Last week we were out caching and nature called for our youngest, Robyn is four. Most of the caching we have done with Robyn was when she was in nappies or short walks when she was getting used to life without them.
BUT,,, going on a longer Geocaching hunt meant that it was going to happen sometime. We felt for her when she looked around and saw no buildings, “where are the toilets?” she asked. She wasn’t pleased about weeing in the bushes as I had put it and it took a little while for her to finally wee but she did it. Celebrations went around the family and we all started chanting “weeing in the wilderness” and high fiving her one by one. Sophie and Riley were so excited about it being her first time weeing in the bushes.
Of course, I was prepared and had some toilet roll in the rucksack. To be honest this became a must after our first ever LONG Geocaching trail a few years ago, I am going to have to leave it there though.
If you are planning on doing a long Geocaching trail, always have toilet roll or at least tissues with you. We also have nappy bags.
Yesterday, we were going about our business when a friend tagged us in a post only to discover Rob and Riley were on LADBible. We had a giggle once again as we reminisced over the memories.
For quite some time we have been wondering how we can keep up with the kids when they are ahead of us on their scooters. After a while, we finally got to the point; ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’.
In January I purchased an adult push scooter for Rob after thinking about it for around nine months, we never had the money to dive into getting them. It was Rob’s birthday so it was a perfect excuse, Decathlon is reasonable on price and the quality is great. We had bought the kid’s first scooters from there around three years ago. It was quite funny because Rob had thought I had bought him some furniture because the box was huge, he was like a kid on Christmas Day when all was revealed.
It was so popular that we decided to upgrade Riley’s and Sophie’s scooters as they have Birthdays in Jan and Feb, Robyn had her first scooter already from Christmas. It was just myself left without, but we had agreed that my Birthday present would be a scooter and there wasn’t that long to wait, Rob couldn’t wait until March and wanted to get it as soon as he could.
There we have it, a family gliding together into the distance.
The perfect place to go Geocaching on scooters with children is the old railway lines. We have been watching the new series of Walking Britains Lost Railway Lines for inspiration, starting close to home and we will strive a little further in the future. Planning on investing in camping equipment for our adventures.
We will keep you in the loop.
Enjoy this short clip of us scooting about whilst Geocaching.
A few weeks ago we were sent some treats for our cat Harry who is actually called Harry Cat as that’s what our youngest called him when he first came to ours a year ago. Harry Cat has been with us for a year, we can’t believe it. He has brought so much comfort and joy.
It was exciting to receive some post from Aisha who runs Easy Peasy Cousiney with her homemade treats for our Harry Cat.
Each packet had a different flavour and our Harry Cat was certainly intrigued with what had arrived. He knew it was for him and got all excited.
As a homemade treat £1 a pack is a fantastic value and something different for your kitty. They certainly need to be smaller but Aisha had mentioned in her letter that they are going to be cut with a small cutter. I think this would make them even more tempting for Harry Cat and easier for him to eat, which means they would be gone in no time at all.
A couple of weeks later and Aisha sent some of the new smaller-sized biscuits and these massively improved things for our Harry Cat, he munched them down so fast. The ones photographed below are beef stars and salmon hearts. The size change was certainly a game-changer for our kitty cat.
Thank you Aisha for sharing your homemade goods with us. I love following your posts on Twitter and will continue to keep an eye out for future Harry Cat potential treats.
When we found out there were souvenirs to be claimed on the last day of 2019 and the first day of 2020; we couldn’t avoid the urge.
Souvenirs in the Geocaching world are like digital badges on your profile and throughout your Geocaching adventures, sometimes there will be a challenge set to achieve them and sometimes it will because you found a cache in a different country.
To claim the individual souvenirs we had to find one cache on each day and I am glad to say that we DIT IT! We actually did it in 2018 as well but in 2017 we only managed to claim one as we were away.
New Year’s Eve and we managed to find a Geocache very local to us, we like to keep a few for emergency caching. Thankfully we can find micro’s nice and easy now. Our last cache of 2019 was Priory Road Cache and Dash (GC676GF).
Our caching year totals so far:
2017- 191
2018- 134
2019- 102
Despite the decline in finds we absolutely love Geocaching and 2020 we are going to aim to increase our finds. Things are a little different as we are now a family that works from home full time. We are looking forward to 2020.
2020 arrived and Rob is going to remind us all of this moment, the first find of the new year. A quick magnetic find and not that far from us, we were near Riplingham. 100 yards (GC6RKAD).
We didn’t stop there, we went on to find three more and had a lovely fresh New Years Day walk. We would have done more but it was a bitter cold despite the sun shining bright on us.
You can see they were all excited to be back out caching again but it can get competitive. Your dog will like this one (GC6RK9R).
Two new badges and an exciting caching year ahead planned.
We have been meaning to share this with you for a little while but we have been in The Hull Hub for our love of Geocaching.
Here it is:
Here is what we wrote about Geocaching in Hull…
Back in May 2017 my family and I discovered the world of Geocaching and the five of us embraced it, it has been something we have taken with us on holidays and has saved us a lot of money as a family. The photo of us was taken on our first ever trail.
What is Geocaching?
Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor adventure that is happening all the time, all around the world. To play, participants use the Geocaching app or a GPS device to navigate to cleverly hidden containers called geocaches. There are millions of Geocaches in the world waiting to be found.
Some are as tiny as a thimble and some as large as a caravan, there are clues on what to look out for or how to open it, using your problem solving skills. Once you open it you simply sign the log with the date and your username. If a Geocache is large enough you may find some ‘swag’ which are small toys/items, the idea behind this is that you swap an item for something of the same value or greater.
For us Geocaching has helped us discover different places and seen things we wouldn’t have seen without it. Some cache hiders like to give historical information and place their cache at a location linked to this.
City Centre caches are more urban and hard to discover because you are not meant to be caught finding them by muggles, which in the context of Geocaching are people who don’t know about the hobby.
What Geocaches are in Hull?
Here are a few with the GC codes if you want to find them on the app and discover them for yourself. There are 2,191 Geocaches around Hull.
We have some fantastic caches in Hull and if we take the City Centre alone there is a Hull Culture Cache Trail (GC7035W) placed in 2017 for Capital of Culture. Theres also a Historic Hull Trail (GC71D5) which is a short multi cache trail in which you have to answer questions at certain locations to gain the information to find the cache’s location. Another multi-cache in the City Centre is A Trip Around Town (GC2FNJX) which took us the best part of a day to complete as you walk a quite a bit but we enjoyed it and it cost us nothing extra to do.
How do you start Geocaching?
You can get a Geocaching account for FREE and if you want to go the extra mile then you can get the premium membership for £25 a year which unlocks the whole of the Geocaching world. It has saved us money as a family, it’s our go to weekend or holiday activity. No longer are we scraping our heads on what to do without spending a fortune.
Simply download the app and away you go.
Final thoughts
Geocaching has provided our family to rediscover places we loved and has helped us with our own mindset, giving our walks purpose and giving us an adventure. I haven’t pin pointed where the photo’s are taken in and around Hull, but you can see some of the caches and get an initial feel for what it could be like. Rob (my husband) and I will go out on our own at times and we enjoy it just as much with the kids. Robyn (my youngest) found her first cache late last year and now has the competitive streak to find it first when we hit the next Geocache location.
I was gifted a night out at my friends newly opened Cocktail Bar- Bambino’s. So excited for her new venture and I’m glad to be able to celebrate and share it with you.
First of all, I have to say I don’t go out that often because of the three kids. When I say out, I mean ‘out out’. To be able to enjoy a night out and let my hair down was going to be a treat.
Bambino’s is located on Princess Avenue in Hull, East Yorkshire. It’s next to a restaurant called Luccas.
Going into the bar it has a classy feel with the stylish interior and furniture. I particularly loved the copper look woven in subtly. Cage like shelving above the bar for the glasses and cocktail making bits with the hanging lighting really gives the place an atmosphere.
There’s a flower wall and selfie board with lots of photo opportunities, what’s not to like?
The cocktail menu is in Italian, for me I am ordering blind but I don’t mind that at because I’ve always stuck with the usual favourite cocktails before heading into Bambino’s and trying something different.
We went on their Halloween night and there was a special cocktail menu just for the weekend. I had a poison apple cocktail and it was delicious, fruity with a big enough kick for me. I’m always wary about ordering from special menus but you can tell they have been carefully created.
Giant cocktails anyone?
I don’t think I’ve seen cocktails this big before!! Wow, for £21.95 they are a bargain price with plenty to share with your friends.
DJ Darren Williams was playing as it was a Friday evening, Daz is the resident DJ for Friday and Saturday. I enjoyed the music and once the night got going a little there was time for a boogie with just enough dance floor space.
I had the pleasure of meeting Tilly Sparks who is now their resident Queen for Wicked Wednesdays, there will be 241 cocktails on top of the 10% student discount as well as free entry and optional free transport from the University. I will be going along to see Tilly in action sometime in the near future.
I had a lovely night with some of my blogger friends, add in some drinks and theres a little room for selfies, boogieing and some facepaint. In the photo at the top is myself, Rachael and Kat. Below photo’s of Ed, Lizzie and I.
I would like to congratulate Zoe, Callum, Luke and all staff on providing a great night out with a cocktail menu I want to work my way through. I’ll definitely be returning and cannot wait for a Wicked Wednesday and also Lazy Sundays.
We were gifted a day out to The Pink Pig Farm which is just over the Humber Bridge for us, a short 20 mile journey. The three children were excited to go along, we had visited before but had come for a special afternoon tea after some Geocaching. We were excited to go into the farm and find out what was in store.
The lady that greeted us at the till was very friendly and informative, she told us all about the pumpkin carving and we decided to pay for it on the sale of “there’s no mess at home”. It was £3.50 per child. There wasn’t a map but everything was well signposted and staff throughout the day were very helpful with any directions, it was like discovering different area’s of the farm and became an adventure.
Farm Park
It’s safe to say that the toboggan run was a big hit with the kids, absolutely loved racing each other down the hill. The giant swing was also fun because we all climbed aboard and had a swing together, it was nice to do as a family. We were lucky that we had a nice autumn day and that the rain kept away. There were lots of activities in this area including football, sand play, water play, slide, tight rope and even a craft cabin.
The air bounce pillow was a big hit and thankfully it wasn’t raining so they were able to join in. Daddy enjoyed the sand diggers and helped Robyn with them. There were tractors and a play hay bail, you are truly spoilt for choice on what to do.
Pumpkin Carving
The kids thoroughly enjoyed the pumpkin carving and spent time searching for the right pumpkin for them. The area was separate from everywhere else and dedicated to the carving, they all enjoyed the atmosphere that was brought with the themed decorations.
There were lots of Halloween activities including a spooky puzzle in a little woodland trail, we had to find the letters and unscramble them to make a word. If you got the word correct than a chocolate frog was the reward. An option in the shop to have your photo dressed up and on a broom with a green screen to make a fun shot.
Lunch stop
The kids decided they were going to have the lunch box deal for £4.50, choose 5 items from the selection; sandwiches, crisps, drink, fruit, yogurts, cookies, cheese, fruit packets and jammy dodgers. Plenty to choose from. It was a good idea because they didn’t want to stop playing and eat so they ended up having a little bit, coming back and having more.
There was a hot menu in which the adult lunch meals were a good price but we felt the children’s meal were a little expensive, perhaps because we have three children it cranked the price up a bit. However saying this, people had brought in their own picnics and there was no problem with this. It’s nice to know you have a choice when visiting places as a family to do this.
Mummy tried the quiche which was delicious and filling, it came with a side salad and coleslaw. Daddy had a chip butty and then we shared some sweet potatoe fries between us. We couldn’t complain at the portions, we were all satisfied and ready for the next part of our day out.
The animals
There were so many animals to see and it was set out like a trail with a washing station for your hands. Of course there are pigs to visit but also donkeys, sheep, goats, geese, chickens, alpacas, rabbits, guinea pigs and ducks (did you see the duck selfie?).
The Tractor Ride
A pink tractor that you can ride on, yes please! We were surprised at how many we you could fit in the trailer, we were concerned that our family of five would take up the whole of one side but it wasn’t the case. It was fun to
The Play Barn
After all the fun outside it was time for a sit-down and let the kids play in the play barn, it was the kids that pointed out that the play area appeared like a pig which we thought was genius. Mummy and Daddy were certainly ready for a hot drink and the kids were kept happy, it was a task to bring them away when it was time to go home.
It’s safe to say we will be visiting again, especially as there is a Christmas Narnia experience.
Sophie (9) says “I think The Pink Pig Farm was amazing because all of the activities were fun to do. We went on the tractor ride and I liked looking at the animals, my favourite animal was the little owls cuddling together. My favourite thing to do there was jumping on the air bounce pillow.
Riley (7) says “I liked the pumpkin carving and the tractor ride. My favourite thing is seeing the animals and going on the toy tractors”
Robyn (3) says in response to what was the best part of the day “The Tractor”
Highly recommend going to visit The Pink Pig Farm. Find out more about the Pink Pig Farm here.
There is a Geocache nearby but we were all tuckered out as we spent the whole day at the farm. We are going to put it on our list to claim when we visit next time and make sure we stop to find it first.
The Geocache is called The little piggy……… (GC4WWCJ), it is a premium cache so you will have to be a member but it is only £25 for the year or you can pay monthly.
On November the 2nd I will be doing a Firewalk in aid of Abbie’s Fund. Each year around our angel babies Birthday we try to do something in his memory and even though this is a little early I felt called to taking up the firewalk in November.
My story:
When Rob and I found out we had lost our baby we were devastated. Someone connected me with Katy Cowell who runs Abbie’s Fund and she supported me personally through the whole process and right on top of Christmas. We had gone into the hospital on Christmas Day for the first part of the process. It didn’t matter to Katy, she wanted to be there for me in virtual form as she messaged me throughout the days waiting to give birth to our angel baby- Harrison James Gilmour.
We were presented with a memory box, which we still have and go through, the memory box was something to take away from such a sad time in our lives. The box gave us comfort as we left a teddy with Harrison but had one to keep, a blanket, forget me not seeds, a candle, a poem, some support information and more.
If it wasn’t for Abbie’s Fund we would have found our time a lot more difficult and not knowing what was happening when. Abbie’s Fund has provided us comfort as a family and this is imperative to those who have been given the news.
Harrison James Gilmour born on the 28th December 2014 at 1:37am weighing 250g.
I have paid for the Firewalk myself so all donations will go towards Abbie’s Fund.
We have been to paint some pottery and it’s not something I have done since I was a child myself. Our eldest (Sophie) had been as part of a party and so we decided we should take Robyn and Riley on separate dates and enjoy some time. We usually do things together as a family and sometimes we forget to have that quality time together.
We went along to Tea & Bisque-it which is in Willerby and not that far from us.
Robyn was very excited at the thought and had no trouble in picking what she wanted to paint, Ariel. I chose a tealight holder and Rob chose a small gnome. Robyn was the first to get stuck in with her painting.
We enjoyed some light lunch whilst we were there and had a pleasant time. The food was delicious and we can recommend trying their desserts, especially the bonoffee cookie chessecake.
We were worried at thinking Robyn may not understand that we have to leave her Ariel to be finished but she absolutely fine and couldn’t wait to see what it would look like.
A week later and we went to pick up our pottery, it was actually ready way before then but we didn’t have the time to collect.
Here were the results:
We were so pleased with the outcome and will certainly be going back again. We found the pottery painting relaxing and it was in a nice environment with good food and friendly staff.
