We LOVE Hesketh Farm Park!

Hesketh Lamb

As far as ringing endorsements go, we can’t chime loudly enough about Hesketh Farm Park, near Bolton Abbey. Both halves of MooBaaKids and our families headed there on separate days out recently and agreed that it definitely warranted a bit of a tribute without further ado.

We’ve both been before with our kids and were literally counting down the days till this delightful farm re-opened for the season and could enchant (and wear out!) our enthusiastic little ones again. Every aspect of this picturesque hands-on day out has been really well thought through with something to captivate short attention spans at every turn and keep little visitors happily bouncing from one thing to the next.

The piglets

From doe-eyed calves to feed, to the hairy pigs who love a scratch with the brushes provided, Hesketh has it all! Our little girl was smitten with a Limousin calf called Lottie and fascinated by the tiny piglets. Alongside the calves and pigs, there are sheep with lambs and smaller animals to pet and feed.

Grooming the gorgeous Guineas!

The cheeping chicks had even the dads there cooing and the children couldn’t contain their delight at the guinea pigs to stroke and the bunnies to watch skitting about. The giant African tortoises Samson and Delilah were also a big hit and we were transfixed by them happily munching on a banana!

Samson or Delilah?

Once you leave the animals behind inside, there’s still indoor fun to come with slides, a straw bale maze, sand pit and toy tractors to ride. A welcome pit stop for the grown-ups too. We won’t lie – among our collective highlights of the day were the cappuccino, lemon cake, ginger biscuits and caramel short-bread!

Petting the chicks

We were both lucky with the weather on our visits so headed outside to see more of the animals – including chickens, goats, sheep – our daughter’s favourite was feeding carrots to the woolly donkeys who couldn’t wait to snaffle them up! She also loved the swings, slides and tyres in the play area.

Only minutes old!

Other highlights included seeing a newborn lamb stand up for the first time on wobbly legs, and the ride on the tractor/trailer with farmer Chris (it’’s an extra £1 per person in addition to the entrance fee but is well worth every penny in our toddlers’ opinions!) Our little one’s also loved the pedal tractors outside as well as looking for eggs in the hen houses.

Checking out the chickens

We hope we’ve described a bit of the magic for you – it really is a day of smiles and wonderment from start to finish. We can’t recommend it or the friendly helpful staff there highly enough. Whether it’s your first visit or a return trip, Hesketh is a friendly captivating whirl of farm family fun! x


For more information including opening times and admission prices visit www.heskethfarmpark.co.uk

Beat the blues, with local bluebells!

If there’s a more beautiful sight than a carpet of bluebells in the woods, then we can’t think of it at the moment! Spring is officially here, so to put the winter blues well and truly behind you, why not take the little ones for a stroll in a couple of weeks or so round the best local bluebell spots. There are loads to choose from (click here for a searchable database) but we’ve just picked a couple here to get you started…

We know we’re in danger of being Bolton Abbey bores, but we just LOVE the place and with a tearoom and gift shop called Dusty Bluebells, it’s no surprise that the woods on the estate are famed for their spectacular bluebell displays usually from late April (there were some already starting to come out when we went for the egg trail thanks to the early sunshine!) until late May. The woodlands are amazing at the best of times, but become really magical with all the bluebells and the colour-coded nature trails suit all ages and abilities – the green trail is great for prams and pushchairs and follows the west bank of the River Wharfe from the recently refurbished Cavendish Pavilion to the Strid.

For those not reliant on pushchairs, there’s a fab two and a half mile walk round Middleton Woods in Ilkley. Ideal for little legs or babies in carriers, the bluebells here are really spectacular too! The details in the Telegraph & Argus link above are great and it’s well worth a trip (with maybe a little treat at the family-friendly Betty’s afterwards?)

Before you set off, don’t forget to download the Woodland Trust’s Nature Detectives FREE activity sheets , crammed with tips on how to distinguish the native English bluebell (true blue!) from the Spanish invaders and other fun facts and activities.

Enjoy!
x

Much more than sheep at the mart as FOUR top kids' shows come to town!

The words ‘Skipton Auction Mart’ and ‘kids’ brings to mind fond childhood memories of accompanying my various farmer relatives on trips there, toddling around ‘helping’ them show the cows and sheep around the ring.  At the time I thought I was really grown up doing an important job but looking back today I have a feeling I was just there for the cute factor, most likely as a ploy to attract more bids for the livestock.  Nevertheless, I had great times and excitingly, for the new generation of little ones, there are even more ways to create great childhood memories there.  The Auction Mart has expanded its repertoire to include a variety of theatre shows at The Mart Theatre, many of which are aimed at young children and their families. 

The first child-friendly production to grace the stage this year is the Blunderbus Theatre Company’s production based on the Jill Tomlinson book, The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark.   The star of the show, Plop, the baby Barn Owl was afraid of the dark, and so Mrs Barn Owl suggested he venture from his nest to investigate the dark for himself.  This leads to a series of exciting adventures for Plop, which are recreated using ‘an irresistible blend of live music, puppetry and storytelling.’  This production is aimed at 3-7 year olds and their families and is already proven to be a hit with the Blunderbus Theatre Company reporting ‘record-breaking ticket sales at every venue we have swooped along to, including a sell-out run at The Lyric, Hammersmith’.  This review of an earlier production reports that ‘the Blunderbus team consider all-comers, with children enthralled by the action, and accompanying adults chortling at the witty adlibs from this friendly and likeable company.’  Sounds good?  Click here for full event details and to buy tickets for the show on Saturday 21st April at 11.30am and 2.30pm. (Tickets £7.50 adults, £5 Children, £20 Family of 4). 

Given that toddlers love a good race around, it’s rather fitting that the next production, (aimed at children 2-7 years and their families), is an adaptation of Aesop’s fable, named Hare and Tortoise.  The show tells the classic tale of the racing hare and tortoise and ‘opposites, time and friendship’ and promises to bring you ‘this much-loved story brimming with ideas, characters, live music and wonderful physicality.’  This production is a creation of Leeds-based company tutti frutti  whose success with this production on tour last year has lead to a 2012 retour, which kicks off at The Mart Theatre on Saturday 28th April at 11.30am and 2.30pm.  With a review in the Guardian of last year’s show declaring that ‘Catherine Chapman's attractive, brightly coloured design niftily embraces the changing seasons as ice melts, flowers bloom and butterflies flutter, and the songs are jolly’ it sounds like it will be a great hit with the nippers.  Click here for full event details and to buy tickets for the show. (Tickets £7.50 adults, £5 Children, £20 Family). 

Following a sell-out run at the Lyric Theatre last Christmas, Snow Play by the Lyngo Theatre Company is ‘a showdown between Spring and Winter over who gets to stay and who has to go’ when Mr. Green discovers Mr. White has taken over his house and tries his hardest to get Mr. White out into the garden whilst Mr. White busies his self covering the house in snow.  The show is aimed at 3-7 year olds and their families and sounds like fantastic fun as the audience gets to join in building a snowman and can even participate a big snowball fight - which this review describes wonderfully; ‘shrieks of pleasure accompany them ploughing onto the stage to cover Mr White in false snow or pelt Mr Green and his tennis racket with snow balls.  Best of all, there’s no damp, soggy mess to clear up afterwards.’  Toddlers are bound to love the randomness of snow in spring as the show comes to The Mart Theatre on Saturday 5th May.  Click here for full event details and to buy tickets for the show. (Tickets: £5 child, £7.50 adult, £20 family). 

If your toddler is anything like mine, they will be massive fans of anything ever written by The Gruffalo author Julia Donaldson and illustrator Axel Scheffler, with The Snail and the Whale being no exception.  We are therefore thrilled to hear that Tall Stories are bringing their stage show of The Snail and the Whale to The Mart Theatre on Saturday 28th July at 11.30am and 2.30pm.  This production retells the story of the snail’s trip around the world on the whale’s tail and their numerous adventures and brushes with danger, (or should we say ‘mild peril’ - don’t worry your toddler won’t be scared)!  Tall Stories promise that this show ‘combines physical storytelling, live music and lots of laughs’.   I’m inclined to believe them given their track record of touring with their various Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler collaborations across the globe from the West End to Broadway, Dubai, Australia and Europe.  This review of one of their earlier productions confirms that Tall Stories bring you ‘a truly theatrical feast that leaves both adults and children fully entertained’.  Click here for full event details and to buy tickets for the show. (Tickets: £5 child, £7.50 adult, £20 family). 

Now the only thing left to do is decide which one to go to - I have a funny feeling we’ll be having several family trips to The Mart Theatre this year!

Blog kindly written by brilliant MooBaaKid, Stefni Oliver!

Happy Easter with love from MooBaaKids!

After Christmas and birthdays, Easter has to be the most egg-cellent (sorry, I just can’t help it!) time of the year for toddlers. There are so many egg-citing events on too this year, with an Easter Egg Trail at Bolton Abbey, more Easter Egg Trails plus crafty activities at Thorpe Perrow and East Riddlesden Hall and a full crafty Easter weekend at Harewood House. If your little ones are fans of little animals, you can feed the Easter lambs at Malham Tarn, visit the new lambs and other animals at Hesketh Farm Park or try out Thornton Hall Farm’s Great Easter Fun Day, which promises much fun by combining baby animals with family shows, circus workshops and a free Easter egg for every child. 

Sheep Egg featured on
familyfun.go.com

To continue the eggy animal theme at home you can get cracking (that’s the last one I promise) creating your own farmyard of eggy animals. I love these Sheep Egg, Egg Bunny, Pig Egg and Purple Cow Egg ideas.


If that seems too fiddly for tiny fingers, there’s always a good old spot of hard-boiled egg painting. You can even start off with coloured eggs by dying them first by adding food colouring to the boiling water. For smaller toddlers putting the eggs back in the box helps them to hold the eggs still to paint them, they will have just as much fun painting the box itself aswell!

Coloured Eggs
featured on familycircle.com

Once the paint has been well and truly dawbed on the eggs and has dried off, you can’t beat a traditional egg hunt. If you don’t have a garden the kids can still do their hunting, just in the house instead. Remember to place the eggs well within a small person’s eyeline – toddlers like to look at the floor when searching and so eggs perched even a tiny bit higher than their line of sight tend to remain unseen forever!


The beauty of toddlers means that you don’t need to buy a basket to collect the eggs; my little ones much prefer to use their doll’s prams and their mini plastic shopping trolley for the job. Once the eggs have all been collected, they can try running around with an egg and spoon as future practice for primary school egg and spoon races! Large plastic cooking spoons tend to work best for this job as there’s more room for the egg to roll around before it inevitably wobbles off.

Paper Plate Easter Hat
featured on alphamom.com

If you would prefer to have an egg hunt that is easy to re-use, (and that doesn’t go rotten!), why not use up some scrap paper to paint as many eggs as you need, and decorate them together with your toddler. You can then cut them out and stick them to card to make them sturdy (or laminate them if you want to use them outside too) and get hiding! They’ll fit easily into a large envelope for storage, ready for hiding around the house any time you want to get those little legs running around on a rainy day. If your toddler is young enough, they won’t notice you stealing the pictures back out of their basket and re-hiding them whilst they are still searching to make the game last longer!


If you don’t have any straw hats lying around your house, then making an Easter crown is a great quick and free (and unisex!) alternative to Easter bonnet decorating, with the added bonus of giving you the ability to make it the right size for your toddler’s little head. Cut a zig-zag that will make the top of the crown down one length of a sheet of card or paper, decorate one side of the card with your toddler, fit it to his or her head decorated side outwards and staple the ends together where appropriate (making sure to remove the crown from your little ones head before stapling of course!). Believe it or not, paper plates also make fantastic instant hats or crowns that you can fit to the smallest of heads; click here for some great inspirational ideas.

Handprint Sheep Card
featured on craftsbyamanda.com

Everyone loves a home-made card from a toddler, and Easter is a great opportunity to bring a smile to someone’s face with a card made with love. These egg-shaped cards are perfect for toddlers to decorate and even the youngest toddlers can make their mark with cards like these finger and footprint and handprint ideas.


Making Easter treats at home can be as easy as a chocolate cornflake (or shredded wheat for a more authentic look) cake ‘nest’ topped with mini eggs like these, or as intricate as these lovely sheep and bunny lollypops. If you would prefer to make healthy treat, these carrot patches look great fun.


Whatever you choose to do this Easter, I hope you have a fantastic time doing it!


Happy Easter! x