family fun

Eliza bike

Testing Out Eliza’s New Bike at Potterne Park

Eliza turned 5 last week and top of her list for her birthday was her first bike and we didn’t disappoint her. Choosing the perfect bike is a minefield and we looked at various styles and sizes before we settled on the Emma Bike from Smyths Toys which was a bonus half price in the January sales.

Eliza couldn’t wait to get out on it, but being at school meant she was restricted to the school runs for the first few days but once the weekend was here we decided to find somewhere where she could really test it out. I loaded up the car with Isaac and Eliza’s bike plus Sebby’s scooter and headed over to Potterne Park in Verwood.

Potterne Park is perfect for learner cyclists with wide concrete pathways which lead all the way to Moors Valley and The Wheels skate park for more experienced riders which features a concrete bowl and a dirt track. Of course it has the added bonus of a large play area and equipment includes a Tunnel, Swings, Seesaw, Spinner bowl, Toddler Multi-Play unit, Puppet rocker, Climbing frame, and Flexus.

We met up with my friend Joanne from Charlie Moo’s and set off on our walk.  I had half expected to have to push Eliza most of the way as she built up her strength but the encouragement of cycling with her brother, Charlie and Olive saw her shooting off into the distance.

Potterne Park

Isaac only learned to ride without stabilizers at the end of the summer and hadn’t yet mastered how to get started himself as hasn’t had much practice since. After a couple of pushes from me and regaining his confidence he was off and starting off all by himself.

Potterne Park

The kids cycled about a quarter of a mile to the first bridge where we stopped for a rest and played a game of pooh sticks. It was clear that Eliza and Olive were both a little tired so we decided to head back towards the play park which gave them an added impetus to cycle back.

POTTERNE PARK

We arrived at the park with clearly exhausted small children, but something about seeing play equipment seems to give them an added burst of energy and we stayed and played for another hour.

POTTERNE PARK

I am hoping that a few more days out like this will build Eliza’s strength and it wont be long before she is riding without stabilizers too.

Country Kids from Coombe Mill Family Farm Holidays Cornwall

At-Bristol Science Centre

A couple of weeks ago we visited Bristol to go and see Captain Barnacles Pantomime aboard The Matthew. As that show was only 90 minutes long we had plenty of time to visit some of Bristol’s other attractions and At-Bristol Science Centre was top of our list.

We had no idea what to expect, other than it being a science centre but I cannot fault it. We could have spent the whole day in just this building as there was so much to see and do.

We started with the “all about us” exhibition where we got to see how our body works, could see blood flowing through our veins and even discovered that we could use vibrations to hear.

At-Bristol

Eliza was especially fascinated by the babies at different stages in the womb and was comparing the size of a baby at early gestation and full term. You could even go inside a large womb and hear muffled talking and gentle rocking as mum moved around.

At-Bristol

The best thing about the centre is that it was perfect for all ages. There was information that Eliza and Isaac could understand but also things that caught Kian’s imagination too. Even Sebastian got to join in although was more fascinated by the senses activities as he understood more of what was going on.

The sensory arcade had lots of information about food and calories. It was fun learning where food came from and how the body uses energy and we got to test how much energy we used by doing different sporting activities. Eliza even got to milk a (pretend) cow and they also dressed up as bees and learned how bees made their honey.

At-Bristol

We finally managed to tear them away from the downstairs exhibition and headed upstairs to the animation zone. This appealed to Hubby, Kian and Isaac more than the younger two, but thankfully there was a small soft play area with soft LEGO like bricks to play with which they were more than happy with. The animations that Hubby, Kian and Isaac made were all emailed home to us for us to keep.

At-Bristol

The Curiosity Zone was also upstairs and we got to discover the world around us, become spacemen and even made some giant bubbles which was our favourite part of the day.

At-Bristol

I have to admit it was really hard to tear the kids away as there was so much more to see and do but we simply ran out of time. I have promised Isaac and Eliza that we will go back soon so we can go to the Planetarium and take part in more science experiments.

 

Bournemouth Air Festival

Saturday is Caption Day – 22nd August 2015

Good Morning and welcome to this weeks #satcap.

If you have not taken part before please come and join in. Simply find a funny / cheeky / captionable photo and upload it to your blog with a sentence or three about it. Then link it up with me below and visit the other people who link up and have a giggle as you come up with some humourous captions!

There is a badge in my sidebar too if you would like to use it and please share your posts using the hashtag #satcap

This week is one of my favourite times to live in Bournemouth as it’s our annual air festival. We adore seeing the aircraft put through their paces but being able to play in the sea and the sand adds to the fun.

Yesterday was a complete wash-out but today we made the most of the sunshine and met up with family to enjoy the show.

Can you caption this?

Bournemouth Air Festival

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