Tuesday 24 March 2015

The Easter Holidays are coming!!!

It's almost the Easter Holidays and Mum has been busy working away. She has emailed some of the fun kids attractions around our home town of Lancaster to see who can help us raise money for Barnardo's. I really hope we get some replies soon! I can't wait to get out and about and show you all the fun things kids can do in our local area and share loads of photos with you.

Where would you like to see us visit? Why not leave us a comment, tweet us, or post a message to our Facebook page?


Saturday 10 January 2015

Sockies at Greenlands Farm Village

Sockie and Star have a friend to stay this weekend, Tom has brought Barnaby Bear home from school for the weekend so they decided to take him on an exciting adventure to Greenlands Farm Village, near Carnforth. It is an awesome place to visit. Tom and his brothers love to go. Right now until Feb 13th it's free to visit the open farm too!


Me, Star and Barnaby hitched a ride in Mum's rucksack. Dad said it was really cold today so the first thing we should do is warm up in Wellies Cafe with some yummy pizza! Mum even said she'd buy some cake if The Boys were good!


Wellies Cafe is really nice, and great for families. There's loads of colouring things for big kids (and Sockies) to play with, and plenty of high chairs for the little ones too. Jack and Tom did some brilliant colouring in, and Georgie drew some lovely pictures. Mum said it was a great way to keep everyone happy while she drank her coffee. Dad even found out that the baby change was nice after taking Georgie AND Freddie for changes!

The Boys all had their favourite pizza from the kids menu -  and ate it all up because it was soooo nice. Apart from Freddie. He can't eat pizza yet cos he has no teeth. So he tried to eat Star instead! Mum rescued her. But not before she took a photo! Poor little Star!

The Boys were good... we had flapjacks and rocky road for afters!



It's January and really cold. Mum and Dad were a bit worried that The Boys would be cold. But they never stood still for a moment once we got in to the Open Farm! No chance of getting cold! They ran to see the pigglets - they've grown so much since our last visit in November - and the goats. They cheered to see Tommy the Turkey had NOT been served for Christmas Dinner. We stopped a while to pet the guinea pigs and rabbits. They have it good in there. (I'm thinking about retiring with the guinea pigs! They have a cushy life!) Then we found the sheep dog puppies. Sooooo cute! I just HAD to get a few selfies and photobombs with my new friends!


The best bit for The Boys today - the one thing they stood still and waited for and even better than the go-karts - was the donkey rides. Who needs to wait for a beach in summer? A donkey ride is awesome all year round! Barnaby took a ride with Tom. I managed to sneak a ride with Jack and again with Georige too! Our donkey was called Molly and was ever so good and calm, even with 2 year old George.


We have had a great day! We didn't notice the weather. Mum and Dad let The Boys play in the Play Barn afterwards. The Open Farm is free until 13th Feb. After that it's the schools half term holidays and there are loads of great things planned. The Boys are begging to go back.... And I'm pretty sure I heard Mum say YES!

See you next time!


Greenlands Farm Village is the first place my kids have picked out to visit this year with The Sockies. The lovely staff agreed to let us take photos featuring Sockie and his friends and share them around the internet to raise awareness and funds for Barnardo's children's charity. Greenlands Farm is open all year round and worth a visit what ever the weather. You can see other visits we have made at Greenlands Farm Village here on our regular blog.

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Please make a donation to Barnardo's through our JustGiving page.

Monday 5 January 2015

Introducing Sockies 4 Barnardo's!

For 2015 we are trying to raise awareness for Barnardo's children's charity and raise some money for them too. 

My family and I will be visiting local family friendly tourist attractions with our Sockies and snapping a few pics to share on social media and raise awareness. We're hoping that the owners of these attractions will appreciate the publicity and will contribute a donation, and that we will attract followers and donations from the general public too.

PLEASE DONATE WHAT YOU CAN: https://www.justgiving.com/Sockies4Barnardos

Keep an eye out for our hashtags #Sockies and #Sockies4Barnardos

What are Sockies?

I had thought about making some toys as gifts or to sell and raise money but the fact of it is my sewing skills are somewhat lacking! Here are my pitiful efforts at Sock Animals:


Sad, yes? And frankly they are not safe for children either. The buttons have a habit of coming off if tugged, and the stitches pull, and the stuffing escapes.... Not a great kids toy! But I am not one to be defeated! I thought "Why not have these little Sock Critters help me raise some money anyway?" So they are going to take up residence in my bag and travel with us everywhere for the rest of the year. They will visit the places we visit, meet the people we meet, have their photos plastered all over social media, and hopefully inspire a little cash to be paid into our JustGiving account for Barnardo's.

Why Barnardo's?

I had to raise money for a Children's charity. With 4 kids of my own I know how much love, care, attention, and general maintenance (clothes and food etc) kids actually need. Basically.... it's a lot! 

Barnardo’s believes in children regardless of their circumstances, gender, race, disability or behaviour. Our purpose as a charity today is to transform the lives of the UK’s most vulnerable children 
We believe in the abused, the most vulnerable, the forgotten and the neglected. We will support them, stand up for them and bring out the best in each and every child. 
We do this because we believe that every child deserves the best start in life and the chance to fulfil their potential. 
We use the knowledge gained from our direct work with children to campaign for better childcare policy and to champion the rights of every child. 
With the right help, committed support and a little belief, even the most vulnerable children can turn their lives around. Barnardo’s is regulated by the Charity Commission. Being a registered charity means that we must always be accountable and transparent. 
Find out more at Barnardos.org.uk
So here's the deal.... Me, the kids, and these little Sockies are going to head out and about in Lancashire (to start with) and we're going to get some photos up on this blog and on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and all those lovely social media (click and follow over on the right there). We're going to ask some lovely local attractions to put their hands in their pockets and donate a little to our fund raiser. And if you like what you see we'd like you to do the same!

Please follow us, please like us, please share us! And please, please, PLEASE donate what you can!