REVIEW: Legoland Discovery Centre Manchester (YB)

I was offered the opportunity to visit and review Legoland Discover Centre in Manchester on 28th September...

Me & Paul (hubby) took our eldest son, David (12) and my sister, Latisha (also 12) - and our new little man, Marley (2 months) came along for the ride too.

Sadly, we quickly found that Legoland is aimed at younger children than David & Latisha, but too old for Marley. I'd say it was aimed at 2-8 year olds ideally. I think Marley will love it when he's older and we'll definitely be taking him back when he is old enough.

We were greeted by Professor Brick-A-Brack, who did a fantastically sterling job of continuing his welcoming, despite the fact that it was clearly aimed at children younger than David & Latisha. I think a bunch of little kids would absolutely love meeting Professor Brick-A-Brack on the Lego Factory Tour and learning about the Legoo (yes, really, the Legoo) process! We got a souvenir piece of Lego each :)

After that, we went on the Kingdom Quest Laser Ride. It was quite slow (again aimed at younger kids), but it was good fun shooting the spiders and things :) Marley was fascinated by the lights and colours!

Next we went to Miniland which was good - the mini buildings are fantastically made. One of my personal favourites was the working mini rollercoaster! David & Latisha had fun playing Lego table football against each other!

While it wasn't really designed for their age, David & Latisha made the most of their time (and their love of Lego!) while we were there. They had fun building and racing their Lego cars in the Lego Racers: Build & Test area. Paul even took the opportunity to get in on that one!

Next we went to the 4D cinema and saw Lego Legends Of Chima - it was a very good experience with very realistic coming at your effects and good smoke effects etc. Marley tried out the glasses too...

Me & Paul sat for a cup of coffee and to feed Marley while David & Latisha went off to do their own thing for a bit - they went on the Merlin's Apprentice Ride - they both enjoyed it!

They visited the Master Model Builder where they got to build a boat, which you can then purchase afterwards but they chose not to.

We finished off by going to Lego Ninjago Laser Training Camp which was actually good fun - I had a go as well as David and Latisha :P It was actually quite difficult but I did better than both of them!

As I said, while it wasn't really suited to their age, they made the most of it and enjoyed it anyway and we will definitely be returning, likely on Marley's 2nd or 3rd birthday!

It's great value at just £9.95-14.95 per ticket when booked in advance online at the Legoland Discovery Centre website, children 2 years old and under get to visit for FREE as well! And for just £12 midweek, a parent AND toddler can visit!

ADVERT: Aldi SpecialBuys - Halloween Range (YB)

Well, today it's the 1st of October and we're just 30 days away from Halloween! By now, you're probably thinking what outfits you're going to get for yourself or your kids, right? Maybe trying to plan some suitable foods for an Halloween party? Or maybe just looking for some great accessories to complete your Halloween?

Well tomorrow, Thursday 2nd October, Aldi gets their new range of Halloween outfits, accessories and food in store on their Thursday SpecialBuys... They are only available while stocks last, so be sure to get your Halloween stuff in early! 

They have a range of children's costumes for a bargain £3.99 each:

Girls' designs

• Catsuit, Bright Witch or Spider Ballgown
• 3-8 years

Boys' designs

• Skeleton or Dracula
• 3-8 years

Unisex design

• Spider Tabard
• 3-5 years

They have a range of adults costumes for just £7.99 each:

Men's Dracula Design (M/L or L/XL)
Ladies' Skeleton Dress, Witch or Vampire (S/M or M/L)

They have a great range of other Halloween stuff too:

Coloured Hair Spray £2.99 for a 125ml can

Glow in the Dark Torch £1.99

Adults' Halloween Accessories £1.99 each

Children's Halloween Tights £1.29 per pair

Children's Halloween Mask 79p each

Children's Halloween Headband £1.49 each

Dancing Skeleton/Doorbell £7.99

Halloween Wooden Hanging Signs £1.49 each

Halloween Hanging Decorations £1.49 each

Halloween LED Lights £3.99

Halloween Coir Mat £4.99

40 Halloween LED Berry Lights £4.99

Halloween Spider's Web 99p each

Glowsticks £2.99 for a pack of 6

Pumpkin Carving Kit £2.99

Halloween Play-Doh £4.99

Halloween Gel Stickers 99p each

Pop Out Mask Book £1.99

Halloween Sticker and Activity Book 99p each

LED Tealight Holders £1.99 each

Halloween Washable Indoor Mat £2.99

Halloween DVDs £3.99 each

Trick Or Treat Tins 99p each

Scary Milk Chocolate Shapes 89p for 100g

Assorted Partyware 99p per pack

Halloween/Spooky Sprinkles 79p for 61/62g

Wychwood Beers of Character £14.99 for 12x 500ml bottles

Pumpking Ale 99p for a 500ml bottle

Something I just love the look of for the Halloween table this year is their Halloween sausages! They look great and are £1.39 for 380g!

FAMILY: Marley Paul's 1st Month In Photo's (YB)

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FAMILY: My David: All Grown Up (YB)

Well, as you all know by now, we welcomed a new addition to our family on 9th July 2014. But this post is all about my oldest son starting his new chapter...

David is 11 years old, I've still thought of him as my "little" boy until recently. He started going to and coming home from school himself this year, even now he's done it loads, I'm still a worrier, and if you're a parent too, I'm sure you can sympathise. He suddenly looked a lot bigger when Marley was born though!

On 18th July 2014, David finished at primary school - I'm finding it hard to believe that my "little" boy is all grown up. It feels like time flies. It doesn't feel so long ago he was my first born new little baby, then before I knew it he was a toddler. When that chapter was over, he was starting nursery school, I remember how distraught he was on his first day of nursery - he didn't want to let go of me and it was really hard to walk away and leave him there. Then he left nursery school and started full-time school, primary school, yet another chapter of his life. Each year of primary school feels like it has come and gone so fast! And now he's off to senior school in September, starting yet another chapter of his life! I'm normally quite unemotional, but his leavers assembly almost brought a tear to my eye!

2006 Nursery at Windsor Street C.P. School 

2008 Reception at St. Silas C. of E. School

2009 Yr 1 at St. Silas C. of E. School

2010 Yr 2 at St. Silas C. of E. School

2014 - Playing "Teenage Kicks" on their ukeleles at the Yr 6 Leavers Assembly

Whist he doesn't show it, he must be on an emotional rollercoaster at the moment, leaving primary school, leaving most of his old friends behind and everything that has been so familiar to him combined with a new surprise baby brother in his life and going from being an only child for almost 12 years, to having to share his Mum and Dad with a new little baby that demands lots of care and attention.

He's been very mature with all the changes and I tell him, but I'm not sure he realises just how proud of him I am. He's a wonderful young man that would make any mother proud. He's intelligent, helpful, caring, loving, kind, considerate and a million other wonderful things all rolled into one.

I know he can do well at senior school and I look forward to seeing him mature into an adult, even if I do find it hard to see my "little" boy grow up. I've told him no matter how old he gets, he's never too old to be exempt from a hug!

  

 

At the moment, he says he wants to be an architect, so he's got a long road to go yet, even if to me it all feels like it flies by! He knows he has my support in anything and everything he does. So now just to watch him grow up even more...

FAMILY: A Surprise Delivery! Meet Marley Paul... (YB)

For those of you that don't already know, we had a rather surprise delivery "turn up" on 9th July...

Meet Marley Paul, born on 9th July 2014, weighing 7lbs 2oz...

I did not know I was even pregnant! I've felt really ill for quite a long time, but never put any of it down to the fact that I might be pregnant! I felt really ill overnight, lots of stomach pains and feeling ill, I was feeling so bad, I was getting ready to go to the walk-in centre when they opened at 7am, but it was only 3am at this point. By 4am, I'd got very bad and at around 5.30am, Paul called an ambulance as I was screaming out in agony. But about 5-10 mins after calling, I experienced the worst bit of pain and a rather strange sensation - I got Paul to look what had happened and I think his exact words were "Fuck! It's a baby!" - obviously not what we were expecting. Basically, I was really worried what was wrong with me and by that point, Paul was panicking too, but neither of us expected that! So we had an amazing shock as you can imagine! David was in his bedroom and he was really upset and worried about me too - imagine his surprise when Paul raced up to tell him not to worry and he had a new baby brother!!

Our little family of 3 turned into a family of 4 overnight! The ambulance crew were as shocked as we were when they arrived to find a baby! Paul had called my Mum to look after David when he'd called for an ambulance, so imagine her shock too when he rang back moments later to tell her it was actually a baby! Basically everyone, not least of all me and Paul were in total shock!

The following 24 hours were totally surreal. It was like being in some sort of dreamland. I went from worrying what was wrong with me and being in agony, to sitting in a hospital bed with a newborn baby that we didn't even know was coming. I could see him, hold him, feed him, but it didn't really feel real. It started to feel a little more real on Thursday and even more so by Friday. We brought him home from the hospital on Friday night night. It's nice to be back home now - I was so fed up being stuck in the hospital for 3 days!

I've read about stuff like this in magazines and always thought to myself, how could someone NOT know they were pregnant, but now I know exactly how it feels! So, you're wondering HOW could I not know? Let me explain...

Well, in general, I suffer from ill health, so feeling unwell wasn't unusual. Since our other son was born in 2002, I've had extremely irregular periods, so infrequent in fact, that 6-12 months in between getting one was not unheard of for me, so again, no alarm bells there. I didn't have a massive weight gain, and what weight I did gain, I put down to the fact that I was so ill and not able to get out and get regular exercise, so again, no real clues there. From the "symptoms" I was having, it could've been any number of things. I probably should have visited the doctor sooner, especially as I had felt worse recently, but like I said previously, I am ill quite often with various, so didn't think too much of it. The symptoms I felt may have related to some sort of bowel problem like IBS or IBD. Over the last week, I'd had some twinges in my stomach, but again, I'd put that down to some sort of stomach problem. I had severe back pain in the last week too, but again, I just put this down to some sort of stomach/bowel problem and was going to go to the doctors about it. Basically, there was nothing that made me think it could possibly be down to pregnancy! In fact, in light of the fact that my periods were so sporadic to the point of virtually non-existent, I doubted that it was even possible for my to get pregnant and as David is now 11 years old and my periods had been virtually non-existent since he was born, that just made me think it even more. So there you have it, how I didn't know I was pregnant!

Anyway, me & Paul are really happy, we had never discounted having other children, but we both doubted that it was possible. It would've been nice for him to have been planned in that at least that way we'd have been prepared in terms of having stuff for him! As it was, we didn't have a single baby thing at the ready! But he is a very welcome addition to the family and his big brother David (whilst still in shock, I think) is very happy with his new baby brother. It must have been even more difficult for him to take in than it was for us, but he's been very grown up about it all and he's taken an active interest in him and likes helping out - we've been making a big effort to get him involved too to make the transition easier for him. He's very helpful too and I'm very proud of how mature he has been but I can only imagine how daunting it is to him.

All the family have been fantastic. My Mum and the older of my 2 younger sisters, Yasmin were absolutely fantastic, dashing around and buying us loads of stuff and all the essentials we needed as we had quite literally nothing ready for a baby (unsurprisingly). My other little sister, Latisha is made up - she seems to like being an Aunty again - I'm sure it feels more like being an Aunty this time, because it's a bit strange how she is David's Aunty but is the same age!

Paul's parents live in Winchester, so they will be coming up to visit in the next month and meet their newest Grandson.

It's Monday now, we're all still getting used to being a family of four, it still doesn't feel quite real to be honest, a bit like I feel asleep Tuesday and I'm dreaming or woke up in a parallel universe! Enjoying every minute of being a new Mum again though and enjoying being back with David & Paul.

I'll leave you now with some pics of Marley Paul...