Reading, what a pleasure! Imagine if you couldn’t? How many doors would be closed to you and how much enjoyment, pure and simple enjoyment, would be missed out on? I love to read and I love my children to read too. We have many, many books in this house and we read together every single evening, just as my parents did with me.

We also like to make up our own stories. Sometimes I will start them off and Florence will finish and other times she just makes the whole thing up herself and you know what? They’re always really, really good!

We have, in the past, even acted out our favourite stories both at home and when we are out on our adventures… What could be more fun? I feel so lucky to be able to relive all these things I loved when I was little with my own children now!

Yesterday we were invited somewhere very special to incorporate all these things we love so much! Stories, outdoor adventures, performance and fun! We feel very, very lucky!

It was a fairytale of a day!

Highland Spring and The Woodland Trust are hoping to inspire people this autumn to get out and about and use magical woodland settings to create their own fairytale adventures! Their campaign encourages families to go to local woodland and enjoy the magic of storytelling by bringing fairytales to life! Michael Rosen, children’s poet and author, launched the campaign and we got to be there for the start of it – of course it was in the woods!

Ready for some magical woodland fun!

Michael read us some of his fabulous poems where all the children joined in and smiles radiated around the faces among the trees! And then he told us a story… Can you guess which one it was? ‘We’re Going On A Bear Hunt’ of course! It was first published in 1989 so it’s been around for generations of children already and it will be around for all generations to come. My children, like all other children I know, love it! Can you imagine how much even more wonderful it is having it read to you in the woods by Michael?

A wonderful story time!

And then things got even better as we were asked if we would like to join in with a proper, actual bear hunt! Well we didn’t need to be asked more than once and off we all ran to find bears in the trees, collect letters and make a word for a special promised prize at the end!

We’re going on a bear hunt, we’re going to catch a big one, what a beautiful day!

We found all the letters which spelled the word FAIRYTALE and then Michael signed his book (which was the fabulous prize) for us!

What a treat!

As if that wasn’t enough, my little fairy, baby bear (Jimmy had his first ever face paint), Jonny and I were treated to a picnic to enjoy with everyone else. Lydia and Debbie from my favourite TV programme TOWIE were there with their family and Jade Jones had brought his and Emma Bunton’s gorgeous children so we were in very good company along with my friend Emily from Family Four Fun. We had such a lovely time!

A picnic in the magical woods!

As part of the Forest Fairytales campaign, the UK’s No 1 bottled water brand is creating the Nation’s Biggest Fairytale. How fab does that sound! Michael has provided the first line but what happens next is up to the Great British public. Budding authors and imaginative Tweeters are being asked to visit www.highland-spring.com or find @HSfairytale to play their part in creating the tale. We’ve joined in and we created a little elf character called Bumblebee which is Jimmy’s middle name! You HAVE to join in too!

Andrea McQuaid, head of brand marketing for Highland Spring said ‘Enchanted houses nestled deep among the trees, handsome princes dashing across the forest floor – so many of our best loved fairytales are set in the magic of the woods. So what better way to encourage families to make the most of the fabulous woodland we are lucky enough to have up and down the country?’ She is so right! And it’s completely free to enjoy your local woods in this way, not to mention fun and very educational!

Florence and Jimmy’s faces show how much they loved being in the woods yesterday!

We created lots of lovely memories yesterday, we can’t wait to go back to the woods and do it again soon! We wore ourselves out so much that by the time we got home we just wanted to jump in our jarmies and snuggle up on the sofa for a story.

We always have a story before bed!

A beautiful fairytale day in the woods!

I have not been paid to write this post.