Michala’s Mini Munchkins

🌻🌸🌼 PYO WILDFLOWERS 🌼🌸🌻

Today my Mini Munchkins headed off on a little adventure to the Pick Your Own Wildflower field at Weston Farm and it was absolutely gorgeous!

Armed with little pots and scissors, my munchkins wandered amongst the flowers, choosing their favourites and carefully snipping them to create their very own beautiful bunches to take home. 🌸✂️

Such a simple activity, but SO much learning happening along the way! Using scissors amongst the flowers was fantastic for developing fine motor strength, hand-eye coordination and scissor skills, while choosing which flowers to pick encouraged independence and decision-making.

We stopped to look closely at all the different colours, shapes and sizes, spotted busy bees collecting pollen 🐝, talked about why flowers are so important for our little pollinators and even made some new feathery friends along the way.

One of my munchkins even arrived dressed as a little ladybird, which made exploring a wildflower meadow even more magical!🐞🥹

We brought our beautiful flowers home and enjoyed looking through our wildflower book to see what we could recognise before arranging our freshly picked flowers.

A gorgeous morning spent outdoors, surrounded by nature, sunshine and SO many beautiful colours. ☀️🌈

Little hands, big adventures and a whole field waiting to be explored. 🌼🤍

🌈 SUMMER COLOUR HUNT 🌈

Today we packed our colour wheels and headed off to beautiful National Trust Knightshayes for a summer colour hunt. 🌳☀️

My mini munchkins had so much fun exploring the gardens, searching high and low for something to match each colour on their wheel. From bright yellow sunshine 🌞 and vibrant red flowers 🌺 to green leaves 🍃 and blue skies 💙, every discovery sparked lots of excitement and conversation.

After our colour hunt, we made the most of the National Trust Summer of Play, enjoying a morning full of adventure. The children loved trying their hand at mini golf ⛳, dressing up in imaginative costumes 🎭, getting messy in the mud kitchen 🥣 and exploring all the different play stations dotted around the grounds.It was wonderful to see their imaginations and confidence shine.

As we explored, we talked about the colours we could see, counted our discoveries, learnt new words, solved little problems together and enjoyed plenty of fresh air and exercise. It was a lovely way to encourage curiosity, observation and a love of the natural world while learning through play. 🌼

Another wonderful day making memories with my Mini Munchkins. 🌈🌿🌻

🌻 PICKING SUNSHINE & SUPPORTING HOSPISCARE 🌻

Today my Mini Munchkins had the loveliest morning visiting the PYO sunflower field at Darts Farm.🌻💛

We wandered amongst the beautiful sunflowers, looking at all the different shapes and sizes, spotting the bees buzzing from flower to flower and choosing our very own sunflowers to take home. There’s something so special about seeing the world through little eyes — especially when the flowers are taller than they are! 🐝🌻

But today’s adventure was about more than just picking pretty flowers. 💛 Our visit also helped to support Hospiscare, making our morning together that little bit more meaningful. It was a lovely opportunity to introduce the children, in a simple age-appropriate way, to the idea of kindness, helping others and being part of our local community.

Of course, we couldn’t leave with just one… each little Munchkin chose two sunflowers to take home, inspired by The Sunflower Theory: when we can’t find the sunshine ourselves, we can turn towards each other and find a little light. 🌻🌻

A morning filled with sunshine, nature, kindness and beautiful memories.💛

“Because sometimes the brightest light is the one we find in each other.” 🌻

Arriving home to check on our community growing plot and finding these beautiful sunflowers 🌻, lots of ripening tomatoes 🍅 and even more courgettes ready to harvest! 💚

I’m pleased to say the tomatoes also passed their very important quality inspection by our chief taster! 🐾😂

🍦 NATIONAL VANILLA ICE CREAM DAY🍦

What better way to celebrate than by making our very own no added sugar banana & vanilla ice cream. 🍌🤍

My Mini Munchkins got busy pouring, mixing and watching all the ingredients come together, with lots of excitement as they created their very own delicious homemade treat.

And the best part? Each little munchkin boxed up their ice cream to take home and share with their family. 🥹🍦Of course, we had to have a little taste first… the chefs always have to check their creations!

Little hands, simple ingredients and naturally sweet memories made together. 🤎

🌱 FROM PLOT TO PLATE! 🌱

Today my Mini Munchkins harvested the courgettes we had lovingly grown in our community growing plot, then transformed them into delicious homemade courgette fritters! 💚

Together we:
🌱 Picked our homegrown courgettes.
🧼 Washed and prepared our vegetables.
🥒 Grated the courgettes.
🥣 Mixed all the ingredients together.
👩‍🍳 Helped cook our fritters.
😋 Boxed them up ready to enjoy with our mums and dads for a tasty homemade tea.
🌱 Saved some of the seeds to dry, ready to plant again next year!

There’s something so special about children seeing where their food comes from and taking pride in eating something they’ve grown themselves. From growing and harvesting to cooking and saving seeds for next year, it’s been a wonderful plot-to-plate experience filled with smiles, teamwork and lots of learning along the way.

🎳 BIRTHDAY FUN WITH MY MUNCHKINS 🎳

When one of my little munchkins’ favourite things is rolling balls and racing cars down ramps, bowling felt like the perfect way to celebrate his birthday. Watching the bowling ball make its way down the lane brought the biggest smiles, cheers and so much excitement!

Afterwards, we swapped bowling shoes for sandy toes with a trip to the beach. We enjoyed a lovely walk down to the sea, exploring the crunchy seaweed beneath our feet and feeling the cold seawater tickle our toes, followed by lots of play and plenty of fresh sea air. No beach trip is ever complete without a crab hunt and ice cream!

Every child deserves to feel celebrated in a way that’s special to them. Following their interests makes birthdays even more magical and creates memories that last a lifetime. 🥹

🦁 A Roarsome Day at Paignton Zoo! 🦒

Today my Mini Munchkins enjoyed a wonderful visit to Paignton Zoo, where they explored, discovered and learned through real-life experiences.

Our adventure supported many areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), including:

🌿 Understanding the World – Learning about different animals, their habitats and how they live.

💬 Communication and Language – Talking about what we could see, asking questions and introducing new vocabulary.

🏃 Physical Development – Walking around the zoo, exploring different environments and developing stamina and coordination.

🤝 Personal, Social and Emotional Development – Building confidence, taking turns, showing kindness to one another and following safety rules during our outing.

🔢 Mathematics – Counting animals, comparing sizes and spotting patterns in nature.

🎨 Expressive Arts and Design – Using our imaginations as we talked about our favourite animals and shared our experiences together.

Learning really does happen everywhere, and today was filled with curiosity, wonder, laughter and lots of smiles! From towering giraffes and playful meerkats to magnificent lions and colourful flamingos, there was so much to see and talk about. 🦒🦁🦩

🎶 We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo... you can come too, too, too! 🎶

What a fantastic day making memories together! 💚

🧸🐻WHAT A BEAR-Y BRILLIANT DAY 🐻🧸

After a wonderful Teddy Bears' Picnic yesterday, my little adventurers headed off on a real-life bear hunt at Wildwood Devon.

We explored woodland trails, balanced on logs, searched for clues, admired beautiful peacock feathers, and were thrilled to spot wolves, boars and lots of other amazing animals along the way. There were plenty of opportunities to stop, wonder, ask questions and let curiosity lead our adventure. 🦚🌿🐺🐗

Watching my munchkins excitement as they discovered new sights, sounds and textures was such a joy. Outdoor experiences like these help build confidence, encourage communication, develop physical skills and create memories that last a lifetime.

And yes... we found the bears! 🐻🐻 They were enjoying a cooling splash in their pool, much to the munchkins delight!

"We're going on a bear hunt, we're going to catch a big one... What a beautiful day!" 🎶