A few weeks ago we were invited* to the CBBC Summer Social at Croxteth Country Park in Liverpool. The festival is aimed at 6-12 year olds and had a host of CBBC stars as well as international music acts.
I went with Lucas who is 3, my friend and her daughter who is also 3 so we wanted to check out the CBeebies area and to see how the preschoolers where catered for. Whilst we were in the CBeebies area, we went on the tea cups fairground ride, we saw some of the Northern Ballet session and some of Dr. Ranj’s session. The stage was very small and we didn’t stay long as Lucas and S didn’t seem interested in it. There was also a bedtime stories tent that they both wanted to go in but unfortunately that was fully booked for the full day so I don’t know if people booked for this when they bought their tickets? So we were a bit disappointed with the CBeebies area but also knew that the festival wasn’t aimed at pre schoolers so it was never going to be a big part of their plans.
We went into the walled garden that had been turned into The Clangers garden for the weekend. I love wandering around gardens and this didn’t disappoint, there were colourful scented borders, well stocked vegetable plots and a beautiful botanical collection. You could spot cut outs of Clangers dotted around the garden and there was also a dome in the middle with a special clangers garden in. The children could also get a watering can to water the garden which I thought was a lovely touch to let the children get involved.
We ventured into Croxteth Hall which gives an insight into how the Earls of Sefton lived in Edwardian times. For the weekend of the festival, it had also been taken over for Horrible Histories which was a great way to get the children involved in history. There were TV screens in each room but unfortunately they didn’t all work. This didn’t matter for us and the children were happy wandering around and we were fine looking at the old furniture and reading the signs that are usually in there. The volunteers within the hall where really friendly too and knowledgeable talking to us about the decor, furniture and lives that would have been there.
We visited the farm which is a traditional working Victorian farm. It is also one of the leading Conservation Farm Parks in the UK. The children enjoyed walking around here looking at the many rare breeds of goats, sheep and cows. There were also horses and meerkats which were Lucas’ favourite.
We had a play on the adventure playground which is separated in two zones, a multi play area and an infant play area. This included swings, roundabout, waltz rotator, see-saw and climbing frame.
We watched dance acts and singers that we hadn’t heard of as Lucas and S haven’t got to that stage yet and had a great time. We were lucky with the weather and got to watch these whilst we sat on the grass eating dinner.
We had a lovely day out and I really hope it continues to be an annual event x
dear bear and beany says
What a fun day! We were invited, but sadly it was too far for us x
lporter586 says
Aw sounds lovely! My daughter would have loved the Dr Ranj sessions – she’s obsessed
fashionandstylepolice says
Good to know you had a lovely day out. Love the photos.
Stephanie says
This looks a really good day out for little ones, lovely photos too
ChelseaMamma says
This looked amazing, I would have loved to take mine but it was just a bit too far for us
Zena's Suitcase says
This is something we really wanted to go to this year, but couldn’t fir it in the calendar. I really hope that it does continue as we would love to try and visit next year. It looks like you had a lot of fun