Weekend of family and nature, yes it really is free!! weekend fun

Often or not we spend much of our weekends either looking for new and exciting ways to spend our time or more commonly aimlessly wandering around expensive shopping centres spending unnecessary cash entertaining the kids. Because of this, we have decided to ‘rekick’ our outdoor sensors and tighten our budget and go back to basics. Each weekend I plan on documenting our progress/journey, what we have achieved and how much we have spent. To give you a better understanding of what we do during our mad weekends! please feel free to share your weekend Tips.

This weekend being mothering Sunday seemed like a logical start point, so here go’s our first weekend!

Leaf Collecting In The Garden

I recently popped into the pound shop and came across basic litter grabbers, the weather on Saturday started out sunny so off out to the garden to try them out. I gave the boys a set of grabbers each a large carrier bag and gave them the very helpful task of clearing the huge mountain of old leafs in the garden. This ‘game’ was an absolute godsend they spent over an hour collecting the leafs and enjoying the various colours and textures of the leafs. After the activity, they each selected their favourite 4 and used them for craft activities such as leaf printing with crayon rubbing and gluing their favourite within their scrapbooks. Our Saturday afternoon was spent at our local football club, where I have recently signed the boys up for weekly lessons. This is the only weekend activity that the boys participate in, and I was especially drawn to this one as it is paid weekly rather than being tied to the upfront commitment of a terms fee.

Mothering Sunday

Sunday morning, I was awoken by shrieks of excitement (almost as though it was Christmas or a birthday I had forgotten). I was totally in the minute whereby you are unsure which day of the week you’re on least of all remembering it was Mother’s Day. I was cutely presented with two pasta filled sunshine cards with looks of utter pride and accomplishment. Totally caught up in the moment and with a tear in my eye, I to shared that moment of accomplishment. One whereby for that second I realised exactly how special being a mother is and what a great job I must be doing (sure I get it wrong regularly). Right now, I feel on top of the world.

Crafty cards

Surfing at our local Lido

Fun Spinning around

After the cards and kisses, we headed out for our day to begin. We often decide upon our day once we are on the move. We drove to the local park where the boys played, the fun was shortly lived before the rain begun to fall. On the way home we drove past the Harvester restaurant and saw an ad board advertising an unlimited breakfast for the bargain price of £4.95 – so we stopped off for an impromptu breakfast pitstop. Once we parked, we went in to see if they had any tables. We got a table immediately which was pretty impressive considering it was Mothers day. When we were seated, we were given a menu containing four main options being a Continental breakfast, cooked breakfast and the same for the children. The children’s cooked breakfast was priced at a very reasonable £1.99 and contained no restrictions. So, was practically as flexible as the adults. The only immediate disappointment was that the drinks weren’t included and were priced separately. 99p (children) £2.49 (adult), This bumped the prices up slightly to what I had anticipated, but all looked yummy.

Although suggested within the ads that the breakfast was an open buffet it is, in fact, an ordered based hot breakfast. You are given a menu containing the various options, and you can then construct your plate as you feel fit. You are open I guess to ask for as much or as little of each item as you would like. Once you have ordered your cooked items, you’re invited to the traditional Harvester ‘salad cart’. It seemed to have been well stocked with pancakes, cereals (all Kelloggs within individual packages), Branded condiments inc Nutella sachets. They also had pre-packaged muffins such as those you find on flights or within convenience cafes and a well-stocked bread basket. When I reached the fruits section, it was a disappointment. They only offered tinned pineapple and raisins along with some Yeo Valley yoghurt, bearing in mind the price of the breakfast I keep an open mind and has been the only down point of the buffet. In terms of suggestions for the buffet, I would suggest that they include more fresh fruit items such as apples, bananas, etc. (especially if you’re watching the waist). I would also recommend that they offer pastries (this may ordinarily be included but may have run out with it being Mothers Day) The boys were so excited having breakfast out and also enjoyed having the freedom and flexibility to visit the buffet themselves, they almost felt as though they were on holiday. We waited a long time for the cooked breakfast to arrive, over an hour again because they were busy. Once the food arrived, it all appeared well presented and generous. We all enjoyed the taste of the food and would offer them top marks for the quality of eggs and meat that they offered none of which were greasy or served as perhaps a cafe breakfast may be. For less than £20 and the entertainment, it provided the boys its certainly a worthy consideration when looking for something special to do with the family. Ordinarily we would consider breakfast as a treat out, but having experienced this we will definetly be back to see if, without the heavy Mother’s Day traffic, plating times improve and variety increases; Once we had breakfast, we were all full to the brim and above so went home to watch a Disney movie, we settled for Smurfs in the end as we are totally divided in our Disney tastes.!!!         

We haven’t been on a long walk for a few months now so decided to fill the afternoon with a woodland trek to find more leaves for mummy. Unfortunately, the flowers were yet to bloom. The boys found other means of fun by playing chase, hide and seek amongst the bare branches and generally enjoying the sights and sounds of nature. I really enjoy the nature with the boys, and we played a few games to strengthen their general knowledge about the sounds of birds and also the various trees that we saw. All of this information I researched online to arm myself with fun games.

Our favourite game when out at the moment is to name a unique something often colours or birds/ insects. The rules are that every player must call the name of a bird for example, and no player can recall the name another has suggested. The boys love this game they become really competitive.

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In summary, our weekend cost us £20 for entertainment and really offered us all fun and time to relax too. See you next weekend