There's never anytime to straighten my hair

We have decided to return to some of the best holidays we've had and start camping again next year! I first posted this blog in 2009 - it' a good reminder of what to expect.......

Whilst camping last week, I was reminded on my pre-baby self. Every morning there would be a queue of girls in their teens and early twenties waiting to use the one available plug socket in the shower block to blowdry and straighten their hair and to fight over the mirrors to apply their make-up. Rewind 3 years, and I probably would have been standing in that queue but unfortunately now I don't have the luxury of having a spare hour to be able to do this and even if I did have the time there was absolutely no way I could squeeze a hairdryer or pair of straighteners in my car, what with the moses basket, steriliser, airbeds, mini fridge etcetc already threatening to burst the boot open. This left me with mixed feelings.

On one hand, I felt completely un-glamorous in my 4 year old reebok classic trainers, jeans rolled up to my knees (to stop the bottoms getting wet!), my hair scrapped back and no make-up to be seen. I would look at the child-less girls with envy as they looked fab with their made up faces and perfect hair and a new perfectly accessorised outfit every day. (Although some girls did go too far and made me laugh.......white jeans and high heels on a campsite anyone!)

On the other hand, it reminded me of how I dont have to get made up all of the time as my family love me the way I am anyway and it is much more important to me to spend an hour having fun with the family than an hour in front of the mirror now.

Also, I was quite smug as while all these girls girls were fighting over the one socket in the shower block, I knew that I had 3 spare plug sockets in my tent. It's just a shame I needed them to plug kettles (to heat Heidi's bottles), fridges (to store Harry and Heidi's milk) and toasters (for Harry's breakfast) in! Otherwise I'm sure I would've plugged my straighteners in and looked as glamorous as these girls ;-)

Saying goodbye to the toddler years

My middle child Heidi started full-time school today (September 2013). She is happy, confident and ready for it. I had no sad feelings about this transition at all (other than the fact that summer was over!)

Fast forward to September 2015 however and the mood in the Rickelton house will be completely different. My last baby will be off to school!

In the 10 years before this moment, all I will have known is being pregnant or having a toddler by my side! I worry how I will cope when this is no longer the case and it's just me......

I am the person that organises toddler get-togethers, I am the person who meets up with other mums in the park and I am the person my friends ask for advice as usually I have been there and done that. I have made some lovely new friends through my children. I worry that once I no longer have a toddler by my side this will all change and I will have some sort of identity crisis!

I will miss how much a toddler makes you laugh and how much fun they are to be around. Jack doesn't just make me laugh every day, he makes me laugh every hour! 

These feelings have really made me want to make the most of these precious 4 months I have just me and Jacky-boy before he starts nursery in January. Time to start planning some fun!

Back to school resolutions

Kids go Back to school on Tuesday! I am determined to stick to more of a routine this year! These are my back to school resolutions:-

1. I will meal plan every week and use the full potential of my freezer!

Meal planning always saves me money, ensures we eat as a family more often and generally we eat a lot better when I meal plan. My freezer needs a good sort out and I really need to remember to defrost food more often and use it up rather than buying fresh everyday!

2. Read every night before bed

My children read everyday for school anyway but it is usually while I am cooking tea/driving them to school. I really want to make the effort to read with them every night as well but just for fun and really making it part of our routine rather than something we just do when we have time.

3. Prepare uniforms, bags and lunch boxes the night before

I always start off with the best intentions of doing this but then this routine always seems to go out of the door and we end up running around like a headless chicken in the mornings! My hubby now leaves for work at 7:15am so the morning routine will mostly be down to me. Preparing the packed lunches, getting uniform ready and checking book bags for letters/homework the night before saves time and makes sense!

4. 20 minutes homework 3 nights per week

I am a strong believer that Most of what children learn actually comes from their parents. Learning does not have to be boring - there are lots of good online resources and suggestions to help. Hopefully school homework won't be set on a Thursday this year as my eldest has football training so it is already a busy night!

5. Friday fun night

Daddy will be home from work every other Friday in time to pick the kids up from school. On these weeks we will each take it in turns to choose a fun activity - whether it be takeaway and a movie, tea out, bowling or just a walk along the beach with fish n chips! 

On the Friday nights when it's just me and the kids I will plan some sort of free entertainment like a trip to the park or craft activity or baking.

So they're my new resolutions. Lets hope I stick to them! Anyone got any they'd like to add??

Rising Sun Country Park

The Rising Sun country park is the sort of place you might miss if you didn't know it was there. The entrance is between the Stonebrook pub and Asda Benton on Whitley Road.

There is a large free car park and as soon as you step out of your car you feel as if you are in the middle of the countryside and not just 2 minutes away from a large supermarket!

At the visitor centre there is lots going on with a woodland play park for children, plenty of space for a picnic, BBQ's, a cafe selling homemade goods and doddington dairy ice cream to take away and an artificial mini stream where children can paddle.

The park also offers many fantastic walks - you can get maps from the visitor centre or follow the well labelled signposts.

We followed the trail to the farm which is just over a mile. Looking out for the elusive rising sun stag on our way! (We didn't see him today - but did spot plenty of horses)

The farm is free to have a look around, there is a section with small animals such as chickens and rabbits.

Then a small bridge leads to larger farm animals such as horses, donkeys and pigs.

We were lucky that the pigs came really close today and we counted 7 teeny piglets which were very cute.

The farm also has a farm shop which sells products from the farm. You can't get more locally sourced than from here.

What I can't get over is that Farm parks are now charging as much as £10 per person to enter yet this place is FREE! 

The rising sun country park hosts many fantastic events throughout the year from late night bat walks to hog roasts and teddy bears picnics. Check out their website to keep up to date with events. It is a fantastic place to get away from it all for free.

Lightwater valley:- A review

Normally I won't even take my 3 to a soft play centre in the school holidays for fear of it being too busy! The thought of taking a 2 year old, 4 year old and 6 year old to a theme park in August just filled me with dread! I had visions of queuing for hours, crowds of people and miles of walking/whining children. However, I really could not have been more wrong! When we were invited to visit lightwater valley and check out their new angry birds play zone, I was very pleasantly surprised!

Lightwater valley is closer than you think. From our house in South East Northumberland it only took 1hr 20 mins in the car. Car parking is free and there were no queues at the ticket booths and we were greeted by an angry bird! A great start!

The kids wanted to try out the angry birds zone first of all and conveniently it is located right by the entrance. I was very impressed with this area - lots going on for all ages. Giant touch screen computer games on the walls, counting games on the floor compete with talking angry birds, TNT climbing frames and every type of play equipment you can imagine with fantastic theming throughout (even the bins were angry bird themed). The kids had an absolute whale of a time and could have spent hours here. If they hadn't have spotted the indoor angry birds play zone, I would have had trouble dragging them away!

The indoor part of the angry birds zone is space themed, in darkness and lit up with UV lights. My 2 year old was screaming and jumping with excitement. I think it's the happiest I've ever seen him! There is a small cafe inside too to grab a cuppa while the kids play.

After we spent about an hour in Angry bird land it was time to try out some rides. My daughter was disappointed she was just too little to ride the carousel however soon cheered up when we found some more suitable rides next door. I was amazed that this was August and there was absolutely no queuing for anything! I liked the fact that little ones could go on rides either with or without a grown up.

After trying out some rides we decided to take the train around the park. This is a good way to get your bearings. The park is really compact (which is why I didn't once hear the kids moan they were tired) and the train ride took about 15 mins. There were places to leave pushchairs at the station and it was lovely to be able to all enjoy some rides together.

We had spied the big wheel from our train ride so that was our next stop - again I was really pleased that we could all get on the ride together. The views over the park were spectacular.

We would normally take a picnic on a day trip like today however I just hadn't got round to making one! (Plus our cupboards were bare after bank holiday weekend). Plenty of people had took a picnic though and there were lots of picnic areas around the park. It is definitely what I would recommend. We decided to try the conservatory restaurant. Prices were what you would expect from a theme park. There were long queues to be served though :-( Very strange that there were no queues for rides but there were for food I thought! Anyway, when our food arrived it was delicious and £25 for 5 meals including drinks certainly wasn't as bad as it could have been!

After our re-fuel we enjoyed more rides (especially in the pirate themed area). I was really pleased with the selection of rides available for younger guests to enjoy.

The kids were eager to try out a roller coaster so we headed over to the caterpillar which can be enjoyed by all ages. Everybody loved it, especially daddy! 

Then in was nice to chill out for 10 minutes while the kids played in the sandpit.

My 2 year old LOVES tractors so we were really pleased to find that you could drive your own tractor around a real life farm. 

I was really keen for us to get as much value out of our day as possible so we decided to watch the birds of prey show at 4pm. You can walk around and admire the many birds at anytime and the shows are on twice a day. The bird handler was very knowledgable and engaging however the birds were the star of the show. They were spectacular!

We couldn't leave lightwater valley without visiting the angry birds gift shop. It was very expensive and we ended up spending £20 on a cuddly toy, a ball and some stationery. The kids deserved a treat though! There were lots of reasonably priced gift shops throughout the park if you are on a budget including an 'everything's £1' cart and overall I didn't find prices too high (eg candy floss was £1, coffee and a muffin £2.95)

I am so pleased we paid lightwater valley a visit. It was a fantastic stress-free way to end the summer holidays and nothing at all what I expected visiting a theme park with young children to be like. On the way out we were offered vouchers to visit again in September/October/November for only £12 each which is something we definitely plan on doing. We all can't wait to visit again.

Our visit to Warkworth castle

We have driven past Warkworth castle many times and had it on our list of places to visit but just never got around to it! This week, we have been staying at Cresswell and Warkworth is only 9 miles away so we decided to pay a visit.

Warkworth castle was thought to have been built in the 12th Century and I think you'll agree, it is simply stunning. The castle has not been renovated and is very rustic, which I think is part if the appeal.

Car parking is charged at £3 - however this is reimbursed on paying your entrance fee. The entrance fee is fantastic value at only £6 per adult, £3.50 per child and under 5's are free. Your ticket is valid all day and you can come and go as you please. The staff are really very friendly and helpful and I was very pleased to see that dogs on leads are not forgotten and are indeed welcome to join in the fun.

My kids loved exploring the castle and it was lovely to see their imagination working overtime as we imagined who would be working and living in various parts of the castle.

They were literally running from room to room and genuinely very excitable! There were turrets, dungeons, great halls and dark corners to explore. We took our toy swords along with us and enjoyed a few 'battles' in the castle grounds.

I am an absolute sucker for a castle window with a view and Warkworth castle did not disappoint. There were fantastic views of the countryside, Northumbrian coast and even the Farne Islands could be seen. The views were simply beautiful.

On the day of our visit, there was a special clash of the kingdoms event happening. There was a different activity on every hour - we watched the weaponry display from the top of the castle. 

Later on we enjoyed listening to the tale of the battle Flodden. The story teller was amusing, engaging and involved the crowd. I actually learned something too!

There are plenty of open spaces to enjoy a picnic within the grounds (as many people were) and it was lovely to do this whilst the kids enjoyed running around the grounds pretending to be knights.

All in all, Warkworth castle was a fantastic day out. It was refreshing to let the kids run around a castle freely without constantly asking them not to touch anything or be careful. We enjoyed it so much that we signed up to be English heritage members there and then. We are looking forward to seeing what else they have to offer.

A trip to Alnwick garden in the summer holidays!

Now we LOVE Alnwick garden and have visited every year since it opened. It is a fabulously different North East attraction and always has something new to explore.

Today's visit was the busiest it's ever been! The walk from the car park followed by the queue to get our tickets verified took about 40 minutes! Not ideal when you have 3 small children with you! They were good as gold though and entertained/amused by the buskers and stalls outside the ticket stands.

Once we were inside the garden, I remembered that it was certainly worth the wait. The central cascade with various dancing water shows is simply stunning. Although there were a lot of visitors, it did not seem overcrowded. We picked a spot on the grass to set up camp and enjoyed our picnic whilst watching the ever changing central water cascade.

The kids were very eager to put their swimming gear on. So after a quick change we headed to the water garden which has different water features which the children can play in spread throughout. Halfway through we found ourselves in the middle of a water fight which are arranged at various times throughout the school holidays. It's always a good idea to pack a change of clothes as the kids really do get soaked!

Next it was time to enter the bamboo labyrinth! This is part if the garden I hadn't visited before and I've got to say after we were trapped in the maze at Longleat I wasn't looking forward to it! The kids insisted though and although slightly challenging, I don't think anybody would end up trapped in here! Phew!

After we escaped the labyrinth we quietly wandered around the rose garden and up to the top ornamental garden. These areas are very tranquil and peaceful and have a completely different atmosphere to the lower parts of the garden. They are  my favourite parts of the garden though and I hope I get to visit them one day child-free so I can really take my time to explore.

The view from the top of the garden is worth the walk. It's beautiful.

Now it was time to walk down past he fountains and the kids were squealing with laughter as they tried to avoid the water jets which can catch you at any time! 

This week was bee week at Alnwick garden so we took advantage of the free bee themed crafts that were on offer. We spent over an hour together as a family making an insect garland which was lovely. 

Finally, a visit to Alnwick garden would not be complete without a trip to the famous treehouse. If you ever get the chance, the food here is amazing! (As is the atmosphere). Sadly we didn't dine today and instead had fun on the 'Indiana Jones' style bridges and enjoyed the views.

There was a lot of the garden we didn't get a chance to do/see today and it is certainly worthwhile buying an annual pass. They also had a 'pop-up' vintage Afternoon tea marquee which looked lovely, a children's bee theatre, bee talks and demonstrations and of course the deadly poison garden tours on offer but time just seemed to run away with us!