An evening at the park

We often find it difficult to find something to do in the late afternoon once the Husband has finished work.  We love getting out and about and although we live near to the canal there are only so many times you can walk up and down it.

Parks are great places for kids and adults alike to blow off the cobwebs and get outdoors.  We often search for different parks to visit that offer us all a bit of something.  This time we decided to try Brampton park.  Titch had been many times before with his nan , but we had not taken him so it was a great opportunity for us all, including the dog, to get out before Tea time.

Brampton park is perfect for a Sunny evening.  You can walk around admiring the views, or climb a few trees.  Even the Husband got involved this time.

There is a sensory garden and an aviary to explore.  Brampton Park also has a Childhood Museum which is open in the day time, but has we went late afternoon it was closed.  

The park also has a small steam train. This is free to use, but donations are welcome.  

Titch and Dad loved it. 

The Brampton also has a small park, with sings, slides, climbing equipment and seesaws - of which nan couldn't resist joining in on.  There is also a small shop where you can buy drinks and ice-cream and on a wet day a small indoor play centre called Cheeky Monkeys.  

If you are looking for a safe family park I would definitely recommend here.  

Legoland - Star Wars Weekend

The boys in my house are avid Star Wars fans, and being Merlin Passholders when we saw the Star Wars weekend at Legoland advertise we thought why not.

Prior to going I had done my research on the Merlin Passholders Facebook page so knew what to expect.  We arrived early around 9 after a 2.5hr drive.  The rides themselves do not open until 10, so we knew we had a bit of a wait.  Miniland, however, is open from 930 so we took this opportunity to explore a bit of Mainland on the way to queue to get into the ride part of the park.  

Being a Star Wars themed weekend we expected it to be busy but not this busy.  finally at 10 the gates opened and people stampeded their way through the crowds to join the queues for the rides they wanted.  

We decided to head over the Lego Ninjago ride as this is the one that we had heard good reviews about.  Although the queue time said 20 minutes, which we thought was good, it took are 50 minutes from the start of the queue until we got to go on the ride.  The ride is not what I imagined.  It is a 4D experience ride.  The husband, Titch and Titch's friend all loved it.  For me, it was ok but I would not queue up for it again in a hurry.  

After here we decided to head to other rides with relative short queue times - less than 1 hour: Spinning Spiders, Dragons Apprentice, Vikings River Splash and Destiny's Bounty.  By the time we had done all of these it was around 2 and we were all ready for our picnic lunch so we headed over to the Duplo Valley and found some grass to sit and eat on.  Whilst we ate we checked the ride times for the afternoon and the kids weren't too fussed about going on them as the queues were long and it was an extremely hot day, so instead they voted to play in the Splash Area as luckily we had brought swimwear with us.  

I have to say I think this was the best part of the whole day.  They were in there for two hours in freezing cold water but had a thoroughly good time.  After getting dry the kids then wanted to look more around Miniland and look in the shops which suited us fine.  

Considering it was a Star Wars weekend we didn't do many Star Wars themed activities except watch the parade which was great for Titch and he got to have his photograph taken with many characters from the films.  

For our first visit to Legoland we all had a great time in some way.  The only downside to the whole day is the complete lack of refreshment stalls.  Most were closed and in the ones that were open the queues were 20 minutes long and the staff were extremely rude and unhelpful.  I don't think this will put us off going again but maybe we will take a few extra drinks next time.  

Paradise Island - Mini Golf

So today was a bit of a miserable wet and windy day.  we had originally planned on going to the National Space Centre in Leicester ,but as we made our way onto the A50 we soon realised that the 1.5hr journey was going to take at least 3 hours due to an accident. Not wanting to sit in the traffic with a hungry teenager we decided to head to Derby Intu centre for Lunch and a round of Mini Golf.


We expected it to be busier with it being a rainy day but after lunch we headed over to the indoor mini gold - Paradise Island.  There were two course that you could choose from: Shark Bay or Mermaid Rock. Prices were reasonable at £8.50 per adult and £6.50 per child. If you chose to play on both courses it worked out cheaper, but knowing our son one course would be enough.

We decided to complete the Mermaid Rock course. The course was well laid out and well designed,  We didn't feel any need to rush, but I suppose if it was busier this might have felt different.  There are 18 hole to complete - some easy and some not so easy.  In all we spent around 1hour in there and we all had a bit of fun.

Our review:
A great indoor activity for a rainy day with friends and family.  It is well designed and well laid out.  There was no pressure to buy extra games from staff and they were extremely helpful.