The Magical Menagerie (Le Manege Carre Senart)

At the moment in Milton Keynes there is a fantastical carousel, which is quite unlike any carousel I have ever seen before. For a start the carousel is square and instead of horses to ride on, there are mechanical creatures such as buffalo, fish and insects that are operated by the people riding on them!

When Daddy first heard about the Manege Carre Senart coming to Milton Keynes as part of the Milton Keynes International Festival, he sent me the link so that I could see the carousel as he knew that I would have to see it to believe it. Since it opened for business on the 16th July, we have been up to see the Carousel a couple of times and finally we got our chance to go last night and to have a ride.

The carousel is huge, it is said in the information that it is as tall as a house and it is just as impressive. The whole structure is decorated, with the metal work on the roof in the shapes of Snails and Frogs and other creatures.

The outer ring of the Carousel are one seater creatures and they travel in a clockwise direction and as you can see are fairly large in size!

  

The inner ring are larger multiple rider creatures which travel in a anticlockwise direction. If you have a child under seven who wants to ride, then this is where you should head as children under seven have to be accompanied by an adult.

We were really lucky that we got to ride the entire Carousel by ourselves and Top Ender chose for us to go on a Buffalo in the centre. We climbed up wooden steps to sit upon the top of the mechanical creature, where five separate seats with seat belts were waiting for us.

We seated Top Ender and Baby Boy in the front and Daddy and I took two of the rear seats and started to look round at the various levers and handles that were around us (and between our legs!). Top Ender was in heaven and Baby Boy were in heaven with the noise and the movement and loved every second.

  

As soon as Top Ender got off the ride she asked if we could go back on, we explained that the Carousel will be in Milton Keynes (just outside The Point) until the 8th August and so we would have plenty of time to go back and have another ride and time to save up!

The Carousel is open from 12 noon until 8pm (but not at all on the 2nd August). If you book in advance Weekday tickets cost £10 for a family of four (£12 if you just turn up) and at weekends booked in advanced tickets cost £14 (or £16 if you just turn up). The ride itself lasts for around five minutes, but the happy feeling you get from riding will last for a lot longer!

Wordless Wednesday - Baby Boy after Millets Farm

Not a picture, but a video of Baby Boy after our trip to Millets Farm at the weekend.

See video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkzwUFXVXNs

As you can see, he was just a little tired.

Horace Walpole's Little Gothic Castle in Strawberry Hill

A couple of weekends back Daddy and I took Top Ender and Baby Boy to Strawberry Hill in Richmond to visit the Gothic Castle that Horace Walpole built, and to take part in the festivities to raise money for the restoration of the truly beautiful building. The house means a lot to me, because I am a Simmarian; I went to University in the shadow of this House.

When we got to Strawberry Hill I took Top Ender down the road a little to show her this house and in particular the three windows close together on the second floor on the side of the house. This Victorian house was my home whilst I was at St Marys. That's right, for a while I lived on a road where the average price for a house was £1.1million.

Daddy had joked with me that we wouldn't go for the day unless I could promise that I wouldn't cry. In the past every time we have driven near the University I have started crying because of all the memories wrapped up in the area. Its been ten years since I had been in the grounds and so I really thought I was ready to face the emotions! I was able to show Top Ender and Baby Boy the bandstand in the grounds where I spent many afternoons and warm evenings writing notes for essays, letters home, some really bad poetry and reading books that were on my very long reading lists.

I got to show them where I had lectures, where the library was (If I wasn't in the bandstand, I was in the Library), the Church that made me want to go to St Mary's in the first place (Yes, I chose my university not because of the course but because of this building) and a story about how after arranging to meet a 2nd year student to buy her old Theology course materials at a discounted price I recognised her as someone I had gone to school with.

Top Ender and Baby Boy had a much better time riding round on the fairground rides that were in the grounds than listening to my stories and they seemed pretty pleased that they couldn't hear me over the music that we all had a dance to, but I am sure they were just enjoying the music and not the break from my ramblings about life ten years earlier.

It was a really lovely day that made me wish I had a lot of money that I could donate to the Friends of Strawberry Hill for the restoration. They are taking bookings for tours later this year though, so if you have had your interest piqued then make sure you book to go!

Millets Farm Centre And the Maize Maze

On Saturday Top Ender, Baby Boy, Daddy and I were invited along with a few other bloggers to visit Millets Farm Centre in Oxfordshire to try out the new Maize Maze and to enjoy the other attractions on offer as well. As going in a Maize Maze was one of our 100 things we decided that we would be foolish not to accept, especially as they were providing lunch and free food will always get me out of bed in the morning.

As we made our way to the entrance tent to the Maize Maze area and the Courtyard activities we walked past a Victorian Steam Carousel which took both Top Ender and Baby Boy's eye, and at a cost of £1.50 per person was something we were quite happy to let them have a ride on, but agreed it should be at the end of the day, as it was next to our car!

Entrance to the Maize Maze and the courtyard activities is £5.95 per Adult and £4.95 per child (3-16 years), but there are discounts for family tickets and groups and I felt it accurately priced for the amount of activities in the courtyard area.

Within the Courtyard there are several garden games such as noughts and crosses (I won), draughts/checkers (Top Ender won), a football aim game (Baby Boy enjoyed this), connect four (Baby Boy declared himself to have won despite not playing) some mini tractors for those under ten to pedal round a small course (Daddy *enjoyed* pushing Baby Boy round) and there are trampolines, a bouncy castle and Straw bales to climb on and under. If you look closely at Top Enders video you might spot one of those other bloggers...

There were two further mazes one of which is a lost sheep trail and the other is a fort maze and both were great fun for Baby Boy and Top Ender to run around looking for the various signs they were to look out for. The courtyard activities were well aimed, with older children enjoying the activities as much as the younger children and the huge sandpit, which I think Baby Boy was trying to smuggle home in his shoes, even kept a few adults amused!

There are three Maize Mazes, the Giant Maize Maze which takes around an hour and a half to complete (but we decided that we really weren't cut out for that), a middle sized maze which takes around a half hour to complete (unless you forget to take the map in with you) and the Mini Maze which takes around fifteen minutes to complete (Unless you let Top Ender navigate).

Each Maze has a quiz element but the most fun is the one in the mini maze, where as you go round you have to look for small stands that have finger pastels in five different colours. When you find them you can choose which finger you colour and when you come out of the maize there is a giant board with all 120 possible different colour combinations which results in you having to do a dare. It did cause a lot of laughter with us all and Top Ender has new found respect for my pig impressions.

Millets Farm has 100 Acres of land where it grows fresh produce, a restaurant, a farm shop, a Garden Centre (part of the Frosts chain), a wood, a farm animal Zoo and plenty of areas to picnic in. The restaurant uses produce grown on site or ingredients sourced locally and the lunch we were treated to was put together by them and was fantastic. I have a feeling that the food is expensive, but I do think that it would be worth it.

The Farm has a large pick your own section and we had been given a voucher for a punnet of Strawberries so we made our way across the complex to the strawberry polytunnels. We started picking and our punnet was soon full and only a handful didn't make it to the punnet but were sneakily eaten by Top Ender and Baby Boy. They told me that they tasted as good as their first strawberries of the season, and the few that I have eaten so far would make me agree with that!

The whole day was lots of fun and Daddy and I agreed that we will be returning in the next few weeks with Top Ender and Baby Boy and we all agreed that it will become an annual tradition for a day out.

Things to do in the Summer Holidays

Today is the first day of the Summer Holidays for us here at A Mothers Ramblings and we have a list of things to do in them that should give us something to do no matter the weather! We thought we would share it with you because you might be stuck for something to do one day.

Things to do in the Summer Holidays if it Rains

Play in the rain!
Jump in puddles
Make a Rain measure
Go to an indoor shopping centre
Go Swimming
Go Swimming in an out door pool (your going to be wet anyway!)
Make an indoor fort
Go to the Cinema
Play a Board game
Make your own board game
Read stories to each other
Do a Drawing

Things to do in the Summer Holidays if is Snows

Collect your winnings from the local bookie (!)
Make a snowman
Have a Snowball fight
Make Snow Angels
Clear a Neighbours driveway
Clear the paths in the street
Make a Snow Fort
Marvel at S'winter (or should that be W'ummer?)

Things to do in the Summer Holidays if it is Sunny

Wear Sun screen and drink plenty of water
Go for a walk
Go for a bike ride
Play in the garden
Play in the park
Do Chalk Drawings
Have a picnic
Make home made ice lollies or Ice Cream
Go to the Zoo
Have a water fight
Go and pick fruit

Things to do in the Summer Holidays that have to be done

Buy new school uniform
Buy new school shoes
Buy a new bag
Buy new School Supplies
Label all new school things
Arrange hair cuts

Tell us what things you are really looking forward to!

Wordless Wednesday - Tacos for Tea!

Happy Birthday Auntie!

Yes I know that I have already posted today, but today is my little Sisters Birthday. I'm not asking you all to go and hassle her at her blog about not posting (its Butterfly Babies in case you are wondering) even though I pimped out her blog for her with a new design that she liked so much, I'm not going to point out that she couldn't even remember how old she was when we spoke to her this morning. Instead I am going to re-post my favourite story about my Sisters birthday, that was originally posted on the 24th July 2009, but with a newly discovered video!

It was Aunties birthday this week and as big sisters do I was teasing her about the gift that we had brought for her, by giving tantalising clues that were as ambiguous as... I don't know something that is really ambiguous! It was at this point that Auntie asked if I remembered the year that Top Ender couldn't keep a secret.

Our story begins many moons ago when Top Ender was still a Toggler, Baby Boy wasn't even a twinkle in my eye and Cousins were the last thing on Aunties agenda. Auntie still lived with our parents and we had been invited for a birthday dinner of Chicken and Salad...

Top Ender/Toggler walked into the living room having been primed with what to say and given the important job of handing over the gift almost as big as she was;

"Happy Birthday Auntie!" she recited
"Happy Birthday!" Both Daddy and I chorused
"Thank you!" said Auntie
"Here is your present Auntie!" said Top Ender/Toggler
"Oh thank you! I'll open it to see whats inside!"said Auntie excitedly eyeing the large gift
"It's a handbag!" answered Top Ender/Toggler
"No need to open it now then..." sighed Auntie

Click here to watch the embeded video!

Holiday Hell Meme

Emily at Baby Rambles has tagged me in a Holiday Hell Meme and I am pleased to say that I have only once had an event on holiday that would class as being hellish and I talked about that in my blog post "Its a Small World after all, especially if you go by Train..." and other than that one trip home I can't think of a single holiday in which I have had something happen that I could pass off as something hellish!

I know I haven't lived.

So here is a retelling of that journey that was from Hell!

For Top Enders Second Birthday we went to Disney Land Paris. All three of us were so excited and we traveled by car to Ashford (Kent!) in daylight (helps stop people being car sick don't ya know) and stayed in a hotel before driving the short distance to the Euro tunnel the next morning. Top Ender was delighted to be on a train and spent most of the two hour journey awake.

So on the last day we knew to be careful with what we ate because we didn't want to be sick on the train on the way home. All day we were great, we made sure not to eat sweets and not to drink too much and we were ready as the train pulled in to get on and to be on our way home.

And Everything was fine.

Until...

Top Ender was having a bottle of milk. She still liked to have a bottle when she went to bed and we were trying to keep the routine as much the same as possible. Top Ender cuddled up to me and had some milk whilst Daddy and I carried on talking about things that have since been forgotten (by me at least).

There were other children in the carriage, but Top Ender was the youngest. This fact isn't important until later, so remember it.

A few minutes passed between Top Ender drinking her milk and what was the most disgusting shower I have ever had. Top Ender turned to me and threw up all over me. I was covered in what ever food her stomach had partly digested and regurgitated milk.

The sound in the carriage was so quiet it was deafening. We cleaned up Top Ender, and me and the seat, and the table and a bit of the window (as a couple of parents looked on fondly remembering when they too had to deal with chunder covered everything and commented after I apologised that it was okay, they remembered the times they had dealt with similar situations) and as our bags were with us we were able to partly change clothes so we didn't smell of sick and look like a pot of cottage cheese.

Remember I mentioned that Top Ender was the youngest in the carriage? This is where is gets important.

For the rest of the journey we sat in some spare seats in the carriage where the older children couldn't see us. It was as the smell permeated the small space that they all started to complain to their parents about it and about Top Ender having caused them this issue.

"Next time we will go by Plane" said Daddy.

Which we did.


And now I tag

Glowstars
Younger and Younger
Single Parent Dad
Being a Mummy and
Pants with Names

Just Dance for the Wii

On Sunday I wrote a review about Dance on Broadway for the Wii. We had been playing the game as a family and had enjoyed it so much that I felt the need to share with everyone about this fab game! I haven't stopped tweeting about the game (or the blog post) since and it has meant that a few people asked me how I compared it to Just Dance for the Wii. This of course meant that I had to go out and buy Just Dance for the Wii so I could make a comparison (quick someone ask me to compare it to another game!).

So last night Daddy and I played Just Dance for the first time. It was fairly late at night and I was very tired so for the first song I was on the sofa. Daddy flicked through the songs until he got to Cotton-Eye Joe, I could see the gleam in his eye and knew that I was about to witness something truly great. I wish that I had been sitting nearer a camera, this was the funniest thing I had seen ever and I have no doubt that this video would have been able to stop wars.

Seeing how much fun it was I joined in for the second dance and used one of the features that this game has that Dance on Broadway doesn't, a quick play option and we danced to "That's the way I like it" by KC and the Sunshine band but it was over all too quickly. We played again and this time we went for the full version, I found it hard following the neon character and found them ever so slightly disturbing and I would have to say the backgrounds on Dance on Broadway are much Prettier than the plain backgrounds in Just Dance.

Again as soon as Daddy had a score higher than mine he retired from competitive dancing, claiming himself to be Family Champion. Revenge will be mine.

I am not disappointed with either of my purchases, but would suggest if you were only buying one to think about what sort of music you prefer. If you like Pop Music or want to buy a game for use at a party go for Just dance, if you like Musicals then go with Dance on Broadway. If you were forcing me to make a choice then it would be Dance on Broadway that wins because it looks prettier.

Overall I would say that Ubisoft made improvements on the original Just Dance when they released Dance on Broadway and I hope they are making more improvements when they release Just Dance 2 later this year. And here is the trailer for Just Dance 2!

The recommended retail price is £24.99, but you can buy it for less in a lot of places. I was not paid to review this and only went and brought it because of the questions about it on Twitter as a comparison to Dance on Broadway.

Who would you put on the Naughty Step?

I was tagged by Rosie Scribble in a meme of "Who would you put on the Naughty Step?". After checking that it wasn't me that she had put on her naughty step and having a good giggle over who she had chosen and why (go and see it's funny!) I started thinking about who it is that I would put on the Naughty Step for a Time out. I did think about putting my sister on the Naughty step, as you know why have a blog if you never write anything? I thought about various celebrities but then I realised the person who should go on the naughty step is a little closer to home.

Its Me.

Yup. I am putting myself on the naughty step for telling Top Ender that school finished Friday gone when it doesn't actually let out for another week.

So now I am tagging the following people to tell us who they think should be on the naughty step for some time to think about what they have done...

1) Melaina at Transatlantic Blonde
2) Mummy Nicholls at Mummy Chat
3) Emma at Me The Man and The Baby
4) Leanne at Second Time Mummy
5) Kitty at Butterfly Babies

I just hope that they don't chose me too!

Things I have learnt from Sleeping in a Tent

Last Saturday Top Ender was being very sweet and said that as part of Mummy Daughter Date night, she would love to camp in the back garden with me. I don't think that she knew that I would be able to resist the way she asked (with innocence and love) and so secretly arranged with Daddy that we would camp in the back garden.

I know that you are probably all bored to death of me and my Flip, but I did take a few minutes of footage on it because I like things that make nice noises and that I get given without knowing about. So this was how we let Top Ender know what was going on.

But I know that you are wanting to know more about these useful things I have learnt from Sleeping in a Tent and so here they are. I hope that one day you find them useful. 

• 
  
  Buy a Pop Up Tent. They make things easy.
• 
  
  Don't pitch a tent on a hill. Children roll in their sleep
• 
  
  Neighbours will have parties that are really loud when you want to go to sleep
• 
  
  When Chickens lay eggs they cluck really loudly
• 
  
  Neighbours who are in their garden chatting at 3am don't realise that other people might be listening in
• 
  
  Children don't understand about personal space boundaries
• 
  
  Children will wake you up if they think they have to tell you something
• 
  
  It gets bright really early in the Summer
• 
  
  Tents are not designed for tall people
• 
  
  Dogs bark really loudly at Cats
• 
  
  Cats meow really loudly at Dogs
• 
  
  The Dawn Chorus is loud. And at Dawn.

 But the best thing I learnt was you should always have something handy with which to film something.

Water Bombs and some Family Fun

In Leighton Buzzard there is a 99p Store. Every so often I go there and spend a fortune on things that I wouldn't of brought normally, but as it is only 99p find it to be really good value and can't resist a bargin. A couple of weeks back I brought Water Bombs because everyone loves a good water bomb fight.

I told Daddy that I was going to fill up two of each colour from the very large pack (300 in the pack) and that we could have fun chasing Top Ender and Baby Boy with them, and took to the bathroom to fill them up as the Bathroom sink has the only tap that the tap adaptor would fit. Twenty minutes later I was very wet and had really mastered filling up Water Bombs.

I think that what happened can only best be explained, by this short video...

Wordless Wednesday - Peppa Pig The Cannibal

Cupcakes and a bake off!

Daddy, Top Ender and Baby Boy stole my idea last weekend and made a batch of cupcakes. I was planning on making some myself as I wanted to enter English Mum's Bake Off, but I was busy hiding in the living room playing Farmville or something and so they did this all without me.

Baby Boy found it odd that Daddy's whisk was bigger than his. I found it odd that they didn't use Ken (my Kenwood food mixer) but opted for the hand method.

Top Ender helped measure out all the ingredients whilst sporting a country casual look.

Both Top Ender and Baby Boy had a good mix.

Top Ender was even allowed to make sure that all the lumpy bits were out of the mixture

Baby Boy was too worried that his juice was going to be stolen and added into the mix and so kept a firm grip on it.

Baby Boy also decided that baking was easy and could be done with his eyes closed.

Top Ender preferred to keep hers wide open.

The cakes were allowed to cool, but Daddy had to distract Baby Boy as he just wanted to eat them fresh from the oven.

Top Ender opted for a sneaky sprinkle fix.

Finally it was time to decorate and this was Top Enders idea of heaven!

Whilst Baby Boy had a little bit of help from Daddy this design was all his and eaten before Daddy even had the camera pointing at him.

And the verdict from Top Ender on the wheat free cupcakes?

I believe that's a thumbs up!

Dance on Broadway for the Wii

I love our Wii and I love Musicals so when I saw the game Dance On Broadway for the Wii I knew that I had to have it. Luckily I must have done something that meant that Daddy was thinking I also needed a treat and he bought it for me!

We decided that today after lunch would be a good time to play it and as I was taking my time to get back into the living room Daddy and Top Ender started without me. They were going through the songs deciding which ones would be best for them to dance to and decided upon "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" from Mary Poppins.

I arrived in the living room just in time to see them exhausting themselves dancing along with the Wii, by dancing badly. Top Ender got the highest score and declared herself to have won and that it was now my turn to join in. As all you need to dance is a Wii remote for each player, I was soon clicking on the character I wanted to dance as, and before I knew it we were dancing to "Time Warp" from The Rocky Horror Show.

Top Ender won again and I came a close second but it was at a price as both Daddy and I were exhausted!

We went through a few more songs and each time Top Ender won. Although I did redeem myself on "Bend & Snap" from Legally Blonde with a very high score and the sweat dripping off me as a prize.* 

Daddy however wasn't going to give up without a fight and kept repeating;

"Just once more!"

Eventually he got his victory with a score higher than both Top Ender and I had reached, immediately declared himself the family champion and retired from competitive dancing. Yes, he's a cheat.

There are a lot of songs on the game (all of which I recognised and was able to sing along with) and they range in effort needed and difficulty. I did work up a good sweat and my first thoughts that this game wasn't any good because both Top Ender and Daddy didn't seem to be doing well, were wrong and I love this game. I am going to add this to my exercise routine and hopefully dance my way to skinny!

The recommended retail price is £29.99, but you can buy it for less in a lot of places! I was not paid or asked to review this, but we had so much fun that I just wanted to share it with you all!

*If anyone wants to see my rendition of "Bend & Snap" let me know and if enough of you speak up it shall be a vlog!

This time last week

This time last week I wasn't here.



I missed the School fete, where Top Ender and Baby Boy decorated biscuits,

I missed seeing what goodies were won on the children's Tombola,

I missed going to the park, (Yes Top Ender had an outfit change)

But I did have a really great time at CyberMummy so I think that it all balances out in the end.