Play Away

Prior to being a stay at home mum I was completely oblivious to the location of children's playgrounds.  These days I not only know where they are but I can rate them in 'michelin star' fashion.

There are the old 'retro' playgrounds which are basically a field with a couple of swings and if you are lucky maybe a wobbly, 'seen better days' see saw. Then we start climbing the ladder, our village playground plays host to swings, two slides, a climbing wall and bouncy rides. It is a lovely place to go for parent and child and even has a comfortable ground to fall off said items onto.  I was always suitably impressed with our cosy playground until Amos and I recently came across two seriously 5 star super deluxe play areas.

The first was in the Chaddesden area of Derby where we were visiting friends, this amazing place had the usual swings and so on but also boasted a sand pit, water fountains that children could run through, a zip wire (for teenagers) aswell as a skate park.

The next was in the RAF residential area, here Amos and I were treated to sensory activities such as two pipes located a distance apart, when you spoke into one you could be heard in the other. There were also wheels to spin, a roundabout, a snakes and ladders board, a number of balancing devices in addition to swings and slides - this was just the area for toddlers. There was another half where there were amazingly complex climbing devices, balancing swings and a skate park.

I must admit that these days I get almost as much pleasure out of a good playground as I do from a good pub beer garden - sad but true!

Please let us know about the facilities in your area, anything weird, wonderful or entertaining to boast?

Boys and Machines!

Simon and Amos with the Dakota

Last week Amos and I had the enormous privilege of visiting the RAF Odiham Family Day. My brother is situated at the RAF base working on the amazing Chinook helicopters (described pretty accurately by a commentator as the dancing elephant of aircraft) and they have an annual celebration day where families and friends are invited to see what their boys and girls are up to.

Well, what a fantastic day it was. Amos and I were both very excited (Amos flew his little plastic plane throughout the whole train journey) and we were certainly not disappointed. Not only was there a air show with Chinook demonstrations, fly pasts, a formation team, the Falcons and more but there were also vintage aircraft to climb aboard, a fair ground, the Fire Fighting Crew and to top it all the Mother's Union were giving out free cakes - something for the girls!

At the jaws of the Chinook

Amos was in his element with so many machines to look at and even touch and climb aboard. For me, the most poignant part of the day was when my brother and I went on board a Dakota which was the aircraft our grandpa had worked on and been shot down in during World War 2. We are a family separated by large distances but there was a strange but wonderful feeling of fusion and togertherness as Simon, my brother, the grandson and Amos, the great grandson were pictured in front of the plane.

Boys just love machines,don't they? I thought it was the wheels on cars that did it for Amos but he took to the aircraft too and is now flying his cars Chitty Chitty Bang Bang style through the air! If you have a boy of any age I highly recommend finding out if there is a classic car show, steam rally or air show in your area - they are often plentiful at this time of year. Failing that a motor museum is a safe bet for a stay at home mum's full day out entertaining the sons (and don't forget the husband too).

Let me entertain you....

Amos and I have recently been on some long train journeys, first of all we went to London, a three hour journey, and last week we went to stay with friends in Derby, a 4 hour 15 minute journey - elongated both ways due to delays! Pre small child this was a wonderful relaxing 'bookfest', maybe a little nap at some point after indulging in a nice hot cup of tea. Now of course I am chief entertainment officer in an extremely confined space. Although I must say it went surprisingly well, naturally I had a bag full of accessories - bubbles, small cars, crayons, paper, food (it was a pretty large bag). Amongst my fabulous entertainment package I can reveal my really hot travel tip is the wonderful sticker book, we had a Thomas and Friends sticker book and it provided minutes upon minutes of engagement, Amos loved it.  I, on the other hand, suffered terribly from the pressing urge to take off Amos' handiwork and rearrange it so that Thomas was not up a tree and Percy had not landed upside down in the sea with the Fat Controller's car balancing on him! You'll be pleased to know that I resisted and instead settled for occasionally guiding Amos' hand to put a cyclist the right way up and make sure Harold the helicopter stayed in the sky.