With my eldest daughter away at a friends birthday, I took my youngest and Little Man over to RSPB Fairburn Ings for the big wild sleepout. I had a very early start on the Sunday as I had a half marathon so unfortunately we were unable to join in with the camping but we did take part in the evenings activities. I wanted to surprise my youngest too as the Twirlywoos would be visiting later in the evening.
My youngest daughter was in her element. She loves animals of all shapes and sizes, with the exception of flies, and she was eager to discover and learn more. We took some time in the playground before the evening began. My youngest loved the wooden drum kit and has asked for one in the garden.
We wandered over to the campsite to meet with the other explorers. The camp site looked amazing and was a hive of activity, I wished we had been able to camp too. There was a packed schedule of activities and we could not wait to begin. First was a nature walk and with many different options, my youngest chose to do the mini beast talk and so we joined in with the group.
We were treated to a wonderful walk around Fairburn Ings. Little Man fascinated by the ducks and insects he could see flying around. After feeding the ducks we continued our walk, spotting mini beasts as we went. My youngest seemed to absorb so much information from this talk as she has been telling everyone she meets when out all amazing facts about mini beasts.
Our talk finished with the opportunity to pond dip where we discovered more about some amazing mini beasts. After the talks there was a series of drop in events and it was a time that many of those camping chose to cook their dinner, which filled the campsite with some delicious smells! We decided to walk round and do each activity from den building, to bug hunting and we even made some animals out of clay. We even met some very special guest, Twirlywoos. My youngest loved meeting them and they even joined in with some bug hunting, although they did seem to spend more time catching each other with the nets!
Before long it was approaching 7pm and Little Man was beginning to get tired. It was time for us to go home and leave everyone to their evening. We missed out on toasting marshmallows on the campfire and night time nature walks, plus star gazing but are looking forward to returning.
Thank you to the RSPB for inviting us for the afternoon, we had such a wonderful time and my youngest learnt so much.
