Mrs M was doing her usual yearly bit for charity this weekend and as much as I wanted to get involved this year it wasn't really fair on Opeie, so once the car had been unloaded and gazebos had been erected, me and my little padawan set about our adventures. It was another beautiful morning so we headed over to the Lickey hills, I used to go there a fair bit when I was younger so it was nice to know my way around. There's two main parts, being the forward thinking dad that i am i decided on the side with the visitor centre as I thought it would be a safer option for our newly qualified, big boy pants wearing toilet user.
I packed my backpack with snacks and books and lifted the little adventurer to his favourite spot on my shoulders. It was exactly how I remembered it which was nice, it was quite early so there wasn't many people about. First thing Opeie spotted was the playground, most of it was for bigger children but that didn't stop Opeie. I find when we're at playgrounds or soft play areas that a lot of children are so rude. Opeie tries to make conversation with any child that makes eye contact and some of them look at him like 'why are you talking to me', I always think its such a strange attitude for young children you would think they would all be really smiley and happy of the interaction.
After charging round the playground for a while Opeie's eyes lit up, he got really excited and was repeating 'Gastons cave', I looked over to see what he was talking about and it was a rock sculpture next to the park. Opeie explained to me that Gastons cave was really messy so we pretended to have brooms and sweep it out. 'Gastons house nice and clean' I think that means we did a good job.
We headed off for a walk through the hills but didn't get very far before Opeie rubbed his tummy and and said 'Opeie hungry'. We found a nice grass area to sit down and while Opeie had some snacks i read him a few of the books i had packed. It was so lovely sitting under a tree reading in the nice weather.
Snack time passed and we continued our journey through the woods. I love just walking about in this lovely weather, we could hear the birds tweeting and rustling through the leaves and Opeie was on butterfly watch and there were plenty to keep him occupied. As we were walking deeper in to the forest we saw a horse coming towards us and Opeie froze and we watched it pass by. Opeie then referred to me as 'Daddy horse' and i galloped after the horse doing my best vocal impressions.
We ended up in the middle of nowhere and we had been doing a lot of walking down hill so the walking back was starting to seem a little daunting in the heat with Mini Lester Piggott on my shoulders commanding me to 'go faster daddy'. We eventually found our way back to the car park but we walked straight past and to the gift shop as Opeie had spotted an owl mask when we first got there and was talking about it for a lot of the morning. I requested the owl mask but then Opeie said 'Daddy fox in socks' and 'Mommy......' (pointing up at a hedgehog), so they came with us too.
After lunch i assumed Opeie would want a nap, it was getting to that time of the day but he had other plans. As there was no chance of him going down we drove over to the other side of the Lickey hills, the side with the castle. As soon as we got out of the car and Opeie laid his eyes on said castle he was off like a whippet. Its not a proper castle it's only little and was built i assume just for the view, to Opeie i bet it still looked huge though.
Opeie soon started to feel a bit tired so we headed back to the car and went for a drive to get him off, it didn't take long. As soon as he was off i found a quite shaded place to park and reclined my seat, trying to get as comfortable as you can with a steering wheel on your knees. Mrs M text and said she would be late finishing so i did a bit of internet searching looking for somewhere close to go and keep Opeie entertained. We ended up going to the Botanical gardens, it was close to where Mrs M was and I'd been there before with Mrs M on a uni trip and knew Opeie would at least like the shop and the playground. He woke up not long after i pulled in to the car park so the adventure continued...
I don't think that Opeie was the slightest bit interested in the beautiful plants and flowers but he was loving the big fish. Opeie made a new friend called Eva on the playground which was really cute and i chatted to the girls mom as they played, its nice on these days out when its just the two of us to have a little adult conversation.
We only stayed for an hour or so as it was getting close to mommy pick up time and i had some work to do taking down gazebos and loading everything back in to the car. Me and Opeie had a fantastic adventure and I'm really looking forward to the next one, he really is one of my three best friends (I'm sure you can guess who the other two are).
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