Who’s Normal Anyway?

On Sunday morning we sorted out packing for our trip away and went to Church, then had a quick lunch and got set off for Slough. The journey wasn’t too bad and L slept alot on the way. We got to the Innkeepers Lodge in Slough about 4.30pm so we sorted ourselves out and then went for an early meal in the Toby carvery. M and I had carvery meals, A had a chicken tikka salad and L had bits from all of us. The waiter we had was fab, obviously enjoyed babies and he made the meal pleasant for us all, topping it off by bringing L his own mini ice cream sundae, which got spread all around the high chair, floor etc etc. After eating we went back to our room and had showers and everyone but me was in bed and asleep by just after 8pm, so I read the newspaper by myself and then had an early night too cos there was nothing better to do.

Yesterday morning we woke up about 7am and M opened all of his birthday cards and a couple of pressies we’d taken with us to open on the day. We had some breakfast in the lodge to set us up for a busy day. While Travelodge are good for getting cheap rooms if you book far enough ahead, if you can’t get one then Innkeepers Lodge is much better value when you need to pay full price. The rooms are generally a higher standard with more thoughtful touches (not massively important things, but enough milk and some biscuits on the coffee tray, shower gel and tissues provided etc) and the price includes a decent breakfast with cereals, juice, yogurt & fruit and toast/croissants all laid out to help yourself to.

We arrived at Legoland around 9.30am so had time to do toilets and a quick look around the shop at the top while we waited for the park to open. Then we caught the hill train down and A and M did the fire engine ride and then we all went on the boating school. We managed to do all the rides we wanted to do and the queues were very short / none existent now the schools are back, even though the weather was glorious. L is far too short for lots of the rides so A and I took turns carrying him or accompanying M on the rides. I took him on the Dragon’s Apprentice (I don’t do rides any scarier than that LOL!) and M lost his cap as we went through the tunnel, so that put a slight downer on things. Customer Services are supposed to be going to retrieve it for us and post it on.

M was wearing his birthday badges and got given a Legoland one too by one of the Duplo shop staff. When we sat down to wait for the stunt show to start the roaming staff who talk to everyone in the build up stopped to ask M if he was having a nice birthday and then invited him to walk on stage waving a flag near the start of the show! He got a costume to wear and was excited to have gone in a Staff Only area.

While A and M queued for the wave surfer ride (only significant wait all day) L found a little toddler friend and they followed each other around for ages, which was cute to watch.

By mid afternoon we realised we only had a couple of hours left and headed back to Duplo land to do the Fairy Tale Brook (we always go on that!) and then the water play area. Both boys loved the water jets and raced around like loons for a good 20 mins and then L started getting cold so we moved on to Miniland and then for donuts.

At the top of the park we went into the shop again for M to spend some birthday money and this year we went armed with price lists from the Lego shop at home website, cos last year they ripped us off in the shop with some very inflated prices on some items (I complained to customer services afterwards and got nowhere - apparently it’s a privilege to buy while you are there and they are a separate company to Lego itself and can charge whatever they please!!) Then we met a Lego brick on the way out of the park so stopped for a photo of us all together.

Lots more photos on Flickr. We had a great day out for M’s 8th birthday.