We managed to cram so much into our Easter weekend that I haven’t managed to post about it all yet! Especially as I think, with trying to do something great each day, we’d saved the best ’til last. On the Monday we went to Folly Farm Adventure Park & Zoo, in Pembrokeshire. This was one of the main attractions:

Peppa was there too of course. But actually I think they’d lost interest before she turned up. I think they’d sussed it. Jake said to us later at home: “It wasn’t George was it? It was a man dressed up”.* I couldn’t resist saying “Jake is a clever-clogs”…

So next we headed to the farm vehicle playground, full of all sorts of pretend heavy-duty things to pretend to drive, & miniature diggers you could move sand around from. They loved it  BUT IT WAS VERY COLD. Easily the coldest day of the long weekend. Although we would have preferred not to we’d have stayed outside if Jake & Ellie had wanted to, but by common consent we soon decided to see what the indoor attractions held for us.

The trouble was it that seemed that everyone else had much the same idea: it was extremely crowded! By this time we needed lunch; just finding food was trouble enough, then finding somewhere to eat it even worse. We had to settle for eating standing up at the side of a walkway.

Jake & Ellie hugely enjoyed the trick mirrors we found after lunch; they’d never seen anything like that before & were fascinated Then we found some more big vehicles to drive. But they had competition this time!

“This is worse than the 7.50 to King’s Cross!”

Jake, bus-driver!

“Why do they never sit down where they’re supposed to?!”

“Who are you? I’m the driver here!”

“Ahhh, alone at last! Now I can put my feet up!”

” I like tractors, I do”

There were farm animals there too, & small ‘wild’ animals in a separate building, but they were much less interested in them this time than when we visited last year. They were mad for the driving!

There was a huge indoor old-fashioned fun-fair indoors, which they loved even more, including a big, beautiful & ornate carousel. Unfortunately we didn’t get any good pictures of that. This ride was also a big hit: Another special attraction was a children’s magic show. They had never been out to anything for which they’d have to sit still for any length of time so we weren’t sure how they’d react. But they loved it! The guy was very good, a children’s entertainer with a few basic tricks. They joined in with the “behind you!” stuff with great enthusiasm. There was also a particularly entertaining game of musical chairs between the magician & some Dads, which was eventually won by a man named Ziggy. Presumably a Bowie fan, or at least the son of one! Jake is such a sensitive soul! He cried terribly at the end, saying “I want more magic!”. He got to stroke the rabbit that had popped out of the hat, & that seemed to calm him down enough.

Image from folly-farm.co.uk

As we were leaving it was the best we could do to dissuade them from going down the huge helter-skelter outside. Even the argument “you’re not big enough yet” wouldn’t work, as they made it by a matter of centimetres. Seriously, it was so high I would have been nervous on it, but they insisted they wanted to do it! They don’t wear nappies now so there was no way I was taking them on that thing… We somehow managed to use enough coercion &/or bribery to get them back to the car without any meltdowns. I think they knew they’d had a terrific day, despite the weather, and they went home happy. We’ll do the helter-skelter next time! Another great day to round off a great Easter weekend!

*He actually thought it was the magician who was inside the George Pig costume, but he had the right idea