August 29th 2015 - Drayton Manor/Thomas Land

August 29th 2015 - Drayton Manor/Thomas Land

What a long day!  It was lovely but very long.

We were up, dressed, fed, car packed and out of the door by 08:30am.  What should have been 1hr 35mins drive took over 2hrs.  This was partly due to having to slow down through Leicester town centre and partly due to us having to do an emergency toilet stop at the side of the road and then a delay to get into the car park at Drayton Manor (we we're queing for 20minutes!)   By the time we had got parked, got my wheels out and sorted the suncream/hats and picnic bits it was almost 11am, we got our tickets and went in.

We met up with my friends husband and children just inside, they had gotten there before us.  Sadly my friend was unable to be with us as she had collapsed a few days before and was still in hospital, but rather than let her children down her husband said he would bring them and meet us.  None of us had ever met before (even my friend), we have only communicated via internet and phone for the past 5 or 6yrs.

My 3 boys and my friends 2 boys and 1 girl all got on really well together.  My boys are a bit older than my friends children and I asked my eldest 2 to look after her youngest 2 on the rides.  As it was a hot bank holiday weekend the place was packed and the ques were long.  It took 45mins to get on 1 ride!  So whilst they were on that ride I joined the que (on my wheels) for the next ride, once they came off it they came and joined me in the que!  This meant that they didn't have as long to wait for the next ride.  We did this a few times.   We also split up and the older kids went to que for 1 ride with adult and the younger ones stayed on smaller rides.

We all had a great day, the kids went on many rides and cost us all a fortune!  It was a shame I didn't get to meet my friend, but hopefully we will meet at somepoint in the future.  Her children are lovely and her daughter kept holding my hand.  The boys all played nicely together and her husband has a similar sense of humor to me.

We left Drayton Manor at 5:30pm and set off home, we needed to avoid the M6 toll road as we refuse to pay and said we would stop at mcdonalds when we found 1.  Obviously this did delay our trip home.  We finally got home very tired at 10:15pm.

 

August 27th 2015 - Places to go and people to see

August 27th 2015 - Places to go and people to see

Today has been a busy day.  The title should be people and places but it didn't sound right!  We are staying at one of our friends houses.  We had told her that we had few things to do etc and would be back just after lunch.  However, plans changed and she didn't get my message.

We started off by going to see my mum's best friend and the godmother to all 3 boys as planned.  Blake decided that he liked her pot of stones in the garden - not just stones but crystal types, clear fish etc, asked where they were from, his godmother didn't know and told him to take them.  So he filled a bag and said they would look nice in his fairy garden.

From here we went for Dinner with my Nan at a local pub.  The food was nice and the service was mostly good, but it took over 20minutes to pay for it because the people in front of us were argueing over the cost of their bill and there were 3 members of staff trying to sort it out.  This is where our plans changed as we were meant to be heading back, but my sister rang me and asked if we would go and meet her.

We went to meet my sister as not seen her since january and she asked if we wanted to go to Fineshade Woods in Northamptonshire, sounds far but it's only about 20minutes drive from Peterborough.  It wasn't anywhere we had heard of, which is a shame as it was really nice and certainly somewhere we would have gone when we lived that way.

We took out my Wheels so that I didn't have to walk and my sister said that I had a "granny mobile" - I don't care! lol!  We went round the woods to a tree house where the boys played for a while, lil man got stuck and had to be rescued from the top of it.  we then headed back to the smaller play area for a little while.

My friend we are staying with rang to check we were ok as she had expected us back a few hours before and she said she hadn't got my message.  She was glad we were ok but she was going out but told us how to get in house etc.  We were on our way to car when she rang anyway but we needed to go supermarket for party food for tomorrow so said would be an hour or so. It took us ages to pay in Morrisons as they had very few tills open and long ques!

July 22nd 2015 - Wellington Farm

July 22nd 2015 - Wellington Farm

Today was the last day my friend was going to be here and still the weather was bad so no beach again!  This meant we had to find something to do, preferably cheap or free. 

A friend had said about a local farm she had been to a few weeks ago not far from where we live, it's free to go round the animals etc and it served food and ice cream etc (you had pay for these).  I googled Wellington Farm in Cockermouth and found the location. It looked good and as free we decided this is what we would do as it was also the right way for my friend to get back on the road to go home to Scotland.

Although it was there it wasn't as big as the net seemed to hint it was.  The boys all enjoyed looking at the animals, they wern't keen on the geese that were making A LOT  of noise by the fence, and in fairness they did sound and look nasty!  They liked playing in the small play area on the bikes and tractors.  They couldn't go on the go-karts as we didn't have any cash on us as it was free place.  We did buy ice-cream in the shop which was lovely.  After wandering round the animals we went into the trail through the woods which was really good.

April 15th 2015 - Family Learning trip out

April 15th 2015 - Family Learning trip out

Today was the last day of the family learning and literacy course, and this meant we went on a day trip!  We all decided early on the course that we would go to Walby Farm Park which is just over an hour away from us.

The trip had been arranged and we had the full use of the school room there - this morning the kids all had some worksheets to fill out linked to the farm and stuff, we then went on a tour where the member of staff assigned to us told the kids all about the animals and their foods etc.  They all got to stroke a baby goat - was only 2 weeks old and made loads of noise when taken out of pen away from mum!  After this we went out to see the hens and ducks, the kids all got to stroke a hen and help collect the eggs from the pen, the member of staff went through all the different types of eggs we had collected and how long eggs take to hatch - 21days (I didn't know this).  We then carried on the tour and the kids all got to bottle feed a lamb - the farm has got over 25baby lambs so far and still some not born.  My boys thought this was great.  We washed hands, had dinner and then the kids were allowed to go and play (Walby has a huge indoor play area with slides and ball pools etc).  We went and stroked the rabbits and guinea pigs and watched the sheep racing (none of us backed the winning sheep).  Sadly we then had to head back to the coach to come home.

I did take loads of photos of the day, including the feeding of the lambs, but when I got home and went to upload them it told me the memory card was corrupted and needed to be formatted.  I'm really annoyed about this, hubby has even tried to see if he can salvage the pics but the programme he uses isn't even picking them up.

This was my 2nd visit to Walby and it is a great place, has things for everyone of all ages and stuff both inside and out.  Well worth a visit if your in the area.

February 18th 2015 - Haig Pit

February 18th 2015 - Haig Pit

As it's a very dull and overcast day, complete with sea mist and rain showers I decided that we would take the kids out to an indoor place - Haig Pit mining museum that is only a few miles up the road from where we live.  The first time we went to it was the day after it closed down for renovation, so we could only see the outside.  It re-opened on Valentines day this year.

We went, we saw we, came home!  Although what was there was interesting, the website made it look as though there was alot more on display etc.  The kids enjoyed the fact that there was alot of hands on activities and buttons that they could push etc,  and enjoyed the coal blaster that made loads of noise and scared me to death the first time they set it off!

Parts of the pit still looked as though they were being worked on, so hopefully this is the case and there will be more to see and do if we go again.  Sadly you couldn't get down to any of the pit parts or tracks, you could only go round the old engine house building.  Maybe this is because of health & safety I don't know.