Our Day Out In Blackpool

On Tuesday 27th May we took the kids to Blackpool for the day.

My wife had been sent tickets to go to Blackpool's new attraction for 2014, which was only opened in April called 'ILLUMINASIA'.

So we decided that we would make a few days of it and go to Blackpool then onto Manchester the following day (read about it here). 

We had a look on the internet at hotels and booked ourselves to stay the Summerville Guest House. 

We packed a few things into trucki and went to bed ready for our early start the next day.

We set off early so we would be up in Blackpool by late morning, we actually arrived at Blackpool at bout 10 am then it took us 30 mins to find the hotel as the sat nav kept sending us the wrong way.

Well we finally found the hotel, checked to see where we could park and parked up, the lovely hotel owners even allowed us to check in as as room was ready for us which was a massive help as it meant we didn't have to leave all our stuff in the car unattended all day.

Once we had checked in and sorted ourselves out, we made our way to the Winter Gardens to go Illuminasia.

As I said earlier this is a new feature attraction for 2014. Whilst my wife was in the queue collecting our tickets, I took the kids to look around the foyer to see the dance costumes as there was a dance festival on that week, as well as looking at the costumes the boys decided they would have their own little dance show which was very cute to be honest.

It was our turn to go into the attraction, the kids were so excited, they didn't really know what was going to be the other side of the doors but they were still so excited to find out. The excitement was built up even more by the search and seek chart they were given, they knew they had to find answers to the questions whilst walking around and at the end they'd get a certificate for it.

The attraction was brilliant, it was filled with so much colour and fine craftsmanship, it was also accompanied by various audio interaction throughout various zones. 

We learnt to speak Chinese and found out what our year of birth was represented by in the Chinese calendar.

 We found out some history behind Blackpool's famous Tower and even facts about planets and space.

We were thrown into the Land of the Giants and The Dark Zone, which the kids found fascinating to see all the bugs and creepy crawlies on a grand scale. 

  

We were also whooshed of into the magical realms of The Deep, a zone full of all kinds of sea creatures.

   

The very last part of the attraction is a laser light show with a switch on of the rooms lights by a child out of the audience which is a good way to finish the visit.

Once we had finished in Illuminasia we took a walk, well a very long walk to be honest all the way down to the Pleasure Beach. 

Then we walked all the way back via a walk along Central Pier and North Pier (whilst on North Pier we saw a rescue helicopter bringing someone to an awaiting ambulance on the beach) to the Tower where we had tea in Coral Island Amusements. 

  

We then had a little wander round town let the kids go on a few amusement rides, won them some tickets which they exchanged for some goodies from the shop, made our way back to the hotel and crashed with exhaustion lol. 

C Is For ...... Carvery Alphabet Project

I am linking this post up with the lovely Charly Dove and her fabulous Alphabet Project. 

 This week it C Is For ........ Carvery.

On Sunday we decided we'd go out for Sunday Lunch.

 So we went to our local Crowne Carveries.

My wife and I had a lovely meal but best of all the kids ate free so we didn't mind them not eating it all or dropping the odd piece on the floor (well we did but hey ho). 

It made a change to slaving over a hot oven lol.

Well that was my C Is For .......

Stay tuned for my D Is For  Coming Soon.

B Is For .... Birthday Cake Alphabet Project

I am linking this post up with The Alphabet Project which is being run by Charly Dove.

  

 B Is For .... Birthday Cake 

 Yes I've chosen birthday cake for this letter as for my daughter's first birthday last year I thought at the time it would be a nice for daddy to attempt to cake her a birthday cake. 

 To be honest this was my first ever attempt at a birthday cake. I thought how hard can it be. Throw a few ingredients into a bowl, whisk them together add a splash of food colouring and whala baked cake. 

 Not being big headed but that's exactly what I did and as you can see frim the pictures below, a very impressive first attempt I must said lol. 

 That was my B Is For ..... 

 Stayed tuned for my C Is For ...... Post coming soon

A Is For ..... Astronaut, The Alphabet Project

I'm linking this post up with The Alphabet Project which is being run by Charly Dove, so here goes

A Is For .... Astronaut

Whilst on our honeymoon to Florida in 2006, we decided that as well as going to the Disney Parks and Universal Studios we'd also go to The Kennedy Space Centre, Cape Canaveral.

There is so much to do and see there I don't know where to start but that might be for another time to be honest this post is about Astronaut, or more particular our meet and greet session with a proper astronaut.

Our meet and greet session was with Jon Andrew McBride who was the lead chase pilot on the maiden voyage of the Space Shuttle Columbia, this is one of many NASA assignments his been included in.

We had an awesome afternoon meeting Jon and finding out about his involvement with NASA and all the assignments he was involved with. 

Well that was my A Is ..... In the Photo Project

Stay tuned for B is ......

BOOMco Twisted Spinner

I was recently contacted by Donna Bennett, PR consultant of Mattel UK to see if I would be interested in reviewing the BOOMco Twisted Spinner. 

 I obviously thought that this would be a great chance for me to have some father and son time with JR and myself. 

 My Nephews have Nerf Guns and my boys they love playing with them so I thought they'd love trying this Twisted Spinner out. 

 As soon as they opened the packaging up they were overcome with excitement and couldn't wait to try the Twisted Spinner out. 

 

 This is where we hit a snag and is my only negative point to this product review, the age guide of the product. 

It is clearly indicated as 6+ but and a big but I don't believe this to be ok or safe to be honest. 

 My son is nearly six and my Nephew is seven, yet both of them struggled to use this product. As you can see from this video, the spinner requires you to pump the lever to fire the darts which my Son and Nephew struggled to do whilst being able to safely aim the twisted at the target.

 With that said though the product is very good. 

It is a air powered blaster so requires no batteries at all. The twister comes with a smart stick target and darts, which are available in cool colours and patterns. 

 Smart stick technology allows you to see where you nailed your target, the Smart stick darts will only stick to the smart stick shields and sticky targets. 

 As well as targets the spinner has transforming shields which allow you to catch incoming opponents darts, re-load them into your barrel and fire them back. The spinner has a awesome 70 foot firing range too. 

 The spinner is priced at £24.99 which when I compared to other similar products I found the price to be very reasonable indeed.

 You can purchase the twisted spinner from SMYTHS, ASDA, John Lewis and Toys R Us.

Follow BOOMco on INSTAGRAM

If you enjoyed these videos head on over to the official BOOMco youtube channel for
more fun and BOOMco excitement.

This product was given to me free of charge for the purpose of the review, all views and opinions are my own. 

Scooby Dooby Doo - Mystery Machine

Whilst we were sorting through the childrens toys today looking for a lost train track piece, TP stumbled across his magazine containing a build your own Scooby Doo Mystery Machine.

Whilst TP sat and played with a roll of sellotape I carefully cut along the dotted lines so that TP could use said sellotape to keep the sides of the van together.

 

 He carefully tried to stick the sides together but I had to offer a little help as he stuck the sellotape on the wrong places but never mind. 

 Eventually between the two of us we managed the successfully stick all the sides together and produce a funky little Mystery Machine.

BlogOnMosi Weekend Part One

As my wife had decided that she was going to BlogOnMosi, we thought it would be a nice chance for us to have a family fun weekend together.

We packed the car on Saturday morning with the kids unaware of where we were going, phoned the Travelodge on the M6 service station to check our room was all booked up for us and we started our journey to Manchester.

As BlogOnMosi wasn't until Sunday we decided that we we're going to have a family day on the Saturday and all have fun day together as we would be apart on the Sunday.

Once we were up in Manchester, to be honest we didn't really know what to do as we hadn't been there before and didn't really know what there was to do.

We knew we couldn't go to Old Trafford as United were at home to Sunderland (which later we found out united had lost), so we decided we'd drive over to The Etihad Stadium and see what City's ground was like.

The ground is impressive not as impressive in my opinion as Old Trafford but hey ho. We brought the boys a flag (which they can put up in their play shed at home) had a wander round the club shop and made our way to our next destination.

Our next destination was going to be Red House Farm but we took a slight detour (not very cleverly of me) straight past Old Trafford on a match day which was quite interesting to say the least to the Cbeebies Studio.

The boys got to have a quick look in the reception area and have a few photos took then we finally made our way to Red House Farm.

It was only about 3.30 when we got to the farm and the weather was still gorgeous. The kids loved playing on the swings and slides and on the sandpit. We even had a picnic once they had finished playing.

We even bumped into a tv celebrity, do you remember Tom from Waterloo Road? Well he was there, and no before you ask I didn't get a selfie with him lol. (I got a sneaky pic instead though as you can see lol).

Our final stop of the day was our Travelodge room on the motorway, which to be honest was basic but nice. We had Burger King for tea and pretty much went straight to sleep as we knew we had a busy day ahead of us on the Sunday.

Pop over to my blog and entertain yourself by reading part two of our fab weekend in Manchester 

BlogOnMOSI Weekend Part Two

Although we were in a nice Travelodge room in a different part of the country guess what? ..... The kids still woke us up at stupid O'Clock on the Sunday morning, thankfully we had stuff planned so we had to get up unlike most Sundays where they could easily stay asleep lol.

We got up the kids had their breakfast, we got ourselves ready for the day ahead, checked the room for hidden toys or hiding clothes double checked just to make sure then we checked out and make our way to the Museum of Science and Industry otherwise known as MOSI.

We eventually found it thanks to road works and closed roads, we parked the car up said goodbye to the wife (who was off to BlogOnMOSI) and off we went on our daddy and children day out. I decided that we'd spend half the day at the National Football Museum and the other half of our day at MOSI. 

 The Football Museum was really really good, although the boys were too young to really know and understand what the museum was about they still enjoyed dressing up in old fashioned football tops, playing with all the interactive points and even making wax crayon rub badge prints. 

 After we'd finished at the museum we had a walk back through the town centre where we had lunch at the Arndale Centre, the boys surprised me completely by trying something new for their lunch, they had taco bell. 

 After lunch we made our way back to MOSI, where the kids got to play with various interactive puzzles and games whilst at the same time learning through play. 

 We were even able to walk round the Air and Space exhibition where we got to see various planes and vehicles from the past 100 years, we even had a mini picnic consisting of sweets,crisps, chocolates and pop (daddies treat for being so good) in the indoor picnic area. 

 It was eventually time to go and meet mummy out of BlogOnMOSI, we waited patiently on top of the stairs and waited and waited all the time i was trying to put faces to names of people I know from blogs and Twitter. 

 I was wondering if I'd ever put a face to a name then I spotted the lovely Claire Farmer who I briefly said hi to. 

I also bumped into and was able to chat to Pippa (RedRoseMummy) and Kerrie (WifeMumStudentBum) 'who were also lovely to meet. 

 Well eventually my wife came out, with her arms full of goodie bags. At this point I was introduced to the very lovely and chatty Claire (NeedAPhone). 

 The boys ran at their mum, arms wide open and L-A shouted "mommmmy" at the top of her voice like she'd not seen her for ages. Well once the 'reunion' lol was done with we packed all of my wifes goodies into the car said good bye to her friends and started our journey back home.

Well thats how we spent our bank holiday weekend hope you had an enjoyable weekend too.