A pocket of my life

What a fantastic family day out! We recently took a trip to Legoland in Windsor and had an amazing time from rides to water fun and all in between. We didnt go with a game plan but just took the day as it came which I think was a mistake, I wish I had done more research into the park but we still had fun no matter what. Pros of Legoland The variety of rides, attractions and food outlets was great, all the rides were themed perfectly and it really did make it easier to navigate. The legoland app was brilliant, it kept us up to date with queue times on the rides and also had a handy map with directions to rides when needed. The park was clean and tidy, the staff were friendly. The summer holiday event was great and there seemed to be lots to do and it was free to join. The photo pass was great, we paid £30 for all the photos/videos taken whilst on rides. Cons of Legoland The cost of parking is crazy, £15 for normal or £18 for priority parking is just mad. The lack of seating areas for ea...

 For olivia's birthday we decided to take a trip over to Knockhatch adventure park in Hailsham, this is a theme park aimed for children with many different things to do such rides, softplay and animals too. On entering the park we were immediantly welcomed by animals, including rabbits, birds and a walk around with goats and wallabies too. we then took a slow walk around the animal areas, you can buy a pot of feed from the gift shop to make it interactive for all the family. The animals enclosures are  good size, are clean and the animals look happy and well looked after. Olivia even got to stroke some very little lambs. After this Olivia went on the quadapillar, a ride which consists of a gaud pulling some barrel carriages behind, its takes you on a little ride around some of the animals and runds for certain times through the day. After we found the froggy soft play area and cafe, this was great, it is a large space with a good size soft play, plenty ...

Animals, rides and a huge play area, what more could you need for a great day out. Drusillas has all this to offer in one area. Last weekend we took a trip across to Drusillas Park, this is a local zoo to us and I was so excited to take the girls back. We arrived around 10.20 so we could make a full day off it. We picked up our zoolympics book and Animal spotter book as we went in and started to find some new furry friends.  On the way round there are tasks to do compare you to animals such as how high can you jump, or how fast can you run, these can be recorded in you zoolympics book. There are stamp areas for you spotter book too. When you enter you are immediately greeting by animals, these are the smaller ones including spider monkeys, sloths and marmosets. The animals are very active in this area and really get you excited for the rest of the visit.  There is one route around so its very hard to grt yourself lost. The animal spotter also keeps you on track too...

Wow! What a place! We took a family trip out to Hever Castle and gardens last weekend and I could not have fell in love more with somewhere. Hever Castle was once the home of Anne Bolyn and her family so for me this was an extra reason to love the place. Over the weekend Hever was holding a 1950's event with dancing, a spitfire on display, and lots of artifacts including rifles, prams and bits and bobs that take you straight back to the time. So many people had dressed up for the occasion and if you wanted to you could get your hair done in the 1940s pin style.  The whole day was amazing, we parked in the main car park and entered though the Italian garden, a beautiful pergola running down the edge of some well kept lawns one side and waterfalls the other side. This leads onto one of the many lawns thay surround the castle. The castle itself is beautiful, surround by a moat which was being used to show off some amazing model boats and Chitty Chit...

Jack in the Green, an annual celebration that is held in Hastings over the first weekend of May, which then ends with a parade of music and laughter.  Jack in the green was revived in Hastings back in the 1980's and seems to grow every year with people travelling from all ove the country to take part in the May day parade. The main vibe of the event is to welcome summer and with the slaying of Jack at the end of parade releasing the spirit of summer which is certainly has this year. The offical start of the celebrations is held on May the 1st with a dance at dawn on the west hill to welcome May.  This involves dancing and singing along to drums. On Saturday there is lots to enjoy, from Morris dancing around the town, workshops to make headresses and sing a longs. Sunday is great for the family, they have more dancing around the town, a parade of giants, and the famous drum off in Butlers gap. Monday is the big one, which starts with a Morris Dancers bre...

  Half way through half term already and we have been on some adventures, our latest was a trip to Sissinghurst castle in Cranbrook, Kent. This is a property owned and looked after by the National trust and is one a highly recommend visiting. This location is a little smaller than some but has some beautiful gardens to expolore, even during spring when they are only just waking, and some beautiful buildings to explore too. The gardens, though quiet this time of year showed some signs of waking up with snow drops and crocuses carpeting some of the flower beds. Some of the trees have been trained to link which I can imagine looks beauiful in full bloom. The orchard was closed at the moment as it looked like they have been tendning to it for the months ahead. One of my favourite parts was this sofa bench close to the houses, it made me smile and reminded me of a big family sofa.  There are many buildings to explore, including the tower, the Priest's house, the south cottage and t...

What a festive, beautiful afternoon on a hunt for The Snowman. We took a drive out to Sheffield park in Sussex where they have a beautiful event celebrating the beautiful stories written by Raymond Briggs. The walk around the enchanting gardens involved finding 12 decorated sculptures along with some painted boards with the characters and parts from The Snowman and activities along the way, such as snowball target practice and making music. Whilst walking around the trail you are treated to some of the music from the films making it feel like you are fully immersed in the story. With loads of photo opportunities to including a sleigh and decorated trees, you can treasure the memories for years to come. We were very lucky to be able to have met The Snowman too, he is at the event on the 21st of December. It was honestly the best event I've been too and definitely brought me back to my childhood, the girls loved it too.

Wingham wildlife park, Kent's fastest growing zoo and one we will definitely be visiting again. We decided to take a day out for Olivia's birthday and had been recommended this park by a few people. The entry prices were very reasonable, it wasn't too far to drive and looked great so took our chances. For a family ticket it is £76 on gate or £72 if you book online, which is what we did as it made it easier and that little bit cheaper. We arrived at around 10.15am to a busy car park and was a little worried at how busy it would be but to our surprise it wasn't as crazy as we thought.  On entering the park you are greeted with the first of many animals to see, the arctic wolves, these were one that Lils was excited to see and they did not disappoint. Everywhere you turn there was animal enclosure with an array of animals, some of which me and Liam had never seen let alone the kids. The enclosure sizes were good and the land in and around the enclosure was well maintained ...

If you want a lovely family afternoon out then I would highly recommend heading to Bodiam Castle in Sussex, we have been a few times now and its one that the kids love and during half term they have a fantastic event on with a magical prize to claim.  Bodiam castle is part of the National trust and is a beautiful castle surrounded by a moat full of fish, its one that I say really looks like a castle with towers on each corner. Sadly a lot of the castle is gone in the middle but you are still able to climb two of the towers to see the amazing views from the top, but beware, the stairs are steep. The girls took part in the spell quest on their journey around the castle and had to help save the castle from the Wicked Warlock, around the castle are different rooms to explore which have been decorated, some have spells to learn and others a potion to explore. They have some photo opportunities around the castle too to add to the memories. The event costs an extra £3 per child which incl...

We have recently had a day out at Drusillas Park in Polgate in the South East of England for Lilly's birthday, she got a special sticker to wear to show off and the staff were very attentive to this taking the time to wish her a Happy Birthday. This is a place that me and Liam have been to but when we were children do it was very different to when we both last went. There is a huge array of animals to see when at Drusillas including a lot of different species of monkey along with some more unusual animals such a penguins and sloths, including a baby sloth born back in August. There is also a small amount of farm animals and an opportunity to milk a (fake) cow. All the enclosures are clean and with indoor and outdoor options for almost all the animals. There are also opportunities to walk through some animal enclosures where the animals were with you including bats, sloths and rainbow lorikeets, the last one is where Liam made a friend who didn't want to ...

Today we have visited Brands Hatch race circuit in Kent to enjoy the Super Touring Power event, this is one that we have never been to but one we will definitely be going to again. The event is based around celebrating different eras of BTCC cars including pre 03/pre 93 and Thunder and Jaguar and of course the Super tourers, this is the first year that this event has gone on. Today the event took place on the GP track and whizzes down the straights with such a noise, there were so many cars to see with some races having 40 different vehicles on the track at once, the different eras of car as well really made the day more entertaining and it was great to see some classics on the track. This event also has pit lane access and normal pit access to so you can have a look around the cars that are not racing and interact with the racers too. In fact we managed to meet Jake Hill who is currently 3rd in the driver standings in British touring cars, he was very friendly and ...

Recently we visited Circus Zyair on there UK tour and what a night it was, full of fun and daring acts that had us on the edge of our seat.  We arrived around 40 minutes before the show started and were taken into the big top around 10 minutes later, once seated there was a chance to buy some food from the stand at the back, some souvenirs or some fun bits for the kids such as inflatable hammers, toches and wiggles. The show started with the 'clown' figure warming the audience up  he was a great character and made a few appearances through the show as others acts were setting up, he even performed some Tik Tok dances too. The show was made up with so many different acts with some great talent and do crazy tricks. On of my favourite wad the high wires, I don't think I have seen it live, the performers for this were amazing and had everyone in awe of what they were doing. Others acts included acrobatics from a chain high up in the big top, rollerblading tricks, juggling, the ...

We have had a recent trip to Brighton sea life centre for Olivia's birthday treat, we were over that way and decided to make a day of it. When visiting the sea life you need to book in advance which is easily done on there website.  Upon entering the centre you are welcomed to the aquarium and have a couple of photos taken just before you go into the first section, these are available to purchase at the end. I did decide to get our family one, along with a photo of Olivia with there special guest, Peppa Pig, they are £12 for one or 2 for £15. Peppa pig is available to see at certain points during the day until the 4th of June. The first part of the aquarium starts in a colourful illuminated room which some smaller sized tanks, there is a lip for younger children to stand on so they can get a better look, about half way up there is a tank for rays and cat fish, a small area to be able to touch star fish, a conservation area and a small cafe area. Past that there were more tanks with...

Yesterday we took a trip to Scotney Castle for a Halloween adventure we had a voucher for a family pass and thought that this was the perfect time to take the opportunity to have some family fun.  At Scotney castle they are running half term fun in the form of Scotney school of Sorcery, during your visit you will need to find words that are part of a spell and at the end if you need to use the spell and see its it's correct. This has a small charge of £3 for you spell sheet and a prize at the end of an insect gummy. The do encourage dress up too for this event. They have decorated the grounds, castle and house beautifully with pumpkins everywhere and the clues were very spooky and made the day extra fun. The grounds look beautiful right now with the autumn colours everywhere and leaves pathing the grass. The grounds are suitable for wheel and buggy but it does have so steep slopes. We headed down to the old caste first which is part ruin, part house which is surrounded ...

Yesterday we took our annual trip to Sharnfold farm for some Halloween fun and it did not dissapoint. This year we took part in the Halloween trail which gets better with every visit with more to see and more effort put in every year, the only downside this year was the PYO field was closed due to the weather. We arrived the the farm about 11.45 and went into collect our wrist bands, we had prebooked but the tickets cost £5.95 for children over 4 and £4.95 for adults. There is a prize at the end of the trail to collect from the main office.  On arrival we could see some Halloween decorations already which certainly gets the kids excited, you firstly enter a play park which seems to grow every years, there is a tractor for the children to climb over, a sandpit, some ride on toys, a traditional slide and swing and there is also a wild part with bits to learn about wild life and more.  Once you enter the main part you are greeted by your first animals, this year it was some adora...

Yesterday we took a trip to Rudyard Kipling's house in Burwash for a little adventure with the kids, Batemans is part of the national trust and is a beautiful place to visit. You are able to walk around the house and see the home that the Kipling family made there home, the gardens are this property are absolutely gorgeous even when its muddy and wet, and the added bonus is Park Mill which you are able to look around and learn about creating flour the old fashioned way.  There is a small tea room which sells cakes, drinks and small lunches which include soup, jacket potatoes and sandwiches. There is also a gift shop which includes sweet treats, nature toys and other beautiful items which help keep the house open for all to see. At the bottom of the gardens there was a little surprise in the form of an old mill, named Park Mill, this property is open to the public and includes the equipment that would have been the original in the mill, a small box of story telling toys ...