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.
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.
It’s streak week starting tomorrow (25th August), can you find a cache every day for 7 days? You can find more of course but this is about not breaking your streak.
Of course we are joining in with the challenge as we haven’t had a long streak for a while and our longest was 8 days back in 2017.
If only the last two days counted because we found 6 caches today and 4 yesterday. Rob is off work and this means we can go farther afield with our caching.
Will you be joining in?
Our plans are to do some local caches that we have been meaning to do through the first part of the week and the second part we are traveling up to Durham to see a friend and stay the night… of course we will be Geocaching whilst we are there and on the way back as a long route back.
We can’t wait to share our adventures with you.
What do you get if you complete streak week? A digital badge on your profile and we want it.
Find out more about Streak week on the Geocaching website here.
A trip to Retford for some Geocaching and adventures at Sundown. We couldn’t believe it when we woke up to find it was pouring down with rain. We did check the weather at Retford and it said it was cloudy with a small chance of rain, so we braved the idea and prepared just in case.
Thank goodness it cleared up and to the point of sunny and hot by the afternoon. It was the best outcome in a way because it did put some of the public off going along to Sundown Adventureland which became our first part of the day.
Thank you to Sundown Adventureland for gifting us the tickets.
We thoroughly enjoyed the rides, we felt Robyn was a perfect starting age at three years old, she didn’t want the rides to end. Riley enjoyed the storytelling of the rides and it certainly helped his imagination and role play throughout the day.
Sophie enjoyed the play areas and making games up to involve Riley and Robyn in play. They were happily playing in these areas and we found that we could have a short break as mum and dad.
Be careful though because your children might end up wanted. There was so much for them to do, interactive games, walls, buttons, rooms, acitvities, areas. The wild west themed part of Sundown was our favourite but it was a hard pick.
To describe the park is in its title Sundown Adventureland, the three children certainly had their own adventures and came together as a trio as well. They were all tuckered out by the end of Sundown but we did have some time for Geocaching.
We were especially excited to meet Honey and Sunny themselves at the summertime fun activities, the children enjoyed a boogie with them and joined in the conga line. Robyn didn’t want Honey and Sunny to go, this made her day even more special.
We think our video speaks for itself, you can also watch us Geocaching in action. Have you found the church micro in Bole?
Jen says “What a fantastic day out for young families, it has everything you could want. Make sure you explore the whole park though as there is plenty to discover”
Rob says “Fabulous family entertainment. A fair entry price and we look forward to seeing what the Christmas season is like at Sundown”
Sophie says “I think that you should go to Sundown because you get to have lots of fun with your family and make memories like I did”
Riley says “I liked Sundown because the rides are very cool and the water ride was the best”
Robyn says “Can we go again?”
Further information about the Summertime Fun…
“Summertime Fun” activities will run between 12pm and 6pm on the picnic field until Sunday 1 September.
Every day from 12pm, the park will be hosting children’s party games such as school disco classic ‘four corners’ and the limbo, giving every child the chance to win their very own bear. Visitors can meet Honey, Sunny, Kiki and Koko and pose for photos from 2pm, before they get the party started with conga lines, agadoo and the macarena on the picnic field until 6pm.
The park’s usual attractions, shops and restaurants will all be open until 6pm including a four-storey indoor play area Crash Landings, liquorice and sweet-smelling fairy-tale Lollipoppet Castle complete with its very own sleeping dragon, the Wild Ostrich Safari Ride which takes you through the African Savannah on the back of an ostrich, yodelling goats and talking potatoes at Sundown Market, and many more interactive rides and play areas.
The other week we received an email providing us some statistics on the caches we have hidden.
I have to admit I was impressed with the total amount of times our caches have been found. We love reading the logs and finding out what others think of our hides.
If you haven’t found any of our cache’s yet here is a list of them available in East Yorkshire. We have plans for more and we hope to build a trail in the future.
Travel Bug B&B is our most favourited cache, we did love placing this one out there to be found. All of them are child friendly, Carlton Micro and Amy Johnson are micro caches but the rest are big enough for some swag.
Today we let the kids rule the day, that’s right! Yesterday Sophie and Riley received their school reports and because they were excellent we decided to let them take over what we do for the day.
We had four categories with three choices in each and they had to choose which one they wanted to do.
Outing
Strawberry picking
Ellerker Village summer fayre including duck race
Geocaching
The kids unanimously chose Strawberry picking, it’s something we haven’t done as a family before so we were all excited and drove out to Eastfield Farm Strawberries.
What a fantastic time we had and yes they had to have their own punnet each, we will be eating strawberries all week. It is well worth the visit, the staff were friendly and the cheesecake was delicious (mummy and daddy needed encouragement since the kids were in charge for the day).
Lunch
Picnic
McDonalds
Trinity Market
The kids chose McDonalds and they ate the lot, although this wasn’t the easiest out of the three choices they didn’t mind the little wait in the car on the way back from Hollym.
Activity
Biking
Scootering
Park (with hope the splash section is running)
The kids chose the park but it wasn’t warm enough for the splash section to run so we went from West Park in Hull to the Peter Pan Park for a change. They loved every moment and especially because they were in charge.
Pudding
Popcorn
Pick n Mix
Magnum Ice Cream
The kids chose the Pick n Mix and this was the last part of the kids rule the day although they did come home and choose a movie as well as tea (they still had some room from the strawberries).
All in all the day was a success and we will be doing this again next year (if not before) for the weekend of the kids getting their report.
Sophie says “I think we should do it again and other parents should try it with their children”
Riley says “It was a good idea I have been waiting all week so we can rule the day”
