This one of the rare products that you buy as a parent, that you use again and again and is worth every penny.

OOOOH these are so super lovely inside. Still the great waterproof outer with the velcro strip on the ankle and the neat fitted waist but this time fleece lined.

Ah the stunning beautiful wildness that is the highlands. We chose that autumn to go this year because it is always at its best, the colours so spectacular.

Another relic from my past that has had a tremendous make over. Firstly it’s free, always a bonus and secondly – it’s really great.

The Steiner method is a teaching approach that aims to protect children’s senses and fosters their imagination avoiding the use of overly colourful plastic toys and spending time outdoors and doing real life activities.

When I was a child Edinburgh meadows had a park with all the usual stuff: a climbing-frame, swings etc.

We set off to the nunnery lakes with godparents in tow, and a fish tank net that we tied to a stick. Gilby came along in a backpack took in the scenery from his vantage position.

Chester Zoo is enormous! Far too big to make it round in one day. Highlights for us were – the monorail – I know its not an animal but if you’ve got an autistic obsession for trains it obviously comes top of the list.

There's nothing Harris likes better than to get really, really messy. One of his favourite things to do is to play in a big tray full of plain old flour.

There's loads to do at the Forestry Commission's High Lodge Forest Centre during the summer months – it’s an excellent place to visit all year-round but during the summer they add a number of extra activities in to the mix. For the adventurous there is combat paint balling and a very cool survival skills course.

It’s been quite a summer here in Norfolk - the kind of summer where you are really glad of some good, lightweight waterproofs because the weather has been so unpredictable. We were delighted to receive our Spotty Otter gear but thought we may not have any use for it until the autumn - how wrong we've been.

Well it’s been a while but it’s been worth the wait, the two nests we were watching in the garden finally produced the goods. You may have seen that we posted a couple of teaser questions a while back so its time to put you out of your misery. The eye we showed was indeed the eye of a wood pigeon, the whole bird shown in all its glory below.

Well after the sad failure of our song thrush nest (see previous post) we were delighted to discover another nest nearer the house. This one is another beautiful construction of twigs, leaves and moss and some bits of old rubbish. There is no mud lining to the cup and there are quite a few bits of plastic weaved into it....currently contains four beautiful eggs, any ideas?

Is this "one of the 50 most fabulous things to do in the world" as the Observer apparently claimed? Well if you've got children from 2 years up then yes it probably is. This place is an absolutely fantastic forest adventure playground based on the designs of local author Tom Blofeld. He's written several children’s books and the park is based around the themes of these books.

The perfect pushchair or buggy is one of those items that every new parent is bound to spend lots of time searching for. We all secretly (or not so secretly!) check out each others buggies, noting whether it has 3 wheels or 4, what colour, what brand, does it have a tray, a hood, does it reverse etc etc - there are just so many different varieties out there it can be completely overwhelming to choose.

Its bad news to start from the garden I'm afraid, we've been giving the song thrush nest a wide berth over the past week or so as we await the new arrivals but just a few days ago while we sat in the garden enjoying the sun we noticed that it was all very quiet around the nest. We were used to seeing the female dashing off every now and again, particularly in the scorching weather we've been having here in East Anglia.

Well its a big fat zero to Little Trekkers HQ I'm afraid and a gold star to Fiona Moore who correctly identified the nest as that of a Song Thrush.

Well we took a quick peak tonight and to our delight we are now up to four eggs. We took a quick snap to see if the new pic will give you all a bit more of a clue. So far Blackbird seems to be the favourite with Song Thrush in second - get your vote in quick, all will be revealed tomorrow night!

Over the last couple of weeks we've been keeping a close eye on the garden to see if we can spot any birds nesting in there. It’s quite an old garden with lots of bushes, shrubs and a few old trees. Last year we had collared doves and wood pigeons nesting so we were hoping for something a bit more exciting this year.

We’ve had quite a few days out in Thetford forest recently – it’s England’s largest lowland forest, a great place for walking the dogs and generally poking around. Over the past couple of weeks the weather has been unusually warm and this seems to have had quite a dramatic effect on some of the more slithery residents of the forest.

It’s finally that time of year when the flowers are starting to bloom and some of our birds have started their courtship singing. We’ve been busy closer to home recently putting up some bird nesting boxes in the garden. We’ve put up one with a round hole for blue tits and another open fronted box for Robins or Blackbirds.

Cousin Arthur’s new favourite place is West Stow Country Park so we’ve been there a few times recently. The first attraction is the excellent playground which is suitable for all ages and both boys loved playing on the equipment. It does get pretty busy on a nice day but the kids don’t mind that.

We finally gave in to Ieuan’s nagging last weekend and took a trip to nearby Oxburgh Hall. His motive for visiting was fish – yes, apparently the moat has some cracking eels in it and one or two monster pike and although Ieuan doesn’t fish he does love looking at fish. So off we went on a beautiful day last Sunday.

We like National Trust properties as you generally know what you are going to get there – a nice building and/or grounds, a decent cup of coffee and no dog poo so a pretty good bet if you’ve got kids who like rolling around on the ground.

This may look like a girly pink dolly pushchair but...it is in fact an all terrain, 4 wheel drive vehicle with unstoppable traction and versatility.

On a recent visit to a nearby woodland we found a quiet corner with a giant old beech tree. As we neared it, the fallen leaves provided gleeful moments of leaf chasing.