We haven’t been out geocaching for ages, partly due to rotten weather whenever we’ve had the inclination! I noticed a new series of caches had appeared in our local area, so we headed out to hunt them down with the kids. Georgie has been ill over the last half of the Easter holidays (boo, hiss!), …
We were lucky enough to be invited along to the opening ceremony of the new Thomas Land Expansion! It opened over the Easter holidays, and Georgie and Lydia were very excited to see what was new at their all-time favourite theme park. We took along Georgie’s very best friend Sophie too, to join in the fun.
We live around 45 minute drive from Drayton Manor, home of Thomas Land, and so we are fairly regular visitors to the park. Our train mad pair of girls love all of the Thomas and Friends rides they have there, and our last visit for the Christmas experience was simply magical. Georgie and Lydia are mini-thrillseekers and always try to go on every ride possible when we visit!
A week or so ago, we were invited to come along and check out the new Sea Stars attraction at The National SEA LIFE Centre Birmingham, which is home to a wide variety of starfish species. I’ve been completely buried in a world of DIY since then (post with the results of that soon!) so I haven’t had energy to open my laptop until now.
In addition to the huge range of activities you can book at Bluestone, there is loads to do on site for free – even if it’s raining.
In fine weather you can tackle one of the two nature trails (or if you’re like my Dad, do two in one morning before anyone else even gets up), head to the Treetops adventure playground, enjoy the beautiful walks around the resort, or head to the village. In wet weather, you can take refuge at the Blue Lagoon swimming complex, or head to the Adventure Centre which has a whole host of indoor fun, including the Circus Room. We managed to pack so much into our five days at Bluestone!
Before you get to Bluestone, you get access to an excellent online booking system which details what activities are available on different dates during your stay, and allows you to pre-book places and pay online beforehand. You can also book onto these activities while on site, but you do run the risk of some activities filling up if you leave it too late. The Bluestone TV in your lodge is also great to find out what is going on, activities-wise.
We pre-booked three things before getting to Bluestone; a Space Explorer creche session for the girls, a Secret Village “beast hunt” adventure, and the Woody Wild Dinner Show at the Wild Wood Cafe.
Bluestone is a completely self contained resort and, unless you want to, there is no need to leave the site at all during your stay – we didn’t! With loads to do and see, a village full of eateries and shops to cater to your every need, there is no chance of going hungry on site.
As far as food is concerned, in addition to a grocery shop on site & a fully equipped kitchen in every lodge, there are loads of places to buy & consume food on site. Bluestone try to source as much local produce as possible, and even their takeaway coffee cups are sustainably made in Wales. In the village alone there is:
On Friday afternoon, we headed to the intu Merry Hill shopping centre to check out their “Elf School” Father Christmas experience. Georgie and Lydia were joined by Georgie’s best friend Sophie and they were all very excited to be on an outing together! We ate some lunch then headed straight to the Elf School.
Ad disclosure: We were provided with free tickets in order to experience & blog about Hatton’s Enchanted Christmas Kingdom event. This post reflects my honest opinion on our day. We were invited back to Hatton Adventure World so that we could check out the Enchanted Christmas Kingdom event, and we went along on Sunday to take …
Yesterday we spent the morning at a local Brewers Fayre “Pub Restaurant” to celebrate the opening of the chain’s first “Play at Brewers Fayre” facility. The new soft play area at The Guild pub at Bromsgrove is the next step in their partnership with Beano, whose characters already adorn the kids menu.
We were invited to Warwick Castle earlier this month to join in with the celebrations for the new Mike the Knight film, Journey to Dragon Mountain. To celebrate the DVD release, which I reviewed on my blog this morning, Mike the Knight and his sister Evie are visiting the Castle to get young children practising “The …
