Father Christmas at The Eden Project

Hooray hooray, we are off to see Father Christmas today! 

We have had some lovely visits to The Eden Project, so when I saw they had a Winter Wonderland experience I quickly booked tickets for me, the Zebra and Nana. It was only £11 so not crazy expensive either. 

When we arrived the weather was rather miserable, and it's a long walk down from the car parks.

As expected, it was very busy - and the queues at Eden never move fast... 

We were able to renew our Local Pases, which is a fantastic scheme to join. For £12 I now have unlimited entry for 12 months - instead of paying the usual £25 entry fee. All you need to do is take along proof of address showing you live in Cornwall.

We arrived to Eden early so we could have a nosey around and grab some lunch. The restaurant was very pretty with lots of Christmas trees and decorations 

The food was very healthy and very yummy as usual, lots of fresh veggies which are organic and locally sourced where possible.

We only had time to walk around one biome, so we went for the cooler, Mediterranean dome - I didn't fancy walking round the rainforest in a thick winter dress! 

I was expecting the domes to have a winter wonderland feel to them, but there wasn't a single Christmas decoration to be seen.

At least the Zebra gave the rocks a festive look! 

Time to see Father Christmas! As tickets have a prebooked time slot, I wasn't expecting to queue outside in the rain for 20 minutes. It was only a drizzle by now but still not much fun

We did get to have a peek at the skating! It looks amazing for when the Zebra is older, and Christmas music was blaring out so we could have a dance while we waited.

The Father Christmas experience was amazing. It started with a stage show from the elves, before the big man himself came out 

I wasn't sure if the Zebra would sit all the way through, but she was mesmerised and loved the whole show 

It was only once we got to be front of (yet another) queue to meet Santa, that the Zebra decided she was quite happy watching him from a distance! 

She did get to meet him, but there wasn't a chance she would sit on his knee! 

They gave out a pretty crystal charms to hang on the tree to all the children, a much nicer gift to keep than the usual pound-shop tat that gets given! 

We had to make sure the Zebras Christmas wishes came true, so she wrote them down on her tag and gave them to an elf to have on the magic tree 

The Zebra was amazed with the real reindeer that Father Christmas had parked outside his workshop! 

It really was a magical day, and felt very much like a winter wonderland - even with all the queues! We will certainly be going again next year.

Indoor Active, Roche, Cornwall

(Photo from indoor active website) 

Nana is babysitting for the first time so I needed to wear the Zebra out in the hopes she goes to bed easily tonight! 

We have been to Indoor Active a few times now and always have fun, so we headed over after her afternoon nap.

If you live in Cornwall take two forms of ID with you to get your locals card - it's free and will give you 20% off entry and 15% off food and drink.

Also make sure you log your registration number to get the free extended parking.

As the soft play centre works with the food outlets in the service station, they have a great range of drinks, snacks and meals. The down side is if you just want a drink carton it can take a while for the order to be brought over. 

Also, there is only baby change facilities - if you need the loo you need to leave Indoor Active and use the service station toilets. 

Once we were fed and watered it was time to play! The soft play is spread over several stories that get very high. The top part is certainly not great for anyone with a fear of heights! 

There are lots of different play pieces with a big slide running through the middle. It's a great, fast slide but is awful for giving skin burns so wear socks and keep arms in...

The centre is suitable for all ages. Although the the Zebra is only 18months so is able to get around most of the site.

Other parts she needs a bit of help with! 

Next to the soft play is the "clip and climb" room. It looks amazing! You can see the climbing walls from all the different levels and it's safe to say there are a lot of fearless kids out there! No one was climbing today unfortunately. 

It wasn't just the climbing that was quiet, we had most of the soft play to ourselves. We usually go early or mid afternoon and it is never busy, which is lovely! 

On the ground level is a smaller area for younger children and babies. 

This is where they hide the best bit - the ball pool!! 

A very tired Zebra ended her visit with a yummy cookie, which she wasn't too keen on sharing with mummy! 

We would always recommend Indoor Active as a fan soft play for any age 

Blueberry muffins

Today we are attempting blueberry muffins! Here is another another yummy recipe from BBC Food this time by the lovely Paul Hollywood. 

For the recipe you will need:

- 110g plain flour 

- 110g butter 

- 65g caster sugar

- 2 eggs

- 1½ tsp baking powder 

- 125g blueberries

- pinch nutmeg 

****preheat oven to 200****

It was only when measuring out the ingredients I realised I didn't have enough real butter, so we had to use spread instead. It's easier to mix but doesn't give the same end taste.

Add the caster sugar and nutmeg to the butter and give a good mix.

Pour in the eggs and beat well until the mixture is smooth.

Fold in the flour and baking powder until you get a good consistency.

Add the blueberries into the bowl. More than one generally works best.

Or you can just eat as many as possible until mummy takes them away!

Spoon the mixture into cases in a muffin tin

And don't forget to lick the bowl clean!

Pop in the oven for 20 minutes.

The Zebra was very pleased with her blueberry muffins, but she wasn't pleased they took so long to cool down!

Foam Christmas Trees

We might not have our tree up yet but we can start making decorations ready for it!

I bought a muktipack of green foam trees from The Range but you could also cut them out of green paper. I wanted the session to be more about exploratory fun for the Zebra so I found lots of different textures for decorations; Pom Poms, glitter, feathers, petals, and roll paint. Any colours can be used but I went for a red festive theme 

We used the roller stick of paint first. The Zebra really enjoys footprint painting right now so it wasn't long before her toes got into the action! 

When not distracted by Frozen, we used pritt-stick for the feathers

The Zebra used a paintbrush to get PVA glue onti the tree before sticking on the petals

The Pom-Poms were too small for the Zebra to stick on individually so she would drop handfuls onto the PVA covered tree 

Saving the best for last...time to shake-shake glitter onto the glue! 

Because of the variety of materials used today, the Zebra was kept amused for ages! 

I can't wait for the tree to go up and these decorations to hang on the branches :)