Fortress Fun at Warwick Castle this February Half Term! @warwickcastle #halfterm #britishhistory #familydaysout

f you are stuck for a day out this half term then Warwick Castle could provide all the answers! 

What is there to do?

We have visited many times and it is definitely a family favourite! The boys have been going since they were little, racing around with swords in hand and joining in the Knight school but still love the many attractions for all ages.

Horrible Histories maze 

The Horrible Histories Maze takes you on a journey through time from Vikings to World War – love a bit of educational fun! 

The Castle Dungeons

This is for children aged 10+ and the first time we had done it as a family. It is an extra £9 each on top of the standard Castle entry but for 45 minutes of entertainment it is worth it to keep the tweens and teens occupied! 

We have been to York, London and Blackpool Dungeons and Warwick Castle Dungeons do not disappoint. There is lots of humour mixed in with the frightening and horror fuelled stories. As you travel through the Dungeons you meet characters in different experiences from kitchen boy dismembering the recently deceased doctor to witches on trial to plague ridden townspeople. The acting is superb and the experience exhilarating. If you don’t like enclosed spaces and being plunged into darkness regularly then avoid!!

Winter birds of prey

This incredible show takes place in the new arena which is located close to the Trebauche. Don’t miss seeing these magnificent birds in action! It is definitely one of my must sees!

Castle tours

Throughout the day there are lots of tours you can join to learn more about the history of Warwick Castle.

The Mighty Trebuchet

This has to be one of the highlights of the day for the boys! The atmosphere is tense as you find yourself whisked back in time to learn all about the role of the trebuchet in Warwick Castle’s history.  

As well as these attractions you can explore the grounds, walk the Castle Towers and Ramparts, visit the Time Tower and the Princess Tower, Kingmaker, watch the amazing Bowman show and try your hand at archery yourself.

Have you visited Warwick Castle? What is your favourite part?

There is always something good to do at Warwick Castle and the fun is ever changing! Just in time for the Easter holidays sees the new show, The Falconer’s Quest arrive on 6 April. This will feature 70 high flying Birds of Prey take to the skies with an amazing display of aerial acrobatics. We really can’t wait to see that!

Glamping at Warwick Castle @warwickcastle #knightsvillage #kingstent #britishhisory #wotrl #halfterm

Camping is one of our favourite things to do as the weather gets warmer. We have also done a spot of glamping – a more glamorous way to camp – adding a touch of luxury to outdoor living!

Warwick Castle has built its own Knight’s Village, which is a brilliant way to get the full-on experience of life at the castle. We visited last year and stayed in one of the lodges, for Noah’s 8th birthday. We had great fun and for the price, you also get two days entry via the VIP gate to the castle. It is just a five-minute walk from the castle and has its own car park which, if staying in the village, is free.

As well as the wooden lodges is the Avenue of the Kings where the King’s and Princess’s glamping tents are sited. This runs parallel to the river so sitting outside the tent you have a lovely view of families of ducks and geese passing by and also some outdoor space to play. We were invited to spend a night in one of the King’s Tents. Here is what we thought!

The Tent

The tent itself is made from sturdy canvas and is fastened down securely with a wooden base.

Inside there is a four poster bed and two single beds with fresh white linen and cosy blankets. It is very comfortable and welcoming and sets the scene for a regal overnight stay in luxury.We all slept really well and as the tent is lined with drapes (which adds the glamour and takes away the feeling of being in a tent) this offered some black out and also insulation. There isn’t any heating in the tent and it can be a bit nippy in the mornings so worth bringing an extra layer if you feel the cold.

There are also lights and a power socket. There is a storage chest to place bags in out of the way and a chair which can be taken outside.

At the front of the tent is a throne to sit on which has a cushion for extra comfort. There is also a barrel which serves as a table/storage and a chess table. The chess pieces (I am guessing) can be provided by reception which also has board games for hire at a deposit of £2. We didn’t use this facility as we were so busy!

 

Facilities on the site

Communal toilets and showers are available for users of the glamping tents in a heated block on the site. The showers were lovely and hot and there was plenty of room to store your towel etc in the cubicle. You do have to keep pressing the button to keep the water coming which is common on campsites. Towels are provided in the tent although don’t forget toiletries!

There is free wifi that can be accessed across the site.

A buffet breakfast is available (and included in the price) where you can eat like royalty. There is also unlimited hot drinks which can be accessed anytime during your stay. You can take drinks back to your accommodation if you want to.

Each evening a medieval feast is served which includes entertainment provided by two knights from the castle. This costs around £60 for two adults and two children. It is definitely worth doing as it is so different and unique to Warwick Castle.

On this occasion we didn’t join in with this, as we had done it before, and instead took a short drive into Warwick where we tucked into a delicious feast at Warwick Spice.

The next morning there was archery available after breakfast which children could have a go at. The boys loved this – and even managed a few bullseyes!

What did we think?

Warwick Castle is such a great day out and even though we have visited countless times we never tire of all that is going on as there is always something new!

As well as enjoying the latest addition to the activities – the Escape Rooms, the highlight for us was the War of the Roses Live is a brilliant show reenacting the happenings in the English Civil War between the Houses of York and Lancaster finally leading to the beginning of the House of Tudor. It is fun, educational and accessible and suitable for all the family.

Staying over at the castle really is the icing on the cake and for real luxury and comfort we would recommend the Knight’s Village for all the extra treats. With a choice of the lodges or the glamping tents, I think the glamping tents do add the element of something different which is always good to experience.

We did wonder why there were only two chairs in the King’s tent when the accommodation is for four, but this wasn’t a major issue as the boys were out playing or chilled out on the beds. it would have been nice to have the option of extra seating however if we wanted to play a family board game outside.

For the full experience of Warwick Castle then a stay in the Knight’s Village really is essential.

If glamping is just your thing then check out this wonderful post from Our Bucket List Lives where you will find a great selection of glamping options all over the UK!

Escape Room Fun at Warwick Castle @WarwickCastle #WOTRL #britainsultimatecastle

Escape Rooms are a fabulous family activity which is perfect as the kids get older. The idea is you are locked in a room and have to use teamwork to puzzle out the clues and find your way out!

Warwick Castle have their own Escape Rooms open this May half term. They are located in the Castle Gaol, between the Dungeons and Kingmaker. The Gaol is spooky enough, knowing it’s history, where prisoners were left to perish!

You have up to 30 minutes in the room but when we arrived the record for that day had been 19 minutes 20 seconds to escape! So a challenge was set!

Up to six people take part in the activity at one time and we were joined by another couple of people. It was dark in the dungeon (obvs!) so photos not great but here are some of the clues…

The story is that a knight, who is needed to save the castle, has been locked in the Gaol by a rogue Baddie! We need to find the keys that will help him escape and also help us escape from the Room!

The room is dark and gloomy with little light and the locked up Knight appears in chains, telling us his tale. The team were straight to work finding patterns to unlock all of the many boxes in the hope of finding the keys and more clues!

The boys did really well in working out puzzles and riddles and freed the Knight and got out of the Escape Room is just over 17 minutes setting a new record! Not bad work!

It was definitely a thrilling experience and something different to try with the kids as they start to grow out of the Knights and Princesses activities!

Warwick Castle is a fantastic day out. Don’t miss the brilliant Wars of the Roses, and Flight of the Eagles show as well as lots more!

We spent the night in the Knight’s Village in one of the new King’s Tents – check out our write up here!

 

More exciting stuff is in the pipeline – Dragon Slayer is a new nighttime show launching 3 August for eight dates. In the show you witness a spectacular battle, combining projection and light show, pyrotechnics, fire jousting and live action stunts.

We have visited Warwick Castle at night, on Halloween,  and the atmosphere was electric.

Tickets are on sale now at early bird rate of £15 for show only (dining packages also available) and, particularly for bigger kids and adults, it’s going to be amazing!

Warwick Castle birthday sleepover! @warwickcastle #familytravel #daysout

Noah has recently turned 8 years old and to celebrate we booked a night in a Knight’s Lodge at one of my favourite places, Warwick Castle.

We have visited many times so know the timetable pretty well! We kicked off our first day watching the Mightly Trebuchet, basically a giant catapult which really gets you into the medieval mood! We then went to watch the Birds of Prey display which was stunning as always. After this we had a wander round to the Horrible Histories maze and had a fun time stamping our card. I think they had moved things around since we were there last but that might be my really poor sense of direction!

Before heading to our Knight’s Lodge we watched the archery which was really good as it was a different archer to the one we have seen before. All good fun!

The Knight’s Lodges are located just along from the trebuchet field. They are cosy huts with a double bed, tv, cupboard and desk in the room with an adjacent room with bunk beds and a separate shower room.

 

We booked the medieval dinner at night which was a brilliant experience. The food was delicious – a choice of starters followed by chicken, gammon and lamb with vegetables and then a choice of desserts. There was also entertainment in the form of two knights who chatted to everyone eating and then put on a sword fighting show which the boys loved!

After a brilliant day and fantastic evening we were ready for a good nights sleep.

The boys loved the fantastic wall mural in their bedroom – lots of talking points!

 

The next day we had a delicious breakfast and then went for a walk around the castle walls as we havent done that for ages.

We when had a lovely afternoon in Stratford and visited the MAD museum – a lovely little place full of buttons to press and mechanial ingenuity!

What a way to kick off the 8th birthday celebrations!

 

Outdoor adventures and staying happy! #TearsIntoSmiles @britmums @warwickcastle @ntbeltonhouse #weloveforests

Outdoor play is really where it is at. Boisterous, loud, crazy, fun outdoor play!

It was instinctive to me to get the boys outside and playing in the park, by the seaside or on countryside walks. Like little puppies the fresh air and physical exercise has definitely benefited their development, motor skills, flexibility, balance and coordination. They have learnt so many new skills and grown in confidence just from outdoor play.

All this, often rough, play does have a downside and needless to say they can end up with injuries – thankfully usually minor! As they get older, and have fine tuned their balancing skills and slowed down a little, these scrapes have definitely reduced. However there is always the risk of someone getting over adventurous or taking a tumble,  which no matter how minor is still heart breaking for the parent as well as the child!

 Elastoplast, the name in quality, tried and tested products from plasters and wound dressings through to original products that offer relief from foot problems, sport injuries, pains and strains, set us a challenge to write a post about how we turn those tears from a cut or graze into smiles and usually very soon back to play.

Here are some of our tried and tested “cheerups”!

• Take some time out to listen to your child telling you how they feel – how the injury happened and where it hurts.
• A cuddle definitely helps no matter what age you are!
• Have some time out with a drink or a snack.
• Give the injury a little pat with a clean wet wipe (or let the child do this if it is really sore!).
• When the boys were younger we used to find giving the step or whatever had caused the injury a telling off (in a serious but jokey way) helped them forget about it!
• Telling the child how incredibly brave they are!

Any or all of these tips usually has them back up and on their feet quickly especially when they see their friends having fun without them.

Some cool plasters with fun designs are also always going to help in soothing over a scratch and is guaranteed to put a smile back on the face of someone feeling a bit sorry for themselves.

How cool are the ones with Sven on! And as for Yoda! Of course you know with Elastoplast these are going to be the best plasters around – they stick easily and and don’t fall off after a minute to ensure that your injury is kept clean and protected until it is well healed.

Check our this adorable video of turning those tears into smiles!

Did you know that since 1924, Elastoplast’s 200 tried and tested products and innovations,  have been sold in six countries across the world: Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, New Zealand, South Africa and the United Kingdom!

Do you have any tips for cheering up a child who has hurt themselves having fun outside?

This post is an entry for the BritMums #TearsintoSmiles Challenge, sponsored by Elastoplast. http://campaigns.elastoplast.net/plastermoments/uk”

Silent Sunday 14/08/16 #warwickcastle

Three of our favourite #family days out in the #autumn @forestholidays #30daysofautumn

Autumn, autumn, autumn – well we are now firmly in its midst with the beautiful autumn colours, heating cranked up and hot water bottles out!

This year we bought Merlin passes and visited Warwick Castle to experience their Halloween activities. Luckily we have been before and we have done lots of the regular attractions there as I think if we were just there for a day we would have felt a little overwhelmed there was so much to choose from!

As well as watching the amazing and majestic Birds of Prey display there was a fantastic sword fight with the Highwayman himself (here are the boys meeting him and his fellow accomplices) and lots of other Halloween activities

The boys are a little on the young side for some of the events but they really enjoyed the ghostly storytelling which wasn’t scary so much as sinister. Told in the atmospheric castle, really added an air of spookiness and excitement to it!

Noah and I had a little walk around the castle walls playing at being real life castle knights and shooting the badies.

The boys also enjoyed the Halloween trail that was definitely more treat than trick!

The highlight of a visit to Warwick Castle is always watching the mighty Trebauchet launch the fireball and as the castle was open late until 9pm it was brilliant to watch the spectacle at night in the dark. We also managed to bag some great seats at the bottom of the hill so we could watch all the action. It was awesome!

A second place that is perfect to visit in the Autumn for all the family is Donna Nook Nature Reserve in Lincolnshire where, every late October to early December, seals come to the beaches to birth their seals and then a few weeks later breed. We visited recently and it was a truly magical experience. There is a little quiz for primary school children to fill in and get a prize and lots of information boards along the beach route. Parking in the main car park is free and the overflow costs £2. As the reserve is run by the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust donations are very much welcomed!

The autumn is of course not complete without a visit to the beautiful Sherwood Pines.  In the Spring we visited to try out the  Gruffalo trail and currently there is the Gruffalo’s Child trail which is there until February 2015. I love going to the forest in the Autumn to blow off the cobwebs and see the stunning array of colours.  Here is one of our posts from shockingly enough two years ago – I absolutely adore these photographs!

Sherwood Pines is top of our list of places to visit soon as it is a perfect family day out!

Here are some photos of the boys with their cousins taken on a recent visit..

If you would rather stay indoors here are a few autumnal foodies treats to enjoy – yummy bonfire toffee and delicious pumpkin soup!

 

This post was inspired by the Forest Holidays 30 Days of Autumn project which has some brilliant ideas for fun family Autumn activities.

 

 

Knights in Training @Warwickcastle #legocastle

Warwick Castle is a brilliant family day out at the best of times and with Lego Castle providing extra fun we were thrilled to be invited to try out the new theme.

The boys have a Playmobil castle which they play with lots and they love anything to do with knights, sword fights and battles so I knew that Lego Castle would quickly grab their imagination! No surprises there!

With Lego you know you are buying quality and a product that will be played with over and over again. So it is a great investment with the kits offering an age range of 7-12 (five years worth of playing!). We all know that we can’t resist a Lego kit ourselves!

The detail is also exceptional on the pieces with movable walls and stacks of other features to guarantee lots of fun. The sets are priced reasonably starting at £7.99 for the Forest Ambush set which has kept our two amused for hours. Possibly the only disappointing thing is the lack of female figures (as mentioned by Penny from Alexander Residence who was there too with her family). The knights could be androgynous though I guess!

Warwick Castle is the perfect place to host the Lego Castle launch. As well as the Lego play areas you can also do the Lego Castle Dragon egg hunt where you follow the clues to find the location of the final egg (and chocolate coins!).

There is also lots going on over the Summer including  Horrible Histories providing educational fun (loved the Victorian school, which reminded us of our day at Wilderspin!).and all the usual attractions at Warwick Castle such as bird of prey, jousting, Merlin, Kingmaker, Castle Dungeons (for ages 10+) and the mighty Trebauchet.

Ethan took part in the Knight School where he had training from an experienced Knight and practiced his moves on a wooden post wrapped with rope. He slept VERY well that night!

It was great to see the lots of friendly bloggers there too including  Erica, enjoying a chilled day out as well.

Check out more fun we had at Warwick Castle when we met Mike the Knight here and more Lego fun at the Space Centre here.

Thank you again to Elyssa for arranging a brilliant day!

 

Disclaimer: we received a complimentary Lego Forest Ambush set and admission to Warwick Castle but all views and opinions are our own.

 

Mike the Knight at Warwick castle

Warwick Castle is a pretty special castle. It is a really well preserved and the £6 million investment and last ten years of restoration have really paid off. We last visited when Ethan was only a baby so neither of the kids had any recollection of going.

The boys love Mike the Knight, even Ethan though he is now six years old and is starting to wane with a lot of Cbeebies programmes, he still loves to watch Mike with his four year old brother. Here is a blog post we did of Ethan in his Mike the Knight shirt.

Anyway that same shirt came out for this very special day when Mike the Knight took over Warwick Castle to celebrate the launch of the show’s 2nd series and we were thrilled to be invited along to join in the fun.

There were lots of extra activities going on to celebrate Mike’s presence as well as guest photo opportunities from the man himself including horse racing, magic from his sister Evie, face painting, sand castle building, and target practice. We spent the whole of the morning in this area trying out everything and the kids had great fun.

After a sandwich lunch we headed into the castle courtyard which was bustling with people enjoying the sunshine.

The kids were really keen to walk the castle walls and towers. There are over 500 steps in completing this and it is all one way. You could see where the archers had stood defending the castle and the fantastic views of the surrounding countryside that would have offered the soldiers a view of advancing enemies.

Next up the Warwick Warriors were putting on a sword fight in the central courtyard so we settled down with icecream to watch the show. The boys were transfixed!

I love watching birds of prey putting on a display so was really looking forward to the Flight of the Eagles. The birds fly down from the trees or the castle tempted by offers of food. First off was a beautiful six month old owl native to South Africa, who was hatched and raised in England. He was beautiful and majestic. Next up was a bald eagle who skimmed over the heads of the crowds. At this point Noah decided he had had enough so I took him off to the Princess Tower (I had already picked up some tickets for a timed slot). It was hot and he was fidgety so I thought he might like this.

The Princess Tower involves knights and princesses aged 2 to 8 years getting dressed up, having their photos taken on a green screen background (you can then choose your preferred background). They then go into the princesses’ chambers for a story about one of the princesses who was getting married to a Justin Bieber lookalike prince. The children are shown her wedding dress and chose accessories for her outfit. They played a few other games and although it was very girly Noah did enjoy it. At the end the children are offered a pea for them to put under their mattress to see if they are a princess. Noah is clearly a highly socialised boy and was shocked at the thought of being a princess so no pea for us!

We had also got some tickets for the Merlin show which cost £3.60 each (under 4s free) as we had heard this was good fun for the kids. Ethan has watched Merlin on occasions and loves the sword fights! We were led into the Dragon Tower and met one of Merlin’s assistants who gave us a comedy introduction to the interactive tour. When we met the dragon it singled out Noah and told him he was going to grow up to be a “brave and noble knight” which he absolutely loved (although was very shy at the time!)!

Finally (phew this day is going on for ever!) we headed to the Trebuchet Fireball show. This is just the best end to the best day as you watch a giant catapult hurtle a ball of flames across the sky.

We just had time for a quick play in the Pageants Pound which consists of lots of tunnels and slides and the kids could have happily stayed there for hour. There was still lots of the Castle we didn’t see but it is such an amazing day out we will definitely be back.

It was also lovely to meet, if only briefly, other bloggers Redpeffer, Missing Sleep, the boys from Alexander Residence, Mama Geek, Eileen and thank you to Emma for telling me about the day.

Thank you to Matthew and the team at HIT Entertainment for providing us with family entrance to the castle, lunch and Mike the Knight goody bags. It was a fabulous day!

There is still time to see Mike the Knight at Warwick Castle as he is there again this weekend, 6 and 7 July.