Last Wednesday the MSC Preziosa was in port in Southampton and thanks to Tots100 and the lovely people at MSC Cruises I was allowed on board along with 120 other bloggers! We were there for BlogCamp, a blogging event with a difference. Read more
Toby and Gabe love dinosaurs at the moment so on Saturday we decided to go up to Rheged in the Lake District to catch the last weekend of their Dinosaur Encounter exhibition. The exhibition has been brought to Rheged by the Natural History Museum and features ten animatronic dinosaurs plus a few other activities. Read more
*This post is in association with Halfords
My parents have both been involved with the Scout Association since before I was born. My dad was a Scout leader for years, and that meant I first when camping when I was 10 weeks old! All our family holidays when I was a child were either camping, or later caravanning holidays and I have such brilliant memories of them all. I would love for our boys to have the same experiences and that is why we are planning a family camping holiday for this summer.
So when I was young, as well as several Scout and Guide camps every year, we also spent weekends camping in the UK and we were lucky enough to spend a month in France and Spain every summer. We got a caravan when I was about 7 or 8. But even after we got the caravan my brother and I would sleep either a small tent or in the caravan awning. Read more
Not far from the A6, between Garstang and Preston you will find Brock Bottom picnic site. It’s a name I remember from my childhood and I’m sure I must have been there before but I don’t remember it. We are always looking for new places to explore with the boys so armed with a picnic and the camera we set off on Sunday to see what was there.
Unfortunately the information board which should have been on this stone was missing but if had been there it would have told us that this was the site of Brock Mill, a cotton mill built in the 1790s, along with 20 workers’ cottages. We actually didn’t see the remains of the mill as we set off in the opposite direction but I’m sure we’ll find them next time.
There is quite a small (but free) car park at Brock Bottom which was full when we arrived. We didn’t have to wait long for someone to leave so we could get a space though. There are a fair few picnic tables around the edge of the car park, and they all have a metal plate on the end where you can use disposable barbecues. On the disposable note though, there are no bins in the picnic area so be prepared to take your rubbish home with you. Read more
Last weekend, as Toby’s treat for reaching the end of his reward chart, we went to SEA LIFE Blackpool for a morning with the fishes. I lived in Blackpool for my whole childhood, and had spent plenty of time there visiting my parents until we moved back to the area last year but I have never been to the Sea Life Centre (as I knew it) before.
SEA LIFE Blackpool is just along the promenade from Blackpool Tower and there’s plenty of parking in the pay and display car park behind. As it was a bank holiday weekend we decided to get there in time for opening so it wouldn’t be too busy. We actually had to wait outside for the doors to open and were the second people in there!
SEA LIFE is fully pushchair and wheelchair accessible – there’s a lift to get up to the aquarium itself but once you’re up it is all on one level. Read more
At the beginning of last month we were invited to stay at Bluestone National Park resort in Pembrokeshire, Wales. The last time we went on holiday was when we went to Center Parcs last May so we were well overdue a break away! So we loaded up the car, packed up the kids and set off on our mammoth drive to Wales.
This is going to be quite a long and in depth review of our stay so if you haven’t got the time to read it all now then you can watch this little video of our stay instead…
The journey was relatively stress-free, even though it took us seven and a half hours to get there! We were coming from the north west, it takes about 15 minutes to get on the M6 at Preston from where we live and then we were off. We decided to stick to the motorways even though it would make our journey a bit longer, just because you never know when you might need to stop with two small children and we wanted the convenience of stopping at motorway services. Read more
This is a post I’ve been meaning to write for months! Back in May, after we’d been to Center Parcs, we went to stay with my parents in Blackpool so we could look at some houses. While we were there we took the kids to Blackpool Zoo with my mum. I’ve had these photos sitting on my computer ever since and just haven’t had chance to do anything with them until now!
At the entrance to the zoo there is a dinosaur section and after getting over his initial wariness Toby loved them.
Of course there were lots of live animals too…
Gabe slept for most of the time we were there but as you can see he wasn’t too impressed when he woke up!
Toby enjoyed himself though – he definitely liked the flamingos…
If I’m totally honest, although Toby did like looking at the animals he had the most fun walking along these benches in front of the elephant!
Blackpool Zoo is just round the corner from my parents house and my mum is a member so I’m sure we’ll be spending more time here now we live so much closer. Maybe next time we go Toby will be a bit more interested in the animals and perhaps Gabe won’t sleep the whole time!
I still can’t quite decide where I stand on the issue of term time holidays. The subject has been in the media again this week when the high court ruled that father, Jon Platt had no case to answer when he refused to pay a £120 fine after taking his daughter out of school to go to Disneyland in Florida. I read a post on the matter from Hannah at Budding Smiles who stands firmly on the side of parents being allowed to take their children out of school for holidays during term time so long as their attendance the rest of the time is high.
Reading Hannah’s post made me really consider my own position. On the one hand I think it is perfectly reasonable for a child who attends school 90% of the time to be taken out of school for a week to travel somewhere with their family where they will experience a different culture, language and so on. But, are there really any educational benefits to a week all inclusive in Tenerife where you never leave the hotel? Or ten days at Disneyland? Perhaps the benefit comes from simply leaving the country and spending time with family and that’s fine but it does annoy me a bit when people seem to think that all kids being taken out of school for term time holidays are getting some massive educational benefit from the experience.
Speaking as a teacher I also know how incredibly disruptive it can be, not only to the learning of the child taken out of school, but also to the rest of the class. Because in my experience, whatever the parents say, the kids rarely make any effort to catch up on the work they’ve missed and I end up having to go over things again. And you might not think that having one child out of class makes much difference but in a class of 30 that is potentially someone out nearly every week. Or perhaps parents would think that taking their kids out close to the school holidays would be less disruptive and then you end up with half the class missing which makes doing anything useful with the half of the class that are there something of an exercise in futility. And I’ve heard the argument that ‘you never do anything in the last week of term anyway’ but apart from perhaps the week before the summer holidays, for me at least that simply isn’t the case.
I totally understand the argument that price hikes during school holidays mean that some families simply can’t afford to go on holiday unless they go during term time. I don’t necessarily think that fining parents is the answer but neither is allowing them to take their kids out of school whenever they feel like it. I live in Scotland where there are no fines parents who take their children out of school for family holidays. Here it would seem though that parents are taking advantage of the system – the number of children taking unauthorised absences almost doubled in the decade from 2003 to 2013.
In Scotland schools have the ability to authorise term time holidays in exceptional circumstances so perhaps the solution would be to leave it up to the schools to make individual decisions based on the circumstances of each family and, heaven forbid, use a bit of common sense! The school could look at the educational and/ or emotional benefit of the holiday, and also the amount of disruption to that child and to other children in the class that an absence would cause.
Of course I doubt that will happen. What is more likely to happen is that the government will try and close the loop hole in the law which refers to ‘regular attendance’ at school, and parents will continue to take their kids out of school during term time and pay the fines, because it’s still cheaper than paying to take your family away during the school holidays.
And as for me, will I ever take my kids out of school for a family holiday? Well, apart from the fact that if I am working as a teacher myself I can’t take term time holidays, I won’t be taking my kids out of school unless it’s absolutely necessary. There are ways of having holidays outside of term time without it completely breaking the bank and that’s what we’ll be doing. Unless of course some fantastic educational opportunity presents itself somewhere down the line…never say never after all!
I’d love to hear what you think about term time holidays – are they ever justifiable?
We’ve done quite a bit of travelling with Toby since he was born. With both sets of Grandparents living 250 miles away we’ve been to stay with them a a fair few times plus a couple of self-catering holidays in the UK and the two weeks we spent in France at the beginning of the summer. Each time we’ve made another trip we’ve refined our list of ‘must-haves’ to take with us so I thought I’d share my top 5 toddler travel essentials with you.
So, in no particular order…
(RRP £29.99)
I originally bought this so we could use it at home and when we travel. It’s been fantastic, especially for naps while we’re away or when travelling in the summer when it’s still very light at bedtime. The blind fits windows up to 130cm x198cm (we’ve never been anywhere with a window bigger than that yet) but also has clever velcro along the edges so you can adjust it to make it smaller. It attaches to the window with suckers and we’ve never had any problems with them coming unstuck. The other great benefit of the Gro Anywhere Blind is that it folds up nice and small and even comes with its own travel bag.
(RRP £20.99)
Depending on where you are going on holiday you maybe able to hire a high chair, or if you know you’re going to be eating out the whole time the high chairs are usually readily available. In our experience though the highchairs which you get in rented holiday accommodation are not always great, either they’re a bit old and tired or just not a great design. When we go and visit our parents we need to take something with us, we don’t really go often enough for it to be worth them keeping a high chair at their houses. At home we love our IKEA Antilop high chair but it takes up quite a bit of room in the car so a booster seat is the perfect option for us. The Muchkin Travel Booster Seat has loads of great features. It is height adjustable with the four feet that fold out of the bottom. The three straps mean it can be fitted safely and securely to most chairs. There is a three-point harness to keep your little one safe in the chair too. When folded there are velcro flaps to keep everything tucked neatly out of the way and there is also a handy pocket inside the seat so you can keep cups, cutlery or bibs handy, or you could even fit a few nappies and wipes in there and do away with the need for your changing bag if you weren’t going to far. We used this booster seat on our recent trip to Butlins and it worked really well for us. We’ll definitely taking it when we go away again, and I can even see us using it at home in the future once Toby is too big for his highchair but not quite big enough to sit at the table with us.
At home we use a big piece of wipe clean PVC material, that I originally bought to use as a table cloth when we went camping, to put on the floor underneath Toby’s high chair so it’s easy to clean up any spills or dropped food. I’d definitely recommend taking something similar if you are staying in self-catering accommodation, that way you don’t have to worry about anything making a mess or staining the floor – especially if it’s carpet! We also reviewed the Messy Me mat which is perfect for the job.
(RRP £4.99)
Cheerios (or actually Tesco Multi-grain hoops!) have been our saviour on many trips! Toby loves them, I think he would live on dry Cheerios if we let him! We usually give him Cheerios in his Munchkin Snack Catcher whether we’re at home or away. They’re easy for him to get at but it takes enough of his concentration to keep him occupied, whether it’s while we’re unpacking or in the car. Using the snack catcher also means mess is limited, and luckily even dropped Cheerios aren’t too hard to clear up. If you do a lot of travelling with your kids it’s definitely worth finding a snack they love that also doesn’t make too much mess!
(prices vary)
Toby has used a sleeping bag since he was about six weeks old. We have had several different brands in the past but always come back to the Grobag as they seem to have a bigger selection of togs and also bigger sizes (Toby has been using the 18-36 month size for a while now as he is so tall). When travelling I would always recommend taking whatever bedding and toys/comforters that your child uses at home. They’re already going to be sleeping in a strange place and a different bed or cot so anything you can do to make it as familiar as possible will help them feel settled – and hopefully sleep better, although this doesn’t always seem to work with Toby! I would also recommend taking a couple of sleeping bags of different thicknesses, or togs, as you never know what the temperature is going to be like where you are staying. There’s been a few times when we’ve been using a 2.5 tog bag at home but then gone to stay somewhere which has lots of heating and we’ve only needed the 1 tog. It’s always handy to have a spare anyway in case of any accidents!
OK, I know this is the sixth thing on the list but Barry wanted me to add this one! WD40 isn’t actually something we have taken away with us before but after our last trip I’ve bought a small can to keep in the car so we always have some when we’re away. I think every single place we have stayed has had creaky, squeaky bedroom doors, guaranteed to wake Toby when we’re trying to go to bed quietly. One of the wheels on our stroller is prone to squeaking too and we always forget to do anything about it when we’re at home as we don’t tend to use the stroller that much so it’s only when we get away that we remember how annoying it is!
There you go, my top 5 toddler travel essentials. Do you have anything you wouldn’t leave home without when travelling with your toddler?
**Disclosure: We were sent the Munchkin Travel Booster Seat and Deluxe Snack Catcher as a part of my role as a Munchkin Lindam blogger. This post contains affiliate links. All opinions are my own.
A couple of weeks ago, during my half-term holiday we loaded up the car and headed to Butlins in Skegness for a holiday. We used our Tesco Clubcard tokens to pay for our 4 night stay in its entirety (apart from a £20 deposit) and I’m so glad…because if we’d paid full price we would have been even more disappointed in our holiday than we were.
The first mistake, I have to admit, was ours. Skegness is a bloody long way from Scotland! We did break up the journey with a two night stay in a luxury wooden lodge near Richmond in Yorkshire (Flowery Dell Lodges) and I actually wish we’d just decided to stay there for the week. It was lovely, very comfortable and had everything we needed (including free wifi – Butlins take note!). The only downside was the glass TV stand which of course Toby was immediately attracted to!
Anyway, after a long and windy drive through the Lincolnshire countryside we eventually arrived at Butlins on the Monday afternoon. We queued briefly to go through the drive through check-in and we’re given a map to find our apartment, wherein we had our first disappointment… (Apologies that this post is quite long (and there aren’t many photos) but we had quite a lot of disappointment and I didn’t want to leave anything out!).
We were booked to stay in a 2 bedroom ‘Gold’ apartment. We were actually given a 3 bedroom on the first floor of a block, about as far away from the centre of the resort as you could get.
The first thing I was worried about was that the two twin rooms were on the front of the apartment, meaning everyone coming and going would be walking right past Toby’s window. Actually I don’t think he was disturbed too much but it would have made more sense to put us in one of the top floor apartments that didn’t have the walkway right outside.
First impressions of the apartment were that it looked a bit tired and worn, particularly the carpet. I don’t know how much of this was due to the time of year, perhaps it would have looked fresher if we had gone in April. There were a few other things that let it down too; the fridge door seal was split and full of crumbs, the remote control for the TV didn’t have a cover over the battery compartment (not ideal with an inquisitive toddler), the shower tray completely filled up when you were having a shower (which meant you had to be really quick or it would overflow)…but by far the biggest problem was the bed.
I don’t think I have ever slept in a bed so uncomfortable, except maybe in a motel we paid $20 a night for in Vermont where I actually ended up sleeping on the floor! All the beds had metal frames with wire mesh supporting the saggiest mattress I have ever known. Barry and I both had to sleep hanging off the edges or we would be unavoidable on top of each other in the middle of the bed.
As it happened, Toby decided he wasn’t going to sleep past 1am unless he was in bed with me anyway, so Barry got kicked out to one of the single beds and Toby was in the double with me. Most of the other issues with the accommodation were minor niggles we could put up with, but the bed actually contributed to our decision to leave a day early.
There were some positives about the apartment – it had two small leather sofas which were in good condition, the kitchen was well stocked and the bed linen was clean and comfortable. Because we had a Gold apartment towels were included too and there was also a daily housekeeping service who came in and made the beds and emptied the bin. The layout of the apartment meant we could use the coffee table to block Toby into the living area so he couldn’t get into too much mischief. In fact his favourite place the whole time we were there was down the side of the sofa!
The Skyline Pavilion is more or less in the centre of the resort and it houses a stage, theatre, shops, bars, restaurants, cinema and arcade (with lots of 2p drop machines that we enjoyed spending a pound on one day). Around this are several restaurants, the swimming pool complex ‘Splash Waterworld’, a spa, fairground and ‘Reds’ where the Redcoats put on daily entertainment. There certainly seemed to be lots going on and I liked that you could get everything you needed without leaving the resort.
I did take advantage of the spa on the second day. I had a back massage, which I had booked the day before. The massage was great (just what I needed after the night in the stupidly uncomfortable bed!) and reasonably priced at £35. I didn’t make use of the rest of the spa facilities but it looked very inviting.
Unfortunately we didn’t have chance to visit Splash Waterworld. Toby isn’t overly keen on swimming at the moment and seeing as he was already grumpy and not sleeping well we didn’t really want to waste an hour getting him changed and in the pool only for him to have a meltdown. There are parent and toddler sessions where the slides and waves are turned off to make it calmer for young children but these were only from 4-5pm which seemed like a really daft time for me. That’s right before Toby’s teatime and a hungry baby is not a happy one in my experience. I would have liked to have seen a session in the morning too, especially seeing as it we weren’t there during the school holidays and therefore there must have been more toddlers there.
The first night we chose to eat in The Sun and Moon pub. The menu was what you would expect from a family friendly pub and the food was nice enough and reasonably priced. There was a large play area outside too – but nothing suitable for younger children.
On the second night we ate at Firehouse – the newest restaurant in Butlins Skegness. The easiest way to describe it is that it’s just like Nando’s; chicken with a choice of marinades and different sides. Again the food was good, but I thought a bit on the expensive side for what we got. Alcoholic drinks were also pretty pricey – £5.40 for a glass of wine.
The last night we decided to try one of the buffet restaurants. We had almost bought one of the ‘dining plans’ which allows you to eat in the buffet restaurants more cheaply if you book it in advance. I’m really glad we didn’t! We chose to eat in The Yacht Club, one of the two ‘premium’ buffet restaurants. It cost us £18 each to pay on the night and Toby was free. This includes an unlimited buffet and fruit juice or hot drinks. Alcohol drinks are extra, which I would expect, but I was surprised to see no fizzy drinks were included. The hot buffet was OK but pretty uninspiring (and not very hot). I was most disappointed though that there was no sign of the Annabel Karmel kids dishes which are prominently advertised on the Butlins website and on the menu board outside the restaurant. In fact the only thing I saw was a few lonely looking jars of Heinz baby food and a microwave. I have to say the buffet restaurant was somewhat redeemed by the desserts (so much so that Barry had three!).
We did experience some fairly rubbish customer service in the buffet restaurant too which didn’t help. First of all they seemed very confused that we actually wanted to pay and we had to wait for ages for someone to take our payment. Barry then had to wait another age at the bar to be served, despite there being three members of staff and no other customers!
We also had breakfast on our last morning at one of the other buffet restaurants, which apart from being very busy, was actually quite good and the man who showed us to a table was very helpful in getting us a highchair and explaining where everything was.
Butlins is famous for its Redcoats and their entertainment and there was certainly a lot going on. Again, it was perhaps our mistake, but Toby just wasn’t quite old enough to enjoy most of it. There was a show with Thomas the Tank Engine, dancing with Angelina Ballerina, story time with Billy Bear on the stage in the Skyline Pavilion as well as a tots disco and various evening shows as well. The story time show was enjoyable, and although Toby didn’t join in we saw lots of kids who were loving Angelina Ballerina. Our one big gripe was with the Thomas show. I thought Toby might quite enjoy watching it but we couldn’t actually stay in the Skyline Pavilion while it was going on as it was so deafeningly loud! The pavilion is quite a big place but most of the kids watching the show were gathered in a semi-circle within 5 metres of the stage. The Redcoats had their microphones turned up full and at the same time were shouting at the tops of their voices over incredibly loud music. It was unbearable.
Obviously with having Toby we couldn’t go to any of the evening shows either. I suppose you could if you have a baby who will just sleep in the buggy but Toby needs to be in bed by 8pm at the very latest, even on holiday. The only comment I can make about the shows that were on in ‘Centre Stage’ is that people were queueing out of the building an hour before it was due to start (I believe in order to get a good seat) and that was during term-time in October, I dread to think what it is like in the height of summer! You can pay extra to jump the queue but that just seems a bit money-grabbing on the part of Butlins to me.
We had a look round the fairground too – there wasn’t anything especially exciting I have to say, but it was OK considering you don’t have to pay an extra for it. There are some rides for younger children but again, Toby was just that bit too young to be able to enjoy them.
There was a lot to do for children from about two to three years upwards but there really wasn’t anything for younger children. Unless we missed it there wasn’t even a park with baby swings anywhere. We had to keep Toby in the buggy pretty much the whole time as there was nowhere that had a safe area he could crawl or practice his walking. There is a small soft play but again it was full of older kids, even a dedicated baby area in there would have been an improvement.
Overall I can see why people with older kids would go to Butlins and I’m sure it is much more enjoyable when you can take full advantage of all the entertainment and facilities. But this time Butlins just wasn’t for us. I can’t see that we will be going back again anytime soon though. Even when Toby is older and could enjoy all the activities on offer you couldn’t pay me to sleep in that bed again!!