Half-Term Fun – My Sunday Photo

We had some half-term fun last week. We started off with a few chilled out days indoors, watching films, crafting & colouring as the weather was rubbish. The week got a bit better with a trip to Kent for a birthday party breaking up the boredom.

Birthday Party

Nothing beats cake, especially chocolate cake! The girls had a great time and stuffed their faces. With a second piece to bring home, the girls were a little spoilt too. In fact, Izzy ate her second piece then said ‘Mumma, How dare you give me cake!?’. I guess I committed a crime there, clearly good parents sneakily eat the cake themselves! 😂

It took me a day or so to recover and feel up to leaving the flat again but by the Sunday I decided to take the girls for a walk. We had plenty of half-term fun indoors but we needed to break it up and get some air. The girls needed to burn off some energy too and the sun even appeared for a bit!

Of course, this gave me a good excuse to get outside with my new camera and play with it a bit more. Eva decided she wanted to take her bike so of course, Izzy had to take her scooter too. Before heading along the river we popped to the local shop for drinks to take with us and I captured this shot of Izzy zooming through the college.

Scooting

Izzy Scooting

Half-Term Fun

When we got to the park, Izzy discovered her love of slides again. She had loads of fun climbing up the ship and sliding back down again. She looks so happy here, hopefully, the sun will shine more and we can enjoy many more weekend walk’s!

Half-term fun

Eva wondered what you were supposed to do with this part of the Ship play equipment. Whilst I was off snapping the scenery around us, Eva concluded this is the only explanation…

Weekend Walk

Not sure she is correct but points for effort! Oh and waiting whilst I faffed having forgotten my own sunglasses and being blinded a little. What do you think?

 

Photalife

 

My Sunday Photo – Sliding At The Park

I missed last weeks #MySundayPhoto after the Mr was attacked by a neighbour. I lost my blogging mojo all week because of it but decided I needed to jump back in & #MySundayPhoto is a brilliant way to do that!

my sunday photo - sliding at the park

We escaped to the park a few times this week & I love this photo of Izzy about to go down the slide at the park. A little bit of sunshine & playing brightened up our week!

Did you have a bit of sunshine this week? What did you get upto?

Photalife

A Day Out At Wat Tyler Park

Wat Tyler Park in Pitsea, Essex is one of my all time favourites from when I was a child. It’s changed a fair bit over the years but it’s still a beautiful place to go for a day out especially for kids. It covers 125 acres and sits within the South Essex Marshes,it is definitely one of my favourite places. There is so much to see and do there that I’m sure I’ll cover much more in a future post

I took Eva a few times when she was small but without a car we just haven’t had a chance to get over there in a good few years. Izzy hadn’t been yet & I couldn’t wait to take her, so when I heard the bouncy castles were back again this summer I knew I had to arrange a day at Wat Tyler for the girls.

We arrived around 12.30pm on Friday as the bouncy castles opened at 1pm but we had taken a picnic with us and wanted to get the kids sat down eating before they went off to play. The kids couldn’t wait to get bouncing so munched their food quickly and asked to go get their wristbands to bounce.

The wristbands for the bouncy castles were £7 for children over 3 and £4 for under 3’s, although you could pay for a full wristband for younger children as long as you keep an eye on them.. With the 3 older girls to keep an eye on Izzy I decided to pay for a full wristband for her so she could go on one or two of the bigger bouncy castles with them.

The bouncy castle days are run by Go-bonkers and I have to say I was quite impressed with the selection. There was a small area for the under 3’s which had 3 castles in, a tiny one, a slide one & a bigger slide & play area inflatable. There was also a pile of big soft shapes for the little ones to build & play with which Izzy loved, unfortunately I didn’t manage to get many pictures across the day as Izzy kept me fairly busy but I did get this lovely shot below of Izzy bouncing.

Bouncing at Wat Tyler Park

For the bigger children the inflatables included a basketball lane, gladiators ring, football court & climbing wall as well as 2 normal large bouncy castles and a play castle called the shuttle which all the girls really enjoyed and Eva was over the moon she managed to get to the top of the climbing wall! I wish I had got a picture but I was in the smaller area with Izzy at the time.

I normally find these types of events so pricey and stressful but I have to say for what was there for 3 hours bouncing I would happily pay for both girls to go again! Each inflatable was watched & children were timed by a member of staff, meaning there were no kids crying they hadn’t had a turn and Eva didn’t keep coming back complaining older kids were being mean or not letting her play which we’ve had at other places.

The whole thing was laid out really well, meaning we could take the younger 2 in the small play area and still see every other inflatable and keep an eye on where the older 3 were, without bothering them & panicking too much. Eva behaved amazingly and I think it was mostly to do with being able to just go and play without being followed around.

I took both girls into the visitor centre to buy themselves a little something to take home & Izzy chose a small ball I would normally only pay £1 for which cost £2, so a little over priced, however Eva chose a pen with pictures on (£1) & a small notebook (60p) which was quite reasonable.

The inflatables were in a field next to the large play area in Wat Tyler so the kids loved being able to go and play in there after they were done bouncing. Eva loved the huge tunnel slide and spider-man frame and spent ages showing off to her Uncle Alex who joined us halfway through the after.

The park can be a bit manic at times so I was relieved my brother was there to run around with Eva whilst I kept an eye on Izzy who spent ages playing in the tunnels and going up and down the slide on the smaller play equipment. I was a little gutted the roundabout and the hamster wheel were fenced off as my brother and I loved them as kids!

Once all the kids were well and truly worn out we popped by the little outdoor cafe by the visitor centre and got an ice cream for the kids before jumping in my friends car and heading home.

Minus our picnic I spent around £3o which covered both girls wristbands plus I paid for a small wristband for Izzy’s friend James, the bits the girls bought in the visitor centre & 5 ice creams.

I was a little gutted my friend who had driven us there suddenly had to leave early otherwise I would have loved to have walked down to the boats with the girls & shown them the miniature train amongst other things around the park!

With so much to see and do around the park that even without the inflatables it’s a lovely day out & doesn’t have to cost a penny with free parking & toilets/changing room in the visitor centre. It’s such an interesting place for all ages I would definitely recommend stopping by for a visit if you are in the area and next time I go I will make a point of taking more pictures!

* Please note this is not a sponsored post.