Our October Holiday - Antics in Aberdeen and a trip to A&E

The kids and I had a super busy five nights for our half of the October holidays. We 'jumped in the car and broomed to Aberdeen' to stay with Auntie Ali and then we also managed to stop by my dad & Jo's for an overnight stay on the way back to Glasgow too.

On Friday we had lunch with my aunt, uncle and gran before heading back to Ali's house. We had a quiet night as we knew that Saturday was going to be a busy one...

Auntie Ali copied a YouTube tutorial to create a fishtail braid for the littlest's hair

We did some baking, thanks to Aldi. There's a competition to win a £50 voucher and a hamper with Aldi in this earlier blog post.

We did a photo shoot in Ali's home studio. I love this giggly photo of the littlest.

Next was time to face paint, and I let me daughter go crazy...

...and ended up at the park with this on my face!

My son with his face paint eye mask

Enjoying some silliness with friends :-)

The next day after breakfast we headed to Drum Castle for their Christmas craft fair...

It was a lovely crisp autumn day. Look at all the glorious colours in the fallen leaves!

The park at Drum Castle is fab - the kids loved it.

There was a zip slide, a willow maze, climbing frames etc all in gorgeous surroundings

I caught up with Life with Munchers for a bite to eat at Mains of Drum

And then this happened....

We had arrived at the car park at Hazlehead Park and we were very excited to be meeting lots of friends and family for a play which probably contributed to what happened next... My eldest tripped (if you know the car park, then you'll know it's not a good surface... it's loads of chuckies and is very bumpy) and literally fell flat on his face. I was pushing the buggy with littlest who was tired and he wasn't holding my hand. The crack was horrific. There was tonnes of screaming and blood was gushing from his nose, mouth and head. His forehead immediately stuck out in a massive lump, about 2cm out if not more. Another family stopped to help me which was so lovely of them, giving me baby wipes and helping me get back to my car. The wee man was complaining that his right eye was sore, so the littlest went with Granddad and Nanny Jo (when they arrived) to the park to meet the others whilst the eldest and I headed off to ARI A&E. He was an absolute star. He very quickly perked up thankfully and even more so once he got some ibuprofen mixture into him. The doctor, Marcus if I remember correctly, was fantastic and the nurses too. Lots of checks were done and then the cuts were cleaned up. Thankfully all was ok and we were sent home. I found the whole experience exhausting, terrifying and generally horrible. There were lots of tears...more mine than his! I felt like such a bad mummy.

 

Poor guy has two black eyes now :-(

But despite the black eyes, you wouldn't have known anything was wrong as he was just his usual self. He was even farting (loudly) on the hospital bed and laughing his head off and making me smell his sweaty socks during a silly game of 'I spy', and again laughing hysterically. 

Relaxing once the kids were in bed!

When did she get so grown up!?

At Granddad & Nanny Jo's in the garden. You'd think it was summer, but she insisted she was warm and didn't want a coat.

Relaxing in front of the fire... perfect end to the holiday.

{Ideas for the October Holidays - Days Out & Things to Do}

I thought I'd share a few ideas for days out and things to do with the kids for the October holidays, in no particular order I might add...

Fingers crossed for some dry weather!

1. Kelburn Castle, Country Centre and Estate - they have a magical Secret Forest!!! I know that my littlest would *love* this. I'm sure I've been here as an adult, bc (before children). But I must take my kiddies back to have a look themselves.

2. Briarlands Farm - the kids and I  have been here once before and we all had a blast. I can highly recommend it.

3. Heads of Ayr Farm Park - we've also been to this farm and loved it too! Loads to do and you could easily spend a whole day here.

4. M&Ds Theme Park - again, the one time that we visited M&Ds we had so much fun! I think if I was to go back, we'd spend a bit more time and visit Amazonia too.

5. The Helix - this is on my list of places to visit. Once my son is a bit more competent on his bike, I think we'll head here to do some of the family bike rides.\

6. Whitelee Wind Farm - also on my list is the wind farm at Eaglesham. There's a visitor centre with an exhibition and cafe plus trails to go cycling round that I believe are suitable for a leisurely cycle plus more adventurous riders.

7. Enchanted Forest - we're going here this month for Scotland's award winning sound and light show and we're super excited! All Saturday night shows have now been sold out but there are still tickets available for other evenings. I've never been before, but heard many great things.

8. Kirkcudbright - this was a recommendation from a colleague of mine. Kirkcudbright is set on the edge of the Galloway hills in Dumfries and Galloway. There are plenty of activities to do in this fishing town including a farm park, horse riding, cycling and some museums too.

Any other suggestions folks?

We're actually off to Aberdeen today for a few nights. We have plans to visit Drum Castle for the Exclusively Highlands Meet the Makers event and I also fancy taking the kids to Satrosphere. I have great memories of Satrosphere from when I was a kid, so hopefully mine like it too! We'll also be spending some quality time with my family that are still in the city.

Enjoy the holidays everyone :-)