Last Sunday we packed everything we needed for our Center Parcs holiday (OK, twice as much as we needed………………….) before heading to Will’s 4th birthday party in the afternoon. It took place in the One and Two Halves’ Wacky Warehouse. Both children had a fantastic time. I hate soft plays but they loved it Thankfully I had a lovely curry at Regards with my bestest mate Bex to look forward to in the evening once the littlies were in bed Great food, great company

On Monday we headed to Sherwood Forest Center Parcs via Asda lol. Fortunately the roads were not too bad. We’d been worried the horrid snow and ice would cause us problems. Upon arrival I immediately hated the “cattle market” approach – great big car queues, booking in through your car window, people in yellow jackets waving you in certain directions. Yuk. There wasn’t proper parking to unload on many of the roads (it’s car free apart from arrival/departure day) so people were blocking the roads. I immediately thought we’d made a mistake. Fortunately I was wrong as the rest of the holiday was great and the accommodation was nice, even though it was the most basic one.

So would I return? Probably not. It is soooo much more expensive than the downmarket holiday parks we normally frequent, and additional activities are prohibitively expensive. Yes, it’s all very nice, but we just can’t justify the costs (hence why we went in January as the rest of the year is even more expensive lol!) I can’t help but feel it’s all a bit contrived too, a bit American, living in a theme park albeit a very green and forested one

Overall though, we had a fantastic time and the children loved it A wonderful few days. We went swimming twice, on Tuesday and Thursday. The pool is amazing, with separate children’s pool with slides and jets, waves, rapids, myriad slides, even an outdoor bit Alfie isn’t a big fan of slides but went down the under 8s one lots of times, and H went down one of the big slides in the main pool with me They both did lots of swimming, loved the waves, and generally had a ball.

On Wednesday we went to the nature centre. The children loved tramping through the snow past frozen lakes on the nature trail and down to the bird hide. The nature centre was good, with microscopes to look through, footprint rubbings to crayon, jigsaws to do and a two storey hideaway with a ladder that was just too good to resist

Afterwards we warmed up with coffees in Foresters whilst the kids ran amok on the indoor play area, with rope bridges and ladders to climb. Later Alfie and I had some precious 1:1 time together when we went over to the leisure bowl to book a lane, spending time at the soft play there and then into Starbucks for coffee and a chat Rich and Holly stayed in to watch Peppa Pig

On Thursday we also went ten pin bowling. Alfie won the first game by a mile, H the second one. I, of course, came last It was great fun though and the children were engrossed for most of the full hour.

What else? Torchlit forest meanders, pancakes in the Pancake House, swinging in the play area despite the snow, lots of jumping in muddy puddles and sliding on ice. Fun

We had hoped to stop off at Bolsover Castle on the way home on Friday but it rained non-stop We ended up in Jimmy Spice buffet for a final holiday blowout lunch