Splat Centre Easter Fun

Since The Splat Centre in Whitley Bay opened a couple of years ago, we have been regular visitors for soft play, birthday parties and the special events that they often put on.  Our latest visit was yesterday (8th April 2014) for their Easter Fun Day.  We love going to Splat as it is a friendly, family run place and there is always a nice atmosphere.

We arrived, gave our names and were told we were in the red group with Michelle and to listen out for next instructions.  For once in our lives we were actually early so we managed to bag ourselves some good seats and the children went off to play.  There were 4 different activities all set up in 4 different areas.  After about ten minutes or so Red Group was called to our first activity which was chocolate egg decorating.  Michelle was a great group leader, she has a lovely way with the kids and has loads of patience.  The kids loved it! and they looked yummy.

The finished products

Lots of concentration needed

Back to play in the soft play for a few minutes until the 2nd activity was ready, Easter nest cake making. Each child got to 'bash' the Shredded Wheat up, Michelle added the melted chocolate then all the children took a turn in stirring.  We added a lovely yellow chick and some mini eggs to our creations, then had to prise them off the children in order to set.

The third activity was card making, Eva made hers for Mammy and Luca did one for Daddy, they took great pride in this.  I love my children's enthusiasm for art and crafts, they really take care and enjoy being creative.  

The fourth activity was egg decorating.  Michelle brought out a bowl of hard boiled eggs and the children painted them.  Eva was particularly happy about this as the one she had lovingly decorated at school met a but of a messy end! 

The fun continued. The children had their faces painted as Easter Bunnies, super cute and the girls flew through the long queue, what is it about kids and face painting! They love it! I had a couple of particularly fine looking bunnies. 

 

Face painting done, the children gathered in the toddler area whilst the egg hunt was organised.  I was impressed with the way the egg hunt was dealt with.  There were a few older kids who dived straight in and took lots of the eggs, my mam noticed that the eggs were collected in and then discreetly re-hidden.  All the children were given a treat which was nicely done as my daughter in particular had been quite upset when she hadn't been able to find an egg!  It's the little things that parents appreciate.

It was then upstairs for the Mad Hatters Picnic, plenty of food and juice for the children to tuck in. The Mad Hatter (Michael the owner) was brilliant, daft and loud, just as a Mad Hatter should be.  The children enjoyed having a ball fight with him, that made them giggle! Once tea was over it was back downstairs for a meeting with the Easter Bunny.  The Bunny handed out treats to the kids and they had a bit of a dance.  My son, Luca joined in really well, he even ventured off to dance without Mammy! I was impressed.

Eva's day was topped off when she won Musical Statues.

We had a lovely afternoon, where else would you get 4 hours of entertainment, crafts, fun and soft play for £10? We highly recommend it and would like to say a big thank you to all the gang at Splat for a really lovely afternoon.

The Splat Centre

Girls and Unicorns

We love going to the theatre and watching a show, I have been taking Eva to the theatre since she was two and a half, she adores it and has such fun watching all the drama unfold on stage.  We had never been to the Customs House in South Shields before, so when we saw a show entitled 'The Girl and The Unicorn' a play written especially for children, we decided to get a gang together and go along.  We thought to make it a bit more of an adventure, that we would get the ferry from North to South Shields. Parking was really good and quite reasonable and the ferry was so cheap! The Customs House will even refund you 1 way's ferry ticket price at the box office.  The trip took about 7 minutes and we were there.  Out of the ferry dock it is a left turn and about a five minute walk along the riverfront to the Customs House.  I hate the drive to South Shields so this was perfect and completely hassle free. The Ferry .

Onto the show, there was 19 of us all together, 12 children ranging in ages and 7 adults. We had an entire row in the theatre! Upon arrival, each child was given a goody bag containing sweets, a chocolate bar, various leaflets and a free childs ticket to the cinema at the Customs House. Fabulous.  So after much excitement and decision making as to who to sit next to and where, we all settled down to enjoy the show. It was brilliant, the perfect length to keep little ones interest and lots and lots of audience participation.  The children thoroughly enjoyed it.  The story was about a little girl named Sophia whose grandma was poorly.  Sophia had lovely dreams and she discovered that unicorns have healing powers and wants to find one to help her grandma.  It's a lovely sweet story and the unicorn is just gorgeous.  At the end of the show, all the children got to meet the unicorn and to place a wish on the magic wishing tree. It was a really lovely show and we all had a great time.  Prices were fabulous too, £7 for the children and £5 for the adults.  We will be keeping an eye on the Customs House for further shows such as this.

The Customs House

Making Magical Memories

If you have kids, like us, little girls in particular, you will no doubt be surrounded by Disney Princesses. My daughter, Eva, is 5 and is utterly in love with them. She adores all things princessey, sparkly and glitzy - which girl doesn't?  From a really young age, she has been entranced by the Disney Princesses and spends hours re-enacting scenes from films and watching the DVD's.  For her 4th birthday she decided she would like a Snow White party. I needed to enlist outside help for this, whilst I am good with coming up with ideas, I need help with creation.  I found a fabulous lady through the marvellous world of Facebook (sometimes it does have it's uses!) Nikki has done lots of work for me in the past, she is awesome!  I asked her if she could create a Snow White party theme for me - and she did. It was amazing, Nikki is beyond talented and is such a super lady, please have a look at her page if you need inspiration and beautiful partyware. Lila's Party

 

   

Now the challenge began to find the star guest.  At this age, Snow White was Eva's absolute idol, she adored her, sang the songs and had a few of the toys .....

A friend told me about a lady who did princess visits, she dressed in character and came along to parties, did a song and a bit of a guest appearance. I found the page, again on Facebook, and got her booked to come along as Princess Snow.  The customer service I received was second to none, especially as I made a massive mistake in booking the venue, Emma and Amanda worked to help me rectify this and I was eternally grateful! We kept Snow's appearance a secret from Eva and the rest of the guests, I love surprises so was bursting keeping it quiet! The day of the party finally arrived, Diane from the Creation Station ran the party for me (more about her in another blog!) and it was amazing.  About halfway through, Emma telephoned to say she had arrived. The sight of Snow White clambering out of a Nissan Micra (I think!) was to behold! I was utterly speechless when I saw her - she was Snow White! It was amazing, she was exactly as Snow White should look and what every little girl imagines her to look like.

The look on Eva's face when Snow White walked in to her party was priceless, I cried! She just whispered 'it's Snow White' was completely star struck and was unable to talk! I don't think she could believe it!! Emma just glided into the room and even had the authentic accent.  All the children stopped what they were doing, including the boys. She was just beautiful.  She sang ' A Smile and a Song' and it was fabulous, Eva just stared at her, I had such a lump in my throat.

Although Eva never spoke much, if at all, she was completely star struck, she has spoke about it non stop since and still refers to it today. We have since attended many events and have booked Emma as various other princesses over the last couple of years and she never fails to amaze.  Thank you Emma for helping to make my daughters dreams come true.

 Emma Enchanted the maker of dreams

Follow our adventures at Fun with the Family

photography by Leopard Prints Photography

partyware by Lila's Party

princess by Emma Enchanted

party provided by The Creation Station

Christmas Time in Edinburgh

Since having babies, Christmas has been focused on them, this year, my best friends and I decided to treat ourselves and having been pre-kids we decided that Edinburgh would be the spot.  We booked the trains more or less as soon as the fares were published (you can register on the website for an email reminder when your travel dates are released).  We went for an early-ish train departing Newcastle Central Station at 07.45 and back on the 18:30 to get a good full day out.

After nearly missing the train! yikes! we finally settled down in our seats and cracked open the goodies.

https://www.edinburghschristmas.com/markets

Nice early arrival into Waverley meant that we got to sample the market before it properly opened and the hordes descended.  The only downside being that the mulled wine/cider etc was not being served yet.  The markets have been going for 20 years and start end of November then generally run through to the first weekend in January.  They are set up in the middle of Princes Street and they are all set up in gorgeous wooden cottage/huts.  So festive and beautifully decorated.  The first thing we noticed was the glorious food smells wafting about! mmmmm!! If you could bottle Christmas to sell as a perfume, this would be perfect. We had a good browse of all the stalls and Domonique also performed a bit of haggling to get us some lovely little snow globes for the girls.

It was the perfect time to have a look around as it was really quiet, by the time we had made our way through the whole market it was starting to get quite busy.  There were lots of stalls selling all sorts of goodies, wooden toys, christmas decorations, handmade bits and bobs and tons and tons of food stalls.  To be honest though, the stalls were generally repeated quite a lot so although there were many of them, they were selling a lot of the same stuff, not a problem though as it enabled a bit of price negotiation!!

We reached the end of the market and our thoughts turned to food!! We had previously been told about The Dome and that they served a delicious Afternoon Tea so that was us sold although we had some time to kill to popped into nearby Jenners to check out their Christmas Tree.  I am glad we did so, it was huge, pretty much floor to ceiling, absolutely gorgeous. We picked up a couple of tree decorations and then made our way to The Dome.

 http://www.thedomeedinburgh.com/

The outside of The Dome was breathtaking and there was even real snow to our amazement! Totally festive feel.  We arrived about 11.30 ish I think and there was already a queue, word has clearly got around.  Listening to people in the queue, it seems to be somewhat of a local tradition to have tea at The Dome at Christmas, one we were only to glad to join in on.  There was a doorman on the front to direct people (and to stop queue jumpers!) and he directed us in and up the stairs.  Once we got inside, all I can say is wow!! It was breathtaking! The decorations were just beautiful and the smell of cinnamon amazing!

 

The tea room was upstairs and after a short wait we were shown to our table and given menus. We already knew what we wanted, afternoon tea x 5!!! Well, actually as it was £25 for two people we ordered 6 and split the extra! greedy but it was Christmas!

                                       

The food was devine, the sandwiches gorgeous, the scones delicious and crumbly and the cakes, well, we ran out of room and our server kindly boxed them up for us to takeaway.  It was a truly festive experience in beautiful surroundings and we would not hesitate to visit again.

Now, any trip to Edinburgh would not be complete without popping into Harvey Nicks and we did just that. Had a wonder at the Jimmy Choo's in the shoe department and a giggle at the daft things in the Food department.

As the weather had now decided to take a turn for the worst, the only thing for it was to spend the reminder of our time perusing the various drinking establishments around Rose Street, what a delightful way to spend a rainy and windy afternoon with lovely friends.

We had a gorgeous fun filled festive time in Edinburgh and would highly recommend a visit.

A Harrods Santa Adventure

Last year we visited London for the first time and my mission to see a lovely Santa Claus had been set.  I did a LOT of research, one very well known stores (not mentioning any names) was charging £45! and that did not include photographs, you had to pay extra for those! Crazy money! I looked at Harrods expecting the worst, but it turned out to be the very best option! Who would have thought! To see Santa, you need to join their free Harrods Reward Scheme which works just like Boots and Tesco's cards, each time you spend points are loaded onto the card.  You then pay a £10 admin fee, but and here is the amazing thing! that £10 is loaded onto your Rewards card so after you visit Santa you then can spend the £10 instore, fantastic (although we did spend quite a bit more than £10!). You book a time and date to suit and they email you confirmation, job done.  Last year I had discovered this a bit too late and the slots for the dates we were in London were full.  I decided to chance it and emailed them explaining that we were travelling from Newcastle etc and lo and behold, a couple of days later they phoned to offer Eva a space! Fabulous! Anyway enough waffling and on we go to this years visit.

Our allocated slot was on the Sunday at 12.30 and we arrived at the store for a browse about half an hour early. They set up a Disney Store surrounding the Grotto early in November and it is any little girls dream (some of these pictures are last years, we had a camera incident!)

             

As you can imagine, this is a little girls paradise, Eva was allowed to choose a couple of things for an early birthday present off Nana, the prices are more or less the same as in the normal Disney Store although the range is limited to more of the expensive items.  She chose an Elsa doll from the film Frozen and a singing Sofia the First doll.

Onto more pressing matters, our appointment with the big man was drawing nearer so we went to the desk where we were greeted by very friendly staff and a couple of elves.  We were then shown into the library and met a lovely Butler by the name of Goodwill! He handed Eva a passport and told her to collect stamps from everyone she meets and she would then be given a gift from Santa.  We made our way through the library and I have to say we had picked the perfect time to go as apart from one or two other families, we were the only ones in there! We met some very colourful characters on our journey, some jolly elves and even the Sugar Plum Fairy! My daughter is very shy but they all took lots of time with her to chat and make her laugh, they were all wonderful and the costumes were fantastic!

We finally reached the door to Santa's room and the funny elf took her name and led us through the magic door.  Upon entering Santa's room he greeted her instantly by name! She was amazed!  Santa was just gorgeous, everything you expect him to be, kind and jolly and had lots and lots of time to spend with Eva asking about not just what she would like for Christmas but lots of other things too.  She told him about her little brother and had some beautiful photographs taken.  She got her final stamp in her passport too from Santa.

Time for gifts! She got a lovely little story book about Henry who was a forgotten Harrods delivery van from long ago, that was until Santa found him and needed his help.  She also got a badge and a chocolate, lovely Santa also gave us a set for Luca which was very kind indeed.  Absolutely enchanting.

Once we had said goodbye to Santa we went out into the library corridor to find our way back into the store to pick up our photographs and a few more treats for those we had left at home!

The entire experience from start to finish was just magical, they have worked so hard on details (and many improvements from last year) to make it an experience not to be forgotten.  I have to admit to being a little tearful watching her little face as we went on our little journey.  If you get the chance, do go, its wonderful.

Gifts from Santa Claus

All Things Wicked

I am back!!!! Been very quiet whilst the computer was out of action, all sorted now and a few things to write about.

Last year we started a new Christmas/birthday tradition. My mam and I decided to take my daughter, Eva, on the train to London.  This years trip was much anticipated and Eva was so excited to go on the train and to stay in a hotel!

So, to get a good price and also the most out of our visit, we got the 6am train! Nice and early start for us getting into Kings Cross at 9.10. We were staying at the Thistle Euston, we got an absolutely amazing deal which I still cannot believe!  £107 for a triple room! Seems the moral of the story is, check London hotel availability at 3am, you may pick up a bargain! Checked into the hotel and our room was already available which was fantastic.  Our room was an executive triple room and was really spacious, it was really clean and had a lovely seating area. Getting Eva out of the room was a feat in itself!

http://www.thistle.com/en/hotels/united_kingdom/london/thistle_euston/index.html

We got to the tube station which was only about 5 minutes walk and got a day tube pass (children up to age 10 are free to travel on tube as long as accompanied by a fare paying adult).  We got off at Covent Garden and had a lovely walk around and some breakfast.  The whole area was beautifully decorated and there was a gorgeous smell of mulled wine wafting about. Perfect to get you in that festive spirit.  We also met one of Eva's idols, Yoda!! An added bonus ! Plus there was a Disney Store, what more could a little girl want? Apart from a chocolate milkshake which the rather wonderful waiter in  http://www.maxwells.co.uk/ arranged for her, even though they don't normally serve them at breakfast time! I apologise as his name escapes me, but he did come from Dumfries and Galloway and had visited Newcastle for a stag night! ;0)

  

 

We slowly made our way the short distance to Leicester Square and decided on a whim to visit one of the discount ticket booths to see what they had to offer.  Eva had seen a poster advertising Wicked and being a massive fan of the Wizard of Oz, the decision was made.  We got a good deal on the tickets, nearly half price, for the afternoon matinee.

I won't spoil the plot for you if you haven't seen the show. What I will say is that my four year old daughter sat entranced for nearly 3 hours and didn't moan or complain once! The story is fabulous, not just full of wonderful dancing and songs, the actual story is brilliantly written and keeps you completely enthralled.  The costumes and sets are full of colour and sparkle.  The cast were amazing and the actress playing Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West), Willemijn Verkaik, was absolutely outstanding.  We all just loved it, the Wizard of Oz film holds a special place in all of our hearts and the show, albeit a story in it's own right, links in nicely to the film and explains one or two things.  If you get the chance, I urge you to see Wicked, I guarantee you will not be disappointed!  http://www.wickedthemusical.co.uk

 

           

Apologies for the quality of some of the pics, we only had a disposable camera to use!

The London trip is to be continued ............ next stop Harrods!!!