New Lanark is a great day out whether you want to spend it indoors or outdoors. The Annie McLeod Experience is something fun and unusual for a rainy day, and the Falls of Clyde Reserve is a lovely place for a walk.
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Family
Cafe Ceramico
Cafe Ceramico is a great place to spend a morning or an afternoon with kids. It kept a pair of toddlers occupied for a good 3 hours. Well worth the trip out to East Kilbride.
Hamilton Water Palace
We checked out Hamilton Water Palace recently. It has an excellent splash pool for the toddlers and some slides for the bigger kids. Great fun!
Edinburgh Christmas Festival
We took a little day trip through to see the Christmas festivities in Edinburgh yesterday. Such good fun. Turns out the little lady is an adrenaline junkie! She had a wonderful time in Santaland! There are quite a few different rides: a little dragon rollercoaster, a helter skelter, reindeer ride (with bubble snow and bells to …
Finding the Gruffalo (in Bearsden…)
We’d heard that a Gruffalo had been spotted in the woods around Kilmardinny Loch in Bearsden, so last week we thought we’d take a trip out there to see if we could find him. Turns out that the Kilmardinny Loch Gruffalo is the very same one from the book! There are 5 or so different carvings and …
Pollok Country Park
Despite it only being a 10 minute drive away, I’ve only ever been to Pollok Country Park a few times. If we’re planning on going to a country park, I always kinda forget that Pollok Park is there and end up travelling much further. So the little lady and I went along this morning to get a toddler’s perspective and …
The Children’s Wood Playgroup
Guest post coming from me today so here’s a short intro to myself and the kid – Rachel: mummy to my little lad who is two years old, living in Glasgow and having great fun exploring the city through the eyes of a wee one. We’ve been meaning to check out the outdoor playgroup in …
Scotland Street School Museum
The Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition is on just now in Scotland Street School Museum. I always go to see it, but this year thought we’d combine it with a trip for the toddler to have a wander round the museum too. The Museum As I mentioned I went because I wanted to see the …
Heads of Ayr Farm Park
There’s so much to do at Heads of Ayr Farm Park. There are play areas galore, trampolines, animals to feed, soft play. Great day out. Here’s our review!
Calderglen Country Park
There’s plenty green space to run or have a picnic in and little animal lovers will enjoy the children’s zoo. The walks down by the river are lovely too.
Swimming at Eastwood Park Pool
We met some baby buddies at Eastwood Pool recently. I’d heard rave reviews about it from some other mummy friends, so we had to check it out! The Pool There are two parts to the pool area. There’s the main swimming pool with lanes for doing some real swimming or lessons, and a larger unlaned …
Palacerigg Country Park
We braved the Scottish summer and went to Palacerigg Country Park. Nice little childrens farm and good swing park. Nice walk for dogs. Great little day out.
Adventure Planet (again)
We had so much fun at Adventure Planet this afternoon that I had to write a little bit about it. I wrote a review not too long ago, so I’m not doing another one just yet! But the slides are still the slidiest. And there’s still hundreds of them.
The slides are waaay too fast for the little lady to go up by herself (she can’t even do the one in the 0-3 bit without cracking her head) so I was up in there with her the entire time. Don’t think I need to go that run tonight now. Exhausted.
You can find my previous full review of Adventure Planet here.
Berry Picking at East Yonderton Farm
I’ve been dying to go berry picking for ages. So when a friend suggested we go check out East Yonderton Farm in Renfrew I was ready.
We went this morning and had a great time. The strawberries are in season just now, as are the blackcurrants, peas and gooseberries (although the latter is a bit too spiky for a toddler to pick).
We picked strawberries. It was a bit of a walk to the strawberry field (for a toddler – not for an adult or a slightly older child – and only because they walk so slowly and get distracted by grass, mud, an aeroplane, puddles, signs and anything else they find) so next time I might consider taking the pram along. The little lady wasn’t up for walking on the way back and she was pretty mucky, so I also ended up pretty mucky!
It is a farm, so the paths are grassy and muddy and puddly. Wellies are a very good idea. Unfortunately I realised this morning as we were leaving that the little lady’s wellies were waaaay too small, so we had to go with a sightly less appropriate footwear option, and ended up with rather wet feet. She was enjoying splashing in the puddles so much I didn’t have the heart to stop her. What’s a bit of water, after all…
The strawberries are so red; they look and smell amazing. You’re not supposed to eat them in the field, but every time I looked at the little lady she had taken another bite. She has been very fussy with her strawberries for months – she’ll take a bite and if they aren’t nice she’ll just hand me the strawberry/bowl back. So that is most definitely the ultimate endorsement from her. And now that I’ve also tasted them, I can confirm that they taste amazing too.
We filled a basket (really filled a basket) and it cost £8.
The Farm is out by Glasgow Airport, about a 15 minute drive from Charing Cross. The little road you need to turn down to get to East Yonderton is signposted from Barnsford Rd/A726. It’s easy to find.
There is a toilet at the other side of the field to the car park. It’s perfectly nice, but it amused me. This is it:
Now, it’s jam time. 🙂
East Yonderton Farm is located at Walkinshaw Rd, Renfrew, PA4 9L. It says on google maps that it’s closed permanently, but it definitely isn’t.
Swimming at the Gorbals Pool
We hadn’t been swimming in ages and we’d heard that the Gorbals pool is good for kids, so we gave it a go.
The Pool
There are two swimming pools. The main pool is for ‘proper swimming’. It has lanes on one side and a larger unlaned area that’s good for having a wee swim with kids; for example if you’re practising your baby swimming. 🙂 It’s still pretty warm – certainly not cold like Tollcross pool.
The second pool is a zero-entry pool (sloped entrance like a beach). It’s nice and warm, and is shallow enough at the top to let tiny littles sit and get used to the water, or run and leap around in! As it gets deeper it turns into a little lazy river with rapids that go around a little area that appeared to be a jacuzzi that wasn’t on, (which meant it was a great bit for jumping in!) There were a bunch of floats and pool noodles/woggles you could use to go round the rapids.
There’s also a flume, but we didn’t go on it. It was closed when we were there, but I made the assumption it was for quite a bit bigger kids anyway.
The Change Rooms
It’s a Glasgow Life pool. They’re pretty standard, generally. They are basic and not the loveliest in the world, but not the worst I’ve seen either.
There were quite a few family change rooms (which are a really good size). The family change room we were in had a seat attached to the wall that you can strap your little tearaway into if need be. The straps were broken though, so it didn’t work.
It’s 20p for lockers, and apparently they’re really fun to climb in.
The Cost
It’s £3.20 for adults if you’re a non-member (free for members) and free for kids under 5. With a YoungScot Kidz Card it’s free until they’re about 19.
The Verdict
It’s a nice, warm pool so it’s great for teeny tinies. We still have a warma on, but the little lady lasted ages in there. With the rapids etc. there’s enough there to entertain the younger and older kids. Excellent.
The Gorbals pool is located in Gorbals Glasgow Club, Ballater St, Glasgow, G5 0YP.
The Beach at Riverside
We’re at the beach today! Not in the usual sense though. We’re in a giant sandpit (aka the Beach at Riverside) and it’s really nice.
It’s been here for a few summers now. But I’ve never been before, so I was pleasantly surprised at how big it is, and at how deep the sand is. The sand is really soft and lovely too.
There are some sun loungers dotted around outside the sandpit. A number of them had towels or bags or something on them to signify that they were ‘taken’, even though there were no other adults at all except me in the sand with the kids. Not that I wanted a sun lounger. But that just irritated me and reminded how much I sometimes really hate other people.
Anyway, it’s a really nice little beach for the kids to potter about in, and it’s right at the door of the Riverside Museum if you wanted them to have a play in there too. There is an ice cream van and a hot food van next to it, and a cafe inside the museum.
Just bear in mind that we live in Glasgow, and as such the sand will probably be a little bit damp. I took a picnic blanket just in case, but since I was playing in the sand with the little lady I didn’t use it.
Make sure you remember your buckets and spades! 🙂 It’s great fun!
The Beach at Riverside is located at the Riverside Museum, and it’s here until the 1st of September.
Wonderworld Soft Play
Wonderworld Soft Play in Kinning Park is one of our other second homes (after the science centre & the park). It’s where we go if we’re at a loose end. In fact, it’s probably my favourite soft play area in Glasgow. We were back a few days ago and I realised I have never written about it. (I was sure I had. Baby brain strikes again).
The Play Area
It’s huge. Seriously. Last week we ended up in a bit we’ve never been in before. And we’ve been here, a lot.
The main play frame has at least 3 big, fast slides (one of which is almost vertical) plus those twisty tunnel slides that it’s impossible to get down with a toddler. There’s a big area to run around in over 3 levels, a bunch of trampolines, foam ball shooters, bridges & probably loads other stuff that we haven’t found yet. The slides in the main area are too fast & too big for the little lady to go by herself yet (as are the other children).
The toddler area is one of the best we’ve played in. It’s big enough for the little lady (who’s 22 months) to happily play in for a while, and she’ll go up the play frame & down the slide by herself. There’s a decent sized ball pool (big enough for a random 6ish year old to hide in & make you kack your pants when they leap out at you making zombie noises), some cars & a good bit of floor space with soft blocks etc to keep the very littles happy.
There’s also a go-kart track and a football pitch. And over the other side of the massive warehouse room there’s another slide that looks like a volcano. The little lady is way too small for it, but there are kids crawling up it & rolling down it constantly. Looks fun.
The Cafe
The food is pretty standard for soft play. But they have a Starbucks inside which is a winner for me; you can’t beat a chai tea latte. They also have a pretty good cake selection.
When you walk in there’s an ocean of tables and chairs facing you. I’ve never had a problem getting a table (although we usually avoid peak times so I can’t speak for what it’s like on weekends & in really busy periods).
The Cost
It’s free for under 1’s at any time. It costs £4 for under 3’s & £5.50 for over 3’s off-peak. They get unlimited play. It’s a bit more expensive at peak times (£5.50 & £6.95) for 2 hrs play.
The Verdict
It’s huge and there’s loads to keep kids (young and old) entertained. They have regular toddler mornings on Tuesday’s with entertainment which are pretty good. And like I said before, chai tea lattes.
Wonderworld is at 99 Middlesex St, Glasgow, G41 1EE.
Jollytots and Cookies
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 …
The Tall Ship At Riverside
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 Triking at Free Wheel North
We checked out Free Wheel North recently. Most people I speak to haven’t heard of it, but it’s a fantastic charity run cycling centre down at Glasgow Green next to the big sandy playpark & climbing frames across from the templeton building. If you’ve been down there you’ve probably seen it; you just didn’t know …