THINGS WE'RE LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS EASTER!

Despite the cold and wet weather, apparently it's now Spring.  I'm not convinced...our heating is still on and I'm no way near ready to give up my winter boots yet! Elliot has now broken up for the Easter hols and we are looking forward to two weeks of fun. And some nice weather would be nice too!

Here's a selection of things (in no particular order!) that we are looking forward to:

CATCHING UP WITH FRIENDS
This is the big one! I have a lovely group of Mum friends and our children have grown up together after we met at our under ones class back in 2013. We don't all live in the same area though so unfortunately some of Elliot's friends go to different schools. It's so hard to meet up in term time as we are all so busy at weekends so it's really nice in the school holidays to catch up.

ANDY'S DINO RAPS
If you read this blog regularly, or follow me on Twitter, you'll know that Elliot is a huge fan of Andy Day from CBeebies! Andy is bringing his dino raps show to Dorset on Easter weekend and we couldn't be more excited. Erin is going to my parents for the day so Elliot and I can have a day together which we don't do very often these days. He's got his Andy costume ready to wear and we might even pop in and say hello to Dippy while we're in the area!

Weymouth Sealife Adventure Park
The first day of the Easter holidays will be spent here, a favourite local attraction of Elliot's! We are looking forward to taking part in the new Octonauts Shark Mission which runs from March 30th til April 15th. We'll be able to follow the trail around the park and even meet Shellington - Elliot loves a character meet and greet!

ROCK PAINTING
This is a pretty new thing for us but we've really got the bug! I'm guessing it happens all over the UK but people paint rocks and hide them, and then people find them and post on Facebook. We found our first rock in February and have since then painted lots of our own to hide. It's quite exciting when you see one of your own creation pop up on Facebook!

ANDY & THE ODD SOCKS LIVE SHOW
Another Andy event (we're not stalking him I promise!!) - this time a visit to Bristol and tickets to see Andy and his band The Odd Socks. They are a great kids band and we always have a fab time at their shows. The CD is on in our car all the time and the songs are just so catchy!!

CADBURY EASTER EGG HUNTS
This combines two of my favourite things - Cadbury's chocolate and our local National Trust properties!! This has become a bit of a tradition for us and we always head over to Kingston Lacy which is a beautiful stately home set in stunning grounds.

NATURE WALKS AND OUTDOOR FUN
We have some beautiful scenery here in Dorset and we're looking forward to visiting some of our favourite nature reserves. One of the prettiest is Arne and it has a lovely mix of beach, heathland and woods plus a pretty cool wooden playground! Will keep our fingers crossed for dry weather :)

MIGHTY CLAWS ADVENTURE GOLF
We love a bit of crazy golf and Mighty Claws is one of the best we have been to. Featuring large scale animatronic dinosaurs, an erupting volcano and even a purple waterfall, it's a great place to visit if your children are as dinosaur obsessed as mine! Elliot is excited to visit again :)

What do you have planned over the school holidays? 

Andy Day's Dinosaur Raps - Festival of Nature 2015 Bristol

I first read about the Festival of Nature on Twitter and thought it sounded like a great day out for kids. I then discovered that Andy Day, i,e Elliot's favourite person in the world (well, aside from family obviously!) was going to be there doing some dinosaur raps - amazing! As it turned out, my husband was away for the weekend anyway and Bristol isn't that far from Dorset so we thought why not :)

The Festival of Nature is the UK's biggest free celebration of the natural world. Over 150 organisations got involved and the programme included live music, interactive activities, talks from big names in the world of wildlife such as Bill Oddie and lots of hands on experiences for all ages.

I've written about Andy before (see here) but Elliot is such a fan. He loves both his dinosaur and wild adventures programmes and tends to jump around like a loony when he comes on telly! Last time we met Andy, Elliot was only 21 months old and just stared at him so I was hoping that if we got the chance to meet him again, Elliot might be a bit more talkative. He had a question prepared *just in case* and a few days before the festival he said he was going to say " give mummy a kiss!" to him......cringe! I promise I didn't prompt him to say that!!

Andy was due to perform his first lot of dino raps at 11am so we were up bright and early and on the road by 7am. We decided to use the Park & Ride on the outskirts of the city and it was great - easy to find, just a short journey by bus into the city centre and only £3. Much cheaper than parking in the city centre I'm sure!

By the time we had reached the Harbourside area, it had started to drizzle but Millenium Square was already starting to get busy. We headed over to the BBC tent first and we were amongst the first in - this meant we didn't have to queue for face painting or dinosaur digging much to Elliot's delight! There were lots of things to look at and it was really interesting seeing all the equipment used for all their amazing nature programmes. There were lots of activities available for kids and we coloured some dinosaurs and made a (really really bad) sock puppet!

It was almost time for Andy by this point so we headed back outside and got a spot right at the front. Well Elliot decided he wanted to be at the front, I had to climb over some mums and kneel down on my coat so I could ensure Elliot didn't get under Andy's feet!

Andy spent the next half an hour entertaining the crowd with his dinosaur raps - the kids loved it, Elliot was just enthralled! It was so cute watching him waving his toy dinosaur in the air and trying to sing along!

After his set, Andy was doing a signing in the BBC tent so we got in line and Elliot was talking about what he'd say to Andy. He assured me he wouldn't go all shy but you can guess what happened when it was our turn....my noisy little chatterbox suddenly clammed up! Andy was lovely though and Elliot did eventually tell him his name and show him his dinosaur. He even asked him what his favourite dinosaur was, but in the smallest little voice! The photos are quite funny too, Elliot looks petrified!! I think he was just a bit in awe because as soon as we got outside he was leaping around saying "We met Andy again Mummy!".

Andy did a second set of dinosaur raps after meeting all his little fans and of course we stayed to watch it. Elliot didn't seem to mind that it was the same songs as an hour before!!

Thankfully the rain had now stopped so we decided to have an ice-cream. Unfortunately Elliot also decided to fall head first off a bench onto the concrete floor so we had a quick visit to the first aid tent to make sure he was ok. (He was fine, just a bit shocked I think!)

The bug tent was our next stop and Elliot couldn't wait to investigate. There were so many things to look at such as giant snails and cockroaches. Elliot also helped big a bug home and dressed up as a bee! This was a great tent but just so busy, would have liked to have spent more time in there but it's tricky having a 2 year old with you who wants to look at everything, right now! You need eyes in the back of your head!

A friend of mine Tina, who lives in Bristol came to meet up with us with her daughter and we spent a bit more time exploring the many stands the festival had to offer. I even spotted Bill Oddie! We finished the afternoon with a visit to the cafe at @Bristol. This science looks like great fun and I hope to return to Bristol in the not too distant future and visit here with the family, my husband would love it! Their cafe was great as they have a kids play area in the corner so I got to have a lovely catch up with my friend whilst Elliot burnt off some more energy!

By now, it was time for us to head back home so we said our goodbyes and bid a fond farewell to the festival. We had a great day out and I'm sure Elliot will be talking about meeting Andy for a long time to come!

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