This day I love.......: rides

I bundled the kids into the car very early on Saturday. The journey to Liverpool takes around 2 hours, sometimes a little quicker, and we wanted to get there for 10. The girls did not know where we were heading, a surprise treat for them was all they knew. Little Man was, as always, just happy to be doing something.

The journey to Liverpool was for the CBBC Summer Social festival. An incredible amount of CBBC, CBeebies and music artists were lined up. Many of the music acts the girls had not heard of, we don't tend to watch many of the music programs like the voice, Britain's got talent or Xfactor, which is where many of the acts were from, but they did know a lot of the CBBC and Cbeebies stars and I was excited to see how they would react watching them live.

CBBC Summer Social was held in the very beautiful grounds of Croxteth Hall. Traditional fair ground rides scattered on the lawn along with the various stages. We took our time walking around to get our bearings before starting out on the rides.

As well as the stages were we could watch performances, the girls and Little Man were lucky enough to meet some of their favourite artists.

Mr Tumble has been a favourite of all of my children. Little Man was star struck. He watched him on the main stage. Danced around and joined in with the Hockey Cokey and was giggling all the way through. He then got to meet him and just didn't know what to do with himself, so hid!

Both my girls love SwashBuckle. They have asked several times if they can take part in the show. They watch it on repeat! Imagine their delight when they got to help Cook and Line work out who should be Captain whilst Captain Captain was away. My eldest got a bit shy when we went to meet them, but my youngest challenged them to a floss dance off. Watch the video on YouTube to see how it went!

Our final meet and greet was with Operation Ouch. I loved the live show, as did the girls. They make learning about biology and the human body fascinating and are really engaging. If you don't know who they are you really need to watch an episode! They were incredibly popular and had a huge line waiting for them, even so they took time to greet everyone and never made anyone feel rushed!

Included in our ticket was a visit to the farm. Well we could not pass up the opportunity to visit some animals. We bought a box of food and made our way around the farm. Little Man insisting on feeding everything.

It was time to take a break and chill out, eating ice cream in the sun. The grounds were beautiful and after a rest we decided to explore the walled gardens and take part in the craft activities.

There was plenty to keep us busy. We took a 'horrible history' tour of the house and learned some very interesting facts. Even spotting the finger marks in the bricks.

Our day had flown by far too quickly. We seemed to have done so much, yet only touched the surface of what was on offer. CBBC Summer social had appealed to all my children and kept us busy for the whole day. We made some fantastic memories and it was no surprise that I had three very sleepy children on the way home!

We shall be keeping a look out for tickets for next year as we would love to visit again!

Thank you for inviting us and providing us with tickets to the festival, words in this post are my own and my own opinion.

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We have recently returned for an amazing holiday in the Algarve. Whilst there we stayed in a James Villa and although we could have spent the entire week by the poolside in the villa we opted to explore and make the most of our time in Portugal. I have to admit that Portugal has stolen a little bit of my heart and I would love to go back there.

I wanted to capture a few of the activities we did whilst we were there that the kids enjoyed.

1. Visit the Marina at Lagos

It may not seem an obvious place to take children but there was so much to see and do. The girls would have happily watched the boats in the marina. We had a walk around the marina and opposite the marina is a lovely shopping area with plenty of restaurants and shops to visit.

2. Zoomarine

We spent one day at Zoomarine but it was not enough. The park has two very distinct areas the first is animals. Here there are dolphin shows, seal shows, parrot shows and a 3D animated movie. We didn't have time for the movie. There is also an aquarium and mini funfair. There were plenty of rides for the girls to go on at 3 and 4, and they thoroughly enjoyed the shows.

The second part of Zoomarine is the beach and water park. If we had known we would have taken swimming things. The beach area was fantastic and the girls spent a good hour playing in the sand. There were only a few slides but more than enough to keep the girls entertained and a few for older children too. If we had had more time we would have certainly gone back and it was worth the visit.

3. Slide and Splash

When we visited in May/June the water was a little chilly. It was also very quiet. There is a large grassed area that we could put our towels on to sit, however we could imagine during peak season it could get busy. The park was easily laid out with plenty to keep any age occupied. The children's area had lots of slides and adventure equipment to play on and although they were too small to go on most of the slides they could go on the odd one or two. We spent a full day and could have easily gone back for a second visit.

4. Ice cream at Praia da Luz

The ice cream factory is in a little shop on your right as you walk down the road towards the beach. The staff were so friendly and welcoming and spoke to us in English. We went past later and heard them speaking French, German and Spanish. The staff clearly make their customers feel welcome. Serving a wide variety of home made ice creams, we could not believe the choice. Delicious and refreshing. Perfect for sitting on the beach with.

5. Beach

Portugal has lots of amazing beaches and we spent a whole day there. Our favourite was the one at Praia da Luz as it appeared to be very family friendly. Toilets near by and lots of places to eat. The girls loved it and there were plenty of rock pools to explore too

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A few months ago I posted about Butlins looking for an official [high] chair man to test out their new Just for Tots Breaks. I also posted the news that Sophia Carr was the successful applicant and she would be testing out the breaks. Back in May Sophia went on her first official Just for Tots breaks and reported to have an excellent time, although she made the following requests:

· Integrate salmon into the Just for Tots menu to broaden relevance of menu for the discerning palate

· Increased incidences of Angelina Ballerina hugs, especially for children wearing pink and purple

· Increase sturdiness of the Butlins ‘towel elephant’ bed decoration to withstand rigorous testing (bed bouncing)

· Ensure demographic catered for in the dining experience by boosting the availability of pink spoons within catering facilities

· Up weight ratio of purple flowers in across key visual opportunities

I saw lots of pictures come through on twitter of the Just for Tots breaks and have to say they looked fantastic. There were lots of smiling faces and Little Tikes cars which are always a winner with my girls. We took our break just before the Just for Tots breaks started. Ideally I think with the under 5's it would be great to attend these Just for Tots breaks, as they cater specifically for the under 5's. However if this is not possible then you may still wish to know about the activities available for under 5's.

We attended two weekend breaks this year and both times had plenty to do, in fact we were non stop. At the time my youngest was almost 2 [23 months] and my eldest 3 years old. On one of our breaks we did not get time to even go swimming there was that much to do. Taking swimming out of the equation, which by the way the swimming pool at Skegness has a great area dedicated to the smaller children, there is still lots to do.

There is the little stars fairground which has just been re designed. The area is well designed and clean and there are plenty of rides for the little ones to enjoy, as many times as they like. My eldest loved the little stars fairground and would have spent all day there

There is plenty of entertainment in the Skyline Pavilion, ranging from Skyline gang, Barney and friends and Angelina Ballerina to disco with Billy Bear and shows like Scooby Doo, Mike the Knight and a great range of shows from the Puppet castle. It is worth planning in advance which shows to attend, as some are repeated on other days or earlier the same day.

There is also Little Stars nursery which provides the option for you to leave children to be looked after by fully qualified nursery staff, or to stay and play. We stayed and played. There was a huge range of toys available and plenty of space for the girls to run around in. Even sofas for grown ups to sit on if needed.

Little Stars nursery also put on activities for the under 5s, they need to be booked in advance but are usually free. Our favourite was messy time. There were lots of messy play activities to get involved with. Both girls got creative and had lots of fun. What is even more impressive for me is that in the rush we forgot to pick up our paintings that we had left to dry, a week later I ring the nursery who locate the paintings and post them to me, first class service.

If all that wasn't enough remember at every Butlins the beach is on the doorstep.

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