Weekend Update...

So, on Saturday (after swimming) we came home, I installed our new Virgin Superhub (looks like they just leave you to it now - everything worked okay apart from my Xbox - and that just seemed to be sulking as when I tried it 4 hours later it popped right up without me actually changing anything), then, to give Mummy a rest (as she is poorly with Bronchitis) I took the kids to Godstone Farm -

- where I let them just do what they wanted - this consisted of ignoring the animal petting completely, 15 minutes in the slide barn (yelling "Dad, look what I can do!" every three seconds), two loops around the Dinosaur Walk (including the creepy crawly cave) insisting on posing for pictures each and every time -


- and then about 30 minutes in the main play barn (where I barely saw them)...followed by 15 minutes driving little tractors outside then *another* walk around the Dinosaur Walk (somewhere along the line Poppy losing her beaker)...this would have been alright (she wasn't that bothered), but Thomas was *devastated* ("It's my favourite lid Dad!") and insisted we walk around everywhere looking for it, so we did the main play barn (again), the tractors (again) and the Dinosaur Walk (again) - unfortunately to no avail (and plenty of wail)...anyway, when we got home Mummy said she would email the farm and ask if they had found it (so that sort of diffused things)...

Sunday morning we woke up early, as the Sky engineers were coming (much excitement) - this is also the reason why we had to install the superhub on Saturday as we ditching Virgin TV for being far too expensive (and I get a great deal on Sky+ HD Ultimate package through work).  They came along, installed a nice small dish on the side of the house and managed to route the cables without making any mess at all and we then spent the rest of the day playing with pausing live TV, queueing up TV shows to record, downloading movies and configuring our telephones and tablets for Sky Go and all the other cool things it does...cannot believe how many channels we have now...Thomas particularly was loving Phineas and Ferb, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Adventure Time, Spongebob Squarepants (and all the other shows that you don't get on Freeview we seem to have been missing out on)...!  The only thing that is a bit annoying is that it simply can't stream anything - everything must be downloaded first (at least a large chunk of it anyway), but thanks to our nice 50Mb broadband that isn't too much of a headache...just need to learn to be a little more patient! ;)

Anyway, a rather busy, but rather cool weekend... ;)

Thomas' Pirate Party...

...(the start of his several-day-long *third* birthday celebrations) was yesterday at Godstone Farm, slightly exhausting, but very fun indeed...lots and lots of pictures from the day on the flickr stream over here or as a slideshow here (if you prefer)... ;)

Godstone Farm review

So to celebrate Thomas' birthday we decided to take him to Godstone Farm (which is only about 15 minutes from our front door - not entirely sure why we haven't been there before)! After a few kids got ill with e.Coli last summer (oh yeah, that's probably why) the whole place is covered in signs like this one -


- warning that hand gels aren't much use compared with good old fashioned soap and water...so, forewarned, we passed through the entrance gate (Thomas absolutely fast asleep after his large breakfast at Redhill Aerodrome) and scratched our heads...I mean, doing the farm was going to be amusing enough for us, but frankly the thought of having to do it all over again when Thomas woke up did give us pause, so instead of walking around we went to one of the (quite expensive) cafes, the "Tea Room" and sat down for a drink, had a little poke around the shop, that sort of thing...when he did finally stir (didn't actually take that long) he absolutely *loved* it...we started off taking a little walk around the small animals-


- ducks, rabbits (that sort of thing), then around the Guinea pig village and small bird area -



- then the mouse house (which Flyingpops wouldn't go anywhere near) and little hens (which Thomas found fascinating) -


- checked out the bigger kids play barn -

- and the soft play barn (and second cafe) -

-saw some (very sleepy) baby piglets-

-and then went to the petting area to meet some horses, ponies and (more) rabbits-


- and after touching we made sure we washed our hands (Thomas included) -

Next up we went on the little tractor ride (which was 90p extra each)-

-which takes you out around the back of the farm past one of the ponds (and lots more pigs and ducks and things in larger enclosures)-

- and then we walked up the hill past the "Bomb Pond" excavated in a matter of seconds during World War 2 (and now home to lots of wildlife)-

- we had to skip the nature trail as it wasn't suitable for buggies, so we headed straight to the (enormous) adventure playground-

- which has probably the largest sand pit in the world -


- I can definitely see us coming here and eating a picnic, reading our books while Thomas just runs riot (in years to come), not that he doesn't run riot now, of course, but when he's old enough to look after himself...anyway, he had a go on everything Thomas-sized-




- then we found a quiet place to sit and eat our lunch (cheese and pickle rolls)-

- went and did the Toddler bit of the soft play-

- and finished off our day in the arts and crafts shed doing a bit of painting-


- a brilliant day, absolutely loads to see and do, I suppose we were there for about five hours but there was absolutely no chance of getting bored, a genuinely fun day out for all of us...we'll be back!

Loads more pictures from our visit here...