On Saturday we visited Walmer Castle and it’s gardens in Deal, Kent. It’s one of my all time favourite castles and we tend to make a visit each year usually in the summer season!
We started off by finding a nice spot in the idylic gardens to lay our picnic mat down and set up our picnic (food comes before everything, of course!)
With the sound of the birds chirping and singing away, the sea breeze rustling the trees over head and the sight of squirrels scuttling close by (A little too close if you ask me, hands off the picnic fella!)
We made sure we sat by the old school wooden games so that Zach had something to do should he get bored. He played connect four, hoopla and bowls!
It was all so relaxing and everything was going smoothly until it was time to pack the picnic up and go explore the castle and it’s ground… unfortunately Zach didn’t want to come away from the games. Ensue meltdown #1, the birds weren’t singing quite so idyllically now I think Zachs screams had pretty much scared the wildlife and castle inhabitants away! Little did we know it wasn’t just tantrums that he had up his sleeve that day. Sighhhh.
We explored the castle which is more like a stately home and was the home of Lord Wellington back in the day. The creator of Wellington boots!
Zac wasn’t a massive fan of learning all about the history (He is 3 mind you!) So we took him to see the cannons and defences which completely thrilled him. Here’s him and Alisha sat on one of the cannons…
We then went back to explore the gardens which was where the real fun began!
Zachery decided that it was time to unleash a side of him that we where slightly unprepared for. To cut a long story short, he found a stick chased us all with it, decided he wanted to pull some moonies and generally terrorised us. I apologise to all the people who where there that day who had to deal with the sound of our yells as we got chased by a 3 year old brandishing a whippy stick and then the sight of a toddler with his shorts and pants down by his ankles trying his hardest to run as fast as he could with me chasing after him endlessly repeating ‘NO ZAC’ ‘STOP ZAC’ ‘DO YOU WANT TO GO HOME TO BED?!’ all the while he thought this the most hilarious game he’d ever come up with!
And breathe, we finally calmed him down with a bit of bribery ‘Do you want a lollipop from the gift shop on the way out? Yes? Well you better keep them shorts firmly in place, young man.’
Despite all the toddler drama it was a beautiful day full of laughs, sunshine and lots and lots of beautiful flowers!
And who could resist a selfie in front of the beautiful pink back drop?!
I’m so grateful for all the smiles we had and the moments we won’t ever forget, the moments that I’ll be reminding Zac of for a very long time to come!
Motherhood, it’s a whirlwind. But a whirlwind that I’d choose everyday and that I love with all my heart. ❤
