A day in Sherwood Forest.

You might have noticed that we are sporting a shiny new badge over there on the right. We’ve been rather lucky and become part of the Centerparcs Family Blogger Club for the year, thanks to winning a competition with the Tots100. Thanks to this Pinterest board (did I mention I love Pinterest?) we are going to be revisiting the gorgeous Elveden Forest next year for a midweek break.

Squeak 🙂

Bene and I set off on Wednesday for an intro day up at the Sherwood park; we have been to that one, back when I was pregnant with Freddie and I was slightly nervous about going back to be honest. The trip up was easy though (Newark Northgate is incredibly pretty as stations go and the East Coast mainline staff helped me carry Bene, carseat and bag on and off the train) and then ShinyRed met us with a cab to go to the park.

Once at the park, we got down to business.

No, no… I mean we listened to the lovely chap telling us all about our role for the year and chatted, looked at pretty boards etc.

Bene was particularly keen to take in the details.

My fellow bloggers and I appear to have a quite staggering quantity of children between us; at least 3 of us have 5 or 6 kids, which raised a grin. Perhaps they want to see how hard we can make those chalets work 😉

We were treated to a pottery painting excursion.

Nice lady…

Bad lady!!!!!!

I don’t know what I was thinking. I did hand print coasters to match the browns of our living room but it’s going to look like poo handprints!!!

It was a genuine pleasure to spend some time with the Evil Overlord herself.

And witness GeekMummy in proper crafty mode.

Fellow bloggers painting away.

After that we went to the Foresters Restaurant for lunch (yum 🙂 ) and then a wander around the park, taking a special look at the drool worthy tree houses that are newly there in the accommodation area.

Sadly we don’t get our week in these! Totally lovely looking, like something American kids have in films, with 4 bedrooms, an upstairs and a games room across a walkway. WANT!!!!!

Then it was time for home; the PRs from ShinyRed escorted us back via cab and we caught the train by the skin of our teeth with Sarah literally holding the train for us (thank you again East Coast, while Jenny and I legged it across the bridge with carseat, pushchair and two 9 month olds! Oh, and goodie bags. Best goodie bags ever 😉

Really great day; we have fun blogging and enjoying a few perks, but that was up there with the best of days for sheer thoughtful friendliness 🙂 I can’t wait to go now, especially as we get bikes, a family activity, a grocery pack AND to take a family with us (in my case, my sister and co).

Keep an eye out; we’ll be partaking of challenges through the year as part of the deal and it might just be worth your while to join in 😉