Friday 31 August 2018

FAMILY: Drayton Manor (YB)

Back in June, I won a family ticket to Drayton Manor from @Draytonmanor on Twitter. Yesterday, we used it for a fun, family day out.

We hired a car for the day, but it actually took us a lot longer to get there than we'd thought it would, so we didn't get there until almost 1pm which was quite disappointing as they shut at 6pm, so we didn't get to do near as much as we'd hoped we would and by the time you take the lengthy queues into account, it really wasn't much we got to do. The most important thing though, was that we had a really great day.


Both myself and David are not fans of big rides, so we were only really there for gentle family rides and Thomas Land for Marley. Paul does like the big rides, but always feels down at missing out on them because me and David don't like them and Marley is too little (though something tells me one day Marley will be a fan!).

We had loads of fun and here are some photo's I thought I'd share...






We also had lots of fun at the zoo, but we spent so long in the actual theme park itself, we were rushing around the zoo a lot at the last minute!



Wednesday 29 August 2018

FAMILY: New Haircuts (YB)

A short and sweet blog post - David and Marley got much needed haircuts today, so I thought I'd share a photo...


Monday 27 August 2018

FAMILY: Cinema - Luis And The Aliens (YB)

We decided to have a trip to the cinema today - we've only taken Marley once before, his first ever film was over a year ago - Cars 3 (funnily enough, the very first film at the cinema I saw with David when he was little was the first Cars film!) - but he got very fidgety and unsettled half way through that one, but as he was older now, we thought wed have another try, so we went to see Luis And The Aliens - he managed to sit through it all and be relatively quiet, so quite an achievement! He really seemed to enjoy the film.


The film was about a boy called Luis, whose Mother had died and whose Father is a UFOlogist and spends more time searching for aliens than paying attention to him. His Father claims to have seen a bad alien when he was younger, but no-one believes him which has led him to a lifelong hunt for aliens and wanting to prove they are real.

A bunch of aliens spot a telly shopping Earth advert and really want to buy something, so they come to Earth and Luis encounters them, but he is afraid his Dad will want to hurt them even though they are silly and friendly.

His headteacher and an interfering child inspector want to take Luis away from his Father as they feel he is being neglected, so he gets the aliens to pose as his Father and the housekeepers in their neighbours' rather posh house. But they catch on to what is happening and end up meeting his actual Father.

Luis decides he wants to leave Earth with his new alien friends so the bad people won't take him away to the children's home. But the nasty women from the home turns out to be the nasty alien that once chased after his Father and the ice cream man (who is a good alien who has been hunting her down as she steals lonely children's tears as they are valuable on her planet) helps Luis, his Father, the headteacher and the other friendly aliens capture the bad alien.

Then Luis's Father spends lots of time with him because he realises how lonely he was.

Sorry for the spoilers!

Marley got a free Luis And The Aliens pencil case (so did David, but he seemed decidedly unimpressed that Paul had even got one for him!) for the opening weekend booking.


FAMILY: The Great Brick Adventure & Crosby Beach (YB)

I was lucky enough to win family tickets to The Great Brick Adventure here in Liverpool from @arrivanorthwest on Twitter and it even included a family day ticket for their buses too!


 Marley was really looking forward to going as he loves Lego and he was excited to see the massive things made out of Lego.


The first area was all of the huge Lego animals. We came across Linus the Lion first - it took 4 people 400 hours and a total of 65,440 bricks to make him!


Then we looked around at all the other Lego animals, some of which I've put photo's of below - Waldo the Warthog (who took 4 people 71 hours and 14,170 bricks to make), Zaria the Juvenile Zebra (who took 3 people 180 hours and 21,630 bricks to make), the Crocodile who was trying to eat Marley and the Tiger who wanted David and Marley for dinner!



Marley had a go at making some of the parts for the Harriet the Hippo they were making!

Then David and Marley both got a personalised Lego minifigure as souvenirs. Marley decided his alter ego should have a big moustache and a top hat - it didn't much look like him at all! David went for a more realistic looking one!


After this, Marley had a little play in the big Lego pit before we went to see the mythical beasts. A couple of our favourites were the Hydra and the Minotaur...


We had a great time, but Marley has a very, very limited attention span and so soon got bored and wanted to go, though we did get to see everything anyway.

Because we had our family day pass for the bus, we decided to do something else to fill in some more day, so we got the bus from the city centre to Crosby so we could go to the beach - Marley and David love the beach and it gave me and Paul the chance to finally see the art installation Another Place by Antony Gormley.

We had a walk on the beach  and had a look at Another Place first...


 Then we had a sit & play in the sand...



Then Paul and David helped make Marley a car out of sand!

 

Overall we had a great day out!

Sunday 26 August 2018

FAMILY: National Football Museum, KICKair & Bee Hunting In Manchester (YB)

We had a day out in Manchester on Thursday and we had an amazing time!

First of all, we visited the National Football Museum. Being footy mad, there was no way I was going to miss out on visiting the National Football Museum! Best of all, entry was free!


We had a look at the trophies, shirts, memoribilia and read about the history of football.





Marley got an LFC badge made too which he loves!


We played on some old penny arcade machines (you could exchange modern day money for some old pennies to play with) and more modern table football.


One of the highlights for me was all the Liverpool stuff, as you all know by now, I'm a HUGE lifelong fan...






 I even got a like on Instagram from the man himself Ian Rush!


Then we went to KICKair (I was invited along as a blogger for their 1st birthday celebrations) and after watching the safety video, headed off to the trampolines. Marley had a little go, but didn't make the most of it like we thought he would. David enjoyed it though.


David and Paul then went to do the Jump Tower, and I took Marley along to watch them. Paul enjoyed it, David was a little reluctant, but enjoyed it once he tried it!

 

After that, David and Paul went to have a go at the Wipe Out. Again, I took Marley along to watch them. They both enjoyed this and it was funny as spectators watching them repeatedly fail as it sped up and altered direction!


Then Paul and David went to try out the trampoline basketball, so me and Marley went along with them to watch there too. Neither of them were very good at it, but had lots of fun.


Then Paul and David had a go at the freestyle and I watched with Marley again. They were both pretty rubbish at this one!


Next, I had a go on the Battle Beam against David while Paul and Marley watched. David wasn't very good at it! Then Paul had a go against David while me and Marley watched. I enjoyed this a lot!


Then Paul and David had a go at the Slackline and Rolling Log - they both were terrible at it, but had fun trying! 


Then Marley and David went back to the trampolines for another go.

Then I had a go at Speed Goal with David. It was lots of fun, but it didn't half make my foot hurt, all the kicking with no shoes on!


Finally, I had a go at the WallJam with David which was fun, but again hard work on our feet!


While me and David were doing the football games, Paul took Marley to the soft play area. Marley absolutely loved this and didn't ever want to leave! He had so much fun!


Then we used our vouchers - Marley went for a tub of bubblegum flavour ice cream, but me, Paul and David got a Tango Ice Blast drink.


Marley then played for even longer on the soft play. He really enjoyed this best of all.

We then took Marley to get his face painted - the face painter was there as part of their birthday celebrations. Unfortunately, we left it a bit late and she was almost going home so she only did a small Spiderman pattern, but he was happy anyway!


Then Marley wanted to play on the soft play for even longer! We eventually had to tell him they were closing to convince him to leave!

Finally, we went hunting down the bees around Manchester (well, we found a few when we first got to Manchester too and between places) as we thought this would be fun. We found quite a few really, but there were a lot of them we didn't find, so David and Marley want us to go back again soon to find the rest! Here are some photo's...