National Wildflower Centre

The National Wildflower Centre is one of our favourite places to visit in Liverpool so as the boys didn't have school on yesterday or today & we seemed to have been cooped up in the house for weeks with chicken pox we thought we would venture out for the day! Actually, we only got to go to the Wildflower Centre because Lee was very ill with a gastric thing so was off work & I got to have the car! He is much better today though...
We arrived to find a huge marquee set up in the surrounding park land & hordes of young families milling around as the National Childbirth Trust were having some kind of do. The boys were very excited at the thought of a party (it looked just like the party marquee in an episode of Brum that we have on video!) but fortunately not going to the 'party' didn't prove to be too much of a problem- there's just so much else to do! First stop was the giant beehive where the boys spent much time buzzing around collecting 'honey' & rushing in & out of the willow archway...
...Next stop was the small play area to play the giant xylophone with great gusto...
...then we walked along the rooftop garden, where upon it began to rain very heavily. Jordan said we shouldn't have gone up there because we were getting very wet. I pointed out that wherever we were outside we would get wet. 'Ah!' said Jordan, 'But up here we get wet first!' He has a point!! Luke found the tiniest snail shell inside a sea shell while we were up on the roof too that he looked at for ages. I said I'd look after it for him & promptly lost it! Thankfully he didn't ask for it again!!
The boys were fascinated by the hand water pump at the pond & spent ages pumping water. Timmy & Luke kept saying 'Look! It's real water!' It's such fun to see their delight at simple things.

After all that hard work pumping water Timmy had to lie down to have a sleep! Bless his little cotton socks! We all went to have a well earned drink in the cafe & a little play in the tree house (which to Jordan is always his own little cafe where he makes me anything I care to ask for!).

In the surrounding park there is a fantastic play area that the boys LOVE! We pretty much had the place to ourselves despite the NCT party going on. Timmy was content to swing & slide but Luke watched his big brother avidly & climbed up the 7 foot high (or there abouts! Yikes!) ladder with great ease so that he could go down the big wavy slide for himself. It's amazing how much their climbing abilities have developed since our last trip there a few months back.

I can't believe that Lee's parents used to live minutes away from the park when we were first married & we never ever went there! Lee's parents still haven't been there to this day! Anyway, we all thoroughly enjoyed our day out & recommend you have a little visit there too if you are up this way. It's just off the M62! :o)