The Cotswolds and Adam's Farm...

Hi everyone!

I hope you've had a great bank holiday!

On Sunday we took Daisy here

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you'll know about Daisy's love of farm animals, particularly ducks and chickens.

We took a drive to Banbury and then into the Cotswolds. It is so beautiful there, we've been to many different parts before, but never to Adam's Farm. Daisy's favourite part was walking around the rare breeds bit outside. This was a special pre-birthday treat for Daisy and Grampy who both celebrate birthdays in September.

We made our trip as thrifty as we could...

Admission was £17 for the two of us and Daisy was free.

We bought two bags of feed for £1.20.

We took a picnic which we ate in the car because it was raining lightly.

We were tempted, but didn't buy ice-creams.

We were entertained for several hours.

The admission fee was reasonable and we didn't have to pay for Daisy. The animal feed was excellent entertainment because Daisy loved watching Grampy feed the goats and pigs. Daisy had an adventure just eating her lunch in the car, she was grown up sat next to Grandma in the back with her food on her lap, not in the highchair! Ice-cream wouldn't have been fair because Daisy is lactose intolerant and Grandma didn't want to attract wasps!!! We had a fun day out which we rarely do now.

Before we left we had to walk through the gift shop to exit...

Daisy got a few more birthday presents and then we spotted a cuddly chicken... it wasn't cheap! Grampy treated her...not so thrifty.

Daisy is a very special little girl...originally we hoped she would continue to grow from the 20 week scan to get to 23 weeks when she could survive outside the womb. We had the worry of a very premature baby, spending months in the neo-natal unit, facing all the problems that premature babies do for most of the pregnancy. It would be many months later when we got the news from a growth scan that she was a sufficient weight and gestation to stand a better chance and not need too much special care. The blood flow through the cord wasn't always good and she could be an emergency case at any point...it was very stressful. There was an awful lot of monitoring and appointments and overnight stays in maternity, but she fought on and was only a month early weighing 6lb. Hospital staff said she was the smallest baby they'd had on the postnatal ward in a long time. She was lucky, she was fine without an incubator.

All children are special, but Daisy has struggled since weighing only 10oz at 20 weeks. She overcame that and thankfully doesn't understand her living situation now. She doesn't have a daddy and rarely sees her mummy...but she has us and we are doing our best. Grampy works extremely hard and decided to spoil her. I know that I don't need to justify how we spend money, but I do write a thrifty blog and others probably wouldn't see the need to spend so much for Daisy's presents (she already has birthday presents we bought before). Her toys normally come from car boot sales and I will wash them and make them look like new. Grampy may treat her when we do our food shopping to books, but she's not spoilt. For her birthday we are spoiling her...she has cards, presents, decorations, a small party with our little family and a lot of attention and love.

It will be her 1st birthday on Sunday and she has done so well to get there. She is a lovely little girl who brings so much joy to our troubled lives. We are planning a short break in Yorkshire to take her on her first holiday. Again, not absolutely necessary, but we are creating memories for her childhood (like we did for our own children) and the scrapbook will continue...

I will need to be as thrifty as possible in the meantime!

Thanks for reading,

Mandy xxx