Starting Half Term in Style

Jacob was pretty excited to start half term, which is the week-long break in the British school system happening this week (Valentine's Day week in 2012 in case you are reading this in a far distant future). Monday morning, he kept saying he couldn't wait to start. I tried to convince him that we'd already started. He would not accept that until we did something fun. I asked him what he wanted to do. He said, "I want to go to Valley Gardens."


Valley Gardens is this massive playground/garden/concert venue/park/more stuff that is a short drive from our house. We dressed up in warm clothes and put on hats and gloves (today's high was about 3 degrees Celsius). Lucy picked out some pretty thin trousers so I made her wear an extra layer. We headed off to begin half term.

Plenty of parking was available near the entrance. Walking in, we saw plenty of ice was also available in the park.

Can you say "Icepocalypse?"

This did not daunt us. We first played on the small tree fort, where the only other kids (two girls) were playing.

At least Lucy posed for a picture

The girls headed off to the zip line. Jacob saw them playing there and wanted to try it out. The end of the line was clear from ice, but the run was a mixture of ice, mud, and puddles. Jacob got on and road to the end without a problem. He bounced and started coming back. It eventually slowed almost to a stop and Jacob tried to dismount. I tried to rush to him to help out. He fell to the ground before I could get there, right into a muddy, icy puddle! He was up and upset in no time.

He asked for a change of pants since his were all wet. I check the diaper bag I had with me. Someone had taken out the changes of clothes for the kids. We still had our towel (being good Hitchhikers), so I dried him off with it as best I could. We decided to head home for clean and dry clothes. The towel also served to protect his car seat from damp and mud.

After we arrived home, cleaning up went quickly and happiness was restored to some extent. It was a rather ignominious start to half term. Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better day.