Happy 3rd Birthday, Poj

Thursday 31 May 2012

Today is a very special day, as it is our little man's third birthday. The day was all about him so we asked him what he wanted to do.

We initially wanted to take him to a nearby soft play gym but he said he wanted to go swimming, so that's what we did. If Papa E didn't have to go to an important meeting at work, we wanted to go to Alton Towers water park and stay there overnight. He loved the pools there as well as the kiddie water rides when we went there before. We decided to go to Romsey Rapids instead. My colleague always rave about the place coz he takes his boys there after work when his wife is working on the late shift. 

And since today is a weekday, we practically had the pool to ourselves. Poj had lots of fun swimming back and forth in the pool. No wonder he was already tired and sleepy after just swimming for 2 hours. We're so proud at how confident he is on the water, going from one end of the pool to the other with just his swim armbands. 

We also planned to have a little picnic at the park in the afternoon but he wanted to go home instead, to play with the new paint stuff that we gave him in the morning. I wish I am creative enough to be able to encourage him how to do it properly but he seems to be fine by simply making random strokes on a piece of paper =)

In the evening he told us that he had a great day and we are so pleased. Happy 3rd Birthday, Jace Ethan! Ama and Ina loves you so much =)

I'll be posting more photos of his day tomorrow on my KP blog. 

Family Day Out

Monday 30 April 2012

Papa E took the day off today (& tomorrow) for an extended Ina's birthday celebration. And since the weather is still the same today as it has been for all the days this month, it again rained pretty much the whole day. Hence why we decided to go swimming instead.

We went to this waterpark that one of my colleagues suggested that  we try out, the Splashdown waterpark in Poole. It was an hour drive away and we headed out there right after lunch. According to their website they are open today from 2 to 9pm. We were early so we decided to check out the area. The waterpark was within this commercial centre called Tower Park. There are a lot on offer such us kids play area, bowling, bingo, gym, amusement centre, 16 screen cinema and plenty of places to eat. And as a bonus, free parking for all their customers!  

The waterpark was bigger than I expected. They have a basic kiddie pool which was about 2 meters deep which Poj enjoyed a lot. Then there was another toddler pool which has a beginner flume and a small slide and water pistons that kids could play with. The water on this one was less than 1 meter deep. They have outdoor and indoor pools as they are open for the whole year and has 12 different flume rides for all the thrill seekers out there. But we stayed mostly on the surprisingly big jacuzzi which they call spa pool. It was big enough for Poj to swim about!   We were there til almost 6pm, an indication that Poj had a wonderful time.    

We also tried one of the restaurants in the area before our drive home.   All in all it was a fantastic family day =) And we have David to thank for suggesting this place to us, thanks David!

Bank Holiday Monday

Today is a Bank Holiday Monday and the last day of the Easter weekend. We celebrated it by going to a nearby indoor fun pool for a swim. The place is called Romsey Rapids, it was suggested to us by my colleague who frequents this place with his two boys. It is a gym/spa/with fun swimming pools that are open not just to it's members but also to the public for a reasonable fee. My colleague raves about it a lot so we decided to give it a go coz we don't want to go anywhere because of the crappy weather (cold, grey & to top it off, non-stop rain!). But there was a long queue at the lobby when we got there and we were informed that they operate a colour-wrist band system during busy times such as today. It means you are guaranteed an hour of play/swim time and they regulate this from the colour of your wrist band. At this point we were contemplating on just turning around and giving up on the idea - but thought we give it a try coz we haven't gort a plan B today!

We had over an hour before our turn so we went for lunch at their cafe and waited for our colour (yellow) to be called. At this point we were not impressed at all as there were a lot of people everywhere and the crowd was growing. Also Poj didn't like the WC and said they were smelly =( 
But when we got in there were a lot of lockers and shower rooms and the pools were not overly crowded. It was obviously a lot smaller than the one we usually we go to (which is a 4 hour drive away) but this one is cheaper and closer. We noticed that the water was not heated enough but Poj had a lot of fun nonetheless. He also liked the flume and even asked to go at it twice. The hour was up before we knew it so Poj was bitin but there is no way I'm paying for another session, not when I saw that there are still a lot of people waiting for their turn, not to mention the people at the lobby! 
Verdict? I'm glad we tried it and we'll certainly come again but next time on a week day and probably early in the morning =)

After the swim, we went to town centre to buy some stuff for our trip next week and to have dinner. On the way home Poj asked to ride on this coin-op 4x4. This is new coz the last time we were here they had a Thomas train which Poj always plays with. The special thing with this car is that it was made in the Philippines, look at the website on the car (www.zamperla.ph). Kakatuwa naman & it makes me proud whenever I see Philippine products making it to the UK at hindi na lang puro galing China. =)

All in all we had a fab day. We are now keeping our fingers crossed that the weather brightens up for Papa E's birthday party and more importantly for our holiday.