Autumn, autumn, autumn – well we are now firmly in its midst with the beautiful autumn colours, heating cranked up and hot water bottles out!
This year we bought Merlin passes and visited Warwick Castle to experience their Halloween activities. Luckily we have been before and we have done lots of the regular attractions there as I think if we were just there for a day we would have felt a little overwhelmed there was so much to choose from!
As well as watching the amazing and majestic Birds of Prey display there was a fantastic sword fight with the Highwayman himself (here are the boys meeting him and his fellow accomplices) and lots of other Halloween activities
The boys are a little on the young side for some of the events but they really enjoyed the ghostly storytelling which wasn’t scary so much as sinister. Told in the atmospheric castle, really added an air of spookiness and excitement to it!
Noah and I had a little walk around the castle walls playing at being real life castle knights and shooting the badies.
The boys also enjoyed the Halloween trail that was definitely more treat than trick!
The highlight of a visit to Warwick Castle is always watching the mighty Trebauchet launch the fireball and as the castle was open late until 9pm it was brilliant to watch the spectacle at night in the dark. We also managed to bag some great seats at the bottom of the hill so we could watch all the action. It was awesome!
A second place that is perfect to visit in the Autumn for all the family is Donna Nook Nature Reserve in Lincolnshire where, every late October to early December, seals come to the beaches to birth their seals and then a few weeks later breed. We visited recently and it was a truly magical experience. There is a little quiz for primary school children to fill in and get a prize and lots of information boards along the beach route. Parking in the main car park is free and the overflow costs £2. As the reserve is run by the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust donations are very much welcomed!
The autumn is of course not complete without a visit to the beautiful Sherwood Pines. In the Spring we visited to try out the Gruffalo trail and currently there is the Gruffalo’s Child trail which is there until February 2015. I love going to the forest in the Autumn to blow off the cobwebs and see the stunning array of colours. Here is one of our posts from shockingly enough two years ago – I absolutely adore these photographs!
Sherwood Pines is top of our list of places to visit soon as it is a perfect family day out!
Here are some photos of the boys with their cousins taken on a recent visit..
If you would rather stay indoors here are a few autumnal foodies treats to enjoy – yummy bonfire toffee and delicious pumpkin soup!
This post was inspired by the Forest Holidays 30 Days of Autumn project which has some brilliant ideas for fun family Autumn activities.
mygorgeousboys 
I’ve not visited Warwick over Halloween yet, must try it next year. And how amazing to see the seals-now that really is very special.
Oh it all looks such fun! It’s so lovely seeing all the little cousins together enjoying each other’s company, warms my heart. Xxx
These trips look like great autumnal fun with kids, I’m sure if we lived closer my boys would love to see the trebuchet at Warwick castle throw a fireball. I would love to see the baby seals, they look really cute, I hope you manage to get to see them. My lot love visiting the woods for a walk and exploring all the different colours of nature at this time of year. Thanks for linking up with Country Kids.
Love these trips! My fave is the nature reserve trip as I love to see animals in their natural environment! But I am sure that if you ask my son his fave will be the Grufallo Trail. Its his dream to go to one =) #countrykids
I would love to see a seal in the wild.
Lovely happy times. The seals were brilliant, so close. X
These all look wonderful, but the nature reserve and the seals look particularly special. Fantastic!