Trip to a real ZOO!!

Yesterday I took Mimi to Wingham Wildlife Park.  We last visited when Mimi was about 6 months old and I thought it was a bit ropey but since then the park has changed hands and has improved hugely.  They have peacocks and chickens which run wild around the park.  A lot of the enclosures have been designed so that you can walk through them and touch the animals.  They have got everything from penguins and flamingos to tigers, lions and snakes.  I felt that for a one off it was a bit pricey; for me and Mimi it would have been£20.00 (children 2-12 are £9.00!) so I decided to shell out for a years pass which was £58.00 that way I can pop in and out as and when we feel like it.  A few of our friends have passes and outside of school holidays its will make for a good coffee stop.  However if it has been raining I have now learnt that wellie boots are a good bet as it was seriously muddy in places.

One crazy baby ready for the zoo -
Luckily she decided to leave her crash helmet and glasses in the car!

Penguins at feeding time.

Mimi pretending to be a penguin.

The very cute prairie dogs which kept popping up
from their tunnels. 

Ever since going Mimi keeps telling everyone she went to a REAL Zoo!  She was funny when she walked past the lions - she said they were too scary and covered her eyes with Mr Doggie and proceeded to ask where the snakes were!!

  

Too much Chocolate!

The Easter bunny and his Chocolate Easter Eggs have a lot to answer for.........  My beautiful perfect baby okay so maybe I am being a bit delusional has grown horns and turned into the Devil before my eyes.  I have lost count the number of times she has been on the naughty mat for not sharing, snatching things from her cousin and hitting my parents dog.  We have also been subjected to serious toddler melt downs with screaming which alternated between a youdle and a wail.  She has been quite horrid.

All that said we have had a good weekend catching up with friends and family and this year I got my act together and we made our own Easter presents.  I picked up some egg moulds a couple of weeks back in poundland.

My Weight Watchers Diet has gone out of the window this weekend!!!  I am not looking forward to my weigh in on Saturday!!!

A day at the Zoo

We thought that we would take advantage of the gorgeous weather and spend the afternoon at the Zoo.    

We went straight from music with my friend M and her two children.  I think a good time was had by all - what is even better is that because I used my Howletts passport I spent a total of 95p on an ice lolly!  Talk about good value for money!  The girls played beautifully together and were really cute.  I haven't really seen Mimi playing like that before although I am sure she does at playschool.
I can not believe how fab the weather has been today.  We had a picnic and it felt like T-shirt weather, the sun at this time of year is good for the girls, it is such a valuable source of vitamin D.  We had home-made jelly jam things (jam tarts) and cheese hearts which we made last night.  
I am on an economy drive (now that I have given up work I have to look willing!) so having gone to Sainsburys to buy packed lunch treats I decided that it was considerably cheaper and far more fun to make our own hence the home-made jam tarts, cheese straws and bread rolls.
My Howletts Passport runs out soon but I will definitely be renewing it.
    

How many potties do we need?

The potty training isn't going to plan!!!!!!

I naively thought that we would crack it within days - just like all the other mothers keep telling me.  However in our house this is far from the case.  We have a serious case of potty and toilet phobia and this is at home, just imagine the panic we have at the thought of a public toilet.

I originally thought that a "Potty" was a "Potty" and brought a pink one from Tesco.  This didn't work and Mimi would flatly refuse to use it.  So I then brought one that looked a bit more comfy from John Lewis, this has proved even more unpopular than the pink one.

After what feels like an eternity following her around with the potty I took Mimi to mothercare this morning where we looked at all the different potties and she chose the one she wanted a "Pink Peppa Pig" chair and a Potette travel potty.  The travel potty folds out and you can attach little bags which can then be disposed.  Great idea - lets hope Mimi will take to it.  We also went and chose which knickers we wanted, a lovely but very expensive packet of Fifi knickers.  She proceeded to drag the potty chair around the shop with her and happily sat on it.  She was also more willing to sit on the travel potty.  Yay!!!!  Fingers crossed we have turned a corner.

Onto the next issue I have created for us.  Each time Mimi sat on the toilet or the potty I offered her sweets all she does now is run around the house shouting I need a wee, I need a wee.  Sweetie please.  I honestly thought that the transition from nappies to being dry would be so much easier.

After checking out the potties and making our purchases we visited Howletts Zoo with J&H.  We had a lovely day, all the animals were out for us to see and Mimi & H played really well together.  They are just so cute.

Great thing about the Zoo is it is all outside so if we have all the little wee wee accidents we had were not a major issue.

Watching the Monkeys

Tomorrow is a new day - Nappies have been removed special toilet rewards have been brought.  At least we have the weather for potty training.