Family time

Me, Owen, Megan and Grace had a fab morning out yesterday. We went to Slemish Market Garden at the Ecos centre in Ballymena. We had a lovely time looking around the working garden, which is completely organic, and came home with 2 big bags of organic veg for just under £6.
We headed on up the road to the Ecos centre as none of us had ever been there before. It was fabulous!! They had enormous sculptures of insects that we could clamber about on, grace especially liked the big snail. Then there was a play park, with swings and a slide. Next stop was reception where we were able to buy a bag (or two!) of bird seed. We made our way to the lake, where we fed the ducks from a lovely sloping pebble beach. It was great being able to get right up to the edge of the water with no fear of Grace falling in! There were stacks of pigeons as well as ducks. Grace and I put seed on our hands, then sat very still - and the pigeons came right up and pecked the food from our hands!
After we said goodbye to the ducks, we found a large sand pit that had 2 or 3 ride-on tractors and diggers in it. We didn't stay there long, Grace is still too little to pedal and mummy isn't fit enough to push the tractor for more than a couple of laps. Outside the sandpit, Owen found a great big sculpture made from different size tyres. Grace said it looked like a snail shell. There was also an outdoor room that had a picnic area. There were walls on 2 sides of it, but no roof. The walls were decorated with lovely ceramic mosaics made by a local primary school.
Lastly we found a zip line ride. Me and Owen both had fun riding it, and we held Grace on and ran with her so she could have a turn too. Megan didn't have a go - flip flops and short skirts aren't exactly appropriate attire!!
Unfortunately we didn't have time to explore the many nature walks and the island, or the actual Ecos centre itself- we had to get Megs to her youth work in Belfast. But we are definitely going to go back - and next time it will for a full day including a picnic!!
After we got home and had dinner, we went to Pesky Tescys. I picked up 7 packs of peas for just 10 pence each, and 4 small tubs of whipping cream for 25p each. The peas were duly podded and blanched, and are now in the deep freeze. The cream was decanted into 3 jam jars and shaken hard by me, Owen and Corey until we had churned our own butter from it. We drained off the buttermilk, washed the butter under cold water and then refrigerated it. This morning we all tried it on our toast and it was really really good!! It was also special because it was our first activity as a proper family. As of last night, Corey officially lives with us :)