places to visit


The Duckpond

Let me take you on a little adventure and introduce you to a our local pond, which for a long time I had no idea was there! We live on a new estate on the edge of village and tucked away behind the houses and between the bypass, there is a wonderful pond. It is firmly becoming a favorite place for me and the boys to visit after school, as it is only a three minute walk and it is often deserted. We are the only people there feeding the many ducks, duckings, geese and goslings.


Locomotion – A great day out

The boys took me to Locomotion, which is part of the National Railway Museum, but based at Shildon, as they had a steam gala on today and the Tornado Peppercorn Steam Train is there this weekend. Yes, even though it was raining, we decided to make the most of the holiday weekend and take a picnic anyway! So I made chocolate cakes and biscuits with the boys first thing, we packed a flash or two and also took some hot-dogs and buns in our food flask and set off. It is a great place, with loads to do for the children, games of all sorts and we had a great time.  more »


Easter Plans

Easter starts for us today.  Maxi had his first ever assembly all about the First Easter. MadDad made it back from work in time and we both really enjoyed watching our boy, who had a wonderful strong and clear speaking voice.  It was such a joy to watch a group of four and five year olds clearly enjoying themselves. MadDad is off for the week, so we are planning on lots of family time together and with this in mind, I have exchanged some Tesco Vouchers for some restaurant ones, but even though I did this over a fortnight ago, we are still waiting! Our Plans include, but are dependant on more »


Following the Sun 1

The forecast for today was not great, however, that is not unusual for a Bank Holiday Monday, but we are trying to make the most of every day before school starts next week, so decided to pack a picnic and to follow the sun via a trip to Ikea to check out beds for MiniMad!!! So we looked and the bed we liked was out of stock – boohoo, but that means we can have a trip to Leeds on Wednesday to get it – yippee. The boys were very well behaved, but the promise of ice cream and play area might have had something to do with it (not that more »