Jawsome Sharks & Friends - Top Trumps - Weymouth SEA LIFE

We love a day out at Weymouth SEA LIFE Adventure Park and in the half term holiday we headed down to check out the brand new Jawsome Sharks event. Running from 15th February - 26th April, visitors can take on a brand new quest for 2020 by helping Professor Finn find the missing Top Trump cards hidden around the park.

"Guests will learn fun facts along the way about the species of sharks and other amazing creatures that call the aquarium home. This latest activity marks an exciting new partnership with family favourite Top Trumps card games, which many of us know from the endless hours of fun provided as children" 

We are huge fans of Top Trumps and Elliot and Erin were very keen to start on this challenge!

As we headed into the park, we picked up our challenge sheets and pencils from the front desk and excitingly, our first Top Trump card of the day. As part of the quest, children can challenge any member of staff to a quick game of Top Trumps to see if they can win another card. This is a fantastic way of learning about the sea creatures and who doesn't love a fact!

We had a bit of a false start with our Top Trumps as the first member of staff we encountered didn't have any cards on him but this didn't dampen Elliot's enthusiasm as you can see from the pic above :)

We had lots of fun exploring the park zones and looking for the hidden Top Trumps. Some were easy to find but we had a bit of a tricky one which was being hidden by a stingray - he really didn't want us to see the info and we had to wait ages for him to move!

It was also really fun getting to challenge the staff - I think this was Elliot's favourite part of the day and he got some really interesting cards from different staff around the park. The staff are brilliant at Sealife Weymouth and it's something I always notice every time we visit - they are passionate about the park and always so friendly.

Of course we couldn't visit and not spend some time in Caribbean Cove - one of the best playgrounds in Dorset. The kids love it and could easily spend all day here!

Erin's still a bit too young to go on the big climbing frame but there's plenty to keep her occupied and she loved the toddler pirate ship.

The park is going through a bit of an update at the moment and the popular Ocean Tunnel display inside the Turtle Sanctuary is currently being redeveloped into an exciting new experience called Night and Day. This opens in April 2020 and we can't wait to see what they've done!

Once you have found all the Top Trump cards around the park and filled out your sheet, you will receive a special reward to take home...

We had a fab day out at Weymouth SEA LIFE and the kids were really chuffed to come away with a selection of Top Trump cards. I think having the staff there to swap cards with is a great way of getting the kids chatting, especially if they are a little shy.

The Jawsome Sharks and Friends event is now on until 26th April - for more information and tickets, please check out the Weymouth SEA LIFE website .

*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

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

Our May Bank Holiday Weekend

Our May Bank Holiday promised to be a busy one - but Elliot was just chuffed that he had yet another day off school!

I love this time of year because all the local festivals start to happen and Saturday was the day of VenFest. This is a really local one to us (we can walk from our house!) and features lots of lovely local Dorset produce, live music and stalls. The event started off as the Dorset Venison festival a few years back but has evolved over time to include lots of other Dorset produce and is now called Venfest.

This was to be our 3rd time going and it was a bit of a special one as my choir were booked in to sing! We actually did a flash mob in the morning (an interesting experience!) but our main slot was in the afternoon and we had such a good turn out. It was our first gig of the year so it was fab to be able to run through our set list and see which songs went down well with the crowd! I find that the festival gigs are always really fun and we always get a great reaction from the crowd - I love it when the kids come and join in down the front...like mine did!

The kids had a great time at the festival and we pretty much stayed until closing time! 

Elliot found the Cerne Abbas Brewery stall highly amusing...can't think why :D

Sunday was a pretty quiet day - my husband went out training for his marathon walk in the morning whilst the kids and I caught up with Britain's Got Talent. In the afternoon they had a birthday party to go to - there was a giant dragon bouncy castle which Elliot loved bouncing on! Erin was a bit small for the inflatables but she got stuck into pass the parcel. It's the first time she's really understood it and it was very cute watching her passing it along and then getting really excited when it stopped on her!

Sunday evening was Line of Duty time and I was so excited to watch the finale of Series 5. We have binged watched all the other series over the last couple of weeks and we're finally up to date in time for the finale - it didn't disappoint! The highlight was this line!

Monday soon arrived and we had plans to visit Sealife Weymouth - we're blogger ambassadors so we love going along to check out all the new events. I'll be doing a separate blog post on the Lego event so keep an eye out for that this week. 

The kids always have a lovely day out at Sealife Weymouth and they always make a beeline for their favourite areas. The rock pools are always popular, as are the cute fairy penguins! 

The weather was lovely too so it was nice to sit outside and have a picnic. The splash park was on and it was a mission getting the kids to stay out of it! 

It was also a good chance for my husband to try out some of his new wardrobe items that were kindly sent to us from Jacamo. Working with them proved one thing though...we're not very good fashion bloggers haha! We found it totally awkward taking photos of the items but it was nice to see Paul in some new togs! 

His entire outfit consisting of black jeans, polo shirt and waffle style fleece were all from Jacamo and got the thumbs up from Paul. He said the jeans and tshirt were very much his style and very comfortable. The fleece was also a hit and perfect for Spring days like today when the sun is out but it's still a bit chilly! We actually took the fleece away with us to Iceland and it worked as a great layer for him under his coat. 

We finished the day with a spot of geocaching and just like that weekend was over!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend too x

*Collaborative Post

Jawsome Sharks at Weymouth SEA LIFE Adventure Park

This year we became Blogger Ambassadors for our local SEA LIFE Adventure Park in Weymouth. It's somewhere that I've been visiting for as long as I can remember and it's lovely to be able to take my own children and know that we are going to have a guaranteed great day out!

We will be visiting lots this year to review all the exciting things happening but our first day out was to check out the Jawsome Sharks event. The first thing that caught my eye was the word PLAY-DOH - I don't know about your kids, but mine love the stuff so I knew this event would be a big hit!

Guests are invited to become a Jawsome Ranger by assisting Professor Finn who has lost all the model shark teeth around the park. Along the way, guests will discover facts about the different species of sharks and will have the chance to learn more about the SEA LIFE sharks and rays. 

We couldn't wait to get started! At the front desk we were given information sheets and pencils and off we went. The park is very easy to navigate and each creature zone is numbered so it's very simple to see everything. 

It didn't take us long to spot our first shark tooth in one of the tanks and we had to then decide which type of shark is came from. The information sheets have a picture of all the teeth so it's nice and simple for little ones to figure it out. 

One of the biggest draws of the park is the amazing play area Caribbean Cove - in my opinion it is one of the best in Dorset. It is always something Elliot looks forward to and this visit was no exception - he raced through the zones in record time to get to the the play area! 

Fortunately, Costa Coffee was open so I was able to relax with a sneaky hot chocolate while the children played! It's great that the play area is suitable for a variety of different ages - Elliot of course loves to climb up to the highest point and slide down the firemans pole but there's plenty for Erin too. She loves going down the toddler slide and sitting in the boat! 

I was wondering how I was going to drag the children away from the play area but fortunately there was a torrential downpour which had us running for cover of the Ocean Tunnel. I think we might still be there otherwise!

I love the Ocean Tunnel and it's definitely my favourite zone - I was about to write that it's relaxing watching all the creatures swimming serenely above....it probably is relaxing if you haven't got two little ones nagging to find another shark tooth! "Come on Mum!!!"

Fortunately the rain had stopped so we headed towards one of the newest attractions at the park, Fairy Penguin Island. Here lives twenty of the cutest penguins you will ever see - the smallest penguins in the world in fact!

Back to the Shark Mission...after finding our last tooth we were keen to head back to Professor Finn in the shark lab. There the children handed in their findings and were given a prize which was a pot of play-doh. In previous events they have received a special pop badge so this was a real treat and less likely to get lost in the boot of the car! I was expecting it to be a mini pot of Play-doh but actually it was full size and there were plenty of colours to choose from...Elliot swapped his about 6 times before settling for turquoise!

The Shark Lab was a great place to learn about Sharks with lots of teeth on show and various items that can be found along the shoreline. My kids however were more interested in the activity tables where they spent ages playing with the play-doh and creating their masterpieces. There were activity sheets detailing how to make your own Play-Doh shark but Elliot was happy to go freestyle!

After a quick pose in the impressive Lego shark head, it was time to head home. We had a brilliant day and learnt lots of about sharks. We can't wait to visit again!

The Jawsome Sharks event is running from 16th February - 6th May 2019. For more information and to book tickets, please check out the SEA LIFE Weymouth website.

If you would like to read about our previous visits to SEA LIFE Weymouth, see here

*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

Meeting Father Christmas at Weymouth SEA LIFE Adventure Park

This weekend we were lucky enough to be one of the very first families to meet Father Christmas at Weymouth Sea Life Adventure Park. We have been visiting the park for many years (I remember going as a child!) but we have never been at Christmas so I was very much looking forward to this! 

Our slot with the big man himself was 4.15pm so we travelled down to Weymouth after lunch so we could spend a bit of time exploring the park. Upon arrival Elliot was given a golden ticket which was a lovely little touch and really added to the magic! 

The park was really quiet when we arrived so it was lovely to be able to take our time seeing the sea creatures. Of course Elliot made a bee line for the rock pools first - he loves this section and spent ages looking into the water and seeing what he could spot. The tide washing in never fails to entertain either! 

After checking out all the creature zones and burning some energy off in the amazing play area, it was time for us to head over to the reindeer stable which is located in the wetlands area. Decked out with hay bales, blankets and twinkly lights, it certainly got us in a festive mood as we waited patiently for the elves. 

We didn't have to wait long, and a friendly elf called Jingle McTinsel came to greet us. There was just time for a quick dance (Elliot asked the elf if he could floss!) and we were then led down the boardwalk towards Father Christmas' cabin in the woods. Along the way we even spotted his reindeers across the wetlands! 

As we made our way through the festive forest, Jingle stopped us by the lantern and told the children to close their eyes and make a christmas wish. And with the help of some elf magic, they had a snowy surprise!! 

Notice Erin making a hasty retreat!

We were then taken inside the cabin where Father Christmas was waiting - and wow, what a Father Christmas he was! Not only did he look the part with his smart red suit and (real!) beard but the way he chatted to Elliot was so lovely. He even sounded like Father Christmas should! 

He invited Elliot to sit down next to him and he spent a great deal of time talking to him about the different time zones and how he manages to get across the world in one night. He asked him if he had a chimney and when Elliot said no, they talked about the magic key and that Elliot needs to leave it out on Christmas Eve (Note to self - order magic key on Amazon!!)

We didn't feel rushed and I think Elliot could have quite happily stayed there for longer talking to him! He even promised to leave Father Christmas a beer on Christmas Eve! 

You may be wondering where Erin was when all this was happening. Well, unfortunately she really isn't a fan of Santa and refused to go near him, or even look at him! I think she did give him a cursory wave as we left but there was no way she was going to sit on his lap ;)

The children were given a special SEA LIFE present from Father Christmas - I won't say what it is as we don't want to ruin the surprise but the presents were age appropriate and got the thumbs up from my two! 

We left the the park wondering if we'd just met the real Father Christmas. I guess we'll never know!

We had a lovely time visiting Father Christmas and his Elves at Weymouth Sea Life Park and it has definitely kicked off our festive season with a smile and a sprinkle of Elf Magic! 

For more information, please visit the Weymouth Sea Life Park website . You can meet Father Christmas from Saturday 8th - Sunday 23rd December and pre-booking is advisable. There will also be a Christmas craft zone and festive drinks available from Caribbean Coffee! 

*Disclaimer - We were invited along to preview Father Christmas in exchange for an honest review.