Our February Half Term

January seemed to drag on forever and it felt like half term would never arrive! But finally it was time to relax...I say relax in the loosest sense as we had an action packed week planned. But still, there was no school run!

Here's what we got up to..

Abba Workshop / Upton Country Park

The first day of the holidays saw us having a split day - I spent the day with my choir on an Abba Workshop which was brilliant fun! The children had a day with Paul which was nice as they don't get to do it without me very often. The weather was a bit drizzly but he took them out for a long walk to a place called Upton Country Park. It's somewhere we love visiting and it's great because it's walking distance from our house, and there is always something fun to do!

He did make me laugh though, he packed a picnic for the kids but said they were still hungry and wanted something else....welcome to my life hah! Always blimmin hungry! 

Winchester Science Centre

This is fast becoming Elliot's favourite place to visit, in fact he's been there three times since December! We went along to review the half term activities and we had a brilliant day. There is so much to do and is definitely a full day out. Erin loves it too, she's too young to understand the science behind the experiments but give her a button to press and she's happy! 

Jawsome Sharks at Weymouth SEA LIFE Adventure Park

We've recently become Blogger Ambassadors for Weymouth SEA LIFE and it's somewhere we really enjoy visiting. The kids were looking forward to taking part in the Jawsome Sharks event and I was looking forward to seeing the Fairy Penguins - who are extremely cute by the way! 

We had lunch in the nearby pub too and they had a soft play area which was fab - more pubs should have this! It meant the kids weren't getting bored waiting for their food, and I got a few minutes of peace while they were off exploring. Not so easy getting them to leave though ;)

Dodging the showers at Kingston Lacy

Kingston Lacy is very popular at this time of year with thousands of people visiting to see the beautiful snowdrops. It certainly seemed like most of Dorset were there the same time as us judging by the number of cars in the carpark and queues in the cafe! 

It was a funny old morning with lots of sunshine and torrential showers but the kids didn't care about the rain, they just had lots of fun playing with their friends. We did have a muddy incident though...Erin decided that stomping in it wasn't enough and she ended up sitting in a very thick muddy puddle!

Looking for Zog at Moors Valley Country Park

Moors Valley is always a great place to visit as there are acres of forest to explore with lots of play trails along the way. There is also the brand new Zog trail! We didn't do the full trail which involves purchasing an activity pack from the information centre but we enjoyed spotting the Zog pictures along the way. 

We went with a couple of our friends and the children had a brilliant time playing on the wooden play areas. Thankfully we had no mud incidents although Elliot did manage to split his welly boots! 

Seaside Fun in Swanage

The weather looked lovely for Friday so we headed down to the seaside town of Swanage with some friends. Unfortunately the weatherman got it wrong and we drove into Swange in thick mist! It was pretty chilly too so not quite the warm Spring day we were hoping for. Never mind, we had lots of fun playing in the park, spending all our 2ps in the arcade - we even went to Wimpy, how retro! 

After lunch we decided to let the kids have a play on the beach - but it took them all of 5 seconds to get wet in the sea! Elliot's legs were drenched and his brand new wellies were full of water! Fortunately we had spare clothes and hypothermia was averted. They loved it though!!

Geocaching in our local area

On the last day of the holidays the sun was shining again so we decided to head out for a bit of Geocaching. If you've not heard of Geocaching before, it's a great activity that goes on all over the world and is basically a bit like a treasure hunt! 

We drove to a nearby village and followed a very muddy track that led us to several caches. Elliot was really excited to find his first geocoin too! 

The weather was absolutely gorgeous - mad to think that this time last year we had snow! 

So that was our half term holiday -nice and busy just as we like it! We did have a couple of days where we didn't go out and just chilled out at home - we all needed to recharge our batteries and it was nice not to have to rush out anywhere. 

We're on countdown to the Easter holidays now! 

Our Sunny Days - June 2018

I'm probably going to jinx the weather now by talking about the glorious sunshine....but wasn't June lovely!! I'm sure June is normally wet and dreary so it's been amazing to have so many sunny days in a row. We definitely feel like we're getting lots of wear out of our summer clothes! 

Beach Days

Living on the south coast, we have an abundance of beaches on our doorstep. I have to admit, I'm not really a lover of sitting on a beach in the boiling sunshine with hundreds of other people jostling for a spot but we have enjoyed finding some smaller beaches recently which are much nicer! 

Erin loves the beach - she loves nothing more than pottering around with a bucket and spade. She also loves a paddle too but she's a little monkey - on several occasions (like today for instance!) she has waded in fully clothed! 

We also have a really nice park where the above beach pic was taken and there is a massive paddling pool - needless to say the kids love going in there! 

Garden Fun

We treated the kids to some new garden toys and a cool new paddling pool so they have been having lots of fun outside. Last year I made the mistake of getting a giant paddling pool that took forever to blow up, and then forever to fill up so this year we scaled down and got something fun that they could both use! 

Elliot's a bit big (and heavy) for the little slide, but there's always a solution...

Erin didn't realise she was directly in the splash zone!

We have also been having lots of bbq's recently - and doesn't food taste so much nicer when you're sat outside in the sunshine! As part of his Father's Day presents, we gave my husband a set of personalised BBQ tools (from www.personallypresented.com) which he has been getting lots of use out of. One of the reasons I like BBQ's is the fact I don't have to cook so it was only right he had his own tools!

Days Out

A few weeks back we decided to book tickets for Paultons Park (home of Peppa Pig world!) as a treat for the children. Elliot loves it there but it was Erin's first time and she was so excited to see all the Peppa rides! It was such a hot day though, it genuinely felt like we were back in Florida at the theme parks. 

melting...

Paultons Park is great for children, there is so much to do and you could easily spend two days there. I love that different age groups are catered for - Elliot was in his element in the Lost Kingdom with all the dinosaur attractions, while Erin loved the smaller rides in Peppa Pig World. And they both loved cooling off in the amazing splash park! 

Days out don't have to be expensive though. We have recently started doing a bit of geocaching - if you've not heard of it, it's basically like a giant treasure hunt. There are geocaches hidden all over the world and you use an app to find them. It's a great way of getting children outdoors! 

We visited a place called Holten Lee which is literally a 5 minute drive from our house but there were lots of geocaches there to be found. It's a brilliant way to explore new areas too - we've never visited Holten Lee before, despite living so close but we had a lovely walk in the sunshine and I'm sure we will go back. 

I heard on the news that this weather is here to stay until September so I'm hoping and praying that's true. The Summer Holidays start in a couple of weeks and it would be amazing to have 6 weeks of sunshine! 

Just chilling....