A Castle Fit for a King

At the weekend we went back to Hadleigh only this time we was more successful in finding the Castle. As we walked up the cobble path towards the historic site, Joshua was first to spot the castle. His little face lit up as he started to shout, "we found the castle!".

A bit of low level base jumping. Jumping whilst carrying Brandon and holding Joshua's hand is great for the spine (NOT!).

The castle is not fit for a King, it is fit for 3 King's.

How did the boys get all the way up there?............I wonder.

This was not one of Joshua's better ideas. Fortunately I stopped him from going any further.

If you ask me these next two pictures are absolutely stunning.

A bit of hiking.

Another very nice picture of Brandon with the castle in the background.

Boys will be boys and they will climb anything and everything.

Sitting in a medieval fireplace.

Trying to hide from Mummy, but Joshua kept popping his head up to take a peek.

Enjoying the view.

And after all the running around and climbing it was picnic time.

After the castle we went on to visit Hadleigh farm to feed some animals, but that can wait until another blog.

Digger Land 2010

Yesterday I took a day off work to spend some quality time with the family and we had a very enjoyable day out at Digger Land down in Kent. Currently both boys are under 3 years of age and therefore gain entry free of charge – but then once your inside it is a different story. You see whilst it is nice for them to be under 3 to reduce the entry cost, they then need to be over 3 to get on most of the rides. So once inside we initially tried the honest(ish) approach of saying Joshua was 3 and Brandon was 2. This managed to get Joshua on all of the driving diggers and dumpers but would only enable Brandon on the static ones. So a remarkable thing happened – for 1 day only Joshua leapt forward in time to become a 4 year old enabling Brandon to advance to being a small 3 year old!!!!! Joshua’s age was rarely questioned but every single ride they asked about Brandon and when I said he was 3 we got some curious looks. But it worked, in the end Brandon got to go on just as many rides as his bigger brother.

So our day started with the big dumper trucks and this was to be Brandon’s first age kickback (don’t worry we fixed this later in the day so he got to have a go). Joshua did absolutely outstanding on this and virtually steered around the whole track with just a little guidance to tell him when to go straight and when to turn the corner.

The second attraction was this little joystick controlled vehicle and unfortunately was Brandon’s second age kickback. So this time Mummy went on with Joshua whilst I entertained Brandon. At this stage we decided that Brandon needed to age rapidly by 1.5 years in 5 mins in order to get the most out of the day – needless to say there were no more age kickbacks.

Finally Brandon gets his first ride - unfortunately it is at the hands of his younger brother who is playing "Dad" and taking all four of us for a spin (literally).

The next ride was probably a bit too fast for Brandon and as it also span backwards we decided that even though he was now 3 years old, it was best he did not go on this one. So again Mummy went on the spinning digger with Joshua whilst me and Brandon headed off to find a proper digger to drive.

Before getting to the proper digger I let Brandon have a play in this military vehicle and he absolutely loved standing on the driver’s seat and playing with the steering wheel and controls.

So the park is called Digger Land and it’s about time we did some digging. Brandon was first up in this full size digger and I have to say we did a very good job of making a great big hole. Every time we tipped the scoop out Brandon would respond with “all gone”.

This was just one of the display dumpers which the kids (and me) were allowed to climb all over. Joshua seemed to enjoy the idea of having Dad in the dumper part and tipping him out - so of course I had to play along and do a bit of stunt work.

Next up was some little ride on pedal power tractors. This is where Dad draws the short straw and ends up getting a good workout pushing the two boy’s tractors.

The little tractors were followed by some mini diggers and some stones which the children can practice digging and tipping.

Anyone who knows Joshua will be aware that him and bumper cars go together like fish and chips. So there was no keeping him away from these. Unfortunately not many pictures as me and Brandon went in one car whilst Mummy and Joshua went in the other. And we had the whole track all to ourselves which was good fun.

Lunchtime was rapidly approaching but unfortunately we had to walk past some battery operated vehicles to get to the picnic tables. Trying to walk past these without letting the boys have a go was next to impossible. So they both had a play whilst we sorted out some food. Brandon could not drive as his little legs would not reach the pedal. But Joshua had a good drive of the blue truck and was quite happily steering around the circuit on his own.

After lunch we took a family ride on the tractor type of train ride which runs from one end of the park to the other. The driver was kind enough to take a picture of all four of us.

Then it was off to the soft play area and the bouncy castle for a bit playtime and to let the boys to run wild. I have to say that Joshua is an absolute lunatic in the soft play area and is completely fearless. I can not imagine when on earth he gets it from!!!!!!!

After the boys playtime it was onto some medium sized diggers to practice our hand to eye co-ordination. Firstly me and Joshua went on the digger where you had to try and scoop 3 bricks out of the stone pit. Then me and Brandon went on the one where you had to use the jib of the digger to swing a ball and knock over all of the skittles. I have to say that I think we completed the task in record time knocking all 10 down.

Next was the moment Brandon had been waiting for since 10 o’clock this morning. Since he was now a big 3 year old he finally got to have his go on the big dumpers and then the twin track joystick controlled vehicles.

The chase is on as Joshua tries to chase down his brother.

I have to give credit to Brandon and his little legs. What a superstar he was at Digger Land. We took a gamble and only went armed with only the single buggy instead of the usual double. But instead Brandon chose to walk/run around the theme park for the entire day and did not use his buggy once. He even missed his afternoon nap. At the end of the day he was absolutely shattered and was asleep within about 5 minutes of getting into the car.

I overheard a few people at Digger Land saying that the theme park is bit small and not much to do there. I would have to disagree completely as we were there for 5 hours and barely stopped to catch our breath. During this time I would say there was probably another 6 or so attractions which we did not go on because of the boy’s size. So how on earth these people cannot fill a whole day there is beyond me. I think if we go again next year our biggest problem will be trying to drag the boys away from the theme park as I think they would happily sleep there!