Bowling - a fun Summer holiday activity

Isla starts school in September and from that point onwards we will be tied to school holidays for day trips and vacations. I'm so excited about her starting school but I'm also sad that the time I will be able to spend with her will be limited and that Noah will see his sister less. I can also say that this summer I feel like I have had a real taste of how long the holidays can feel as we get closer towards term starting. For a lot of parents there is a real pressure to keep entertaining the kids and stave off the words "I'm bored". Having to do fun stuff with the kids in busy periods can also mean that activities are more expensive but VoucherCodes.co.uk have set out to show parents that they can make days out and activities more affordable.

Vouchercodes.co.uk gave us £80 to use as we wished to entertain the kids and then report back on how we did and if we saved money. I decided that it might be fun to take the kids bowling so I went to the Voucher Codes website and tapped in the name of our local bowling alley Tenpin and found that there was a deal advertised .It was an Eat and Play deal, from £6.99. In total 1 game of bowling and a meal for 6 (2 adults and 4 children) with ice cream added as an extra cost just short of £60 which I think is great value. We also bought drinks and that more or less finished off the £80.

who knew bowling shoes could look so cute!?

The kids had a really great time, if I was to do bowling with them again I would probably leave the adults out of the equation for the bowling as anyone who knows what bowling is like with small children, it takes a really long time to finish 1 game of bowling so for kids under 5 I would definitely advise one game IS enough. It took over an hour and a quarter to finish including all the trips to the toilet - the random disappearances and need for drinks etc. Also keep in mind that they may not have shoes for really small feet - Noah is an 8 and they had from that size upwards. Definitely make sure that you have the ramps up in the gutters so that the kids don't feel too deflated every time the ball ends up in the gutter and most alleys will have ramp that the little ones can use to roll the ball down when they're too young to bowl it themselves.

There were so many offers on the site, so do check it out before you decide on a day out with your family, there is anything from days out to Drayton Manor (home of Thomasland!), money off meals in your favourite family friendly restaurants and cinema offers.,

 

We had a great afternoon of fun thanks to VoucherCodes.co.uk - all views expressed here are my own.

We're Going on a Bear Hunt - Review

Last Saturday I went with a load of girlfriends and their children to see 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt' at The Lyric Theatre and I have to say I was most impressed. I would even go so far as to say that it was the most fun childrens' production I have ever seen - we've seen a few - Peppa Pig, Ben and Holly, The Gruffalo amongst others and Isla and Noah would probably agree with you. And yes, Noah came too and he's only 2 years old and he was mesmerized by it!

I'm going to admit something now. I'd never read 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt' before. I only knew about it as it gets read at nursery according to Isla so I had a feeling that it was going to be a good one if she liked it enough to mention it. 

The idea of the day was to just take the older kids but then I had a babysitting issue and so Noah came too. All the older ones were the same age - 4 and mostly are my NCT friends. 

The show is lovely because of the audience involvement. The actors ask the audience at the start what a bear looks like so they will know how to recognise one and all the kids were shouting out. They come down into the aisles as well so that people further back get their answers relayed back to the stage. I loved that.

So as I now know the story is about a bear hunt and all the different weather they encounter, and the landscapes and a whole lot of fun they have on the way (and back). There is a Dad, his two children and a dog and they manage to convey the journey so simply - with a relatively small amount of props. Our favourite bit was when they were walking through the river - prepare to get wet is all I'll say and don't think you're safe if you're at the back of the stalls! Isla was actually laying flat down on the floor at this point to avoid the water! We also loved the snow falling down on the audience. It was so interactive and imaginative and good inspiration for making up our own bear hunt one day. There were sweet, catchy songs and the audience were encouraged to join in with those. There was lots of laughter and a little bit of scary stuff with the bear (although, he looked quite sweet to me!).

We had such a great time and I can categorically state that a 2 year old would love it as well - he was captivated, as were all the kids. Go and check it out - it's on for the remainder of the school holidays.

If you fancy going to see We're Going on a Bear Hunt it's on at the Lyric Theatre, Shaftsbury Avenue until 8th September. Check Out Bear Hunt Live for details and tickets.

Quick footnote: this wasn't a freebie for us, we paid for the tickets and I genuinely wanted to let everyone know how good the show is!

#SAVESUMMER with Asda

You may have seen Asda's online campaign to #SAVESUMMER and if you have there is a chance that you may have seen Isla and Noah on the website. We were lucky enough to take part in some of the activities that feature in the campaign and so I thought I would share some of them with you as they really are good fun for the kids over those LOOOONG Summer holidays!

One of our favourites was the Angry Birds Water Balloon game. It's really simple.

Chalk out some bad piggies

Fill up your balloons (fill them as full as you can - they might bounce rather than burst if you don't!)

Draw angry bird faces on the balloons

Ready, Aim, Fire and wipe out the Bad Piggies!

Check out the campaign here for other ideas and on social media look out for the hashtag #SAVESUMMER to see other peoples efforts and similarly if you do have a go then share them and tag them with #SAVESUMMER too and your efforts can feature on the Asda website too.