Belton House, Grantham

Today we headed north to Belton House near Grantham. Wow...what an amazing place! Next to Burghley House we think these are our next favorite "stately home" grounds that we could see ourselves visiting over and over again. At this time in the spring the daffodils were in full bloom, they claim to have the largest outdoor adventure playground in Lincolnshire County, and the grounds are perfect for a picnic.

Addison was obsessed with leading us around while looking at the map of the grounds. Looks like she has inherited my map reading and navigation skills because she actually did really well finding the little stream and the lake we walked by.

Inside the conservatory they had a little fish pond that they kids loved and loved so much that we had to physically restrain them so they wouldn't dive it.

Our happy little family in front of the fountain in the gardens.

Addison Marie with the sweetest smile ever in a field of daffodils.

My little boy soaking in the sun.

I love English gardens and every new place we go, Kevin and I try to figure out how we can re-create what we see in miniature. Our dreams are big but they are so fun.

One really small feature that I thought was really cool about this house was actually the door knob plates for all the main doors. They were very ornate and had this little greyhound looking dog on them. This dog also seemed to be featured all over the house along with signs in the village of Belton. With as many houses we've gone to see we always find something new and interesting.

Libraries are also very interesting in most houses. They showed how intellectual the people were who lived in the house and how rich because you had to be both in order to read and since there wasn't much else to do to entertain yourself, lots of books were handy.

One of my favorite rooms in the house was also the darkest so pictures didn't turn out as well, was the sitting room or lounge. It had a magnificent fireplace and an old, old radio that they had some very old broadcast playing. You could almost put yourself back in the time of the World Wars sitting by the radio desperately waiting to hear news from afar and that the radio was your quickest means of communication...so different from today.

After restraining them throughout the house we let the kids run around once we got out. They of course started climbing up on the stone railings of the grand stair case at the front doors.

But we quickly made our way to the adventure playground where we played on this huge 2 story tall slide and climbed our way up in the not so miniature wooden fort. Their were loads of people there and the kids had a blast. Especially Harry who seemed to find every single puddle to jump in and as I watched in what felt like slow motion, he walked right through at 2 inch deep puddle and soaked his shoes.