dawniebrown

dawniebrown

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Adventure Valley, Durham

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Adventure Valley in Durham is only ten minutes drive from our house and so is somewhere we frequently visit. This is a relatively new attraction and since we started visiting there last year, the number of attractions available has grown considerably.

Prices for Adventure Valley are currently £7.45 (peak) and £5.95 (off peak) for a day ticket for Adults and Children (under 2′s are free!). You can buy an annual ticket for £39.95 which gives unlimited use which is what we have done as we go there so frequently. There are additional costs for some rides such as £2 for a pony ride, £1 for coin operated cars and £1 for a barrel ride but everything else is included in the price.

Adventure Valley is split into various zones with different activities in each area. There is plenty to do when it is raining so bad weather doesn’t necessarily mean a ruined visit :)

Indoor Activities include a large soft play area and a toddler play area. This is situated in a large building with a cafe and plenty of seating for parents to have a coffee. Now Zara is only little so the big soft play area is a little too much for her (she doesn’t think so!) so we try and confine her to the toddler area. This isn’t the hugest area but with a slide and various things to do, it will keep her occupied for a while. Of course mummy has to go play with her and you’ll frequently see me zooming down the slide with her (and sometimes Oscar).

Got my hands full!

Fun in the soft play

Now I have to admit, the food from the cafe is a bit disappointing for vegetarians. We were pretty limited when it came to sandwich choice but to be honest most of the time we just get a coffee and a muffin which are perfectly fine :)

Also indoors is the cute animal barn with lots of cute (and some not so cute) animals to feed, cuddle and sometimes handle. Zara loves looking in here and she especially loves the giant rabbit :)

ooh oink oinks!

Whats in here then?

yikes Daddy, that llama doesn't look very friendly!

There is also the Busy Bees Barn which has a giant sand pit to play in which we love.

When the weather is nicer we love being outdoors as much as possible, there is absolutely loads to do for toddlers and older children.

looking at the animal paddocks

panning for gold (change of clothes recommended!)

riding in the cars with Daddy (£1 coin operated!)

Bouncing on the jumping pillows!

Riding a cow!

and even Oscar gets to play with us some times :)

Everytime we visit Adventure Valley we find more things that Zara is interested in, from bouncy castles to birds of prey displays. Throughout the day there are various events taking place from hamster racing to pig washing so there is always something to watch. We tend to only visit in afternoons as we are so close and as we have annual tickets there is no pressure to stay all day (and usually with 2 tiny tots a long visit is too tiring for them) but if you were to go for a whole day there would be plenty to keep you occupied. Adventure Valley is definitely recommended by the Brown family and I think it’s pretty much guaranteed that we will be renewing our annual passes next year :)

Silent Sunday

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Silent Sunday

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I’m a Britax Mumbassador!

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Forgive me for being a little over excited, but it’s just been announced that I am one of three new Britax Mumbassadors! Having two children aged 6 months and 20 months means that safety is a pretty high priority in our household and so I am chuffed that I am going to be working with Britax. Whenever I think of Britax, it is always safety that springs to mind. I have to admit I am more familiar with their car seats at present but they also do a range of pushchairs.

Our first mission will be to roadtest their brand new B-AGILE pushchair, it hasn’t even hit the shops over here yet so we will be one of the first people in the UK to be trying it out :)

The Britax B-AGILE

Anyone who knows me, will know I am a little pushchair obsessed so it will be interesting to see how well the B-AGILE stands up to my high expectations. It will be getting a thorough road test here in Durham with all the cobbled streets, small shops and not to forget the gravel tracks where I go walking around my house and with all the hills round here it will have to be light to push as well! Of course the B-AGILE is a single pushchair and you may have noticed I have 2 children I need to wheel around but whilst Zara is in nursery, I’m usually out and about with just Oscar so a single pushchair is still very much a necessity during the week :) Stay tuned to see how we get on with the B-AGILE and whether it gets the Brown household seal of approval!

You can follow Britax on their facebook page and on twitter and you can find out more about them on their website

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Silent Sunday

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Silent Sunday

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I’ve been shopping!

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Bear with me but I’m a little excited as after months of just wearing my old maternity clothes, I have finally got round to going shopping and buying a few new clothes :) Unfortunately I have nobody here to show them off to at the moment and so I thought I’d post some pics here to show them off :) When I say “shopping” I of course mean it in the “sitting on my sofa with a cup of tea and my iphone” type of shopping as I just don’t like going into shops and with 2 small children it is pretty much impossible!

I’ll start by saying these are all from Next as it is one of my favourite shops, and I’ll just clarify that they haven’t asked me to write this post, I’m doing it because I want to show off all my new clothes :) I am however part of their blogger network which you can check out by clicking on the badge on the left sidebar of the blog :)

As you will probably be able to tell from the following photos, I’m very happy that my favourite colour seems to be in trend this autumn/winter and so I’ve gone a little mad buying things (and yes they do coordinate with my bedroom aswell lol but as I said it IS my favourite colour!)

A stripey blue number

Teal spotty top :)

Teal and Navy Stripey Top

Teal top with scarf

Something that isn't teal (I thought I'd be brave!)

A little present I got from Next for a previous post - and no animals were harmed in making this! I am veggie remember!

And I just couldn’t resist these shoes, completely impractical for mum duties but they ARE my favourite colour ;)

Shoe Love!

I think that little lot will keep me going for a little while at least, now I just need to have a major wardrobe clearout and make space for it all :)

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My new party dress!

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I’m frequently sent lovely items to review for Zara and Oscar but it makes a lovely change when I’m asked to choose and review something for myself :)

The lovely people at Kaleidoscope recently contacted me and asked just that, would I like to choose something from their website to receive and review? I of course snapped their hand off and spent some time browsing their site trying to decide what to choose.

In practical mum mode, I was tempted with jeans, jumpers and my usual staple wardrobe items but in a flash of inspiration I decided to treat myself to a lovely new party dress because it’s at least 4 years since I last bought one and everyone deserves to have a little bit of glamour in their wardrobe ;)

Kaleidoscope have some gorgeous party dresses and I decided to go for this one? Do you like it? I opted for blue because everyone needs a little black dress but black tends to make me look a little washed out whereas dark blue is much softer on my skin tone :) I love how on their website they have videos of real people in real sized clothes wearing the dress so you can get an idea of what it looks like when not on a size 4, 6ft tall model :)

Oh I suppose I should show you what it looks like on me :) I don’t exactly do it the justice that the model above does but I think I can pull it off!

 

 

Do you like it? Right now I need to find an excuse to get my husband to take me somewhere nice so I can wear it :) Pop on over to Kaleidoscope to have a look and see what other beautiful things they have on offer :)

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School Run Mums – An apology!

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I’m sorry! I feel the need to apologise as it appears I’ve had to revise my views :)

To set the scene, I will take you back around 5 years to my horsey days. Many an hour was spent drinking manky tea in dusty tack rooms sheltering from the rain and one of our most frequent topics of conversation was the school run mum.

You see back then (pre children) a 4×4 (or SUV) was a practical tool, they were to be used for towing horse trailers, driving out to the fields and carting bales of straw around. A 4×4 was supposed to be full of horse hair and straw, it was supposed to be covered in mud both inside and out. A 4×4 without a tow bar was like a horse with no saddle -pointless!

Oh how we mocked the school run mums in their shiny 4x4s that they couldn’t drive properly, that had never been off road in their lives and that probably didn’t even know how to turn it into 4×4 mode.

5 years on, my horsey days are no more (for now) but I’ve found myself buying a nice shiny 4×4 and I’ve become one of the mums I used to mock. You see I have 2 children under 2, when we go anywhere in the car it is a military operation. An overnight stay involves 2 travel cots, a portable highchair, a double pushchair, nappies and supplies for 2 and of course all the other 1001 supplies needed and that is before we actually manage to squeeze in some clothes and toiletries for me and the husband. I soon discovered that with our old small car, trips away were a thing of the past and we needed something bigger if we were ever going to leave the house again.

The decision to go for a 4×4 was also made following two bad winters in our village, our road is like an icerink and we’ve been snow bound a few times. I remember glancing out of the window enviously at the 4x4s going past the house as my little car was buried under 2ft of snow and going nowhere fast.

So ladies of the school run, I’ve joined you! I’m one of the 4×4 brigade! I don’t have a horse or a trailer to tow (but I do have a tow bar) and my car is full of biscuit crumbs, baby wipes and toys rather than mud and horse hair. I have only been off road once (albeit driving across a field at a car boot sale) and it will probably never snow again now but the deed is done!

One small point though – I can park mine like a pro, can you? ;)

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Silent Sunday

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Silent Sunday

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Spot the Difference

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Oscar aged 6 months approx

Zara aged 5 months approx

The older Oscar gets the more he reminds me of Zara. In fact we showed Zara a video of herself aged 6 months in the highchair this morning and she kept pointing and saying Oscar! Oscar! lol The only sure fire giveaway is the eye colour of course, I think if Oscar didn’t have those bright blue eyes people really wouldn’t be able to tell the photos of them apart :)

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And so it begins – baby led weaning and Oscar

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Well we are a week away from Oscar turning 6 months and he is starting to show an interest in food and so I’ve decided it’s time to start baby led weaning with him. We had fantastic results doing blw with Zara and we started with her around this age so let the fun begin :)

Now I’m not expecting him to really eat anything for a while yet but I’ll be giving him the option and if he picks up the food and eats it fine, if not then no worries he will when he is ready. The whole point with blw is that you wait for them to do it and not force the pace :)

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