Category: Out & about

Legoland Water park!

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The heat is rising here quite rapidly, so to finish off our spring break holiday we made the most of the coolish temperatures and headed to Legoland Water park. We’ve already experienced Legoland and you can catch up with that adventure here.  With Dubai parks offering free parking and 30% off to all UAE residents it was a no brainer really. The cost came down from 295AED to 160AED and we saved ourselves 85AED in parking fees. Everything always feels better when you have a discount. With all of us having fair skin, we left it until after lunch and toward the end of the midday sun to go. Being Easter/spring break the park wasn’t that busy and the queues we practically non-existent. The children had a blast and especially loved the joker soaker and build a raft lazy river. We settled the kids into the joker soaker and were watching them on the slides when literally the joke was on us and the huge bucket of water tipped, emptying gallons and gallons on unsuspecting parents like ourselves. I know it was a children’s water park but I wasn’t going to be responsible for the language that left my mouth. It was freezing!!

Anyhoo it gave us all a laugh and we went off exploring, where we found the build a raft lazy river. As you go round there are big Lego brick floating in the water which you can attach to your raft. Being the competitive family we are it immediately turned in to who can sabotage each other raft the quickest.

We made a trip to wave pool, floatation jackets were available for wee Miss C and she really enjoyed it. The children found the build and race your own miniature boat area and enjoyed building with Lego in the water!!

It was time for an ice cream before we explored some more, 20AED each for ice cream wasn’t too bad, considering we’ve just come back from Disney it was a welcomed price! EPD and LPV went on few other rides that Miss C wasn’t tall enough for, so we had a mini melt down.  Then she was happy as Larry in the Duplo area with side and animals she could sit on!

At this point it was starting to cool and their poor little teeth were starting to chatter. We got dressed and headed to the new Irish Village in Riverland. It was beautiful and reminded me of the town out of Beauty and the beast. We had a yummy dinner and listened to the various live music that was on offer with stages dotted around all around Riverland. The children really enjoyed The Micheal Jackson tribute singing, I knew they had good taste in music.

With everyone tired and pooped out we caught the shuttle bus back to the car park and headed home. A great day had by all and sincerely recommend a visit before we all start melting!!

 

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Cherry Blossom time!

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One of things I wanted to see the most in Japan was the beautiful cherry blossoms. They didn’t disappoint  either. Our first day we slept off the flight and then headed off to Shinjinku park. I love parks in huge cities there something so peaceful and tranquil about them in a city full of bustle and madness. Shinjinku was beautiful full of traditional Japanese gardens. Locals picnicking with wine and cheese, painters making the most of the beautiful scenery. The children loved it as it was an open space to run, find sticks and twigs and explore the woods, which sadly for 10 months of the year they don’t really get to do. The park had quaint little bridges, that were perfect for lovely family photos. Which, I never got, trying to get them all in photo and smile is damn near impossible. Until I threatened them with no pokèmon centre if they didn’t let me have at least 1 nice photo per day

 

 

 

 

 

After we had seen all Shinjinku had to offer we headed to the Hanazono Shrine,one of the most historical in Japan, it is said to be the home of the god of fertility and where you come to pray for success in your career. Needless to say we didn’t reach other to the fertility god!!! I enjoy bringing the children to temples and shrines, they may not appreciate their significance at the time but I feel it helps to teach about respecting others beliefs and to act appropriately when someone is praying or paying their respects. Of course with all best intentions all the wanted to do was ring the bells and thrown money in the donation box. You can only but try to introduce them to culture, all I pray for is that they grow up open-minded and with acceptance of others and with introducing them to the big wide world I hope we are doing that.

Quality time

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If I’m honest, I really struggle being a working Mammy. I’ve been back at work almost a year and I can’t seem to find my balance. I feel like most of the time I’m chasing my tail and charging around like a complete lunatic. Expat Daddy works long hard hours with conference call at ridiculous O’clock too. So weekends tend to be chilled out in this house. With the weather cooling in Dubai there’s less pressure to be “busy” every weekend. We are able to use the garden and the pool and it’s  a lot less expensive.

This weekend, Friday was a bit of a write off, we crashed at home and I think most of us stayed in our Pj’s until we went for a swim in the late afternoon sun. We built Lego, played games and Daddy and I took turns to snooze on the couch, while the kids watched Pokémon and Barbie life in the dream house! Bad parents? Maybe we are Maybe we’re not, but we needed it.

Saturday was a different story, Miss C had a birthday party at Splash n Party so we took LPV along too and that had a great morning, doing what they love the most and that’s playing in the water, oh and eating cake!

A previous conversation that morning had gone a little like this……………..EPD: Do you want to go to the golf? Me: Umm………NO, EPD: Ok I’ll take LPV!

So off they both went to the DP World tour LPV had great fun with his Daddy and got to work on his swing

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While the boys were golfing Miss C and I went for a pamper, a while ago I had promised her I would get her nails painted. Although I draw the line at this one time and there will certainly be NO make up from Santa!! So your first mani/pedi should be done in style so we skipped on down to The Hello Kitty Spa in Town Centre Jumeirah. Now anyone who knows me, knows I hate this bloody cat as much as I hate Peppa Pig, however you’ve got to take one for the team as a Mammy. She was so excited and her little face lit up like a christmas tree when we arrived. She put on her special robe I had a matching one too and chose her colours.

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The ladies in the Spa made such a fuss over her, she had her feet soaked and a “lovely masfarge” her words, not mine! Sat there like princess and ordered herself a chocolate Hello Kitty cupcake, although she did ask me if I wanted a coffee too. It’s hard to believe that my baby has grown up so much. She a proper wee lady now, with a total grown up attitude sometimes. The whole afternoon was just perfect and I will cherish it, as most of the time I feel stressed when I’m Sunday to Thursday Mammy. However, they both got to spend some time with the parents that we both strive to be all the time. Hope they both remember we’re not that bad really.

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