Georgie’s adventures with Mike the Knight

Ad disclosure: We were provided with free entry, free parking, lunch & a goody bag for the girls to share for the purposes of this post.

To celebrate the second series of Mike the Knight starting soon on cbeebies, Mike the Knight is making an appearance at Warwick Castle this summer! We were invited to go and meet him at the weekend, and eagerly accepted, as Georgie enjoys watching him on TV and we knew that she would love to see the castle.

Upon entering the castle grounds, we immediately found ourselves in a special Mike the Knight area, with loads of free activities for the children to take part in. At four months, Lydia was definitely too young for everything, but she enjoyed watching her big sister have lots and lot of fun… when she wasn’t having one of her many naps cuddled up in a sling (Lydia that is, Georgie managed to power through the day, fuelled by excitement and ice cream).

There were 10 different free-of-charge activities for young knights to take part in, nine of which represented a different part of Mike’s pre-schooler “chivalrous code”. All the children were given an activity sheet and could collect stickers to mark off the different activities as they completed them, earning themselves a “fluttering favour” if they completed the entire chivalrous code. There were a few of these flags in our goody bags and Georgie loved them!

The 10 activities were:

• Evie’s Wizard Workshop – ‘Listen when others talk to you’ – parachute games with Mike’s magical little sister
• Medieval Face Painting  – ‘Say please and thank you’ – with a choice of seven Mike the Knight themed pictures
• Glendragon Arena – ‘Enjoy going on a quest’ –  a fab 3×3 metre sandpit kitted out with buckets and spades
• The Blacksmith’s Horseshoe Shy – ‘Help other people’ – knock down “horseshoes” (cans) throwing game
• Build Glendragon Castle – ‘Help tidy up’ – giant building blocks to build a new turret for the castle
• Mike’s Target Test – ‘Be brave and try new adventures’ – velcro targets with bean bags to throw
• Galahad’s Gallop – ‘Share, play fair and never cheat’ – hobby horse racing
• Mr Cuddles Colour and Craft – ‘Be kind to your friends’ – craft tent with colouring and play-doh
• Sparkie and Squirt’s Dragon Egg Hunt – ‘Never give up on a mission’ – treasure hunt with clues, spread around the castle
• Meet Mike – the infamous Mike the Knight made hourly appearances from 11am to 3pm to meet ‘n’ greet the kids & for photos

Georgie only turned two at the beginning of May, so she was still quite young for a few of the events, although she had a good go at everything but the horseshoe shy, hobbyhorse racing and dragon egg hunt. I think it’s great that so many of the activities were fun for her, even if she couldn’t participate fully.

Our little girl was a bit overwhelmed and shy when she met Mike, and so Mike’s helper had to hide behind him while we took their photo together, due to the death grip Georgie had on his finger! We loitered around the Meet Mike area at the right time and ended up near the start of a very long queue, although it did seem to move quickly. Each child that met Mike was given a Mike the Knight postcard.

She enjoyed the parachute games with Evie, and loved the sandcastle – we had to drag her away. Georgie also really liked the play-doh at the craft tent, and had some fun stacking bricks up to make a very small turret for Glendragon Castle. For some reason she decided the aim of the play-doh was to cover up as much of the laminated picture of Mr Cuddles as possible.

Her method of choice for the target test game was hilarious – as she can’t throw very far yet she just ran up to the target at high speed and plonked the beanbag onto the velcro target, as close to the centre as she could reach.

The face painting lady was kind enough to paint Georgie’s choice of a crown onto her arm; they don’t recommend painting onto the face for under-3s, and Georgie is happy to sit still as long as she can see what’s going on – I’m not sure she’d stay still if someone tried to paint her face! Be prepared to queue for this though – James saved our place in the queue while I took Georgie around some of the other activities. The face painting did seem to speed up as the morning went on, and seemed much faster in the afternoon when a second face painter was spotted sharing the tent.

After lunch we decided to explore the castle & its grounds a bit, and went to watch some of the afternoon events which occur daily at the castle. The Warwick Warriors show was fabulously entertaining and very funny whilst still being educational, and the Flight of the Eagles show was just amazing.

Georgie loved seeing the massive “birds” and was amazed when one of the eagles swooped down and flew about a foot above our heads – you could feel the air move as it flew over, it was so close. The Falconer’s talk was brilliant too; informative whilst still being fun and casual. The Falconers hung around the Birds of Prey Mews afterwards, chatting to the public and answering their questions about the different birds they had.

We stayed long enough to watch the gigantic trebuchet fling a fireball incredibly high into the sky, which was an impressive example of the amazing engineering that went into ancient war machines. It must look amazing after dark, in the winter months!  There was a narrator explaining how it all worked, and the whole thing was fascinating… for James & myself at any rate! Georgie took the opportunity to practise her gymnastics, have some cuddles, and eat a well-deserved snack.

Rather adorably, there was an impromptu gathering of children by the side of the River Avon for a mass sword fight; as families sat themselves on the river bank to watch the show hordes of children ran into the fray waving their plastic/wooden/foam swords into the air, yelling battle cries. One little girl who must have been about 3 stood in the middle of the battle waving her (slightly floppy) sword around and smiling like mad. She was delighted when a little boy about 5 or 6 had a mock sword fight with her, and even “died” dramatically, clutching his chest and rolling over & over on the grass.

Before leaving the Castle, we couldn’t resist a peek at “Pageant Playground”, an adventure play area near the entrance/exit to the castle. Georgie adored it in there, as there were lots of her favourite thing – slides! She delightedly went round and round sliding until we dragged her away and bundled her into the car. She was asleep before we got to the motorway, and slept for the entire 40 minute journey home to Birmingham.

Warwick Castle is a beautiful castle and the grounds are stunning. I could go back myself quite happily, and just wander around taking everything in and snapping lots of photographs. The weather was glorious, with James and myself both returning home with pink patches – oops! We kept slathering the factor 50 onto Georgie and Lydia so they were ok.

There are plenty of places around the castle & gardens to buy food and drinks, at unsurprisingly high prices. You can buy a reusable bottle for £6 which they will keep refilling for free throughout the day – I wish we had bought one at the start of the day as we ended up spending more than that on drinks, although we might not have been quite so thirsty if the weather hadn’t been so warm! I would recommend taking your own lunch, drinks and a blanket to have a picnic in the grounds; there are plenty of beautiful places to sit down and eat, and lots of benches dotted around too.

As well as food & drink, there are plenty of opportunities to buy souvenirs of your day out, and you can pay for you child to paint their own wooden shield, or try their hand at archery. The Mike the Knight area had a toy shop as well.

We checked the castle website the day before we went, and decided to forego the pushchair in favour for taking turns babywearing, as you can’t take pushchairs into the castle. There are pushchair parks but I’m not keen on constantly taking the kids in & out. As it happened, the weather was so glorious that we spent almost the entire day outside and would have been ok using the pushchair – although I would have been glad of the slings had it been raining and us have been forced indoors!

Georgie walked loads throughout the day & did really well to last as long as she did, only having a short rest snuggled up against me in my strongest wrap sling. She only weighs around 11kg so is still easy to wear! James used the babasling to carry Lydia, although she spent some of the day in my wrap as well.

We will definitely be returning to Warwick Castle in the future, although the ticket prices are a little expensive so it will be a special outing! In a few years when the kids are a better age for it, we might invest in a Merlin family pass so we can go to lots of the Merlin attractions throughout the year.

As part of the Mike the Knight event, they were also giving out free sample copies of the Mike the Knight magazine. The magazine includes as explanation of the chivalrous code – helping pre-schoolers to “Be a Knight, Do it Right!”. Georgie approved of the magazine instantly as it involves quite a few opportunities to scribble on the page, and a generous helping of stickers.

I would definitely buy it again as a treat for her, even at this young age. After we got home from the castle, Georgie and I snuggled up on the sofa together and read the magazine together, putting the stickers in (almost) the right places, and practising her numbers with the educational counting games.

As you can tell, we had a fantastic day out at Warwick Castle, and Georgie really enjoyed herself. There was so much to see & do we didn’t manage to get around everything! Mike the Knight is returning to the Castle this weekend (6th & 7th July 2013), so if you have a fan in the family, I would definitely head over for a fun day out!