Days Out – Page 2 – Mediocre Mum

Things to do with Kids Outdoors in Dorset

Go Ape, Moors Valley near Bournemouth

I don’t know who had more fun, the kids or the adults. We were recently camping at Eweleaze Farm in Dorset and thought we’d take the opportunity to check out Go Ape, The UK’s #1 Forest Adventure. One of my friends always wanted to take her daughter and as we were in the area, approx 30 miles away, we thought ‘why not?’.

I stayed on the ground and supervised the 3 girls aged 6 and 7 on the Tree Top Junior Adventure, while the two adults, I use the description ‘adult’ loosely as you will see by the photos, went on the main Tree Top Adventure.

The Junior Adventure is suitable for children aged 6 and up but they have to be over 1m. They have an hour to clamber around the site, navigating wobbly crossings and zooming down the zip wires. The nice thing about the Junior Adventure is that they are connected the entire time via a cable so incredibly safe. The girls absolutely loved it and charged around like loons and got 5-6 ‘goes’ on the two routes, even though it was rather busy.

Once the girls finished we tracked down their mums on the Main Tree Top Adventure so we could watch/laugh at them from the Forest Floor. There’s takes a bit longer 2.5-3 hours with 5 different circuits, is higher, scarier and more physically challenging (suitable for 10+) but by all accounts they loved it!

One of the mums said ‘she can’t remember the last time she had that much fun!’

Outdoor things to do with Kids Near St Albans

Mead Open Farm, near Leighton Buzzard and Go Ape, Black Forest

With Summer holiday looming I thought you may be interested in a few days out I discovered for kids recently near St Albans, Herts. These two places are perfect for letting kids burn off a bit of that energy.

Mead Open Farm

On the weekend we went to Mead Open Farm, it’s about 30 miles from St Albans, Herts near Leighton Buzzard. I’d heard good things about their Christmas Grottos in the past but have never made it. It was absolutely perfect for two nearly 7 year old girls.

Open Mead Farm, Leighton Buzzard

It’s your typical Farm, but was a great time to visit (early July) as there were loads of new babies. Upon entering the farm you are faced with a wonderfully new adventure playground. Luckily as the weather was nice we managed to avoid the soft play area, it is perfectly adequate but I have an irrational fear of the places.

Go Karts Mead Open Farm

Even though the car park was fairly busy the site is big enough to swallow people up. There were absolutely no queues and plenty of places to sit and enjoy a coffee whilst the girls played. They absolutely loved the Go-Karts, I have to admit that I imagined they were motorized but was pleased they were not. Once the girls got them going, they zoomed around squealing with laughter.

Mead Open Farm Leighton Buzzard

Within minutes they were rigged up in climbing harnesses and exploring the Sky Train. There was no time limit and they could stay on as long as they liked. At this point, I want to commend the young staff that work there, true professionals, if the children wobbled they joined in and helped them overcome their fear with gentle encouragement.

Rock Climbing Open Mead Farm

Similar happened on the climbing wall, my own daughter was struggling, so the attendant put a harness on and climbed alongside her encouraging her. She didn’t manage to make it to the top, but was pleased with her efforts.

There was also mini-golf, which could have used a bit of TLC, but the girls still loved it. Thankfully for us, we managed to avoid the tractor ride. :-)

All in all a really good day out. If you decide to get a yearly membership they will deduct the cost of your day ticket, so it may be something worth looking into.

Black Park, Near Slough – Go Ape

Go Ape Black Park

We’ve been to Black Park before and absolutely love it, it’s only about 30 minutes away from St Albans. It’s a beautiful site with a lake you can walk around, a very impressive adventure playground, cafe, open spaces and recently they’ve added Go Ape Tree Top Junior. Kids can climb through the trees and zoom down the Zipwire.

Go Ape Junior Tree Tops

The sessions are one hour long and they can go around as many times as they like. It’s suitable for children 6+ years. What I really like about it is the children are connected to a safety rope the entire time they’re in the trees, so there is no chance of them falling.

Go Ape Junior Treetop Black Park

I really was tempted to have my daughter’s birthday party there this year, but the only thing that held me back was worrying if some of the younger children bottled it. I may wait till next year when they are a bit older. It’s £17 per child for parties and you can also hire the Forest Shelter and lay on your own picnic. It’s definitely on the list of future birthday venues.

Even if you don’t fancy Go Ape, I would strongly encourage you to visit Black Park, take a picnic and enjoy the facilities. There are also cycle tracks.

We’re off canoeing the week after next and will let you know how we get on.

How to Train Your Dragon 2 – Tears and laughter!

At what age do children show empathy?

To give myself a bit of a break on the weekend, I’d checked the weather report and it looked grim, so I booked my daughter and hubby into the Cinema to see How to Train Your Dragon 2. She’d watched the first one and has also watched How to Train Your Dragon Legends on Netflix along with countless other kids films on there.

Textbook lesson in ‘How to Do A Sequel.’

My husband came home and raved about it, saying it was just as good if not better than the first. He said she was sitting on the edge of her seat most of the time smiling, totally taken by the story. However, I don’t want to spoil it for you, but there was a part that made her cry, apparently someone dies but I’m not going to tell you who. It sounds like the writers have taken it to a deeper darker level, maybe they realise the children who watched the original in 2010 have grown up a bit. As I haven’t seen it, do you think it’s too dark for littlies?

Personally, I think it’s a sign of a good movie if it can make you laugh, cry or think.

With School Holidays looming, I’m doing my usual panic of things to do, especially if it rains. I’ve been trolling the net looking for Dragon Activities and was inspired by the movie How to Train a Dragon 2 and it’s characters.

All Things Dragon – How to Survive Summer Holidays

How to Get Rid of Hiccups

Teach her how to get rid of hiccups by drinking a glass of water upside down. I’ve done this for years and it really does work.

Create a Joke Book

How to Train Your Dragon Jokes – my daughter is really into jokes at the moment. We may sit down and create our own Joke Books and see if we can make Toothless Laugh.

Shadow Puppets

Shadow Puppet Template from British Museum

We hope to do a fair amount of camping this summer and shadow puppets are genius at night in the tent with a torch. You can find instructions and a template for making your own at the British Museum.

Play a Game of Tag

If we can get a few of her friends around I love the idea of playing Dragon Tag. It requires to teams, children form a human chain, with a scarf as a tail and try to steal each other’s tails. Chains can’t become separated.

Learn a New Song

I may take the opportunity to introduce her to one of my all time favourites ‘Puff the Magic Dragon’ by Peter, Paul and Mary.

Bake a Cake

How to Make a Dragon Cake

Personally I think this one would push me over the edge, but if we’re really desperate we could have a go at making this Dragon Cake.

Dragon Boat Festival

I’ve never been to one but I’d love to check out a Dragon Boat Festival.

I really have gone off on a tangent but now have a few more things in my arsenal to survive the school holidays. :-)

Camel Racing for Herts Air Ambulance

Things to do near St Albans, Herts on May Bank Holiday Monday

“It’s not every day that you see camels in the Hertfordshire countryside!’

We were looking for something a bit different to do on the Bank Holiday as a family, when someone in my timeline mentioned Camel Racing. I love stuff that is a bit unusual and this really grabbed my attention. The weather forecast was poor but we decided to suit up in our rain gear and brave the elements as it was for a good cause.

Camel Racing for Herts Air Amb — What a great day out albeit surreal!

This is the 3rd year that the event has taken place and is the brainchild of the Herts Air Ambulance Service. The Herts Air Ambulance Service receives no government funding and solely relies on public donations. It costs £130,000 a month to run.

It’s approximately 25 minutes from St Albans, Herts at Northaw Point to Point Racecouse, near Cuffley Down the A1000 (Post Code EN6 4NT). Entry was £10 per adult which we didn’t mind as it supports what I feel is an essential service. Hopefully, we will never have to use it but glad to know it’s there in case we ever do.

Free Parking
Children under 14 Free
People encouraged to bring their dogs to have a go at the timed agility course
Ferret Racing
Other Pony races including, Shetland ponies.
Fairground Rides (Helter Skelter, Rope Swings, Big Wheel) , Food Stalls and a Beer and Wine Tent
Bookie so you can bet on the races

Next year we hope to get a group together and bring a Gazebo with a few disposable BBQs. Fingers crossed they do it again next year as it’s a wonderfully bizarre day out. Keep an eye out for it!

How to Make S’mores in the UK

I love nothing better than sitting around a camp fire drinking beer. This probably stems from all the camping that I did as a child in Canada, minus the beer of course, I waited till I was a teen for that.

Who needs Graham Crackers anyway?

We used to make S’mores while sitting around the campfire, which is a toasted marshmallow sandwiched between two graham crackers with a piece of chocolate. You always want ‘some more’ hence the name. We’ve recently taken up camping in the UK and have purchased all the necessary gear.

I wanted to carry on the tradition of Smores with my daughter but became a bit unstuck when it came to sourcing Graham Crackers. I can get them on pricey American online food shops, but couldn’t justify the delivery charge and price, so was looking for an alternative and think I’ve done just that.

How to make Smores in the UK — Photo Courtesy of ‘Where in the World is Rebecca Today?’

For each Smore you will need:

1 Marshmallow
2 Digestive Chocolate Biscuits
Wooden Skewer or a stick (you may have to use a knife to get a point on it)

Method

Place a marshmallow on the end of a stick. The hold it gently over the flames, not in them, rotate slowly to evenly roast the marshmallow. They should be golden brown on the outside and gooey on the inside. If you put it too close to the fire they will most likely catch on fire, unless you like the taste of charcoal.

Do not try this at home!

But if I’m honest, this is what we tended to do as kids as it was great fun, albeit dangerous, waving a flaming marshmallow around at night and resembles shooting meteors if they come flying off the stick and could seriously burn someone, but I did grow up in the 70’s where Health and Safety was pretty much non-existent.

Once your marshmallow is nicely toasted, simply sandwich it between two digestive biscuits with the chocolate facing inward and Voila! I’d be surprised if they didn’t want ‘S’more’.

Starting a Fire can be Tricky

We recently went camping at Town Farm near Tring in Herts. It was very last minute so we hadn’t brought a lot of stuff with us, so we purchased firewood, firelighters and a fire pit on site. This is the first time I’ve come across ‘Flamers’ an all Natural Firelighter, which are untreated, wax dipped fine wood shavings.

As a true veteran of building fires I wasn’t convinced, as it just looked like a small bit of wood shavings and I thought it would go ‘puff’ and disappear, but I was wrong. It was probably one of the easiest fires I’ve ever lit, which was a godsend as it was only April in the UK. Flamers are now on our essential camping items and will also stock up for our wood-burner at home.

Category: Days Out