Park life, laser quest, safari, go karting and space.

This week Blokey is on holiday..yippee!!!!!

We start the week in Stafford , a bit of shopping and then the park.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Trying to get the highest bounce with Blokeys help.

Dizzying heights and spins...the pushes that Dad can do so much better than Mum.

Quick break for ice creams

Spinning!!!!

A quick slurp

Balancing

Climbing to the very top!

Happy, happy

We went to laser quest today..the boys were incredibly excited. We had a bit of a disappointment to start with. The place we had banked on going to, opened up the 'arena' to find water everywhere...so we were informed it couldn't be used. The boys were really thrown by this and lips were wobbling. Blokey remembered there was another place in Newcastle, so we headed off that way and smiles returned.

The whole place was decked out like a space ship...

To be honest I could hardLy see a thing.

We got kitted up and I was feeling rather apprehensive. The packs were a bit heavier than we were expecting but we looked the part. I had planned on taking a few photos inside the arena but it was every person for themselves once the blasting started.

What fun! I was glad we only bought the one session because we were all shattered. Sam won the tournament ( despite running into a wall) , then came Blokey, me and Owen. Owen kept getting too excited and forgetting to fire. The children were pink faced and had sweat running down them by the time we got back outside.

I made a taster meal of falafel, salad, chorizo and chicken risotto, chicken tikka, focaccia , potato bravas and various dips. The children managed to try a bit of everything and particularly liked the chicken tikka, chorizo, potatoes and focaccia ...I was instructed to do more potatas bravas next time.

Afterwards they went off to their jujitsu class.

The next day we visted the West Midland Safari Park. We loved the white lions. The boys are very interested in conservation. So read all the information about each species as we went along, which included whether the species was under treat etc.

Sam says the penguins are one of his favourite animals. 

We went in the bat enclosure and saw them hanging and had a few fly between us. Sadly Owen couldn't stand the smell in there and was desperate to get out....to be fair it was over powering and I gagged a few times myself.

And met a chinchilla..so soft.

And enjoyed looking at the dinosaurs and real fossils in the animatronic section.

We then had lunch before spending the afternoon on the rides. It was really quiet so the children got chance to go on their favourite rides many times.

We fed the lorikeets ..which were so sweet.

The next day it was torrential rain and many local roads flooded. We went into Stafford and collected a few bits and pieces before taking the boys to their swimming lesson. They were very excited because it was the first time Blokey had seen them at their class. Afterwards we went to choose tiles for the kitchen. The boys enjoyed pointing out ones they liked and we decided on some metro style tiles..which the boys thought was 'boring'.

We took the children go karting today, so there was much excited chatter and stimming to be seen. The place we went to is about an hour away, so there was a lot of 'are we there yet'. The people at the track were really lovely and helpful about answering all the children's questions. I was glad it was an outside track but even so the petrol fumes were overwhelming at times.

The boys were very excited to be kitted out in racing gear.

Owen and Blokey race round like nutters and Owen's cart spun off many times. He has the bruises to show for it too. Sam and I focus more on getting round safely .It's incredibly hard work to steer the carts and I had to have breaks to get the feeling back in my hands. It just such a fabulous laugh, skidding round corners and zooming about in the little carts, plus we had the place to ourselves. It took quite a while for the boys to calm down from the excitement afterwards and they were still talking 10 to the dozen when we arrived at our lunch destination an hour later.

We enjoyed some of the games available in the pub whilst we waited for our meals:

 Mine and the children's shoulders and arms were really aching the next day. The children requested a 'quiet day in' . We watched Tim Peakes return to Earth from the space station in the morning.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/jun/18/astronaut-tim-peake-shuts-hatch-on-soyuz-capsule-for-trip-back-to-earth

The next day was Fathers Day so I cooked a massive lunch with lots of things both Blokey and the boys like . Garlic dough balls, Piri Piri chicken, Yorkshire puddings , roast potatoes etc etc. There was one potatoes left at the end of it. We all then settled down to watch a Marvel film together. The children gave Blokey his presents ( hand painted batik hankerchiefs and homemade dog cards) . It was a pretty chilled out day.