What's On - Family Activities in June

I thought I'd share with you my top picks of family activities for the next few weekends...

Tuesday 9th to Sunday 12th June 2015
Zippos Circus at Queens Park
Tickets from £8.50

{Photo Credit - Piet-Hein Out}

13th & 14th June 2015
Jurassic Weekend at Glasgow Science Centre

There are plenty of dinosaur themed activities taking place at the Glasgow Science Centre this weekend, including meeting Velma the velociraptor.
Plus you can view Jurassic World at the IMAX cinema on Scotland's biggest cinema screen!!

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There are also some dinosaur activities this weekend at Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum.

13th & 14th June 2015
Glasgow Science Festival at Whitelee Windfarm
This is a free event suitable for ages 7+

Practical demonstrations of "Fantastic Forces" including a rocket building workshop!

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Saturday 20th June
Armed Forces Family Fun Day at Rouken Glen Park, Giffnock, 12 noon to 5pm
This is a free event

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20th & 21st June 2015
Family Fun Weekend at Mearns Castle Golf Academy, 10am - 5pm
This is a free event

Free kids golf lessons.... face painting... bouncy castle.... ballooons and a DJ.


*** Plus don't forget it's Father's Day on Sunday 21st June! ***


Saturday 27th June
Everyone's Invited at intu Braehead
This is a free concert but you will need a wristband to attend.

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Do get in touch if you have an event that you'd like to share and I'll do my best to feature it. My contact details are on my About Me page.

{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 :-)

{Love to Craft}

The kids and I love to craft. My mum loved to be creative - she used to do rubber stamping with us as kids and I have such fond memories of our day trips to Edinburgh where we would chose a new wooden stamp at the stand which was in the Waverley Shopping Centre (and then get sweets from the old fashioned sweet shop on Cockburn Street). We also used to draw, paint, glue, glitter, Fimo, Hama beads etc... the list is endless.

With the recent loom band craze - that my littlest of three is even a fan of! - I started to think what other crafts we could do. I still have all of our rubber stamps from when I was a wee girl and we regularly make stamp pictures. We also love to mould things out of Play Doh (I just love the smell of Play Doh!). And we make greetings cards and pictures using my supplies of embellishments and we even have a set of embossing tools from Becky that are perfect for little hands!

I could easily spend hours at HobbyCraft, and luckily there's a massive store at Glasgow Fort that's open until 10pm during the week!

I used to LOVE fuzzy felts when I was growing up

Hama butterfly kit

Everything is better with a bit of glitter, pink glitter no less!!

I'm already starting to think about *whispers* Christmas, and this punch would be ideal for making Christmas cards with the kids.

And sticking with the festive theme, these stamps are so cute. My littlest would love the snowflakes -  ideal for her to make some Frozen pictures.

This weekend on Saturday (13th September) there are free docrafts demonstrations in-store between 11am and 3pm where you can find out about the Creativity Essentials papercraft range.

What are your favourite crafts for with little ones?

{Our Log Pod Adventure}

Last weekend R & I jumped in the car and headed towards Fort William. We were meeting my sister and her boyfriend for a night in a Log Pod at Bunroy Park campsite. Here's how we got on....

Weather not looking so great!

We've arrived!!

The Log Pod!

And no sooner had we arrived, the champagne was flowing!

And of course, this was followed by some drunken antics.....

We had an amazing BBQ using a £10 bucket BBQ from Tesco. It worked a treat!

Toasting marshmallows - a must for a BBQ!

We then donned our matching onesies (nothing to do with me I might add!)

The midgies were the only negative about the trip, but that's to be expected going camping in Scotland!

We headed out for breakfast the following morning - delish!

P.S. This isn't a sponsored post but I thoroughly enjoyed our stay in the Log Pod and thought I'd share it with you here. The facilities at the campsite were clean and I was suitably impressed. I'd definitely go back - we had a really good laugh. Our stay in the Log Pod cost £40 for the four of us for one night.

{What's On Glasgow for the Grown-Ups - Part 2}

Ok, so following on from my 'What's On for the Grown-Ups - Part 1', it seemed sensible to follow this with Part 2!!

So instead of some quirky activities like was discussed last time, I thought I'd share a few ideas of places to visit in Glasgow and hopefully this will be helpful for the influx of tourists that will be coming to the city in a few weeks time for Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games!

6. The Barras - for a true Glasgow experience head to the East End for The Barras market where you'll find a mixture of street markets, indoor markets, shops and pubs. The market got it's name from hawkers who used to sell from handcarts (barras or barrows) in the early part of the 20th Century.

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Whilst you're in the East End pop along to the People's Palace which tells the story of Glasgow and its people. I'm ashamed to admit though that in my 10 years in the city I'm yet to visit here (it's on my list and I've no idea why I've not been yet!).

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7. The Hydro - is a gigantic entertainment venue (that looks a bit like a UFO!) which opened in September 2013 with a four night run of Rod Stewart (I was there!!). It's also going to host some of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth events. The cladding around the Hydro was originally developed for the space industry and is able to glow in 12.8 million colours apparently. Have a peek here for some more crazy facts!!

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Me before the Rod Stewart gig! 

8. City Chambers - the City Chambers overlook George Square and it's a very impressive looking building! There are public tours of the chambers, twice daily at 10.30am and 2.30pm, and they are free of charge. You can find out more here. I popped in for a tour a number of years ago (when I was a brunette!) and I was amazed at the opulent marble interior. The grand marble staircase is apparently the largest in the world.

Here we are in the Lord Provost's chair!

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9. Willow Tearooms - the Willow Tearooms were designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the Glasgow born architect, in 1904. My mum was a huge Mackintosh fan and as a child I was taken to many of his buildings. The tearooms are a must see for visitors to Glasgow. You'll find the original tea rooms on Sauchiehall Street and there's a newer site on Buchanan Street.

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10. House for an Art Lover - sticking with the Charles Rennie Mackintosh theme, head to the Southside for 'House for an Art Lover' that is nestled in Bellahouston Park. It's absolutely beautiful and the Art Lovers Cafe serve an amazing lunch. I've been a few times to dine at the cafe and the food is presented so well. Almost looks too good to eat!

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{Fit for a Princess}

The littlest is very girlie... and at the moment she's obsessed with all things princesses!

I had a quick search on Pinterest for some princess themed crafts that we could do together on our afternoons whilst her big brother is at nursery. Here's what I came up with...

Make a Pipe Cleaner Princess Crown {image source}

Making a Princess Bed for her dolls using a cardboard box {image source}

Every Fairy Princess needs a Wand! {image source}

Make a glitzy goblet for juice using some glue, gems and a plastic cup! {image source}

Paint a Princess Castle using a hand print {image source}

Make a Princess Hat for dressing up {image source}

Lastly, bake some Princess Cookies. We love a good sprinkle of pink edible glittery sugar on our biscuits and cupcakes! {image source}

{What's On Glasgow for the Grown-Ups - Part 1}

I thought I'd share a few suggestions for 'different' or 'quirky' things to do in Glasgow and the surrounding area - this one is mainly for the grown-ups, sorry kids! As you can see from the pictures, these are activities I've tried out myself!

1. The circus is in town - get a group of friends together and organise an aerial circus class (I did this for my sister's hen party) or give the flying trapeze a whirl (£35 for a 3 hour flying trapeze workshop)!

Aerial Edge

2. Ghost - Unleash your inner Demi Moore and attempt some pottery on the wheel @ Glasgow Ceramic Studio (£60 for a private two-hour taster session; £80 for two people)

Glasgow Ceramic Studio

3. Get on your bike - at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome at the Emirates Arena. New riders can try an 'Introduction to Track Cycling' class at the velodrome for just £10.20. 

4. Square Eyes - Film Club at Blythswood Square Hotel. I've been twice now to see Bridesmaids with Becky and then Top Gun with R; both were in the evening and we had cocktails and canapes prior to the movie. I'd definitely recommend it - it was such a great experience. The Notebook is being shown on Sat 28th June - £30 per person which includes afternoon tea, glass of Prosecco and the movie screening.

5. The wheels on the bus - hop on the Glasgow Tour bus and see the sights (£14 for an adult two-day ticket). There's also a Ghoulish Glasgow bus tour if you are partial to a scary story!

If you have an activity or place in Glasgow you'd like featured, then please get in touch. Part Two will be following in the near future :-)

Prices are correct at date post was published.

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{#JanuaryJoy - plan a trip}

We were very kindly invited to have a day out in Falkirk & finally the day came around for our trip.

It's not somewhere I've been before, either with or without the kids, and we'll definitely be going back.

I had in my head that Falkirk would take ages to get to, but it's actually not that far.

We started at The Falkirk Wheel and the kids were excited about the 'giant robot'. The weather was a bit miserable but we were well prepared in our hats, gloves & wellies.

Refusing to pose nicely for a photograph!

Captured on the sly in between silly faces!

Going through the tunnel!

After our boat tour, which lasted about an hour, we had lunch in the cafe.

The choice of food was good and everything was reasonably priced.

The kids had a lunch box each with 5 items (£3.95) and R & I had a baked potato each with cajun chicken (£4.95). R also had the soup, which was really good (£3.95). We also tried the chocolate muffins & they were yum! 

Baked potato with cajun chicken and side salad

We then jumped back in the car & headed to Muiravonside Country Park (The Loan, Whitecross, EH49 6LW), which took about 30 minutes.

It wasn't signposted very well and we drove past the entrance when we arrived, having to reverse back along the road, but I've been told the signage will be improved over the coming weeks.

The park is massive (170 acres) and unfortunately we didn't have enough time to explore it properly. We did have a walk round the animals at Newparks Farm...plenty of chickens, ducks, geese, four large pigs, a horse, llamas, cows (which were hiding!), a bull, sheep, and a few donkeys. As well as the park, the farm is free to access. The forest walk reminded me of my own childhood & I'll definitely go back when the weather is warmer. The park also has a cafe.

I've been told that the River Avon Heritage Trail around the park past the historic Avon Aqueduct is a must-see.

{Avon Aqueduct}

Littlest enjoying the outdoors!

The llamas

Our final stop was Callendar House, which was a 20 minute drive from Muiravonside. Admission to the house is free.

{Callendar House}

The house is a short walk from the car park through the park (the kids play park, Callendar Castle, looks good fun) and upon arrival we headed straight to the tea rooms. We sat in the window and had a lovely view over the park. I had an earl grey tea and a scone, R had a coffee (Java, very strong) and a scone, the kids had a pot of hot chocolate and a chocolate biscuit. The tea was lovely, as was the scone but my portion of jam was a little measly and it would have been amazing with some clotted cream. We then explored the house, although it was near closing and so we didn't get to see all the exhibits.

Chocolate biscuit was demolished quickly - thumbs up from the eldest :)

Alex Frost exhibition at The Park Gallery. These dog beds have been digitally printed to look like nappies and baby wipes... meant to represent that to some owners, their dogs are like children.

We had a great day out in Falkirk and definitely recommend the places we visited. 

If, like me, you've not really investigated Falkirk before, then you'll also be excited to hear about The Helix which is newly opened. 

The Splash Playzone will be reopening in the Spring... it features 15 jets and 6 mist sprays!

{Splash Playzone}

There's also the Helix Park with pathways round the lagoon, shingle beach and the Great Lawn. And in the summer the visitor centre will open.

All in all, there's lots to see & do.

So, what do you reckon? Worth a visit? We think so!

We received a complimentary day trip to Falkirk including our tour on the Falkirk Wheel, lunch in the cafe and afternoon tea at Callendar House. Opinions, as always, are my own and are honest.