Earlier this week, we went to the National Forest Adventure Farm which is located in Burton upon Trent, within an hours drive from Stafford, Stoke, Nottingham, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Leicester etc. We are only 30 minutes away, driving up the A38. There is plenty of free parking plus disabled parking right at their entrance.

This year, National Forest Adventure Farm are aiming to break the Guinness World record for the largest display of scarecrows! The best scarecrow creations will win an annual family pass to the farm. You can either bring your ready-made scarecrows into the farm or make one in their Scarecrow Workshop for free if you bring your own clothes or for just £1, they will provide everything you need to make one!

At the moment, The Sun is running a promotion where if you sign up to Sun+, you can claim free tickets to Thorpe Park worth £99.98! Of course there is a minimal investment of £1 (first month) and then £8.67 (second month). As a Sun+ member you will also enjoy money-saving deals with Sun+ Perks and more free tickets with SUPERDAYS, including Chessington World of Adventures, Legoland Windsor Resort and Thorpe Park.

CBeebies Land opened at Alton Towers resort on 24th May and it include rides, immersive play areas, live experiences and character appearances and will be a fun and safe environment for preschoolers to play and learn!

Hi all, I’m blogging to you all the way from Australia thanks to International Blog Swap Day hosted by Digital Parents and Tots100, oh and of course Eileen from ET Speaks from Home.

As a Nutritionist, Personal Trainer and Mum I blog on just about everything health, fitness and parent related – The Kids Menu.  This weekend the kids and I had planned a trip to the local Botanical Gardens and I thought it was not only a great opportunity to get the children outdoors but also a perfect way showcase some beautiful Australian bush to you.

Recently, I wrote a local guide for Lichfield for tots100 – if you have not seen it, click here.  Barton Marina is one of the places I mentioned.  It is a unique Trent & Mersey canal-side attraction with fantastic cafés and restaurants, shopping and fabulous walks around the beautiful lakes and woodlands.  We love to take our children there for a bike ride around the lakes and to eat ice cream.

Yesterday, we had our photo shoot to update our blog photo with our regular photographer – Susannah Conway Photography.  I am so excited that I can’t wait to update it soon!  After that, we drove down to Barton Marina for Thai food!  It had been a long time since we last ate Thai food!  They had a buffet menu and there was a good selection of foods.  It was very delicious and I would recommend going again.

The children were very excited as they knew that they are going to meet Santa and get a lot of presents from him. This was our third time going to Chasewater Railway Santa Special with friends. I am always excited to show my children about train heritage.  Mr K loves train and loves to build his wooden train track all around his room.

Santa Special is always very busy during this time and luckily, we had pre-booked our tickets a while ago. After we met our friends there, we all went inside the carriage to be seated. All the children were not impressed with the old dank smell in the carriage but I thought this provided quite an authentic feel! The whole train trip was about 20 minutes, up the track and then back down. We were able go out the carriage to watch them swap the engine over from the front of the train to back of the train before hopping back inside to continue back to the start.

Mr K is always very keen on outdoor activities like rock climbing and football.  I am so glad that Cannock Chase Go Ape have newly open the Tree Top Junior adventure earlier this year. I had only briefly read about them on their website but had no clue what to expect or if Mr K would like it or not. So it was a bit of a gamble.

Last month, while we went to watch Postman Pat, we also went to Mercedes-Benz World as it was nearby.  It is located on the famous Brooklands site in Weybridge, Surrey. As this was an impromptu visit, we had not planned on any driving experiences, although you can book them while you’re there, and we had just missed their vehicle show. So we went exploring the exhibitions and got up close to legendary Mercedes-Benz vehicles! We were able to sit in many cars less than £80,000. The more valuable cars were tightly locked!  My son was fantasising with all the cars.

Last month, Mr C bought a deal through Groupon for a family ticket to Wonderland.  We are only 45 minutes drive away from Telford and he decided to buy it. My first impression is that everything is quite dated and needing a facelift. Most of the rides are free and suitable for younger children as they are quite gentle. It is quite a small park and we completed the park with rides within one hour.