Last year we were fortunate to visit Legoland Windsor three times throughout it's opening season, and had a huge amount of fun on the various rides and different attractions. When we were offered the chance to return recently with tickets courtesy of The Sun Superdays, we jumped at the chance!
Days 103 – 109 of Project 365
Days 307 – 313 of Project 365
307. Closed (We took The Boy to Legoland as a treat for the end of half-term. This sign is not indicative of the day as it was taken at 5.15 at the time and the park was shut. We had been on every single ride that we'd wanted to, and indeed I even managed to go on a rollercoaster for the first time ever. We actually went on it five times, four of them in a row without even getting off!)
308. Splosh (Jumping up and down in muddy puddles, true Peppa Pig style.)
309. Captivated (Fireworks Night! The display at the local rec was far superior than I ever thought it would be, and it made us realise that we won't be heading to Cardiff Castle again to waste a ridiculous amount of money on an over the top display.)
310. Dapper (The Boy was trying on his suit for his aunt's wedding on Saturday. He kept asking how long he'd have to wear it for! Eeeek!)
311. Sparkler (His face isn't in focus as he was too animated, but I love the delight on his face with these delayed sparklers.)
312. Wading (A trip to the local nature reserve after school to feed the swans and check out how much the lake had risen with all the rain of the week.)
313. My Pride & Joy (Here he is, my dapper little man, all dressed up for his aunt's wedding. He behaved beautifully and completely stole the show.)
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Duplo Number Train (Review)
It was only a few months ago that we first went to Legoland and since then The Boy has become completely captivated with the Creative Cars and My First Build sets that we bought him at the time.
He was recently sent the Duplo Number Train to review, and he was enthralled with it. The great thing about Duplo boxes are that they feature a large photograph showing what the completed product is meant to look like, and this is easy for children to follow. The Boy referred to the 'map' (as he calls instructions) several times throughout, but quickly worked out which piece should go where.
The train comes with four brightly coloured chassis to create an engine and three carriages. There are also parts to create an engine (with a driver) and ten numbered blocks, fitting three to each carriage if placed in a row (with one spare), a dog and a few spare piece of Duplo to create a basic station or a bridge.
On the first sitting, The Boy happily played with this for half an hour; laying the numbers out in a line and touch counting the blocks, creating the intended train, and then making different versions of it. He has come back to this a number of times, and actually has incorporated it into his normal Duplo sets and made a train station adapting the My First Build set for this purpose.
The Duplo Number Train is a really reasonably priced set of Duplo at £12.99 and comes with enough blocks to provide creativity with the way that the train is made or to allow children to go off a tangent, as they are want to do! Until we had a set of Duplo, I didn't fully appreciate the difference between it and other cheaper building blocks; it's hugely different due to the materials and accurate moulding. Moreover it has engaged The Boy with the idea of constuction for the first time ever!
We were sent this product for the purpose of this review. My opinion is honest and unbiased.
Going MAD at Legoland
There are some things that happen through the world of blogging that really mean I am the world's best mummy. Taking my son to Legoland for a birthday treat a few days after his 4th birthday is one of them.
Well he doesn't understand what blog awards are, let alone the MADs.
To be honest, he doesn't even know what a blog is.
And if you called him The Boy he'd just be confused.
Basically, he thinks the postman is a really kind man to keep giving us presents for him to play with.
I've digressed. A lot.
The very kind and lovely Sally from the MAD Blog Awards team is the person who should be getting the praise and smiles for us being able to visit Legoland back in June, which just happened to coincide with his birthday. She had arranged for all the finalists to have a special day out there together, and although we were a little bit late and missed the first part of the day with the official meet and greet, we had an amazing day in gorgeous weather enjoying the newly opened Duplo Valley and desperately trying to fit everything else in.
This was made significantly easier due to the fact that we were given VIP wristbands, which we thought acted like the Q-Bots, allowing us to go through the fast track path on most rides. On the last ride, we discovered that the gold VIP wristband actually meant we got to queue jump every ride. Did I say that I love Sally yet?
Highlights from the day included:
- Duplo Valley: newly opened a few weeks before, the two different water parks and adventure play area were a welcome break from the structure of going on rides. The Boy was quite comfortable in the younger water park area, but when he tried to venture up to one of the water slides in Drench Towers, a huge gush of freezing water from the tipping Lego block drenched him and knocked him over. One of the many fabulous attendants on duty brought him down to us, where we then retreated to the safety of the Duplo Valley adventure play area and he learned how to swing along monkey bars.
- Atlantis Submarine Voyage: We'd missed this ride when we went to Legoland back in March, and I was very eager to have a go on it. The part submerged 'submarines' move slowly through the water with windows in the bottom half of the walls which allow passengers to see the many forms of sealife swimming around. Clever additions are Atlantis ruins, fish and divers made out of Lego blocks. The sealife area afterwards is also excellent as children are able to pop their heads up into a tank via a dome to see fish swimming all around them. It gets very crowded though so timing is key here.
- Driving School: He loved being able to drive a little car around, albeit proving that he is distracted way too easily because watching the children in the other cars was far more interesting than looking where he was going. There may have been a four car pile-up. This was also where I managed to accost the altogether charming Lucy from Capture By Lucy and have a thirty minute chat with her and her lovely family. The Boy likes her because he said she sounds like Candi from the Skyline Gang at Butlin's. This is a compliment as he loves Candi.
After the many hours traipsing around, we still didn't managed to make it around the whole park, missing out on Kingdom of the Pharaohs, Pirates Landing, Land of the Vikings and Knights' Kingdom.
Nothing for it, we'll just have to go again!
Sally, can we have some more gold wristbands please?
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We were invited to visit Legoland as finalists in the MAD Blog Awards, and we received free entry and VIP wristbands for this. I wasn't asked to blog about it, I have chosen to do so. Thank you to Sally and the MADs team for making this happen, and to all those fabulous people who voted for me to be a finalist.
Days 83-89 of Project 365
83. Look Mummy! (We left for our Butlin's Ambassadors' holidays a day early to break up the journey, and called into Westonbirt Arboretum on the way – more on that in another post. It's an amazing Forestry Commission site, but dear God it was cold. We braved -3°C to explore the play area and some of the old arboretum, and The Boy really showed his growing ability and confidence at tree climbing!)
84. View (Checking into our hotel room in The Ocean Hotel, we discovered that we had a gorgeous view from the fourth floor over the resort. The Boy has been out on the balcony at any and every opportunity this week to catch a glimpse of his beloved helter-skelter.)
85. Plopping (A day trip to Brighton, which was an opportunity that I couldn't let pass when down this way. I've wanted to visit the West Pier for a long time and I find the condition of it so very sad. How it's been allowed to lapse into such a terrible state of disrepair over the past thirty years, is beyond me. Our seaside heritage is one of the things that makes Britain special, to see such a beautiful example of Victorian architecture destroyed is shocking. The remaining pier was a let-down, and so we spent a good amount of time 'plopping' on the beach, having already enjoyed the wonders of the Royal Pavilion.)
86. Round and round (We had passed a walled park several times this week, peeking over the top was a zip-wire and wooden climbing frame. A quick Google showed it to be Hotham Park, which we visited on Wednesday afternoon. The park was amazing, and for most of the hour or so we were there, we had it to ourselves. I even had a go on the zip-wire myself; a first! The Boy found a very different swing to those we are used to, and really enjoyed spinning around watching the sky swirling.)
87. I Can Cook! (This is one of the shows that we've been looking forward to all week. The Boy is completely captivated by Katy's antics on CBeebies and, even though this show wasn't presented by her, he couldn't wait to see today's show. I had to sit him at the front with all the other children, and then join the adults at the back. That was until I heard a frantic 'mummy!' being screamed from the front when the character 'Naughty Salt' was being chased by 'Lucy' around the audience. The Boy hates naughtiness of any description, and it really upset him. Another frantic 'MUMMY!!!' and I'd managed to scoop up his little sobbing body. Apologies to the three parents whose fingers I stood on en route.)
88. By the seaside (Today's photo had to be one that summed up our Butlins Ambassadors break in Bognor Regis; sunshine, deckchairs, cheerful smiles but biting winds. Hats and gloves, long johns and rosy cheeks were the order of the week, but dear God we had fun!)
89. Which ride first? (I won a competition for us to visit Legoland for the launch of the Lego Hero Factory, Build and Test Area. We've never been there with The Boy before, the only other time was actually ten years ago, well before children were thought of, and we commented on the time that it was a pointless place without them. Today we got to try many of the rides that we'd seen then, and how they had expanded the park. Freezing conditions meant that we lasted from 9.30-4.00 but gave up early to head home after a tiring week. The Boy adored the park and the rides were a good length for him to enjoy them, he loved looking over the park map to see where he'd been or which he was going on.)
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