What a difference a year makes

Last Easter, we went to the Cadbury's Easter Egg Trail at Petworth House and loved it.  It was probably around this time last year that I moaned at Angmering Daddy for signing up to Wildfowl and Wetland Trust.  A year later, we've just been to three very different Easter events.

On Good Friday, we went to WWT Arundel for the Giant Duck Hunt.  Despite my moans last year, we have made the most of our WWT membership.  It's a great place to go for family walks and duck feeding.  Admission is free for Munchkin, and it's nice and flat for AD, who doesn't do hills very well.  The Giant Duck Hunt is run on similar lines to an Easter Egg Hunt - you follow clues to find the animal or bird associated with each plastic duck, and get a chocolate prize if you find them all.  Unlike traditional Easter Egg Hunts, it's running for the whole of the Easter Holidays.  WWT Arundel also have indoor crafts, pond dipping and boat trips running throughout the Easter Holidays.  Basic admission prices are £10.86 for an adult and £5.45 for a child over 4.  Other admission options are available, including family tickets and a 10% discount if you book online.  Most activities are included in the admission price.

The Giant Ducky at WWT Arundel

We are also members of the National Trust but might be discontinuing this.  When we visit NT properties, we tend to be confined to the gardens and cafe, plus the occasional self-guided tour.  What pre-school child wants to go on a guided tour of an old house, run by a grown-up, for grown-ups?  Not mine!  We went to the Cadbury's Easter Egg Hunt, because we'd enjoyed it so much last year.  We were rather disappointed.  Last year, we got to make a chick.  This year, I had to do a quiz aimed at primary age children.  Munchkin got nothing from it because she can't read or spell.  Last year, the trail started near the bottom of the hill, and AD got the minibus back to the car park at the end.  This year, we had to walk a long way up the hill - AD wasn't expecting this, and sat out most of the Easter Egg Hunt.  Munchkin became desperate for the toilet when we were in the middle nowhere so I had to carry her down the hill to the ladies.  The sign-posting and map quality were poor, meaning that we had trouble finding the start-point and some of the eggs.  We will be finding another Easter Egg Hunt next year.

On Easter Sunday, we went for Breakfast with the Easter Bunny at Wyevale Findon Garden Centre.  We've previously had a very successful breakfast with Father Christmas at Old Barn, another Wyevale Garden Centre, so thought we would give the Easter Bunny a go.  It was well worth it.  In addition to cooked breakfast, followed by soft-play, Munchkin got to meet the Easter Bunny.  (She was fully aware that it was person dressed up as the Easter Bunny!)  The Easter Bunny gave her not one, but two toy rabbits to take home, plus a Lindt chocolate rabbit.  She was given two Easter biscuits to decorate when she'd finished her breakfast.

In other news, we are starting to think about schools for Munchkin to start in 2016.  She got a little upset when we told her she would have to wear a uniform.  I hope she doesn't insist on going to a school where they wear her favourite pink and yellow!

Little Monsters Bash

On Saturday, we went to Little Monsters Bash, at Stanmer Park in Brighton.  This was a festival for young children, arranged in aid of Tree of Hope - a charity that helps sick children.  Someone sent me details a while ago on Facebook but it didn't sound that exciting until I checked out the the line up.  The headline acts were Heaven for the under tens. 

Munchkin got to meet Peppa and George but she wasn't expecting them to be six feet tall, and was a little scared!  Captain Barnacles and Quasii from The Octonauts were also there, as was Yo Jo Jo (or whatever his name is) from WayBaloo.

George doing a meet and greeet

There were some excellent shows on the main stage - most of which repeated several times, meaning that we had a chance to see what was on elsewhere.  Alex Winters from CBeebies was the compere.  I think it's perhaps the only time he's been able to give a big up to shows from Nick Jr without falling foul of his employer. I really enjoyed Katy Ashworth's band.  I like a bit of live music and they were talented and entertaining.  Munchkin enjoyed watching Go Go Go... or the Go Go People as she prefers to call them.  We didn't bother with all the main acts, since we thought Dick and Dom, and the times table rapper amongst others, were too grown up for her. 

Katy and her band on the main stage

There was much more going on than I have room to mention here.  The only marquee that we  managed to get to was the Story Tent.  The Crafts Tent looked good, as did some of the other activities including Sing and Sign, and a kiddies' disco.  There were various stalls dotted around, the most popular of which sold animal shaped helium balloons. In addition to all the shows and stalls, there were kiddies' favourites such as a bouncy castle and face painting; Munchkin was a happy, busy girl. 

Little Monsters Bash wasn't cheap, it was around £15 a person, even with a Groupon discount.  However, you got a lot for your money.  I believe parking was an additional £5, but we didn't need to pay this.  2014 was  the festival's first year and I hope it continues for many more.  My only criticisms would be some minor logistical ones: although there were plenty of toilets there wasn't enough toilet paper, and there weren't enough children's options on the catering vans.  Given that picnics weren't allowed, an outlet selling sandwiches would probably have gone down well.  I'm also undecided on the merits of a mobile petting zoo.  Do meerkats like spending significant amounts of time in transit, and setting up a temporary home away from their normal territory?

Munchkin's social life seems to be continuing apace over the summer holidays so I'll no doubt be writing more blogs on activities.  It makes a change from potty training, which incidentally is completely done.  She doesn't even wear nappies at night now.  I just need to find a buyer for those expensive cloth training pants.

Pants!

Munchkin and I have been too grumpy and busy for blogging recently so you've missed out on two epic tantrums and a family trip to Fisher's Farm.  We'll be going back to Fisher's Farm so I'll blog about that another time.  The least said about the tantrums, the better, though I would like to thank the helpful stranger who got us moved to a later swimming lesson when Munchkin's pool tantrum finally ended.

Munchkin is getting closer and closer to being potty trained.  She doesn't like nappies very much and hates pull-ups but my attempt to put her in standard training pants ended in a puddle, partly because they weren't absorbent enough but mainly because they didn't fit snugly around the legs.  There was no way I could put her straight into knickers, since she was doing half her wees and all her poos in nappies.  I still felt cloth training pants were the answer, but I needed to find the right brand.

I didn't have much idea where to look.  Luckily, Laura from Worthing Nappy Library came to my rescue.  She very kindly contacted other nappy libraries to get recommendations for absorbent training pants.  Two American brands, Super Undies and Bumgenius Flip, were recommended.  Super Undies were out of stock everywhere, which was a shame because they were cheaper and more slimline.  I therefore invested in some Bumgenius.  These pants are adjustable so one size fits age 18 months to 4 years.  They have removable inserts which can be changed if the child has only done a wee.  I initially bought three pairs when they were on offer at The Nappy Lady.  The offer price was £21.49, or thereabouts, for a pair of pants and three inserts.  I wish I'd bought more since I've just paid the full price of £27.99 for additional pairs.  I got the additional pairs from Lizzies Real Nappies because they had a better range of designs, in my opinion.  There seems to be a market for second-hand real nappies so I'm hoping to recoup some of my money when she moves on from these pants.

Munchkin's first pants... They've got bunnies on :-)

We had a nappy dry run yesterday.  Munchkin liked her pants, and it almost was a dry run too.  In three hours, she only did one small wee in them.  They're not as easy to get up and down as I'd hoped so we might have to try loosening them.  I did also put them on back-to-front initially, though I'm not sure I should admit to that...  At the weekend, we'll start potty training properly.  Hopefully I've bought my last daytime nappies.  Angmering Daddy has told Munchkin she can have a Peppa Pig medal when she poos on the toilet... I look forward to making it for her.