A Grand Day Out

Trying to think of a branding for Nic organised days out – NicAwayDays? NicTrips? NicScertions? 😆

Yesterday we went to Legoland. It was, I think, our fourth trip there. We’ve done two with Ady and two without him and with him is definitely preferable. I’ve perfected the art of packing a bag which doesn’t break my back with unnecessary items, but isn’t so lightweight that I’ve forgotten essentials. I came away with no excess food but well fed children, I had spare underwear enabling them play in the water bit in their pants and have dry clothes to get back into, I had a carrier bag for wet clothes, one for rubbish and a spare one which I’d not attributed a use to until Si whipped one out to keep his mobile phone dry during the log flume ride. I had water – but only one small bottle so I wasn’t carting gallons of it about and could fill it up at the drinking fountains, I had suncream, which I applied to all of us liberally so none of us burnt on what was a simply perfect day for being out and about. I had fleeces for the children so when they were blue and shivering after the water play I could wrap them up and that was it :). What I didn’t have was a necessary additional adult 🙁 . Scarlett is now tall enough to go on all but the very biggest rides and both my children adore thrillseekers rides, they are utter ‘trackies’ so wanted to go on everything as many times as they could. On the bigger rides I can understand the need for an accompanying adult with each child although some of the smaller ones seemed a little ridiculous to have to have an adult next to every child – wider rides for three people abreast would also have been useful too 😆 Thanks to the occassional people who stayed with one or other of my children, or in Si’s case took Davies on the big rollercoaster when Scarlett refused to be unglued from my side we did go on pretty much everything, but having Ady would have meant we could have gone on stuff more than once. Next time I organise something I’ll be a bit more sensible about which days suit our family 😆

That aside, and Tarly’s couple of moments and Davies’ fever pitch of excitement making him loud, giddy and slightly unbearable at one point, we had an excellent day. Although it was lovely to know so many of our friends were there it is not feasible to wander round in big gangs and although we congregated for lunch at the Johnny Thunder show it didn’t make sense to linger socialising when there were so many rides to be going on instead. We did spend a bit of time with Simon and Claudia and various points of wandering round with Alison and co for a while, including going on the log flume with Poppy and Tilda for a final 3 times at the end which was ace 🙂 but the rest of the time it was more waving and smiling than spending time with anyone.

Davies and Scarlett had a go at the driving school. Davies was old enough for the bigger one although I don’t think he quite got the hang of it as every time I saw him he was going off in a different direction to the one he looked like he wanted to be going in 😆 I didn’t even manage to get a picture of him. Scarlett loved the littler one and seemed a bit more coordinated. We watched an excellent 3d lego show with all sorts of effects which we all thought was very good and as we went round the monorail style ride Scarlett took a deep breath, gave me a beautiful smile and said to me ‘I’m SOOO happy Mummy!’ which was lovely :). We ended up heading off to the water bit just the three of us at the end so they striped to their pants and had a great half hour or so splashing and playing while I sat down and smiled indulgently at them, then a French family ushered them into the big dryer with their children so they got dried for free before getting dressed again and heading up to MiniWorld where we caught up with various people again in time to say goodbye before taking the hilltrain back up to the top and the exit.

We’d had a straightforward, but longer than expected due to really heavy traffic, journey up there with us taking it in turns to choose the music. Davies wanted High School Musical, Tarly wanted Tumble Tots actions songs and I’d got a cd with various songs from Take That, Catatonia, Proclaimers, Kaiser Chiefs, Mika and Tracey Chapman – an ecclectic mix :lol:. The journey home was much the same. I’d promised them a McDonalds having spent nothing other than the admission price all day and Tarly had about 20 minutes sleep just after we got into the car, then we woke her and played I Spy until we reached the McDonalds. That kept them quiet for the last half an hour until we reached home, just before 8pm. Ady had run them a bath and then they went to bed having told him all about their day. I slouched on the sofa while Ady brought me wine and cooked dinner before falling asleep on the sofa and waking around midnight to stagger up to bed.

I’m thinking about doing a trip to Chessington maybe in September so if anyone is interested shout and I’ll try and sort out dates and rates for it. 🙂