Conkers

We stayed in a McDonald's hotel this weekend with clubcard vouchers which made the whole thing much more like a proper holiday. Once we'd managed to prise Tilly away from the Danish pastries this morning we decided to visit Conkers on the way home.

Conkers is essentially a nature reserve around a lake with adventure playground sections, a discovery centre and activity sessions. We were so stunned it was actually warm we were desperate to go outside so it worked really well.

It wasn't busy which was a surprise and meant we could get on the train, have fun in the playground and generally do what we wanted to do. We even stumbled across Ranger activities and we built our first family fire ever, and we didn't even need to brush snow off the sticks. We came away with matted marshmallow/chocolate biscuit hair and an aroma of woodsmoke. Fun though.

The only thing I didn't quite understand is the discovery centre itself. It has an indoor play area which wasn't bad apart from being extremely dark and having more than one section which made the girls scream (in a bad way). I mean why have a scary spider jumping out at you just past the woodland fairies perched in a tree? Talk about catching a six year old off guard. Also I understand that it was about nature but I was pleased it was only me that saw the footage of the decomposing rat.

All in all it was a great weekend. I like having a five and seven year old. They are decidedly fun and enjoy the Voice as much as I do. Which reminds me it's Tilly's birthday in three days. I'd better work out how to ice a panda cake...