Easter Egg hunt

Laura has been shopping for eggs and has set out an Easter egg hunt in the garden for the others.

Her trolley is now empty as she checks the locations of all the hidden eggs

"Happy Easter everyone! We are having an Easter Egg hunt. Please be friendly, no pushing or shoving."

Florence is the first to find a pretty basket decorated with butterflies.

She sees there are several eggs in this basket

Melanie finds a bunny slipper full of eggs in the flowery undergrowth.

Isabel brings her shopping trolley along as she looks for eggs

"What's that" she thinks as she sees something peeping out from the flowers

Isabel has found an Easter chick!

"I can't wait to eat this later."

Edmund sees a pair of bunny ears poking out of the flowers and runs towards them

He wobbles and nearly falls over as he climbs towards the bunny ears

Trying to keep his balance Edmund approaches the bunny basket

But falls on his tummy just as he gets to them and admires the large collection of eggs in the basket.

Nicholas James, Reuben and Trendon Elliott find a treasure chest...

... filled with eggs!

Timothy and Miranda go looking through the flowers together

They find a bunny slipper filled with eggs

Everyone loads their eggs into the wagon and make their way to the picnic rug

Edmund, Florence and Isabel admire their eggs and chick

Miranda has one bunny slipper of eggs

while Melanie has the other bunny slipper

Laura and Clemence have no eggs and relax as they watch the others with their eggs

The bigger boys gather around the treasure chest of eggs

Edmund is delighted with his large basket of eggs

What is the difference between this basket of eggs and a few minutes earlier?

Edmund's basket of eggs doesn't seem so full...

Edmund looks in his basket of colourful eggs, which seems a little emptier than before

Edmund looks at the girls - his basket only has a few eggs now

Edmund holds a green egg

Clemence comes to look in Edmund's egg basket

Clemence looks at Edmund enquiringly... there is no chocolate around Edmund's mouth

Reuben and Nicholas James have LOTS of colourful eggs ...

The big boys have plenty of colourful eggs while the treasure chest of light coloured eggs is still full!

Edmund and Clemence firmly hold onto the remaining eggs.  What naughty big boys!

Meanwhile Isabel is enjoying licking the top of the chocolate chick filled with smarties.

Florence sorts through her basket of eggs and chooses which ones to eat first

Miranda peers into her bunny slipper of eggs, she doesn't think she needs to share them with Timothy who has PLENTY of eggs now.

Laura has some eggs which Florence has kindly given her from the pretty basket

Happy Easter everyone - we hope you had a lovely day.

Exploring Blenheim

Laura decided to take her little brother to Blenheim Palace on the Sunday after Easter.  

In the long library they found the coronation robes which the family had used when Queen Elizabeth II was crowned in 1953.

Laura and Edmund with the Blenheim Palace Coronation robes

The information board about the Coronation clothes

In the long Library is a historic Willis pipe organ - it was being played for the Sunday afternoon recital by an organist called Jonathan Kingston

Laura and Edmund were impressed with the sound of the Blenheim Palace Willis organ, even though it needs restoration it still sounded good because the organist was so good at avoiding the bits which didn't work.

Outside Edmund found a milestone path about Churchill

Laura and Edmund looked up at the bust of Winston Churchill in the milestone path, which was surrounded by daffodils

Next they visited the Blenheim cascade

Edmund and Laura stood on the bridge below the cascade and looked up at the falling water

Then they walked up to the viewpoint beside the cascade to get another look - it was very noisy

The information board about the Blenheim Palace cascade

On the walk along the lake back towards the house Laura and Edmund found the boat house

Edmund REALLY wanted to have a ride in a boat

Near the house were the water terraces, Edmund wanted to run on the grass to the water and Laura had to restrain him as she didn't think walking on that grass was allowed.

Edmund was a bit disappointed about not being allowed on the grass

However Edmund soon cheered up when he saw there were Easter egg cupcakes and hot chocolate at the Water terrace restaurant

Laura and Edmund found the entrance to the house overlooking the south lawn, which was vast

They stood on the steps in front of the big entrance door to look out at the south lawn

Edmund and Laura found the entrance to the Secret Garden at Blenheim Palace

The Secret Garden had been restored and was just waking up after the winter

Beyond the secret garden was a fountain called the Roundel - Laura and Edmund sat down to rest and watch the water jets spurting out of the centre

Soon it was time to go home - Laura and Edmund had one last look at Blenheim Palace

This happened at the beginning of April, however I've had so little time for blogging because of work and the volunteer project that it is only now, the last day of the month that I was finally able to find a moment to sort my photos of this fun trip.  Last year on Easter day we took Laura to Blenheim Palace however I never edited those photos and they didn't find their way into a blog post.