James and I finally enjoyed a child-free trip this year, flying over to Amsterdam for a short break that somehow managed to be both relaxing and very busy. My parents very kindly had the girls to visit, and now they’re old enough to travel together, they took themselves off to Wales on the train for their own …
Yesterday evening we took Lydia & her bestie Sophie to Stonebridge Golf Club, which can be found near Birmingham Intl. Airport, to check out Light Cycles, which is a spectacular illumination trail unlike any we have been to before.
Light Cycles is more of a sensory immersive experience than merely walking along enjoying some fancy festive lights & scenes. Instead, you walk through the beautiful scenery surrounding Moland’s Mere lake, and along the way experience five very different art installations that bring together nature, sound & light in a dazzling display.
Friday evening Lydia brought her friend Sophie home from school, and the five of us jumped into the car and headed over to the NEC to attend the opening night of Winter Funland.
Winter Funland is an indoor festive fairground, complete with an ice rink and circus. Sheltered from the winter weather, you get four hours to explore the huge hall full of funfair rides, with nothing but time limiting how many rides you enjoy.
We decided to take advantage of the girls having an inset day with school the other Friday to book a long weekend away at a really nice Airbnb holiday house (that it turns out has been in a channel 4 show!) so we could spend a few days with James’s Dad & explore the area. …
Last Saturday we got up early and drove down to Farnborough to attend Everything Electric South, which is “the world’s no.1 home energy & electric vehicle expo” and has been something James in particular has wanted to attend for ages. It was really reasonably priced and kids were free, so we got tickets for both …
During the summer break we took a trip up to Scotland for a family holiday, staying in a lovely Airbnb bungalow and using it as our base to enjoy the area. We were, on the whole, extremely lucky with the weather as it was often sunny – or at least mostly dry. During the week …
Saturday evening we picked up Lydia’s bestie and headed up the M6 to attend the VIP media event at Waterworld in Stoke-on-Trent. The girls both really enjoy swimming and Lydia especially loves a good water ride or flume. All three were very excited to get going, and with a pit stop to fuel them up at McDonalds in Stafford we were soon pulling into the car park at Waterworld.
When we were planning our visit to Yorkshire over the Easter break, we looked at local attractions online and discovered MathsCity which is based in Trinity shopping centre, in Leeds city centre. We asked the girls “do you want to do maths on your school holiday?” and our slightly strange children were very enthusiastic at …
We are a family of gamers so it was no surprise that we were delighted to be offered press passes to attend Insomnia – the Gaming Festival – at the NEC, Birmingham. The girls are now old enough to be playing all kinds of games on the multiple platforms we have in the house – PC, Switch, and PS5 – and were keen to try some new games and enjoy everything the event had to offer.
Lydia turned 11 last month (which seems to have happened way too soon, she’s my little girl!) and so we took her and her best friend, along with her big sister Georgie, for an afternoon out at Air Nation in Kings Heath, South Birmingham to celebrate. Air Nation opened last year and we thought it …
