Our Day Out at the Geronimo Festival 2017

Arley Hall is the beautiful setting for this year's Geronimo Festival. The festival is running across this bank holiday weekend, and we visited today and had an absolutely amazing time. I'd go as far to say that this is the best Geronimo Festival yet! Freddy had a day filled with some incredible experiences and activities where he learned new skills, tested his nerve and had a huge amount of fun.

Animal encounters form a big part of the Geronimites' day. Little ones can meet exotic reptiles with Ranger Rob and learn about them in a hands on wildlife experience. Freddy and Kezia held a huge black and white lizard, which was stunningly beautiful. The Parrotman is there with a collection of colourful birds while The Feathery Folk have a selection of beautiful birds of prey for children to learn about. The Giant Tortoises are just wonderful and we loved petting them in their enclosure. Freddy rode on Geronimo the Donkey! We also saw some shows in the arena with horses and there were sheep for little ones to meet. Add to this the performing T-Rex, Bear's Big Bear Hunt and a host of weird and wonderful animal models and puppets, and kids are in for a wild time!

Arley Hall is in a gorgeous estate, surrounded by trees and fields giving the festival the most perfect venue. The colourful tents and decorations across the festival ground make Geronimo a wonderland for families, where there is so much to see, do and explore. There is a main stage where stars of CBeebies and other kid friendly acts perform. There are two circuses and also a main arena where you can watch knights on horseback, a stunt show and BMX riders. There is also a theatre zone where you can take in a show or you can go and listen to some magical storytelling.

If you prefer getting hands on there are plenty of craft activities to do, a funky junk workshop or a Play Doh area. There is music and dancing and lessons where you can have a go at playing a musical instrument. However your family likes to have fun, Geronimo has something to keep you happily entertained.

Freddy's favourite activities are the high adrenaline ones. He learned some trapeze skills, did archery, threw axes and fired a crossbow. He scaled a climbing wall, went caving in an interactive, replica caving trailer, had a go on the Ace inflatable obstacle course and zipped down the Skyfall zipwire. Freddy also learned how to fence and did some pretty impressive parkour over obstacles.  His favourite thing was The Air Bag, which saw him jumping from a high platform and landing on an inflatable crash mat. He was like a proper little stuntman!

There is absolutely loads of fun things to do at Geronimo. We missed so much that we are going back tomorrow to do the rest. Freddy really had a great time today, and speaking to other mums and also to my sister who came with her two little ones, the general consensus is that this year's Geronimo is a really fantastic family day out. With so many things included in the entry price, it's really good value. (The funfair costs extra, but with everything going on, Freddy didn't even have the time to ask to ride the carousel!)

There is still two days of Geronimo to go. Find out more at http://www.geronimofest.com.

Old School Fun for a New Generation!

I remember the days of the iconic Panda Pops: the brightly coloured, fruit flavoured, fizzy drinks for kids, always served at school discos. A real blast from the past.  Nowadays, as our demand for healthier options for our kids has increased, Panda has evolved to bring its brand to a whole new generation of children. The Panda drinks now offer refreshingly fruity fun with their range of still juice drinks, flavoured waters and squash, made with natural flavourings and colours and with no added sugar.  Even the trademark Panda has had a revamp, as the cute black and white bear is pictured frolicking with the fresh fruits that flavour the drinks, on each of the bottles' labels.

As well as bringing their fruity drinks to a new generation of children, Panda also want to reintroduce some traditional, childhood games back into their lives : getting kids away from their technological devices, getting them active and having some good old fashioned fun!

With games such a kerby, hopscotch, piggy in the middle, blind man's bluff, conkers and tig, along with skills such as hula hooping, skipping and den building, the kids of today could learn a lot of great activities by looking at the things their parents used to do.

Freddy and Kizzy took the challenge to play one of the old school games and decided to learn how to hula hoop. I bought them some new hula hoops and they practiced hard.  Both of them can now do it and have lots of fun spinning the hoop and swinging their hips, trying to keep it up for as long as possible.  Freddy has even mastered the double, spinning two hoops at once. I could never do it as a child and however hard I try, I still can't!  I just can't get it, although ironically I have the high score for virtual hula hooping on the Wii Fit!

                        


Panda Still Juice Drinks and Panda Splash are available in 250 ml sports cap bottles in a six pack for £1.99. Panda Squashes are 99p for a 1 litre bottle.  Find them in Tesco.

We took part in the #GetYourSkillsOn challenge!

This summer, whilst away on our Forest Holidays break in Blackwood Forest, we took part in the Tots 100 #GetYourSkillsOn challenge with Robinson's Fruit Shoot. It provided a really entertaining framework for the activities we planned to do, and provided lots of fun photo and video opportunities, which may otherwise have been missed.

To take part, we had to choose ten challenges from a list of forty, and record the children as they tried  out their new skills.  There were lots of laughs along the way and it was lovely to see the three children joining in and supporting one another in their efforts.

Carrying out the activities against the backdrop of the forest and the beach added a real element of adventure and the children rose to the challenges brilliantly.

Some challenges were a pretty easy such as having to balance something on your head for 15 seconds. Kizzy did a good job walking with a frisbee on her head, keeping a straight back and her chin up.  Not to be outdone, Freddy had a go too, running with it on his head!

At the seaside, the kids wanted to get in the sea to catch a wave, but as we didn't have the kit for a day's surfing, we decided to let the waves catch them instead!  (A little artistic licence in the completion of this challenge!!)  Freddy loved his first ever taste of running in the sea and jumping the waves.  It was such a pleasure watching him and hearing his giggles as he experienced the joy of the seaside with his sisters.  The sun was shining and it was a gorgeous day.  His water confidence increased massively, as he was very timid around it before discovering the fun of the surf.

Den building has been an activity that everyone has enjoyed.  Using the fallen branches from trees and making a wigwam shape around a tree trunk has proven to be a very efficient way of building a natural, outdoor den.  Being in a forest provided the best environment for den building, Gruffalo searching and bear hunting.  Freddy has had a wonderfully imaginative forest adventure and the den building definitely added to his games.

We bought Freddy a frisbee from a shop and introduced him to the fun of the flying disc!  Due to the problem with his eyes, his 3D vision is not as good as it should be and I do worry about the limitations this may give him.  However, after putting the frisbee in his hand, he showed excellent throwing and catching skills and not once did his vision hinder his ability.  He very quickly got the hang of it and learned a fun new skill.

Piggy backs are always fun and it was lovely to see Ella and Kizzy giving each other rides through the forest. When I was a little girl I had a piggy back related injury and broke my nose after falling flat on my face while carrying someone on my back.  Thankfully the girls were much safer and more stable than I was!

Swinging as high as you can is one of the challenges that the children really loved.  Freddy has just learned how to swing on his own and can get himself going and swing really high with confidence.  He has loved the play area here at Blackwood Forest.  But when we found a rope swing in the woods it was too good an opportunity to pass by.  Kizzy had a go and managed to swing really high until she hit a tree and went into a death spiral!  It was very funny watching her spin round and around.  Maybe I should have saved her, but I was too busy laughing.

I was really proud of Kizzy for having a go at climbing trees.  She was a bit nervous, but felt the fear and did it anyway.  Challenging yourself physically is an exhilarating thing to do, and it feels so good when you accomplish what you set out to do.  Kizzy was very brave and managed to negotiate the branches of a tree to get quite high.

  

Other challenges that the children completed were building a sandcastle on Sandown Beach on the Isle of Wight.  It was not the best sand for making castles so they made a raised mound of sand surrounding a deep hole that quickly filled with sun warmed sea water.  (I really liked it as it reminded me of a fantasy land from Westeroes in Game of Thrones for some reason.)  They managed to get some dry sand from further up shore and mix it with the heavy, wet sand to make two turreted towers overlooking their miniature kingdom, using Freddy's new bucket, to complete the grand structure. They didn't last long though, because Freddy was desperate to jump on them!  That is one of the joys of building a sandcastle though.

After the excitement of the Commonwealth Games and in particular the thrilling men's 4 x 100 m relay, the children are all very interested in athletics.  So staging their own 100 m sprint (albeit clad in wellies) gave them a chance to embody their inner Usain Bolt and run like the wind!  Freddy enjoys racing his sisters and giving himself a cheeky headstart.  There were so many long stretches of open forest paths to run down whilst we were on holiday.  The children got plenty of exercise and fresh air in the great outdoors.

On one of our day trips, we watched some street performers in Winchester who were doing a street dance demonstration. Freddy was so intrigued by the popping and locking and the break dance moves that the kids were doing. When we got back, he wanted to try his own street dancing moves based on what he had seen. He was utterly adorable pulling his moves and doing his thing.  As a result of the dancing, we are going to be finding a street dance class for Freddy to attend so he can perfect his B-Boying!  This has been the best part of this challenge, discovering a new skill that Freddy wants to explore further.

              


We have really loved taking part in this challenge, learning new skills and having fun together.  It was a great idea for keeping the kids active and entertained, and I absolutely adored watching them getting stuck in. Here is our video showing how the children got on as they embraced the #GetYourSkillsOn challenges.

              

This is our entry into the Tots 100/Robinson's Fruit Shoot #GetYourSkillsOn challenge.