day out Archives – Mummascribbles

We all know that there has been an unexpected outcome in the election today and the news, Facebook, Twitter and every other social media channel has been overtaken with various opinions, shell-shock and a heck of a lot of negativity around the country. Unfortunately, this news has come on a hideously important day that is now being overshadowed by a bunch of morons (because truly, no matter who you support and whether they won or not, there is no denying that they are al just a bunch of twerps acting like school children).

Today is VE Day, marking 70 years since the end of the second world war in Europe. There is no doubt that the majority of you reading this would have had grandparents or even parents who fought or were evacuated in the war. The war began in 1939 and lasted until 1945 and involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. There were an estimated 50 to 85 million fatalities from a variety of means including bombings, nuclear weapons and of course the Holocaust. There are a lot of things taking place in the coming days in commemoration of this day and we were fortunate at the weekend to have one taking place in our area.

The Royal Gunpowder Mills were in operation for 300 years and yep, you guessed it, is where gunpowder was made. It closed it’s doors in gunpowder making in July 1945 however it still remains there now, with some of the original building in tact. It is an extraordinary space, full of important history and sadly, is in threat of closing it’s doors for good. It is run mostly by volunteers and for some reason just doesn’t get the crowds that it should. That was until this weekend. If every weekend could be like the one just gone, it would be a triumphant success.

We went along on Bank Holiday Monday to experience a little bit of history. The VE celebrations were in full swing all weekend and everything was set up as if it was the 1940’s.

There was a 1940’s band with 1940’s dancing.

There were 1940’s stalls displaying and selling old wartime badges, medals and war equipment.

There were wartime trucks with soldiers at the wheel. On the usual truck ride that you can always get from one side to the other (it’s a big place) – there was a man at the back guarding the ‘prisoners’ with a gun!

  

  

There were soldiers with guns everywhere. Soldiers hiding in camouflage, being spotted and having a to do!

One of the coolest parts of the afternoon was a spitfire show. Yep, said spitfire was doing loop the loops, flying low, whizzing around. It was a fantastic display and my aeroplane fan of a son loved it!

And then, there was a re-enactment of Operation Varsity when British and American troops fought side by side for the first and only time. This…this was amazing. There were hundreds of re-enactors taking part. It was set withint the forest section of the Mills, there was gun fighting, simulated grenades (they had loud bangs!), pretend fisty cuffs, just an all out war in front of our eyes. And it isn’t until you see something like that, that enables you to imagine a little of how terrifying it must have been in World War 2.

Here’s a little video clip of the re-enactment.

The day was fantastic and we have since found out that there were almost 2000 people there on the day we were. We have never seen it so busy, have never had to queue to get into the car park and it was just wonderful. Of course, Zach had a fab time and his confident little self wasn’t scared of a bunch of men with guns!

  

  

I so hope that this place doesn’t end up closing down. It would be a travesty if this important part of history disappeared. And they even have a miniature railway that Zach adores!! 

 

If you are interested in joining in with any of the VE day celebrations this weekend, I found this website which has lots of information. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/victory-in-europe-ve-day-celebrations

Let us remember and focus this time on the millions and millions of people who lost their lives. Not on which colour party is running the country.

Yesterday was adventure day number two and it featured a whole day outdoors. We picked yesterday for this trip because out of the whole week, it had the best forecast and we couldn’t have asked for more perfect weather.

Here in Hertfordshire, we have a place called Paradise Wildlife Park. I’ve known about it for years as I remember my nephew going on a school trip there but it took me a long time to go there myself – in fact, I think the first time was with the other half pre-Zach. When we started househunting and found our house, we realised that we’d be only a ten minute drive away from it which excited us! We first took Zach for his 1st birthday and then again last year, probably when he was 18 months or so. The difference in his experience then was huge so I knew that now at two and a half it was going to be immense.

Paradise is set out in two sections. The first section when you enter is one giant playground. There are slides of all kinds and sizes. There are go karts and mini ride ons. There is a train ride and and a huge soft play area along with a bouncy castle and a bouncy slide. Over the other side there are the animals ranging from camels and zebras to tigers and lions. It is quite possibly one of my favourite places to visit. And now it appears to be Zach’s too!

When we arrived, he immediately wanted to go on the promised choo choo train ride so we did. Along the train journey there are lots of animal statues including dinosaurs but there is also an enclosure of wolves (real ones), and also deer. Zach of course was slightly more interested in the train itself and specifically trying to see the wheels go round on the track. He was a happy train fan once again!

After that, it was time to play and boy did he! We spent half of the day with him running from slide to slide, climbing the ladders all by himself and whizzing down with utter excitement and sheer joy.

  

The slide he liked the most though was the bouncy one. Last time he went on one of these which was on his second birthday, one of us had to go up with him as his legs were just too little to cope with the bouncy steps! This time, he did it all alone! He may have caused a bit of a queue, but he did it!

He came bouncing down time after time with the biggest laugh. It was so wonderful to watch.

Then it was time for the big fire engine and a few more slides (yep really, he hasn’t had enough slides) along with a go on the stone picking up digger!

      

Once we managed to drag him away from the slides, we wandered over to the animal side. First up, we wandered into the shop to buy him a hat as the sun was so intense! We managed to find the coolest hat ever which he liked for about five minutes before taking it off and we then sat down for a bird show which he enjoyed.

At this point we were all a bit hungry so we went off to find a shady place to eat. The first shady place we came across was a tiny house with tiny benches inside – Zach chose this as our somewhere to eat and we were a bit uncomfortable! But he was happy!

 

After lunch and with a rather tired boy, we went to look at some of the animals.

  

By this point Zach was knackered so we put him in his buggy and tried to get him off to sleep – it wasn’t an easy task! He fought it as much as he could but in the end tiredness won!

While he was having his snooze, I had a yummy ice cream while watching this beauty having a sunbathe!

We then went for a little wander round the animals. I think it was a bit hot for them all!

      

We then took a sleeping Zach into the 3.30pm show featuring ferrets and an owl. While we kind of wanted him to wake up by this point, we didn’t anticipate one of the first things to come out of the speaker being a warning alarm!! He woke with a start but thankfully didn’t get upset and got to enjoy the show

After going to see the tigers again and Zach telling me that he wanted to cuddle one (!), we had one last visit to the playground area, a few more slides, another go on the train and then it was time to get home to make the dumplings for the stew that had been in the slow cooker all day!

We had such a wonderful day at one of our favourite places. I can’t wait to go back again

We have the week off work this week and we promised Zach some adventures. I mean, this is the boy who is happy enough with an adventure to the slide at the park round the corner so anything else is simply awesome!

The other half has been dying to take him to the Natural History Museum in London, well…since I was pregnant haha! I’ve been putting it off a bit to make sure that Zach was old enough and that he would appreciate at least some of what was there. I wasn’t expecting him to be standing asking questions about minerals and the Earth forming but I did want him to be involved in the day.

Of course, the first piece of excitement was that we had to get on a few choo choo trains to get there. We live just outside London so it meant one overground train and then two underground trains (South Kensington is such a long way!). Now, my boy is obsessed with trains. Every night we have to read some kind of train book, we have to pretend we are trains when we are out on a walk, Zach pushing the buggy and us being the carriages, and all he talks about is going on the train…every day! He is constantly jealous that me and his daddy get to go on trains five times a week. So when he gets to go, it’s the best thing ever.

    

When we got to the museum, there was a short queue but it didn’t take us long to get in. We didn’t go in the main entrance (we were told the queue was long when it wasn’t), and this entrance took us into the bit where the escalator leads up to the Earth section and he was immediately fascinated. We decided to do the dinosaurs first though because, well, he loves dinosaurs and we didn’t want him to get tired and not enjoy them! Before we reached the main hall where Dippy is, he was treated to a taster of what was to come!

 

Then it was time for Dippy. I don’t know if you know, but Dippy is being removed and replaced by the Blue Whale which we are saddened by. I do kind of understand that the Blue Whale is still alive and kicking today and therefore more relevant, but Dippy has been there for as long as I’ve known and so we wanted Zach to see him before it goes. He loved him immediately!

    

Next up, we joined the queue to get into the main dinosaur section. Again, it wasn’t a long queue…luckily half the schools have already gone back else it could have been! We weren’t sure how he’d like the dinosaurs but he was enthralled with them, spotting them moving, seeing the skeletons and roaring with them!

Then it was time for the big one. The moving, roaring T-Rex. This was either going to make or break him. We were about to find out just what level of braveness our boy has. Whether the huge roaring T-Rex would make him excited or make him cry! I’m happy to report that he thought it was fantastic!

 

Once we were done with the dinosaurs (he was saying goodbye dinosaurs as we were leaving the section), we wandered around looking at anything that may interest him and there was plenty!

            

It was then time to go up to the Earth section – the bit that he’d first seen and was so excited about!

    

Something else we did was go into the Earthquake section. If you haven’t been, there is a room that shows footage of an earthquake and shakes as it would have done based on the actual earthquake. Again, I wasn’t sure how he’d feel about this and he was a bit jittery and unsure but after the ‘tremor’ had ended, he wanted to experience it again! I don’t have any pictures of this as I was holding onto him tightly!

After this, we grabbed his buggy from the cloakroom as he was looking pretty worn out after running round like mad for 2.5 hours, and we headed off to the mammal section. He just (with a little help from mummy), managed to stay awake long enough to see the giant Blue Whale, but then he was gone. Off for a nap to dream about dinosaurs and earthquakes! Absolutely shattered!

So then the other half and I wandered some more but by this point my legs were aching and I needed a sit down. We begrudgingly paid a ridiculous amount of money for two cans of drink (we took our own packed lunch for earlier in the day so we didn’t have to spend a fortune!), and had a relax. We then visited the shop, decided not to buy anything and headed on out to the tube station. Upon me covering Zach with my cardi, he woke from his nap, happy that he hadn’t missed any of the train journey home!

    

I think it’s safe to say that Zach had an absolutely amazing day. I had some comments on Facebook as to how well he really took to it at two and a half and I would say he really did. Yes, there is lots he didn’t care abut but we purposefully picked sections that we thought would interest him and as you can see, he was absolutely fascinated. I’m so glad that the first trip of our staycation was a huge success. He was telling everyone about it at nursery today!

Have you had a fab day out with your little ones to the Natural History Museum? I think we need to try the Science Museum next – I’ve heard that it’s fab and that a change of clothes is required!

Today we went to Diggerland! I saw a promotion of theirs a couple of weeks ago & snapped up some very cheap tickets. Upon driving into the entrance and Zach seeing the first enormous digger, he was so excited; wriggling in the back of the car, itching to get out! Once we walked through the main entrance, he was in heaven!!

There is something for everyone at Diggerland. Zach is under 90cm (just) and so got in free but they still have plenty to do for littlies over 80cm including using real diggers:

Riding on the back of the tractor train…

And having fun with parents on go karts!

They also have a really cool soft play area which we spent about 45 minutes running around until me and daddy were too tired!

We spent some time recovering in the cafe where we had one of these each and Zach had sausage and chips – all very reasonably priced and very generous! I have to say their burgers looked amazing!!

Probably the most important thing they had was amazing hand-dryers in the ladies toilets so that I was able to dry Zach’s trousers when he’d jumped in too many muddy puddles!

I think it’s safe to say that Zach had a fantastic time, as did we, and that was with him being too little to go on a lot of the rides (which did infuriate him at times!). We will definitely be going back when he’s reached 90cm so he can enjoy even more stuff and hopefully it’ll not be cold, wet and windy – we couldn’t have expected much more from an English February though could we?

Upon leaving, we treated him to a cool little JCB digger as a memento and they also gave him a certificate as proof that he’d been on a digger adventure!

He proved just how much fun he’d had by showing us how exhausted he was. Bless him, there’s nothing like a fantastic family day out

It is our little thing that we go somewhere full of fun on Zach’s birthday. It doesn’t matter what day it is, we both take the day off work and spend it together, the three of us having uber amounts of fun!

Last year we went somewhere that is now local to us called Paradise Wildlife Park.

This year we kept with the outdoor theme and visited another local place called Willows Activity Farm in St Albans, Hertfordshire. I’d heard lots about it and seen a flyer recently when I realised just how fab it looked! So when I found a buy one get one free voucher in the local paper, it seemed silly that we should do anything other than this for his special day. And what a special day it was!

Willows Activity Farm isn’t just a farm. It’s a farm, adventure playground, soft play area, inflatable slides, fairground rides and a whole section with a huge amount of ride on diggers. When we walked in, we couldn’t believe our eyes! It was incredible, and that was just to us adults, I can’t think of what Zach made of it!

I think it’s safe to say he (and we) had an absolute ball.

He fed the animals

He went on the tractor ride

He went on the inflatable slide several times!

He rode the little carousel and diggers!

And went in the soft play (where they have the best slide ever!) and in the park area!

We pretty much spent the whole day there but could easily have done even more hours! I can’t believe we are lucky to have such an amazing place practically on the doorstep and we will definitely be visiting again!

Zach had an amazing second birthday and I’m writing this while I’m waiting for his cake to cool – we have his little party tomorrow so another few hours of fun are to be had I do like dragging out his birthdays