perfect time to take him there - he's already obsessed with looking at our cat, so he clearly likes looking at cute animals :)

It cost us £6 each for 2 adults, and Squidge (in a pram) was admitted for free.  You first walk into a big canteen area, with an indoor play area for kids, and a couple of sofas.  We headed straight for the animals.  It's also worth noting we went on Easter Sunday at opening time (10am), by 11:30 am it was packed - there was a constant stream of people queuing to get in.

The first animals to greet us when we went in were 2 reindeer's, they looked very young and were very cute.  Just beyond them were 2 sheep, each with a cute little lamb. 

Here's one of the gorgeous little lambs - my second favourite animal after cats <3

This guy was awesome, he was really intrigued with Squidge and followed us as we walked around the cage :)  I think this is a red parakeet?

There were also some little chicks under a lamp - by the time I took this picture they'd all gathered in a corner to sleep, how adorable!

They also had a range of rabbits.  This was actually pretty sad as they were all unwanted pets and were looking to re-home them.  So sad that they were unwanted :(

More lambs with their mummies, these looked much younger than the other ones (literally days old)

He was so happy looking at the animals - he kept smiling at them :)  This was him smiling at goats.

They also had little kids there, OMG these were SO cute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

JUST LOOK AT THE CUTENESS!

Squidge smiling at guinea pigs - he really really loved looking at these, and they had quite a lot of them

Ignore the fact it's not in focus, I love how he was reaching out to them and the rabbit was reaching to him, so, so cute

I think they were as interested in us as we were in them :)

Outside away from the indoor shelter were pony's and horses - part of their play paddock had a 'crashed' plane in it :)

This is the horse from the picture above - he's missing his left eye :(  He had an infection in it which got out of control so he had to have it removed - his name was David :)  He was really friendly, both Squidge and I gave him some smooths on the nose :)

There was also a combine harvester in a small enclosure that chickens and cockerels were flocking to - I managed to get this picture of a cockerel mid-song :)

Squidge and Daddy looking at the pigs

The pigs were lounging around - there were so many squiggly tails!

I love this photo of them - Daddy having his hand nommed, and it was seconds after one of the Donkey's on the right did a massive and very loud eee-oooorrr!

Fluffy Donkey ears :)

After wandering around the place, the little man needed a feed, so we headed back to the cafe, ordered some food for ourselves and set up for Squidge to have a bottle and some solids. The had a big stack of (IKEA?) high chairs to pick from, all were nice and clean.

He fitted in the chair pretty well considering he's still a bit small for them.  We gave him cod, mashed potato, carrot and broccoli and he LOVED it!  Our food was really good - fresh, what seemed like home made, the chips certainly were - and wasn't too expensive (I think we paid around £6 a meal).

On the way back we saw some awesome views so we just had to stop and take a picture!

After a fun-filled couple of hours, Squidge was wiped out

10 mins later he was awake and happy to be spending some quality time with Daddy

We had a really lovely time at Cefn Mably, I'd definitely take him back there when he's a little older as he got so much out of seeing the animals.  Maybe when he's learned not to grab, and to smooth, that'd be a better time to take him back :)  The staff were really friendly, the facilities were clean and the change room well thought out and prepared.  Next stop, Folly Farm :)

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Christmas at Tredegar House, Newport

Back in the Summer when I was pregnant with Squidge, we went on our babymoon to Cornwall (read about it here), and while we were there we visited a National Trust venue.  We'd thought about becoming members before but brushed it off.  While we were there they mentioned it again, and we decided to take the plunge and become members (it's a little over £90 for 2 people for a year) - the way we looked at it, once I was on statutory maternity pay, we'd at least have places to take Squidge without having to pay to get in, just a bit of petrol.

Well, what we've decided to do is make the effort to go to a National Trust venue each weekend to try and make the most of our membership.  Last weekend we went to the Christmas craft fayre at Dyffryn Gardens (which was quite disappointing if I'm honest) and this weekend we drove to Newport (about 20 mins away) and went to Tredegar house, which didn't disappoint!

As we got there, the path leading up to the house was decorated with baubles everywhere, it looked so festive and pretty (and made for some nice pictures).

Everyone at the house (who worked there) were dressed in traditional Victorian? costume and looked amazing.  There was a massive tree right inside, decorated beautifully (the cinnamon sticks below were on the tree).

As you go into the house, if you went into the room on the right, you'd have found Scrooge himself! He was there, giving kids a hard time and generally being his mean-old-self.  In fairness, the guy was amazing, didn't break character once and made everyone laugh, he was great and played it well.

Scrooge guarding his money.

The room just beyond that had this chap (wearing what on his face?) teaching people to do the waltz I think.

In that room was also this Christmas tree, decorated with very colourful paper-chains, it looked so pretty!

I took the opportunity to take a picture of Squidge in his little monkey? outfit - I used to think it was a bear, but I think with the light patch on the tummy it's probably a monkey suit :)  He didn't sleep through all of it this time, he woke up towards the end, enough time to look around and enjoy the lights :)

In one of the other rooms they had a Christmas wish tree, what a lovely idea! You'd go over to a table, pick up one of these parcel tags and write your Christmas wish on there, obvs I'm keeping mine secret as I want it to come true!   

So many wishes!

They also had a little shadow puppet theatre which lots of the kids were playing with, such a cute idea :)

This, I think, was some kind of mincemeat? Anyway, the tradition is you stir it 3 times and then make a wish, so I did, and again, keeping it secret so it comes true :)

Since getting the DSLR nearly a year ago, I've become a little obsessed with taking bokeh pictures too, and with a long line of fairy lights, I couldn't resist taking several bokeh pics, this being my fav!

They had a little craft market there in the courtyard too, one of the stands had some great knitted and handmade accessories, I picked up this awesome purple hat, and some purple fingerless mittens.

Just thought I'd throw in this pic of the hubby with a ticket in his mouth :-)

Despite going out in drizzly rain, we had a really lovely time, I'm so glad we went.  It was lovely to see it so full of people and to see all the staff being festive, and of course, see scrooge.  The house was decorated beautifully.  I also had a sneaky mulled wine and homemade mince pie, something they'd sold out of at Dyffryn gardens the week before.

This was the last weekend that Tredegar house were having their Christmas themed weekend, but at Christmas next year, I'd highly recommend going.  They even managed to track down Santa for a couple of hours to have his picture taken with all the good kids :)

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