Inset Day at the Fun Factory

Today the kids had an inset day off of school and since I have so much holiday left to burn this year I decided to take a day off with the kids. As we had tickets already for Adventure Island, our plan was to send the day there and then dash back for around 4pm as Brandon had a football match in Chelmsford for the Chelsea Foundation and I had to teach karate for 3 hours. Brandon was really excited about Adventure Island as he has finally grown to over 1.2m which means he is now blue band and can go on the big rides such as "Rage".

 

Anyway you can imagine the kiddies disappointment when we arrived in Southend only to find that the Adventure Island is now on its winter hours and was shut all day. So we had a little walk along the seafront, played a few arcades and then bought some donuts whilst we thought up a plan B. We eventually decided to stay in Southend but head over to Purdeys to go to the Fun Factory so that the kids could have some soft play, rock climbing and ice skating.

 

As it was a school day the play centre was absolutely dead with only about 10 kids in there. Holly really enjoyed the sift play and even had a little go at ice skating for the first time. The ice skating rink is weird because it looks like ice and works like ice with ice skating boots, but is actually artificial ice that is not cold. The only fault with it is that the balance penguins do not slip very well on it and are subsequently pretty useless.

 

The climbing wall in there was fab and had automatic pre-tension cables to allow the kids to climb up and then to jump off and abseil down on their own. Both boys managed to climb just over the half way mark despite me pushing and encouraging them to try and climb to the top.

 



 

A quick walk along Southend sea front and the kiddies enjoy playing in the water fountains.

Joshua had to push the boundaries and despite strict instructions to stay dry, he deliberately got himself soaked through.

Superman Brandon running through the fountains.

Holly wanted a go on the horse merry-go-round in the arcades.

Josh and B also jumped on as there were 3 horses. Not quite a "Rage" ride.

Holly trying ice skating for the first time with a helping hand from me.

Brandon did extremely well and despite a few falls he had very good balance.

The non slipping balance penguin.

Carnage as both boys hit the deck.

Joshua in action and getting more and more confident on the ice.

 

At least the fake ice isn't cold so Brandon can relax when he falls to the ground.

 

Holly warming up on a small slide in the toddler soft play.

 

Holly looking through a glass dome.

 

Photogenic Holly poised at the top of a slide.

 

Spiderman Brandon climbing the netting instead of the blue wall grips.

Brandon coming down the vertical drop slide.

Me braving straddling the slide just to get an action shot of Joshua coming down the slide.

Joshua all set and strapped on ready to hit the climbing wall.

H learnt well at Beavers and shows good climbing technique with 3 points touching at all times.

He kept managing to get about half way up and then bottled it and bailed out.

Trying one of the more challenging climbs.

Brandon's light weight body lends itself perfectly to climbing and he was probably just as good as Joshua.

Fearlessly climbs to the green pacman character but couldn't make it to the yellow.

Race on, both boys challenge each other to a climb-off.

After mastering the toddle soft play, Holly progressed to the big kids soft play and loved the large slide.

Holly showing good balance getting across the rope bridge without any help.

 

The kids seemed to really enjoy the Fun Factory after the initial let down of Adventure Island. Holly is at the stage where she wants to run all over these soft play areas but needs to be assisted. So you end up getting very hot and knackered as you chase her around the play area and keep her safe. Mind you I did sneak in some hand stand practise whilst I was in the soft play with her.