SEA LIFE Weymouth - Lego Sea Explorers

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll know that recently we became Weymouth Sea Life Ambassadors. The kids love it there and they were really excited to find out that the latest event to open at Weymouth is Lego Sea Explorers - they have become Lego crazy over the past 6 months so excitement was high! 

Running until 2nd June, Lego Sea Explorers is an engaging interactive trail with a range of activities to learn about Sea Life's amazing underwater creatures. 

We were given a Lego Fact Finder sheet on arrival and we headed straight over to the marquee which is located just by the splash park. Inside we found a whole host of Lego themed activities and two huge pits full of Lego, just waiting to be built!

There were five interactive stations - Underwater Mosaic where we could use the provided bricks to add to the underwater scene, Roller Colour which featured lovely underwater pictures to colour in with the provided pens, Creature Creator which was an underwater puzzle, Ocean Illuminart, another colouring scene and Seabed Mosaic which was another build your own area. The mosaic ones were very popular and filled with children's names so of course, we had to add ours! 

As well as the activities, the pods are full of facts about the ocean's most exciting creatures including sharks, octopuses, starfish, crabs and seahorses. These facts will also help you unscramble the puzzles on the fact finder sheet! 

If that wasn't enough to keep the little one entertained, there is also a TV showing Lego films!

Once you have completed all the missions and filled in your fact sheet, Sea Explorers will be awarded with a limited-edition Lego Dive Team pop badge. 

Once we had finished becoming Lego Sea Explorers we had time to explore the rest of the park, including the brand new Turtle Sanctuary. This section was being refurbished on our last visit so I was excited to see it transformed. 

Inside looked completely different - gone were the dark tanks and dimly lit corners. Instead there were brand new turtle and terrapin enclosures which looked so much brighter! 

We also found lots of interactive information boards featuring topics such as sustainable fishing, seal rescue, marine protected areas and the hot topic of the moment, plastic pollution. It's such an important topic and it's fantastic that Sea Life has invested in these new displays to educate the younger generation. 

It wouldn't be a trip to Sea Life without a touch of a starfish in the rockpools and Erin took great pleasure in showing her Daddy how brave she was!

LEGO Sea Explorers is running until 2nd June 2019 so you only have a few weeks to enjoy this fab event - for more information, check out the SEA LIFE Weymouth Website or Facebook 

*Disclaimer: We are Weymouth SEA LIFE Ambassadors and received an annual pass in return for regular reviews, but all thoughts and opinions are my own

A Day Out at Marwell Zoo, featuring Brickosaurs! Review

Marwell Zoo near Winchester is one of my favourite places to visit and is somewhere I have been coming to since I was a little girl - in fact, one of my earliest memories is a school trip here when I was around 5/6!

Recently Marwell launched their world exclusive Brickosaurs event and we couldn't wait to visit. Brickosaurs is an amazing interactive showcase of over 2 million Lego bricks creating a whole host of colourful dinosaurs around the park. It's a perfect day out for the kids - animals and Lego, a match made in heaven!

I knew we would have a lot to see so we left nice and early and arrived at Marwell at 10 when it opened. We picked up our Brickosaurs trail map and off we went. It wasn't long before we spotted our first dinosaur although this one was obviously far too dangerous to be out and about in public!

he's behind you! 

As it was quiet we decided to hop on the little train that goes around the park and it's a great way of seeing the park and getting your bearings.

The zebras were full of the joys of spring and the younger ones were skipping around all over the place!

After the train dropped us back at the station, we grabbed a quick coffee from the gift shop/cafe and spotted a rather colourful velociraptor lurking in the corners. One to tick off our list!

One of the best tips I have for anyone visiting Marwell is to consider walking the park in an anti-clockwise direction. Most of the crowd will generally head past the penguins in the direction of the giraffes but we found that by heading in the opposite direction, it was a lot quieter.  We had the snow leopards to ourselves for a little while!

The Brickosaurs are scattered all over the park and easy to spot. Each dinosaur is accompanied by a sign full of fun facts like how many Lego bricks were needed to build it, and how much it weighs etc. How amazing would it be to have the job as Brickosaurs builder?

The largest touring Lego brick dinosaur model ever made is the mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex who we found outside Marwell Hall. At 8 metres long she really is a sight to behold!

Exploring the zoo is hungry work so decided to stop for an early lunch - and to stop the continued "I'm hungry!" comments! There are several cafes and kiosks around the park if you want to buy something but there are also lots of lovely areas which are perfect for picnics.

We love to have our picnic on the lawn at the back of the Hall - there are lots of benches plus more importantly, hills to roll down!

Marwell Zoo is currently going through some pretty exciting changes and is part way through a £17m investment programme which promises improved habitats for animals and more immersive experiences for guests.

One of the newest exhibits is the Tropical House which is home to an abundance of wildlife and tropical plants - and they have a sloth! I absolutely love sloths and I was really hoping to spot him but he was tucked away out of sight. Maybe next time! If sloth spotting wasn't enough to keep Elliot busy, he really enjoyed playing with the interactive tablets that can be found throughout the house.

The Tropical House spans two levels and is totally wheelchair/buggy accessible - just as well, Erin slept her way around this one ;) Colourful birds and butterflys swoop above your head whilst at ground level, you might spot mouse deer, tortoises, lizards and leaf cutter ants. We found the ants fascinating!

According to Marwell's annual audit last year, there were around 2000 animals and 143 species but this year's figure is likely to be higher because of the success of their breeding programmes. There are different things to spot around every corner and we loved seeing our favourites such as the Amur Tigers and meercats.

 I also have a soft spot for the very cute red pandas and it was lovely to see them in their new home.

 As if the animals and Brickosaurs weren't enough to keep the children entertained, there are also 5 adventure playgrounds to explore! My kids are obsessed with parks so we could have spent all day playing on these. Some are suited more for older kids but with a bit of assistance, Erin was able to clamber up most of the play structures and whizz down the slides with her brother!

After a quick trip to the gift shop, it was time to come home - what a brilliant day! Sadly we didn't get to visit the Brickosaurs Base Camp - the previous day had been mega windy so the marquee was shut for safety reasons but at least this gives us a reason to return. Plus there are 12 more Brickosaurs arriving in July!

Overall, Marwell Zoo is a fantastic day out for all ages and it really is value for money. There is so much to see and do and you can literally spend the entire day there! The Brickosaurs event is definitely worth seeing and is running until 1st September 2019.

For more info on opening times and ticket prices, see the Marwell Zoo website

P.S. If you need somewhere to stop for dinner when you leave the zoo, we can highly recommend the Dog and Crook pub which is just a few minutes away in the village of Brambridge. We had a lovely meal on the way home!

*Disclaimer: We were invited to Marwell for the day to visit the Brickosaurs, all words and opinions are my own. 

Elliot's Dream Lego House..... #OceanDreamHomes

Being a blogger's kid can mean great opportunities and this one certainly ranked high on the fun factor! We were lucky enough to take part in Ocean Finance's blogger competition and Elliot was challenged to build his dream home from Lego. Obviously being at the smaller end of the age bracket he did need a bit of assistance from Daddy but all ideas were his own and he got stuck right in!! 

We sat down and ran through a few ideas and I showed Elliot a few of the entries that had already popped up on the internet. He thought about it for a minute and said that he wanted to build a dinosaur house.......ok then, if that's your dream house Elliot! 

We were sent a box of the classic Lego and we already had lots of Duplo Lego so we combined the two. The classic Lego was a bit fiddly for Elliot so he concentrated on the Duplo construction and started to build the main house whilst Daddy got to work on the outside features. 

Obviously dinosaurs are quite large so we went with an open roof so there would plenty of room for their heads to stick out the top! Two matching stylish yellow windows sit beside the large open door. Inside Elliot kept it quite minimal with two "beds" either side for the baby dinosaurs to have their naps on. Hopefully they like hard beds because there's no option of fluffy pillows and memory foam mattresses in this house! 

Elliot kept the colour scheme to green(ish) to match all the big trees in Jurassic Park but added the blue bit on top for effect! Obviously any dinosaur is going to get hungry so he built a large

table for them to congregate around for their grub. First up was fresh goat, yum! But then we thought we'd better cater for the herbivores so it was a chocolate muffin...what every herbivore wants!

The house has prime position with the local water source running beneath it and is a stone's throw from a dormant volcano. One of a kind, this house proved a big hit in the dinosaur community and within minutes of opening it was swamped with noisy dinosaurs, one of whom couldn't resist taking a selfie! #dinoselfie

cheeeeeeeese

I think Elliot deserves to win because this house is a bit different from the standard entry and he's really used his imagination. He absolutely loves dinosaurs and thought it was so exciting building them a house. Elliot had loads of fun playing with this and went to bed dreaming of dinosaur houses! 

*Disclaimer - We were sent a box of Classic Lego to assist our house building