Big Berry Bash

Yesterday we went to visit a local farm as part of Ribena's Big Berry Bash, it was a free event and was hosted at Gorgate Farm near Dereham. We love to visit farms as love the knowledge that we get from the farmers is great! We get to find out what is produced locally and where it ends up, the whole process from field to manufacture. 

At the farm we saw lots and lots of blackcurrants and if I recall correctly I believe the farmer said that their currant bushes would reach 136 miles if they were all planted in a straight line.

We got to take a tour on a tractor round the fields and watch the blackcurrant harvester in action. 

We were able to pick as many blackcurrants as we wanted to take home but as we were picking my mum got stung by a bee! Luckily I had some antihistamines tablets and she was able to get the sting out. We stopped picking after this as I didn't want Harvey to get stung but we managed to collect 7 containers full, Harvey is going to take some to school and show off what he picked, some will go to my nan as she loves blackcurrants and the rest have gone into the freezer for the summer holidays where we will make some delicious treats with them, Harvey is thinking of making ice cream and jam!

Away from the fields there was an activity tent where the kids could get their faces painted, make moctails and do some colouring in some lovely books as well as paint a large canvas. 

There was a bouncy castle where both Harvey and Evelyn had a short go and there was free tasters of the new Ribena fusions and bottles of it to drink (the blueberry one was a massive hit with us) and a free BBQ too.

Harvey had is face painted with a rainbow and clouds design with blue glitter clouds and some Ribena berries at the top and he made the most delicious mock tail using a hibiscus tonic, undiluted Ribena and lavender flowers. Evie loved the tractor ride and loved crawling around the grassy field and trying to eat the crayons instead of colouring the book and we all had a lovely free day out!

Roarr! Dinosaur Adventure

Our thoughts on Roarr! Dinosaur Adventure.

On the day of my sons birthday he decided he wanted to go to the dinosaur park, so we packed up a picnic and off we went. It has been a few years since we last visited, maybe 5 or 6? Anyway it used to be called Dinosaur Adventure and we used to go at least twice a year until harvey started school and i have visited several times a youngster too.

Alot has changed and also alot doesn't seem to have been touched..

There are many new attractions including a soft play named Dinomite with a wooden outdoor play area and a cafe that serves hot and cold food and drinks but this whole section seems to get very crowded and you are not allowed to eat your cgown food in here. There is a splash pad named Dippys Splash Zone that to be honest was the highlight of my sons day as he loved the massive bucket that fills with water and tips onto you creating a huge splash!

Some of the attractions have moved place such as the younger kids play area is now the splash pad, and has been moved into the original wooden play area. Most of the 'secret garden' has had a reshuffle mostly to make way for a fish and chip shop, why a fish and chip shop was needed or has anything to do with dinosaurs, i dont know, but its there, it looks nice but definitely out of place in my opinion, we would never choose to eat there due to the fact all food on site is very costly especially wheñ added onto park entrance so we always pack a picnic and have fun watching the peacock strut his stuff hoping that we drop something's tasty.

What really lets the park down for me is that there is alot of the original dinosaurs and displays still active in the park, playing a major part of the trail and really are the main dinosaur park but none of them seem to have had any maintenance since the park opened with peeling paint on most of the dinosaurs, parts of them broken and missing teeth or nails, dinos covered in green algae where they have never been cleaned, fake tar pits and ponds covered in more green algae, missing paint and covered in leaves, displays that should be eggs in nests that just look like concrete balls surrounded with rotten twigs that look nothing like a nest. What I remember was a pair of boots sticking out of the tar pit is now just 2 concrete nubs. Behind all the fenced attractions there was litter, the first bit we found as we arrived 30 minutes after opening was a slush cup with a mouse trapped in that we promptly jumped over the fence to release it and then disposed of the cup in a bin no more than 10 feet away. We carried on collecting and disposing of litter throughout our day, even my son said how disgusting people are for dropping it.

Despite the negatives on the day we had a good time and celebrated Harvey's birthday at the park the best we could by doing everything he wanted to do. But would we go back? Unfortunately not any time soon as I believe the price we paid to get in doesn't reflect what is in the park. Although Roarr! Dinosaur adventure have spent lots on rebranding and upgrading the park, I believe they haven't focused enough on what makes it a dinosaur park and have only tried to maximise their profits from one time visitors. If it was cheaper for us to get in we would be frequent visitors so long as the original dinosaurs were maintained and they hired some litter pickers to patrol the park.

10 years!

Happy 10th Birthday Harvey!

On saturday we celebrated my baby boys 10th birthday! I honestly cannot believe how fast those years have gone and how much you have changed in thise years, you are fast becoming a lovely caring young man and you make me proud every day.

We celebrated Harvey's birthday by opening gifts and playing lego then we took a trip to 'Roarr Dinosaur' (i will do a write up of this in a separate post) and spent the day overcoming a fear by doing the high ropes challenge, enjoying a picnic and watching the beautiful peacock, following a stamp trail, getting exhausted in the soft play and having a splah in the splash zone. We went home to a tea of pizza follwed by unicorn cake!

Above is the cake that i made as requested by the birthday boy, it is a 3 teir plain sponge with nutella butter cream filling, a smartie surprise in the centre where i cut a hole and filled with sweets, royal icing outer with raspberry flavour frosting hair! The cake went down a treat and was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone, the remainder was taken to school to be shared out with all of Harvey's class mates.

Never change my beautiful boy, you are perfect. 
We love you

A New Beginning

Hello and welcome to my blog where I hope to share all of my day to day ramblings and activities with you.
My name is Kerry and I live with my partner Jack and our 2 children Harvey and Evelyn, we also have Captain Cuddlepuss the cat, Indie the dog and Fred the rabbit.
We live in a small village in Norfolk near the town of Holt.
I hope to share recipes, cleaning tips, reviews of our days out and general silliness and pics of our crazy little family :) hope you enjoy!