FAMILY FRIENDLY ACTIVITIES, INSPIRATION FOR DAYS OUT & LOTS OF FUN
FAMILY FRIENDLY ACTIVITIES, INSPIRATION FOR DAYS OUT & LOTS OF FUN
A friend was out in Uddingston the other day, and went to Jollytots and Cookies with her daughter. She very kindly wrote a great review for the page. Thank you so much Aileen! Here it is! Cost It costs £3 for an hour and a half play time. Pretty standard for soft play but there’s not as …
I couldn’t stop reading the Blessed By Brenna blog when I came across it a few weeks ago. Beautifully written about a beautiful family with a beautiful little girl. This post though, it really stuck with me. So I thought I’d share.
I love Montgomery’s Cafe. In the pre-child lives of my husband and I, it was our little local. Breakfast, lunch, cake, whatever.
The Cafe
I took the little lady today for lunch, and as usual, the food was delicious. Their soup is always amazing. Today we had carrot, ginger & lime, and it certainly hit the right spot with the little lady; she finished an entire bowl (a bowl the size of her head). With bread of course. I’m a fan of a good bit of homemade bread, and Montgomery’s make all theirs in house in the morning. You can tell. Because it’s seriously tasty.
They do really yummy sandwiches, hot meals and it’s a really nice place to breakfast (eggs benedict = winner). Their specials board is worth checking out, and they have a small children’s menu with a couples of toasties, sandwiches & kids soup bowl. I never noticed the kids soup option, hence the gigantic bowl.
Their ice cream is damn delicious too. And it’s most definitely worth going just for a cuppa and one of their cakes. Super yum!
The staff are really nice. One even played peek-a-boo with the little lady for a while.
There isn’t a huge amount of space for prams, especially when it’s busy (which is quite frequently). And they don’t have that many high chairs; I only saw 2, but perhaps there were more somewhere.
The Verdict
The food is delicious. The homemade bread is amazing & their cakes are divine. The grub is reasonably priced too. The cafe isn’t gigantic, so I might leave the pram at home. But as long as you beat the lunch rush you’ll be grand.
Montgomery’s Cafe is at 9 Radnor St, Glasgow, G3 7UA
I saw a segment on daytime TV this morning (yes, I sometimes watch daytime TV – no shame in that) about whether having a child is an achievement. It was in response to an article in the Telegraph which responded to Rebecca Adlington saying that “bringing a new child into the world is without doubt …
We were at our lovely little music class this morning – First Steps to Music. We’ve been going for over a year now & my little lady loves it.
The Class
First Steps to Music is a music class created and run by Katie, an early years musician. It has lots of singing, lots of rhyming, shakers, puppets, drums, marching, teddies & violin playing.
The class is great fun for the little ones. It is relaxed & the kids love all the props that are used.
But it’s also very structured. I think that’s probably partly why my little lady has picked so much up from the class. She constantly sings, tunefully, (with just ‘la la la’s’ instead of words, mostly) the songs from the class at home. Her favourites are ‘Knock, knock, knock, Who’s in the box…’ (the ‘who’ is usually a finger puppet in the class, but she sings it to whomever has the audacity to lock the bathroom door at home), and ‘Lets go a-walking…’ (excellent for getting her to walk properly along a pavement!) The kids learn to tap along with a beat too, amongst other things. They learn pretty quickly what they’re supposed to do and at what point. It’s quite amazing to see actually!
The Cost
The class runs in terms & you need to book a term in advance. It works out at £5 per class.
The Verdict
Katie is great with the kids. The class is really fun for them, but at the same time you can almost see them learning!
Classes are quite small and as far as I can tell the people who start the class (including ourselves) tend to keep going for a long time. I think that pretty much says everything!
The Details
It’s on in St Mary’s Cathedral on Monday mornings, and in Wellington Church on Saturday mornings. (Both in the West End around Woodlands). There are baby, toddler & pre-school classes available.
All info can be found on the First Steps To Music website
We took a wee trip out to Bishopbriggs to meet a lovely mummy & toddler friend last week, and thought we’d all check out Play Town Soft Play whilst we were there.
The Play Area
The baby/toddler area is pretty good. There’s a little ball pool, quite a few toys, a soft see-saw & an area to clamber up & round to get to the slide. It’s easy enough for a toddler to get round, and there are plenty toys to entertain a tiny tot too.
The main play frame is great. There are 3 levels with bits to freely run around and a couple of slides, one of which ends in a big ball pool. There’s also a mini flying fox & quite a few different bits to climb around.
This was the first time my little lady ever wanted to play by herself in a soft play area :’-( so it gave me a slightly different perspective than I’ve had before. (I know, I’m becoming ever more obsolete with each passing day.) Anyway, the play frame is not huge, but a toddler (well, most toddlers – at least ones who haven’t the climbing abilities of Spiderman) can run around the different levels without getting to the big slides. That meant I could sit and have a chat, obviously whilst paying attention. It also meant that I could actually unclench a little and let her run around without worrying too much.
It was quiet when we were there. But it was a midweek morning when schools were in so that’s not surprising!
The Food
The food is pretty standard soft play food – there’s sandwiches, toasties, paninis, potatoes, soup… The usual suspects. The kids menu is not what I’d like to see, but I say the same thing about pretty much every soft play we go to. We had a panini, which actually was quite nice. It’s pretty reasonably priced too.
The Cost
It was £3.50 entry for us. It’s £4.50 for kids ages 4+ and £1 for babies up to age 1.
The Verdict
It was the perfect soft play for the toddler at this age (21 months). It was clean & the staff were friendly. I actually really liked it, and so did my little lady!
Play Town Soft Play is at 30 Wellington Road, Bishopbriggs
We took a wee trip to The Tall Ship a few days ago. I’d been planning on going for ages, so when we had nothing to do one dry morning I thought we’d check it out.
The Museum
It’s a lot bigger than I thought. Not being much of a seaman (with the exception of a few dinghy sailing lessons years ago) I wasn’t quite aware of how far under the water large boats actually go! There’s at least 3 levels to it (I got slightly lost at one point so there could be 4!) with different exhibits about the workings of a tall ship & how people lived & worked on one in the early 20th century throughout. There is a lift to get to pretty much everywhere (except the upper level of the top deck) so it has good pram access.
There are buttons to press, ropes to pull, videos to watch, bells to toll, stairs to climb, decks to scrub and plenty of space to run around in. My little lady’s favourite things were climbing oh so many stairs, and scrubbing the deck, which she did for about 15 minutes. Thinking about it now, the tall ship is a toddlers dream…
There is a (very) small soft play area for toddlers on the bottom level (sorry, the cargo hold) with a tunnel, some soft blocks & a mini-drawbridge to play on. It could definitely do with a bit of updating, but my little lady was perfectly happy to crawl/run around in it. It would entertain young toddlers for a while, but it’s not for kids older than about 4. There’s also a basket of dress up clothes here which are quite fun.
The Cafe
We only got tea and a scone which cost us £2.50. Good tea, and the scone was nice. They do have a decent selection of hot & cold food, but I can’t comment on how nice it might be! It all smelled nice though.
The Cost
It’s free. They ask on the way in if you’d like to buy a guidebook, but you don’t have to.
The Verdict
As with all of Glasgow’s museums, the Tall Ship doesn’t specifically cater to young children too much, but it does so (I think accidentally) better than a lot of the others. The little soft play area they have needs a bit of a facelift, but since it’s part of the whole experience you’re not going to spend too much time in it anyway.
From a toddler’s perspective, it’s absolutely worth a run around. And with it being right next to the Riverside Museum, you could make almost a whole day of it.
The Extra Bits
Opening hours are from 10am – 5pm, Monday to Sunday. And the Riverside Museum is right next to it if you’ve got some extra time to fill.
The top deck (with the deck scrubbers) is outdoors, so make sure you have weather appropriate clothing because your little ones will probably like this deck best.
The Tall Ship at Riverside is located at 150 Pointhouse Place, Glasgow, G3 8RS
Some of these are pretty good places for lunching with a bunch of prams too. Especially the ones that are slightly out of town, including West Brewery, Drygate, Clockwork, Waverley Tearooms (which also has a little soft play inside), Cottiers and Lock 27. And if you’re in town, Bier Halle and any of the other around Buchanan Street are pretty good too.
We’re allowed to do something that’s not JUST for the kids sometimes…!
A person’s a person, no matter how small.
Dr Seuss
We popped for a quick look into Merry-Go-Round Glasgow this afternoon. We were on our way past and it really would’ve been rude not to…! We came home with this beast of a buggy, a couple of really pretty little summer dresses, a Polern O Pyret top (my favourite kids brand) and some shoes. All …
“I don’t need you to be perfect. I just need you to be loving and connected.”
“One minute I want to be independent, the next I want you to carry me forever. My connection with you is still the most important thing in my life, so while I need you to let me safely explore, I also need you to be my safe harbour.”
Lovely little article. I read this exactly when I needed to the other day. I’m pretty sure the author wrote it specifically for me.