Perfect play date!

Sometimes when you arrange a play date out of town the journeys are stressful, the timings don't work with your kids' naps, the children are grumpy, badly behaved or embarassing and you just wish you hadn't bothered.

But increasingly now that is not the case! Today's out of town play date was perfection!

The traffic was a bit heavy on the way but it turned out to be JUST bad enough for Duck to have a satisfactory nap and us to arrive bang on time. The journey home was like clockwork too, a sleeping baby and a chilled out chatty Bambi made the M4 almost a pleasure and I arrived home with two happy, rested little souls. 

The travel was great, but the company was even better. I always love play dates with Donna (who blogs at redheadbabyled.com) and her beautiful kids who are each about 8 months older than Bambi and Duck. Now he can walk and join in with the bigger kids, play dates with Duck are soo much easier. 

Even lunch was fairly calm and civilised. I loved the fact you can eat right next to the play area which meant the kids didn't feel like we were dragging them away from their play! There was even some time for Donna and I to stand around chatting while they all played happily together (... Or in Duck's case wandered around putting hats on!). 

The location was ideal too. Exactly equidistant from each of our homes we found a soft play heaven. The soft play itself was well set out, with a lovely little area for football, a cars section and a separate mini-soft play for little ones. We played there for a little while but spent most of the time in the 'little world' section.

There was a shop, a vet, a baby ward, a building site, bakery and fire engine. If the younger 2 hadn't been getting tired, we would've stayed all day. I love places like this, all the toys and equipment for them to play imaginatively and explore whole 'rooms' at their own pace. It's great because they are so enthralled by it that they will happily wander around on their own. I also love the fact it's open and spacious enough that there's space to get down and play with them without feeling squashed in a cramped space or drowning in a ball pit!

Today was the right mix of adult company, watching the boys play and feeling proud of how cute and clever they are and crawling around playing silly games with them. My favourite game was when Bambi found a bigger girl to play with and they did big elaborate clown falls into the soft play bricks. Bambi was brilliant at it and had both me and Duck in stitches. 

There were times this year when I would ring my husband nearly in tears after a "big day" like that but today I got to ring him feeling cool, calm and collected and smiling from ear to ear. 

I remember when I was pregnant with Duck, everyone who has 2 kids close in age told me "the first year will be HARD but then it does get easier". Well I'm nearly there everyone! And it is! It really is getting easier! 

Days like these are why I'm so so pleased I'm not going back to work full time! 2015 is going to be my year of the perfect play date! 

He's a paediatric nurse in the making: "Mummy, this baby is poorly so I'm going to give her medicine like you do at work"