Sunday 17th August we went to Lollibop 2014.
This was all made possible by my wife (
me_andthe_tiny3 ) taking part in and winning a family pass to Lollibop in a competition run by the fabulous
TheBoyandMe.
We had been looking into going to Lollibop throughout the year but couldn't really afford it to be honest, my wife really wanted to go so she took part in many different competition to see if she might have any chance of winning. She never thought she actually would, so when the confirmation came through from TheboyandMe she was ecstatic as were we all to be honest.
The day finally came, the day of Lollibop 2014, the day Tammy had been looking forward to more than any of us. The day we got to go out as a family, to enjoy the day together with no one to disturb us, no social media sites, no phone calls no nothing just a fun filled family day out.
We got up at 6am to start off as soon as possible because it was over two hours away from our home and reading some reviews from the Friday and Saturday Tammy wanted to be there for when the car park opened so we weren't queueing to park plus she had to collect her tickets from the ticket office.
We made it there just around 9am, we were one of the first 20 or so cars parked up so we were right close to the entrance and the ticket office. Whilst I got the pushchair and the days things ready to go Tammy went and queued up to get the tickets.
This seemed to take forever as no one at the desk seemed to know how to issue us with competition winners tickets/wristbands. One good point of waiting for the tickets was
Alex Winters, yes the Cbeebies presenter, hugged and said hello to Tammy and JR whilst in the queue which got a few people in the queue asking if it was really Alex Winters once he had gone and how my wife knew him.
Once we we're in, the days fun was about to get underway, who to see first, what to watch first or what to do first. Like many other families the kids wanted to go in every direction possible whilst the parents wanted to check out what was on offer and what would be the least busy to make sure they got everything in and everything done.
We decided to head over to the River Island Kids Design Den so the kids could get to design their own T-Shirts, with our help and input of course lol.
I think the final outcome was very good what do you think?
Once the kids had finished making their T-Shirts and modelled them, we took them over to the Beano stand to show them what proper comics were, the ones daddy grew up reading they loved getting their photo taking in a giant comic page.
After this we made our way round to the main stage where Alex Winters was doing his one of many performances of the day, after his performance he introduced
Sam and Mark from cbbc we didn't stop to watch their show as the kids wanted to meet Alex in the meet and greet tent. The kids loved meeting Alex, well to be honest so did Tammy.
After the meet and greet we decided wed just have a wonder about and see what there was to do in all the other tent and stalls dotted about. First off the boys got their face painted, as you can see I think they got a bit confused, they were dressed up as iron man yet they got spider man face paints oh well never mind lol.
We then spotted a rather large teddy bear, well when I say spotted as u can see he wasn't exactly hard to miss was he lol.
Whilst wandering round, I happened to notice mixed amongst all the food and drink stalls a very unusual creche, one that seemed to be a hit with the adults in particular, I thought it was quite a funky creche to be honest what do you think?
On our way round to the Duplo stand we happened to notice a tent showing fireman Sam episodes and inside we noticed fireman Sam himself so this was a great photo opportunity for the boys to have their photo taken with one of their TV hero's.
As I was saying we were making our way to the Duplo stand before fireman Sam distracted us, well we went to the Duplo stand and the boys along with mummy made random shapes which they took into a little dome shaped tent where their creations came to life on a big screen.
After this we took the kids into the Thomas the Tank area, where they got to take part in many different activities to win various prizes including stickers, colouring crayons and magnetic picture frames.
I then took the boys round to the Tottenham Hotspur football zone where they got to got to release some of their energy by kicking a ball into the speed trap goal to see how hard they could kick a football. I also took the opportunity to get a picture of the boys with the Tottenham Hotspur sign for
Tom Briggs a avid Spurs fan.
Our next port of call was to go and see
Andy Day in his show then go to his meet and greet. Of all the Cbeebies presenters the boys hadn't seen or meet Andy up to this point so they were really looking forward to it, they love watching him on his dinosaur adventure show.
His show was brill, all three kids enjoyed it, they joined in with the dancing and singing, they sat there glued to every word he said and every thing he did.
After the show we queued up with many other boys and girls with their mummies and daddies to meet Andy, our kids loved it they told him what dinosaurs they liked and that they loved watching his show.
After meeting Andy we noticed that the gathering of families in front of the main stage area was insane and I didn't see why at first until I heard a certain Justin Fletcher voice and realised just why the crowd was so intense as you can see in the picture below.
We then queued up to see
Chris & Pui, the kids were so excited they love watching show me show me and couldn't wait to tell Chris this.
We then took the kids up to the Vita Coco Kids stand and the Skylander stand where they had lots of fun taking part in different activities they even got to design their own T-shirt at Vita Coco kids, well I say they I mean mummy got to let her creative juices flow.
As the day was drawing to a close and it was becoming less busy we decided to just sit down and watch the last few shows, starting firstly with Alex Winters, which we all enjoyed particularly mummy.
Then the kids enjoyed watching the Poppy Cat show, joining in all the fun activities like 'head, shoulders, knees and toes'.
Then the highlight of the day occurred, my moment of being a proud daddy, my son was chosen to go up on stage to take part in the Sam & Mark part of the show, the only downside to this being my wife had to accompany him up there only joking sweet it was fab seeing you both up there.
The show was hilarious, they were both on Mark's team for a double game of copy cats, it was hilarious because the opposition team were adults and older kids whereas my wife's team was adults and little kids who had no idea what they were meant to be doing to be honest, well guess who lost, yes Marks team which meant ultimately Mark lost over all and got soaked for losing lol.
The day was brought to an end by the ever energetic Alex Winters, handing out sweets and having general fun and laughter with the remaining boys and girls oh and mummy's too lol, they sang and danced until the music was literally turned off by the producers lol.
On the way out we got a picture of the boys with the Lollibop sign which brought an end to our fantastic day out at Lollibop 2014.
I would totally recommend Lollibop to anyone, it was full of so much fun throughout the whole day, look out for early bird tickets and get in for a even better rate.