Toad in the hole, anyone?

The Horn Family Holiday at Sherwood Forest !

Well, here's a review of the weekend, instead of my usual end-of-term frazzledness and general irritability, I was surprisingly pleasant to all children today, further convincing me that weekends away before the holidays are the way forward.
We had a great time at Sherwood Center Parcs. If you've never been, it's like a holiday village in the middle of a forest, with environmentally-friendly-type villas of differing sizes that blend in so it seems you are in the middle of nowhere, plus the obvious essentials of any forest: lake for watersports and pedaloes, restaurants, bowling alley and subtropical swimming paradise...
Because there's so many of us we got a super villa with all mod cons, although even Rob (techie supremo) couldn't get the CD player to work. The aim was to make the most of chilling out, whether that was in the jacuzzi, reading the papers on comfy sofas (one of my fave weekend activities) or enjoying cream teas in the country club.
We were active too. Having hired a bike with baby trailer, it was only right to take Gwyneth (my 9mth-old niece) on many rides around the, albeit flat, terrain of the park. The Horn family mini-golf challenge was won by a Webber, with the scores being video-ed as no-one thought to bring any paper. James sent his golf ball into the stream, Rob got it out and somehow it ended up down my back... cheers, who needs in-laws!? There was some dispute as to who scored the most, although I think nearly everyone cheated, except me, but then I knew I was last...
I tried to swim lengths in the real pool, but my well-meaning plans for an actual workout were thwarted each day by the likes of aquarobics and kids in a dinghy...
at least the intention was there...
Gwyneth enjoyed having 7 adults to show off to, like her dad she loves the camera, and her parents enjoyed the lie-in every day... they also enjoyed the rapids whilst Gwynnie sat contentedly sucking my goggles...
Being a nature place, we had to fight past ducks, pheasant and squirrels to get to our villa. The signs saying 'Caution: Toads crossing' were, for the most part, ignored and the day after arrival saw scores of flattened toads on the road, a bit like 'night of the living dead', corpses everywhere. By the last day, my Dad and Liz had decided to help the toads live on and make it safely across the road, by standing over them, totally blocking the traffic until the toad was safe... Liz kept strangely quiet about the toad on her bike wheels later on though... I found toads the least of my problems, but did nearly slaughter a pair of moorhens who thought it amusing to wander down the road towards my car, and the duck that meandered across quacking in the rain... wildlife, you've gotta love it!
Good food, fine wine, great company... interesting (and parent friendly - adjusted) card games were the order of the weekend...
I'm now nicely ready for my real holiday ;-)