A birthday visit to the National Forest Adventure Farm

by Leyla [Thisdayilove] - 11:18

I was provided with 4 complimentary tickets to visit the National Forest Adventure farm. All words in this post are my own personal opinion

My youngest daughter absolutely loves unicorns, although I don't think she is alone in this. Imagine her surprise that for her birthday we would be visiting the National Forest Adventure Farm and their special Unicorn Daze event. It was our first visit to the National Forest Adventure Farm and so we had no idea what to expect.

The journey was really easy and National Forest Adventure Farm is well signposted off the A38 making it easy to find our way. Car parking is free and we were directed were to park. A short walk to a very small queue and we were soon inside ready to begin our adventure. It was raining when we arrived and just a little before lunch so we decided to make the most of the restaurant and indoor soft play.

The selection of both hot and cold food was good and we had no issues finding a table, it was rather busy with the wet weather but we still managed to all get seated easy. After lunch it was time to tackle the soft play. There were three birthday parties happening at the same time as we were inside but that is nothing unusual to a soft play area. Little Man didn't want to go in the under 5 section instead he wanted to follow his sisters.

The main soft play has 2 drop slides, well three really but two are together and one rainbow slide. For one and half hours I spent walking up the stairs carrying a mat and repeatedly taking Little Man on this rainbow slide. He absolutely loved it. My girls got braver and eventually tried the drop slide. My eldest now hooked on adrenaline she wouldn't stop and kept going down the drop slides. Once was enough for my youngest who kept perching her bum on the edge and then changing her mind.

A break in the weather meant we could go outside and do some of the unicorn related activities. This was a special weekend event and whilst we were there we looked at some of the events coming up including a dinosaur one I am sure Little Man would love and the Christmas one looks magical. National Forest Adventure Farm also have pumpkin picking and potato picking and this week they shared a photo on their Facebook page of them sowing the seeds.

Our first unicorn related activity was to meet the unicorns. I was informed the unicorns get to wash their hair in a special horse chalk to help keep their colour.

The queue to meet the unicorns was only short, perhaps we timed it right, and we never felt rushed or pressured to move on. The girls gave the unicorn a stroke and then we we headed out to try the unicorn fortune trail. Our fortune seemed to be on the positive side, which is always good.

As the weather seemed to be holding we decided to stay outside and visit the animals in the field. You can feed the animals if you want to and all the animals seem to be aware of this, coming over the the gates for a closer look and to see if you had food.

All the animals had plenty of outdoor space to walk around in and they all seemed very friendly too.

We had wanted to watch the sheep racing but we couldn't figure out how to get to it, even though we could hear it so instead we played in the giant sand pit with the diggers and took on the climbing wall. It was nearly time for our tractor ride. Little Man was very excited and I can't quite believe I got a photo of all three of my children all looking and smiling at the camera!

The tractor ride lasted around 10 minutes and drove around the fields of the farm. We had to spot the scarecrows that were in the fields and when we did we had to shout very loud. Little Man seemed to really love this game and was smiling from ear to ear.

Included with admission was either a balloon or face painting. Little Man was too young for face painting and opted for a balloon, the girls however both had their faces done.

The weather seemed to finally be easing so it was time to venture outside and explore more of what National Forest Adventure Farm had to offer.

There was still so much of the farm to explore and I am glad the weather held so we could. The kitchen garden was really colourful and fun to explore, the Frisbee golf however drew all three kids straight over.

We've never played before and there was a slight wind. My eldest took to it straight away, my youngest daughter however seemed to develop a skill at throwing the Frisbee backwards. It was really good fun and even Little Man got involved.

The splash zone was closed due to the weather, and the girls decided to watch the football shoot out and not take part. After playing in the adventure playground we headed over to the bouncy pillows, everyone always loves those. In fact we spent so long on them we lost track of time and missed collecting the hens eggs and helping to groom the horses.

All three children were having lots of fun but we had one final activity to do before we went home, feed the newborn lambs. The girls were incredibly excited as we made our way over to the animal barn. After looking at the animals in the barn we watched the Jersey cows getting milked. It was then time to feed the lambs. Little Man was too shy to do so, at only three I can understand but the girls however absolutely loved it. The lambs loved their milk and what an amazing experience for the girls to take part in.

The weather was starting to turn again so rather than play adventure golf or ride the pedal cars again we decided to have half hour on the slides before heading home.

We stayed right until closing and no one wanted to leave, my youngest even said she had had the best day ever. Little Man fell asleep in the car before we had even left the car park. It really was such a fun day and we shall certainly be back to National Forest Adventure Farm.