Meccano, is it just for children?

As usual at the moment things are hectic around the house, so I was so happy to give my Meccano off road racer to TJ for a little space. 

This will be the first time TJ or myself have ever made a Meccano model and my first thoughts were that it looked quite easy and once the model had been finished he could build another one of the twenty-five models.

Emptying all the pieces into the box so nothing is lost, I left TJ in charge of putting together the first few pages of the book. With 406 pieces I thought this may take him a while to complete. 

Finding the pieces and slowly and carefully putting the screws and nuts together. By step 10 TJ was fed up so I took over. Twenty minutes later my fiddly fingers found it difficult to place small nuts around the screws. Finally I gave in and started looking at the tools properly. It was then that i realised that the monkey wrench had various purposes. 

The instructions are clear, and with the picture of the screws and a 1:1 picture of each screw that is needed on the each instruction. The Meccano is built out of black plastic or metal and each piece has a place to go.

 After three nights of spending a little time and doing 6 instructions a time I still haven't finished.

I'm loving the fact that this isn't just a 5 minute job and that it is taking time to build. I like to take my time making things and love a good jigsaw puzzle so this is right up my alley. 

Although TJ has lost interest I'm enjoying making it as it's helping keep my mind off of some family problems of late. 

Lemur Landings Re- Launch

When I said to TJ Lemur Landings at Tower Park Poole was re - launching a updated version of the fantastic indoor play area he bounced around the room saying he wanted to go.

Keeping in mind TJ is now 9 years old and very excited to be going.

When arriving we had a meet and greet with two very cheeky and fun Pirate Lemurs. Lewey and Lola characters were so much fun they had me in giggles of laughter throughout the  time we were with them.  

The new Play village was so much fun although its for small children I had more fun dashing in and out a pretending to be different shop owners and the police. 

Next was the climbing wall with four different sections and light up steps reaching a height of 5 metres. 

There is a weight allowance minimum being 2st and maximum being 17st. 

The best part about the wall is being able to race others to the top and hit the button to stop the timer.

When it's quiet you can have as many goes as you want although when it busy there is a token system working.

TJ was to big to go on the smaller child's adventure area, which looked like so much fun.
The area was raised from the ground and the children had to wear harnesses  

Pizza was served as food at the re-launch and I have to say it was better then Pizza hut's. Our favorite flavor was the BBQ chicken and sweetcorn.  

The pizza's had plenty of cheese and lots of flavor. 

  

Day Two Discovery Cove...

What we took with us in our rucksack today: 

*Mobile phone charger.

*Waterproof case for phone.

* Change of clothes.

*Discovery cove cup.

When entering Discovery cove the walk is so peaceful and care free.

Booking is a must and I would recommend to anyone to go. 

The price of the ticket weather you pay to swim with the dolphins or not, includes 14 consecutive  day tickets to Seaworld and Aquatica (you can also pay to upgrade and include Busch Gardens) with free car parking. I fyou choose to go with out discovery ticket passes it costs $18 - $20 a day.

Meet and greet with Lucy the sloth.

 Again this morning we were up super early and got to Discovery Cove for 8.15am. 

There is a buffet that is through out the day providing various foods for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The food is served from 8.30am - 4.30pm every day.

Not only is there a buffet restaurant there are snack area's  throughout the park which serve snacks and drinks.

First to be in the pool.

We ate breakfast and headed to the locker area's to get sun creamed up and to place the important things in the lockers. These are also free of charge. The sun cream is animal friendly and very thick to put on but works a treat. 

Once the water was tested and we were allowed into the lazy river there was no stopping us.

Bird aviaries here we come. 

Although I loved just sitting and floating and just relaxing through out the day. TJ started to get bored. ( There's only so many times a 9 year old child can go round the lazy river by himself).

After the first attempt to get TJ to come in the ray lagoon with me, where he freaked out really badly and ended up hurting my arms. We gave it a miss till he'd calmed down.

 After another trip around the lazy river it was lunch time.
Now this I've been looking forward to for months as I love their cheesecake and strawberries!

After Lunch there was lots more time to relax and venture around the whole park including a slow walk / swim over the reef. 

 Such an amazing day was had at Discovery Cove and we cannot wait to go again but until then I have so many brilliant memories that I won't be forgetting in a hurry.

Admiral young drivers lesson

My nephew took a drivers lesson a few weeks back with Admiral young drivers. My oldest nephew is 13 yrs old and way to tall as he towers over me.

There are to types of driving sessions which are designed for either 5 - 10  or 10 - 17 year old children/ teens.

The choices of different style cars to drive varied also from driving a small manual  or automatic car to driving a Bentley.

J had the 30 minute driving session which was very easy to follow instructions that were given by the instructors.

After going through the safety talk the fun began. 

When arriving there isn't many seats in the waiting area So best to turn up with 30  minutes before you are do to do the lesson.

Going up in the lift you can see the car park courses set up with lots of cones for each obstacle and area. 

The person who signs you into the driving area were very friendly and helpful and prepared for a response for any questions. 

After 20 minutes J was in the car and extremely nervous about driving. At this point It was obvious how fantastic the driver instructors are with each different lesson they all very calm and patient with all students not just J. With no driving experience at all he was very nervous and within 5 minutes relaxing into the driving seat.

Travelling through the coned road area's they practiced varied maneuvers including clutch control and start/stop. After this was driving round a cone roundabout and then down a ramp. after doing this area about 20 times J was then asked to drive down a ramp. Reverse parking was next and into a space. The instructor had to help J with this as he found it difficult.

After finishing J had his drivers diary signed and finished his lesson.

"I really like the driving lesson because they told you every thing but you had to wait a long time and there wasn't many seats to sit on if you got there early. The instructor was very helpful and told me how to change gear and how to revers park.  experience was amazing and very fun."

From J

 

Kinetic sand - its amazing!

Earlier this week I received my kinetic sand kit, I have tried a cheaper version of this before and found it OK, so I had high hopes for this kit. It did not fail to deliver.

Lately Sunday seems to be our family fun day, we've been cooking roast dinners for the whole family including my 3 nephews, brother and sister in law. So why not open the sand up as a surprise.

 This was a complete success, all four kids and four adults loved it. 

The kit included Purple sand, a tray, a small shovel/spade and three moulds ( crab, castle and starfish).

The kinetic sand can be shaped into any shape but once the mixture has started to break up it falls apart in what I can only describe as fluffy soft sand. 

 The sand holds together really well once formed and doesn't break apart as long as it is left in that position. The small soft grains are so soft that my two year old nephew was giggling as it fell onto the blue table.

  

From the ages 2-34 years old we all played with the sand for almost an hour before dinner was served. The various building abilities from person to person. I myself made a fantastic wall while others tried to sculpt a dog out of the sand.

My nephews loved it so much ( 2, 9 and 12) they've asked for different sets each for Christmas. That's an easy thing to get and not a bad price either for the hours of fun they will all be having. 

Bellz! The challenging magnetic game

When the nephews come round to play there's only one thing to do, crack open the newest game in the house. This game has a magnetic wand with four different colored bells.

The idea of the game is to choose a color bell and to collect all the bellz of that color without touching or collecting any other color on the wand.

When collecting the bellz its harder then you'd think to collect one color. I love a challenge in a game though.

 
The youngest nephew dove straight in with a little help from his Dad they managed to get 3 before picking up any other colors. This ended their go. With the oldest nephew taking charge collecting 5 bellz and then TJ then taking his go and collecting 3 it was my go. Taking just 2 bellz before my turn was over I found the game to be very frustrating but fun at the same time.

The end results after a little cheating from the nephews and TJ, I lost pretty badly with the nephews drawing and TJ wiping the pouch clean of his colors. 

Overall the game was highly entertaining and kept us all busy for about 45 minutes. We played best out of 4 games and I still lost but enjoyed every second.

Knotts Berry Farm was deserted which worked out amazing for us..

When visiting somewhere for the first time you expect it to be daunting. Honestly because of the time of the year that we went it was quiet which made visiting Knott's Berry Farm Theme Park such an amazing choice.

The musical part of the park wasn't the best I've heard and the actors and actresses seemed a little bored of the act. Saying this the guy that was chosen from the audience did throw a few curve balls towards the actress which made the show a little more entertaining.

When walking around the park it was like a ghost town, being in a ghost town has it's advantages.

For example walking straight on to the roller coasters. I did three coasters within 15 minutes including walking from one coaster to the next.

The view from the front of the queue is always awesome when there's only you and at the most 100 other people in the park. 

The mine train was a little dated for the adults but for the children who were on the train they enjoyed being on it.

The park is the oldest theme park in the US which began as a farm in the 1920's. The Knotts family specialised in boysenberry's. Selling jams, drinks and pies a restaurant was born. 

With all the history that is involved in Knotts Berry Farm and an area that is dedicated to the Old West when the ghost town was built in the 1940's. The buildings are authentic. The mine and log ride were purchased and added to the numerous attractions in the 1960's.                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

My Dad posing with a few of the locals.

The coaster rides are amazing my favorite being the Xcelerator. Be prepared to sit in a hot rod seat that smashes 82 miles per hour in 2.3 seconds. Racing up 205 feet into the air before plummeting back down towards the ground at a 90 degree angle  this ride is a must for any thrill seeker. 

 There are so many amazing rides to choose from including the rides for the children at camp snoopy. The show for me was a little bit on the young side so we left it early. All the children were clapping and singing with the songs and joining in. 

Acropats bath times made fun again..

I recently received these foams shapes and set to having a bath shortly after opening my parcel.

The set comes with 16 acropats in 4 different colors red, green, blue and yellow. 

Each acropat can be linked together to make different shapes.

 The little men can be built on land or water building blocks, cars and even a space ship. Let your imagination run wild when you build with them.

These special little foam figures float on the water and measure 70mm x 14mm x 84mm each.

We've built walls that float, aiming towers in the water and taken a small ball to aim in the middle (a point a goal 2 if it goes straight in).

These versatile little figures have been out in the garden, in the paddling pool, the bath and dry land.

Easy to clean and quick drying.

 A must have to entertain children and adults alike the imagination building bricks for land and water.

Acropats bath times made fun again..

I recently received these foams shapes and set to having a bath shortly after opening my parcel.

The set comes with 16 acropats in 4 different colors red, green, blue and yellow. 

Each acropat can be linked together to make different shapes.

 The little men can be built on land or water building blocks, cars and even a space ship. Let your imagination run wild when you build with them.

These special little foam figures float on the water and measure 70mm x 14mm x 84mm each.

We've built walls that float, aiming towers in the water and taken a small ball to aim in the middle (a point a goal 2 if it goes straight in).

These versatile little figures have been out in the garden, in the paddling pool, the bath and dry land.

Easy to clean and quick drying.

 A must have to entertain children and adults alike the imagination building bricks for land and water.